Fireball (pinball)

''Fireball'' is a historically notable pinball machine designed by Ted Zale and released by Bally in 1972. The table was one of the first to have a modern sci-fi/fantasy type of outer space theme and featured elaborate, painted artwork on the sides of the table, painted by Dave Christensen.

Description

The game itself is notable as it featured several pinball innovations, including a spinning disc, moveable "zipper" flippers, and trapped ball bonuses. ''Fireball'' was also an early table to have the multi-ball (three balls, in this case) feature. ''Fireball''s main surface and raised surface also featured elaborate artwork of a flaming "fire man", flames, and stars in space.

FireBall Professional Home model

Partly due to the success of the original ''Fireball'' pinball machine, Bally released a "Professional Home Model" available to the regular consumer beginning in 1978. The layout was different from the arcade ''Fireball''; it was a slight modification of the Bally's ''Hocus Pocus'' playfield with the subtraction of a ball diverter gate.

Fireball Classic

In February 1985, Bally released ''Fireball Classic''. While the playfield closely resembled the original this version was electronic and had no zipper-flippers. In a review for ''Play Meter'', Roger Sharpe rated this machine at a generous 2/4 due to nostalgia for the original version. He noted that the 1972 version had helped propel Bally to a leading pinball manufacturer.

Cultural references

Chip Carter bought one of these machines in 1977 while his father, Jimmy Carter, was president; it was inspected by the secret service on delivery.

Richard Linklater plays a rotoscoped ''Fireball'' in his 2001 film ''Waking Life'', in the penultimate scene where he expounds Dickian gnosticism to the protagonist.

Also, Linkater's 1993 film '' Dazed and Confused'' features a scene that shows extreme close-ups of a game being played on a ''Fireball''.

During the episode "Pinball" (Original air date: November 29, 1985) of the television series ''Mr. Belvedere'', the title character becomes obsessed with a "Firebomb" pinball machine, a slightly altered ''Fireball''.

Digital version

''Fireball'' was a licensed table of ''The Pinball Arcade'', but was removed from sale on June 30, 2018 due to the loss of the Williams license.

References

External links

*
''Fireball'' (home edition)
at the Internet Pinball Database
''Fireball Classic''
at the Internet Pinball Database

1972 pinball machines
1985 pinball machines
Bally pinball machines
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