Ballyhoo

Pinside rating

This game has received 1 approved Pinsider rating. 4 more approved ratings are needed to get a rating and for it to be eligible for the Pinside EM Top 100 ranking.


Pinside staff rating

None of the Pinside.com staff have rated this game. Sorry, no rating from us.

Your Rating?

You need to be logged in before you can rate pinball machines. No account yet? Registering only takes a sec!


Found 2 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 2 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 1 of 1.

List options






5.184/10
3 years ago
I'm rating this game within context: this is one of the last flipperless games to be released before Humpty Dumpty introduced flippers to pinball.
With 7 kickers on the playfield this gives the most action of almost any of the era, only Bally's Rocket coming close with 5 kickers. But perhaps 7 is too many, as there are minimal opportunities for bounces off the rubber and thus less skillful nudging.
the art on the playfield is excellent, again with few examples (like Rocket) edging it out. The backglass art is well done kitsch and some people might really want the "barker selling tickets to a risque show" theme. Thank goodness the "Girls from all nations" is mostly just implied and it doesn't rely on major cultural stereotypes of the time.

Your main goal will always be to guide the ball to the bottom of the playfield, past the main trough, to the 10k-scoring "Free ball" hole so you can fire it again.
The game has a "special" condition, but like Rocket it is just hard-wired to a score, so once you hit a specific score, the special is lit, and then you advance your score and it's not lit. Ho hum. For flippless games I highly recommend the sequence games where it's much more about your precision plunging to collect all of the elusive numbers to light the special! Those games give you a sense of building and progress.

There is a "Super Special" as well but it's mostly just a waste of playfield space. there are lanes on the left+right mid-playfield and it's nigh impossible to get into them, and then hitting the super special bumpers at the bottom in the same game? Good luck. It barely feels possible, even though I know it technically is.

Bonus points for the lit ball-feed plastic dome, the same style used in bingo machines at the time.
Mine doesn't have a conversion kit, but plenty do. If an operator had replaced the lower dead flippers with impulse flippers this game could be a lot more fun and engaging, because as a flipperless machine it doesn't have the design to reward the plunging and nudging.
7.585/10
7 years ago
A great little flipperless game. Lots of action with the 7 kickouts and real excitement when those 50K point bumpers light up!
There are 2 ratings (that include a comment) on this game. Currently showing results page 1 of 1.

You too can add your own comment by rating this game! Click here to rate this game!

Over the years

Visualizing this game's rating and rank over the years

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/ballyhoo-1947/ratings and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.