Bally

Evel Knievel

Pinside Rating

This game received 72 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.320 _/10

7.32

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #213 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 7.118

Artwork: 7.999

Sounds/Music: 4.525

Other Aspects: 7.427

Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 2 of us have rated this game.

6.547

Your Rating?

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

Found 31 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 31 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 1 of 2.

List options

Ratings sort order

Type of ratings to show in list

Owner status of review

Exclude flagged ratings

Keyword or username search

8.919/10

36 days ago

JSH

John-H

Pinside member

Norman, OK

4y 38,150 19 10 37

One of the most iconic games of the 70s. These demand a larger price than most games of the period. There's a reason common games like this are expensive and rare games are sometimes not. This game deserves it.
It looks great. Not Paul Faris' best art but good.
Sounds are fun. This is very early solid state so making it play a tune was big. My wife loves the tunes from these early games.
And now, the playfield and actual play. This game is simple enough to have its EM version, but there were many solid state games that didn't have this much to do for a few years afterward. This game was really ahead of its time. Just an absolute total package. It's quite difficult, but not unfair - you'll know you missed the shot. You have to learn the playfield.
Absolute blast.

*wife approval* She asked me to get it. 10/10.

John-H edited previous rating on March 23, 2024.
John-H currently owns this game.

7.525/10

8 months ago

ABF

Sheev_Palpatine

Pinside+ Frequent

4y 104K 664 69 1

great theme from my childhood. ok machine enjoy playing when I get a chance

8.096/10

1 year ago

???

Electronmagic

Pinside member

Lombard, IL

8y 69,400 764 34 8

Classic Bally! Getting the spinners lit and then ripping them never gets old. Drop targets are a little risky but the rewards are progressive and they can be swept if hit just right. Great art on the backglass and the animation is simple but awesome.

Electronmagic currently owns this game.

7.628/10

1 year ago

TLG

Gordo14131

Pinside+ Frequent

Chesterfield, VA

5y 36,400 2 3 30 1

Fun game from Bally. Big fan of drop targets and spinners so what’s not too like. There are other games from this period that I would rather play though. Five more drop targets on the right side would have been an improvement in my opinion, more to shoot for.

8.076/10

2 years ago

DOC

TractorDoc

DPS

Ashland, OH

7y 245K 2,923 33 106

This pin defines very well the idea of an early Solid State pinball machine.

Spinners, drop targets, standups, and lively pop bumpers make this an enjoyable game to play. The theme is best represented by the artwork; other than the imagery there is not much else that says "Evel Knievel" as you flip away. Still, that is enough. Evel is/was an icon of this era as was pinball.

Rules/goals are simple and playing a few games does not require a lot of thinking. . . but results in enjoying pure pinball fun.

7.532/10

3 years ago

STK

funkycoucou

Pinside member

Panex

9y 20,650 10 5 6

the theme is mythical but the game is not great

funkycoucou has owned this game in the past.

7.565/10

3 years ago

PO

pat4race

Inactive member

Unknown

3y 19,000 1 73

Great vintage SS machine, with excellent theme, enjoyable gameplay, nice artwork, and well designed playfield.

9.775/10

3 years ago

???

GottPinball

Pinside member

Huntington Beach, CA

3y 37,000 1 14 31

They say, "third is a charm", and boy did bally nail it! Evel Knievel is the 3rd major production Solid State Pinball machine made! 14,000 units sold and that says a lot! Super fun to play and is a well balanced game.. It has drop targets, kickout hole, 4 targets throughout, 3 perfectly positioned pop bumbers and two nice spinners to rip into! What more can you ask! I dig the fact that this 1977 made piece of art still has its chimes! Beautiful 70's Evel Knievel vibe playfield art! Awesome backglass! I played this pin as a kid and its still one of my most favorites decades later! I highly recommend this pin to any collector or player!

GottPinball currently owns this game.

7.176/10

3 years ago

EJH

ehex9

Pinside member

Saint Albans Town, VT

3y 46,650 5 7 179

Evel is a surprisingly fun game. The theme is cool and the art is typical early Bally. A good filler for a large game room to add variety.

5.948/10

4 years ago

DAD

ss-pinball

Pinside member

Kalamazoo, MI

6y 68,550 515 6 31

I played this for the first time today.
I liked it more than I thought I would.
Pick one up on the cheap and you will be entertained for a while.

7.581/10

4 years ago

SJS

redhawk1689

Inactive member

Salina, KS

4y 36,650 12 2 37

Had this one at my parent's house for almost 10 years. It's a good (not quite great) machine. If you enjoy late 70's SS pinball, this is a good example.

7.604/10

4 years ago

CAH

ReadyPO

Pinside+ Frequent

6y 197K 5,916 129

This pin is about the theme, and the theme is well integrated all around. BG is excellent, Cabinet art is excellent, playfield is excellent. It is a great early SS for that reason alone and looks great in any game room. Light the spinner, shoot the spinner. Much prefer Mata Hari gameplay over this, but this pin says 1970s Pinball, at the height of Pinball. Great use of the license, and highly collectable because of it. A keeper for me, thrilled to have one in my collection.

8.949/10

4 years ago

SLP

Sleepy

Pinside+ Frequent

6y 44,550 67 6

A great old school solid state with one of the funnest spinner shots around. There are also drop targets and stand up targets along the sides. I have a hard time walking away from this game.

Switching to 5 ball adds more of a challenge as you then have to complete the drop targets once to light the spinners. Properly adjusted spinners make this game one of my favourites.

