Pinside rating

This game received 272 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 8.046 _/10

8.046

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #66 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 7.973

Artwork: 8.685

Sounds/Music: 7.208

Other Aspects: 8.063

Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 8 of us have rated this game.

7.924

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Found 134 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 134 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
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8.000/10

23 days ago

???

dosbox40000

Pinside member

Unknown

1y 17,000 1 10

The beast from Centaur and a group. The group formed on some pinball like Highspeed and Spy Hunter. The big guns came out and made another 5 ball gimmick. You try to go up the lanes and the game has a flip back which gets harder in time. The newbies may miss how it's related to Fathom with all the evo events these days. Some flippers get sick quick on this one but it's okay in the end making it related to Steam and the Pinball Arcade. Part two is a rare find also.

4.203/10

3 months ago

DAV

WarriorPin

Pinside member

Seattle, WA

1y 30,650 65 3 13

Rented this game for two months and hated every minute of it. Can not understand why this game is rated so high (and above so many games far better to it).

10.000/10

4 months ago

ZAC

Paul-Bunyan

Brewcades

Huntington Beach, CA

6y 39,900 41 104 10 2

What an awesome game!

Paul-Bunyan currently owns this game.

8.674/10

5 months ago

GTX

gdonovan

Pinside+ Member

5y 166K 10,330 64

Centaur is a game that anyone can play but rewards the skilled player. I love the early Bally solid state games and think Centaur is one of if not the best during this timeframe. Medusa might be a touch prettier but art is just the garnish on a fine game and Centaur is clearly the better of the two. Flash Gordon is right there in the gameplay running but suffers from underutilization of speech and perhaps single ball.

The multi ball implementation on Centaur is perfect from the progressive earning of balls to the various release triggers.

gdonovan edited previous rating on July 26, 2022.

7.746/10

6 months ago

C P

Skatewake

Pinside+ Member

<1y 80,550 255 6 62

Great game to play.

9.347/10

7 months ago

BMK

noiseprisoner

Pinside member

6y 28,650 35 8 9

Centaur is a true classic and the theme works incredibly well on many levels. The speech and music are creepy and add to the overall darkness of the concept overall. The artwork is some of my favorite EVER on a pin, absolutely stunning. The gameplay is tough but rewarding when you can hit those special shots particularly in the upper left and upper right of the playfield. The cherry on top is when the ball drains you get a satisfying bonus countdown that sounds like you are racking up those points (even if you might not be!). It makes you feel good and ready to take on the next ball or game! Love this one!

noiseprisoner has this game on the wishlist.

8.676/10

8 months ago

GKD

FoghornLeghorn

Pinside member

Brentwood, TN

8y 30,650 163 1 7

My favorite early 80s pin.

8.067/10

9 months ago

MFA

Mishap

Pinside apprentice

Seattle, WA

1y 9,000 3 17

One of the best early 80's pins. Shot variation is much wider than most of its contemporaries, and vocal commands/taunts also feel ahead of its time. I always considered Pinbot the first prominent game with an interactive antagonist, but this is way earlier.

Pros: Phenomenal synth score! Worthy of Near Dark or Suspiria in its horror atmosphere. Game play and playfield are head and shoulders above vast majority of era pins (up there with 8-Ball Deluxe).

Cons: Some cheap drains due to upper playfield having weird slot placement. Not sure whether to consider ridiculously goofy backglass as positive or negative.

7.100/10

10 months ago

JMO

PinDaddyDrain

Pinside member

Unknown

1y 25,500 1 54

The sounds on this machine and the theme are really cool.

8.922/10

11 months ago

GPS

onetaste

Pinside member

Adelaide Hills

8y 60,900 140 21 112

Incredible art, rule set that challenges the best of players. Very unique game, one of the best solid states.

onetaste has this game on the wishlist.

9.000/10

11 months ago

TTB

TempleTheBard

Pinside member

Eugene, OR

<1y 17,750 15

Five ball multiball is pretty cool, if you can get it.

6.276/10

1 year ago

NAT

Medieval_Gofers

Pinside member

Ipswich

11y 68,400 208 3 79

This era of games isn’t really my thing but I do recognise Centaur and Fathom as being among the best. Theme and art do nothing for me but the system of achieving multiball and then trying to stay in it keeps me coming back for more and the layout is more inventive that many from this era.

9.491/10

1 year ago

JEM

jmanc62

Pinside member

Wyomissing, PA

1y 23,800 6 6

Spectacular Art. Great sound effects call outs. I think this game the best of its generation (yes - better than fathom :) !!!)

Simple gameplay but you always come back for more.

jmanc62 currently owns this game.

6.756/10

1 year ago

EJH

ehex9

Pinside member

Saint Albans Town, VT

2y 44,500 1 8 178

Typical bally from this time period. The art makes the game cool.

9.487/10

1 year ago

???

Wmasspin

Pinside member

Whately, MA

1y 22,000 1 1 10

One of Bally's best playing ,keep you coming back for more.

Wmasspin has owned this game in the past.

6.641/10

1 year ago

TNA

flip17000

Pinside apprentice

La Rochelle

1y 17,250 48

good old flip

8.676/10

1 year ago

JRC

JRC6000

Pinside+ Member

Bon Air, VA

1y 46,150 101 10 7

I like the old school multiball and the challenge of hitting the captive ball. I keep coming back trying to figure out the right timing to get the captive ball all the way.

