(74K)
Made by Williams in January, 1972. This is a four-player machine with
lots of gadgets. Its artwork is typical of the period with sharp
angular style. The theme of this game is not clear. The art shows several
people in goofy contortions and a bunch of stars. Maybe its theme is drugs.
;^)
Backglass: Contorted people and stars. The main colors are green, blue, yellow,
and magenta.
Playfield: Symmetrical layout with five jet bumpers in the standard
Williams early 1970s configuration at the top of the playfield. Two of the
five are green and two are yellow. Two standup targets are situated in the
corners above the targets which light the corresponding color bumpers
increasing their value from 10 to 100 points. The center bumper is always
lit for 100 points. On the right side of the playfield are two ball-save
gates--one up high and one in the outlane. Both gates lead to the plunger
lane. One the left side of the playfield, midway is another gate. The
gate just leads from near the left outlane to feed to the flippers.
The prominant feature on the playfield is a dial in the center that rotates
from one position to the next when certain targets or bumpers are hit. The
dial points at various awards including: extra ball (when lit), bonus,
double bonus, triple bonus, open left gate, open right gate, and open lower
gate. Two saucers are on the playfield, both in the center of the
playfield, one up at the top of the arch, and one in the middle just below
the bumpers. Both saucers score the dial award currently selected. The
extra ball dial awards are lit periodically depending on the 00-90 point
unit. To the sides of the middle saucer are two standup targets which
advance the bonus and raise the up post between the flippers.
Cabinet: Colors are yellow and magenta on a green background. The
stenciled shapes are contorted people and stars.
This machine is always popular with the players, I believe, due to all the
gadgets on this machine. I believe the weakness of this machine is its lack of
balanced scoring. The main way to get big points is to build up the bonus
and then score the double and triple bonus. Since the dial is somewhat
random the basic stragety is to hit the raise up-post standups and then the
saucer--again and again.
The game has little appeal to collectors at this time. It is fun and
interesting to play, but eventually does get boring once it is understood.
This game was picked up from a garage sale and hardly worked. Someone had
oiled the jet bumpers which made them lethargic and gooey. After clean up
they worked well. I sold this game once. Then, two years later, it was
traded in for a 1971 Bally Exressway--a much more challenging game.
He traded it in because it had become boring to him. This machine was
refurbished again and resold recently, this time to a family with young
children. I expect they will enjoy this machine for many years.
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