Great artwork and colours make this an awesome machine for a game room.

6.704/10

4 years ago

XQZ

douggalecawitz

Pinside member

Naperville, IL

11y 62,900 45 85

Is there anything more awesomely 70s than an Evel Knievel pinball machine? The answer is no.

douggalecawitz has this game on the wishlist.

7.912/10

6 years ago

CUZ

mcuzz

Pinside member

8y 117K 500 137

This game should have a jump, someone make a jump mod!
Great looking game , chimes are great.
Works well in a large collection.

9.465/10

7 years ago

WEB

Chuckwebster

Pinside member

Wakefield, MA

10y 75,300 498 35 75

set this game to 5 ball so that you have to earn the lit spinner. once you do that it becomes one of the best games of its era. gotta love real chimes too.

Chuckwebster currently owns this game.

9.600/10

7 years ago

MIL

Milltown

Pinside member

Palmer, MA

7y 67,350 1,399 11 7

Have played,sevral times.. just picked one up for restore .. classic game...

Milltown currently owns this game.

6.232/10

7 years ago

RHO

spiroagnew

Inactive member

11y 121K 982 161

I’ve sung the virtues of the Bally Six Million Dollar Man over Evel Knievel over in my 6MDM review, as the games are similar in design and artistic approach. I won’t use this space to dump on Evel, as the game is good in its own right, but I much prefer 6MDM. The alternating spinner (once lit) is a good feature to keep players on their toes and chasing high scores using the tap-pass. The art is classic, and conveys the Evel brand well. This game appears before Bally really hit its stride with innovative playfield features and rules. The real innovation here is the licencing work, and how it captured the daredevil’s iconography. The game is just one in a series of game with a top saucer, three pops in the middle, drops on one side, standups on the other and dual spinners. A classic layout, but other games with the same design ideas pack a bit more punch and surpass Evel’s gameplay.

7.177/10

8 years ago

JAM

jroakland

Pinside member

Oakland, CA

13y 60,050 106 7 111

one of the late 70s best, Balley classic E.K what a great game in the 70s ,drop targets and spinners, and the ball kick out saucer not much and simple by todays standerds but i still love the great play this machine gives,great art on the sling shot plastics that they dnt make like that any more ,great back glass love the cycle jumping over the busses ...definatly a keeper if you get a clean one !! oh and as a kid in the 70s who didnt pretend to be E.K when jumping off ramps on their cycle!

jroakland edited previous rating on March 18, 2016.

7.510/10

8 years ago

DEL

SealClubber

Pinside Moderator

14y 127K 11,060 246

Good looking game. My buddy has a pretty nice one in his motorcycle shop set for two games for a quarter. Gameplay isn't bad but the outlanes are really greedy on this pin. A lot worse than many others of this era I have played and I am not sure why. It does keep you on your toes though. This theme screams jump. Even a worthless one just for show would have been uber cool for this time period. Missed opportunity.

6.288/10

9 years ago

ALX

achtungboyy

Pinside member

El Paso, TX

11y 75,150 252 98 131

For its time Evel Kneivel is a great pinball machine. Great artwork on the back glass. The game has a really cool classic look. You really can't rate it comparing it to 1991 and on DMD game. It is a classic that yes does get old and repetitive but is really cool to look at. I agree, they should have had a jump of some sort in this game.

achtungboyy has owned this game in the past.

6.922/10

10 years ago

DAN

BeaverBrewing

Pinside member

Beaver Falls, PA

11y 80,150 289 7 282

They missed the boat by not having a "jump" on this game. Evel was putting his mug on literally everything at this time and this fits the theme of his marketing. Spinners are huge. Fun for a few plays.

6.276/10

10 years ago

RIV

SteveRivet

Pinside member

Ashburn, VA

10y 35,650 29 2 22

Fair early solid state, but hard to really crank on. Lot of easy drains, okay if you like spinners. Great theme and good artwork for the time.

SteveRivet has owned this game in the past.

8.197/10

10 years ago

JLM

jlm33

Pinside member

Villejuif

11y 152K 5,892 7 169

I have absolutely no idea who Evel Knievel is or was. Even then, I like that pin. The theme fits well. Nothing highly innovative here, but nothing wrong either... love the Bally top saucer. Best of both EM and SS worlds.

7.740/10

11 years ago

ZUL

Caucasian2Step

Evil McBooty

12y 163K 1,455 51 1011

This is a Gary Gayton Bally design that has a great art package by Paul Faris. I thought it was a Dave Christensen package at first (flattery is the most sincere form of parise) but, it was missing the belt buckles...

Pros:
A open layout with great spinner shots at the orbits. You may think that this table looks easy with the layout... but the space between the flippers and the "dead" outlanes make mistakes costly.

Cons:
The standup in the middle never warrants a shot, ever. Even if you get the extra ball with the S-U-P-E-R, you have a very good chance of losing the ball.

Takeaway:
This game oozes "1970's" in every way. On this deck, the rules/pf must be adjusted so that the game is neither too easy or too hard. This game is "Classic" in the design, artwork and play. The 5 ball rules of the game require the drops to be knocked down once to light the alternating light on the spinner. This makes the game more challenging than the 3 ball ruleset which lights the spinner at the start of the game. I'd prefer to have the more difficult settings on the 3 ball ruleset. Calling Mystery Programmer!

Next 1 2

There are 31 ratings (that include a comment) on this game. Currently showing results page 1 of 2.

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+!