JRC6000 edited previous rating on May 05, 2021.
JRC6000 has this game on the wishlist.

9.247/10

1 year ago

RIV

SteveRivet

Pinside member

Ashburn, VA

9y 33,150 29 2 20

After a long session on a perfect example this weekend I realized I'd forgotten how great this machine is. It's critical that all of the features work right and machine is set up properly, and I've noticed on routed machines in the past certain parts were screwy, impacting overall play. Only thing I dislike on the playfield is the gap in the Orb targets can set up an SDTM drain a little easily.

For the time period, this is one of best Bally solid states out there, with plenty of shots, decent speech/sounds for the time, and playfield / backglass art of the Paragon / Lost World / Viking quality.

SteveRivet has this game on the wishlist.

9.040/10

1 year ago

JBM

Jomo33

Pinside member

3y 37,900 23 211

My favorite Bally Class of ‘81 pin. Amazing art, great layout, and definitely gives you the “1 more game” feel. Looking forward to a Haggis remake (hopefully). Might be my 2nd NIB pin ever. Then I can listen to both Centaur and Deadpool heckle me with each missed shot. “Bad move human.”

Jomo33 edited previous rating on May 15, 2022.
Jomo33 has this game on the wishlist.

7.616/10

1 year ago

PO

pat4race

Pinside apprentice

Unknown

1y 19,000 1 73

While I completely enjoyed playing this game - with drop targets, plenty of specific items to aim for, straight-forward rules, and amazing artwork, it does seem to drain quarters and balls at an alarming pace. While I keep coming back to play, its also frustrating to not be able to establish any lengthy gameplay. Many different shots to try, and more strategy than I could try on my first exposure - I'm more into playfield design, game play, lastability and fun, but the artwork and sounds definitely add to the experience. Excellent game other than the large number of quick “no fault” drains

pat4race edited previous rating on May 01, 2021.

7.987/10

1 year ago

DIA

mrossman5

Pinside member

Warren, PA

4y 179K 2,625 4 177 1

This and Fathom are my two favorite games from this era. I might even prefer the gameplay of Centaur a little more than fathom. Multiball is incredible for the time and the callouts are great.

8.276/10

1 year ago

LEX

ssjakie

Inactive member

8y 17,200 5 14 19

After owning 3 centaurs i feel like an expert.... Haha, seriously this is one of the only tables that lets you forget everything else around you. The sound is inviting you to become one with the machine and it plays you -> bad move human :)

It's hard to get those 5 balls out and even with 2 balls out you have to work.

If it plays slow or cluncky then your machine is not dialed in the way it should be.....It begins slow and ends in mayhem and it will hypnotize you like no other machine can.

Compared to my addams family or shadow it holds its ground and thats impressive!

ssjakie currently owns this game.

2 Pinsiders starred this!

4.101/10

1 year ago

ECW

Ecw0930

Pinside member

Fredericksburg, VA

2y 53,800 790 2 100

Y'all telling me this game rates about the same as Getaway on the Top 100? . It's not even close.

Maybe for it's time it was novel and cool. Nostalgia and all. The art is the coolest, weirdest, worst, best, ugliest, most awesome mix of whatever it is! Hahaha.

The game has some cool shots and ruleset is decent. If not too easy. Fun time.

But cmon..... Play it for the novelty and move on. Unless you grew up playing it and still have a hard-on for it. It plays slow. Sloppy. Sounds are OLD. The game is OLD. It plays OLD.

Dont rank it up with the high class just because it USED to be the shit. It's not.

Jump on it if you have a shot. Take a spin and say you've played it. That's all you'll need.

Ecw0930 edited previous rating on June 12, 2022.

6 Pinsiders flagged this.

9.077/10

2 years ago

LSB

lazySUNBATHER

Pinside+ Frequent

3y 51,400 49 44

Love the BLACK and WHITE theme
With splash of colors. A few well placed
Color LED lamps really make this game pop.

9.478/10

2 years ago

ARK

arkuz

Pinside member

7y 47,050 152 11

This is my second time around on owning this game, and should have held on to it first time around in the 90s. I wasn't quite as exposed at the time to all of the games in the world to appreciate its uniqueness.

The art and sound package is a masterpiece of creative and aesthetic commitment to the theme, which includes some intentional ugliness as it should. Let's all appreciate how hard it is to get something like this to market anymore (Metallica and Walking Dead being exceptions to the rule). And not only is the multiball kickout a unique mechanism of interest to techies, it also makes for a wonderfully surprising attract mode when it shoots out all the balls on its own. And much love for the ball-holding magnet -- an early use of that feature (following on from Gorgar if any others).

While everything this game offers in terms of rules and action are rich and exciting for the period, one does eventually master the shots and you, as a human, can "destroy Centaur"! So perhaps the only con here is not having an extra display digit -- rolling it over, like with all SS machines of the era, requires you paying attention to mark it. Doing so multiple times becomes annoying to track. I started another thread soliciting info on how to fix that, with some great responses.

Lastly, I must recommend getting an overlay for the playfield. My machine has wear, and slight cupping in spots while waiting for me to spare a full work week to do a PF swap. In the meantime, I grabbed an overlay for it and it really came to life as though brand new, zippy fast and smooth!

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