(Topic ID: 188974)

Would you consider this 86' Grand Products Inc. Four Kings, a "Pinball" machine?

By Kerry_Richard

6 years ago


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  • Latest reply 2 years ago by RyanStl
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#7 6 years ago
Quoted from Kerry_Richard:

Wow... Thanks guys for chiming in!
I still have this game in my garage. It's just too good looking to let go. It powers up and the fan that blows the ball around perimeter works. The cards hanging on the track don't rotate and flipper bat won't flip.
About 15 years ago when I got it... everything worked. It's been stored since then.
I would consider selling it. I also thought about making a game room sign out out the dome playfield that is illuminated.
Thoughts?

Hi,

Dennis Dodel told me about this thread. I had never seen this game before.

From what I decipher from the flyer and your pictures, it looks like the IPDB would classify it as a "bat game" rather than a "pin game". The ball is shot into play then the player hits it with the bat towards a series of targets (the manufacturer calls this bat the "ball striker", how unimaginative yet sufficient). That's just what a bat game does, wouldn't you say? Here though, you have the extra features of a bat that mechanically swivels from side to side along with the ability to reset targets (discard).

In fact, one of the two other games in that flyer has a baseball theme.

I would like to show your pictures on the IPDB, with your permission. If yes, may I then ask you for a pictures of your playfield with all of the targets reset and in view, as seen on the flyer? You indicated the cards "hang" on the track? Are these targets the fly-away type, not drop-targets? Maybe a close up of them will explain this pictorially, too, showing some reset and some knocked down. Actually, do I see a rotating belt of these targets disappearing into the playfield at each end, like a machine gun's bandolier? How does this work? What makes the belt rotate and when, if I am guessing correctly here?

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not also ask you for hi-res pictures of the inside the cabinet and under the playfield. Does your game show a copyright date anywhere that can be photographed?

Do you have a manual or schematic with your game?

Also, is the ball track that hugs the perimeter of the playfield actually elevated above the central playing field or is the artwork creating an optical illusion? Or, does this track meet the playfield evenly but may be actually slanted down on its outer edge where it meets the outside wall of the game? Do you know what I mean? Perhaps some close-ups taken near the bat might clear this up? The busy artwork is misleading me. If the ball is shot out from that "air power source" but is not hit by the bat and then circles all the way around the perimeter to the other end of the track, does it just roll back towards the bat along the perimeter track? If yes, I could see having a slightly slanted track to facilitate this so the ball just doesn't roll across the open playfield towards the bat. Unless, that is what really happens in that situation. But, if the track is slanted at all, does the player really get a clean aim at any targets, or does the ball go slightly airborne to clear the slant? How accurate is any aimed shot from the flipper?

I'm also looking at the flyer at the Thunder Drome game. On this game, I almost see a huge recessed playfield below a clear glass playfield where a toy motorcycle moves around the velodrome, mechanically attached to a central point. Well, maybe the recess is only for that game. I'll look forward to what you tell me about Four Kings.

I could not find any of the three games on youtube, hoping I could see any of them in action.

Thank you,

Jay
IPDB

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