Old Chicago

March 23, 2005

I’m not real fond of gangsters even though my mom married one, so it took a while to get past the cover of this book. But like the old adage say’s "Don’t judge a... blah blah." So I finally started playing this at Friday night pins at Mac’s. I have gained a deep respect and love of that solid Bally feeling. They made machines that were somewhat less tinny and more reliable like they were carved out of solid pinball billet instead of stamped sheet metal.

As every pin tells a tale, this is about John Dillinger and the "lady in red" who steered him to his death by the feds in front of a Chicago theatre on July 22nd, 1934. The art deco styling is beautiful and with bonus, double bonus, drop targets, spinner, collect bonus saucers, extra ball and specials, this machine has it all. It also has an almost exact duplicate of the lower playfield of Gottlieb’s “Jack in the Box” which makes for many tense near death experiences as the ball gets close to the out-lanes. The spinner is the money shot on this game as it advances the bonus which you can collect in the saucers. Double bonus comes on the 1st, 3rd and 5th ball depending on how it’s wired by the operator. Ours is set for 3rd and 5th. Knocking down all the targets gets you the extra ball and special lites alternately on the out-lanes. A real nail-biter this game will get your blood boiling. Very popular for multi-play at the Ju Ju.

Produced by Bally, 1976. 4 players. 9.5 out of 10 on the Play-O-Meter

High Score 314,720 by M J S on January 04, 2004

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