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Made by Atari in February 1978. This is a sharp-looking 4-player machine
typical of Atari's other machines produced during their short venture into
the pinball manufacturing arena.
Backglass: Scene of fantasy-style warriors, male and female, fighting
various beasts. Note that most beasts shown on the game are dinosaur-types.
Like many other Atari machines, this machine has no scoring displays in the
backbox. The purpose of the backglass is purely cosmetic. The displays are
located on the score card holder above the outhole.
Playfield: Asymmetrical layout with two pop bumpers on the upper playfield.
This is a wide-body machine with lots of open area. Two flippers are poised
at the bottom of the upper playfield and two in the normal position on the
lower playfield. Each playfield has a bank of 5 drop targets. On the left
side a spinner sits in the passageway between the two playfields. Various
standup targets are spaced around rim of the upper playfield. On the upper
left of the upper playfield is a turnaround which when lit advances the
bonus multiplier.
Cabinet: Colors are green and black on a yellow background. The stenciled
shapes are dinosaur/dragon-type creatures.
The main idea of this game is to drop the target banks multiple times and
then hit the turnaround. It gets pretty boring after that.
This game looks so very good, but plays so slow and boring that it is easy
to understand why Atari didn't last very long as a pinball manufacturer.
Atari made some big mistakes with their machines, but had some good ideas.
They placed their main IC boards on the bottom of the main cabinet, which
meant that whenever a screw or other shrapnel fell off the underside of the
playfield it landed on the board and started shorting things out. They
solved this by putting a plastic shield over the board, but that often fell
off or was lost. All Atari machines I've seen were in excellent cosmetic
condition, which usually indicates that the machines were either boring or
were always broken. I tend to believe the problem was that they were boring.
On the good side all coils had plug-in connectors so they were easy to replace.
I have owned two of these machines. Both were taken on with hesitation, but
both ended up working well and were not difficult to repair. Both were also
easy to sell, I believe, due to the attractive artwork.
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