As with any warehouse raid, you have to pick and choose at least a few keepers out of the lot. This Strange Science pinball by Bally from 1986 is just that – a keeper. The above pic is a lights-out pic of my gameroom with the addition of the new pin. I love this game. I think the theme is cool (mad scientist), it has an interesting playfield, up to five multiball play, and possibly the coolest topper EVER!
This is my first solid state pinball. I already own a 1975 Williams Little Chief EM pinball, but this is my first foray into a game from my youth. While I would love to have an even newer solid state machine like Twilight Zone, Addams Family, or ST:TNG, when pinballs machines are as expensive as they are, you take what you can get. I can see myself possibly trading up in the future, but wouldn’t mind keeping this as I can see this fitting nicely into a cool horror lineup of TZ, AF, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Freddy: Nightmare on Elmstreet, Elvira and the Party Monsters, Scared Stiff and more… Hey, a guy can dream right?
The backglass I have is in perfect condition with no flaking and artwork by Greg Freres, who also did artwork on Medieval Madness, Scared Stiff, and STTNG. The topper you can see is actually neon. I have seen some that glow white, but mine glows red and will flash so rapidly during parts of the game that I worry about seizures for potential players.
As I said earlier, the playfield is cool, but gameplay can be difficult. You can try to spell out “Strange Science” by hitting the targets on the opposite sides of the game. Besides the pop bumpers, you can also try to score points by making the ball travel throught the anit-gravity ramp, the particle separator, the spark generator, or (most difficult of all) loading the balls into the “Atom Smasher” which will store up your multiball.
This game is part of Bally’s 6803 series, which were produced during tough times. To save on money, all cabinets had generic Bally sideart. Additionally, they used a cheaper LED that is functional, but makes the G’s look like 9’s. There are a few other disappointing details, but I can’t complain much as this game works well with just some minor adjustments after 10 years in storage and what looks like the original high score battery (no corrosion). The high score still showed up upon powerup and it even had a credit. After a new rubber ring kit, some new balls, and some novus, she’s as good as new
Tags: Bally, Basement, Pinball, Pinball - Bally Strange Science
December 16th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
You mention there was no corrosion damage from the battery. Please tell me you replaced it for the safety of your board.
On my in-law’s Mata Hari I replaced the shrink-wrapped 3-cell rechargeable battery packs with a battery pack from Radio Shack, a diode, and three regular alkaline batteries. The idea is to get the batteries off of the circuit board where they can do damage when they corrode on you.
Here’s the Marvin3m (pinrepair.com), and Pinball News links about battery replacement. There are lots of wonderful troubleshooting help at the Marvin3m page for your era Bally board as well.
http://www.pinrepair.com/6803/index.htm#corrosion
http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/battery.html
February 5th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I’m going to look at one of these pins this weekend. It’ll be my second if everything works out. Looks like a nice game to sharpen my skills with!
February 8th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
It is a pretty cool game. Getting enough balls into the atom smasher for the 5-ball multiball is tough. Took me forever to figure out what the lower right button below the flipper did (alternates the location of the LAB lights). Good luck!