How Lucky am I? Bally Fathom (1981) – Gonzo’s Latest Pinball Machine Find!

Gonzo's Pinball Flipperama·video·33m 23s·analyzed·Aug 15, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Gonzo acquires pristine 1981 Bally Fathom, discusses its charm and plans Pin Fest display.

Summary

Gonzo acquires a rare 1981 Bally Fathom pinball machine in excellent original condition after spotting it on Pinside forum and making a quick purchase decision. He discusses the game's charm, simple ruleset, and mechanical excellence compared to his other machines, and plans to display it at UK Pin Fest 2025. The video includes gameplay demonstration and reflects on the machine's historical significance.

Key Claims

Haggis Pinball has gone out of business
high confidence · Gonzo stating 'Haggis Pinball have gone out of business now' while discussing the Fathom Revisited remake
Fathom was purchased for a 'bargain' price and Gonzo was the successful buyer within 30 seconds of the Pinside listing
high confidence · Gonzo's direct account of seeing the notification, messaging the seller immediately, and committing to purchase within 30 seconds
The previous owner had the Fathom for 22 years and is mechanically minded with an engineering background
high confidence · Gonzo stating the machine 'had been in the gentleman's possession for 22 years' and describing the seller's background
The previous owner is building a Futurama pinball machine from scratch
high confidence · Gonzo mentioning the seller 'is actually building his own pinball machine from scratch at the moment he's building a Futurama pinball machine'
Fathom's backglass is in 'pristine condition' comparable to the best Bally 1981 backglasses he's seen
high confidence · Gonzo stating 'this is in as good a condition i think as I've seen any Bally 1981 back glass uh absolutely amazed with it'
Gonzo is taking Fathom to Pin Fest 2025 (scheduled for August 22 in Daventry)
medium confidence · Gonzo stating he considered taking it to Pin Fest but ultimately decided against it this year: 'we're not going to bring this this year but i probably will take it uh next year'
Pulp Fiction is being used as a single-ball tournament game at Pin Fest with prizes of £100, £50, £25, and £10
high confidence · Gonzo describing the Jackrabbit Slim's one-ball tournament rules: 'you get one ball on Pulp Fiction and i think the highest score over the the three days of a Pin Fest um is going to the highest score gets 100 pound second highest 50 and 25 um then a tenner'
Lyman Sheets coded Batman 66
high confidence · Gonzo stating 'that's Lyman Sheets' coding' when discussing Batman 66's rule design

Notable Quotes

“It's a world I used to know, but something I've just stopped doing with my pinball machines, and that is putting coins into your pinball machine... there's something about putting coins in that makes it feel a little bit more authentic it certainly makes it feel more like an antique.”
Gonzo@ 1:34 — Reflects on the tactile and emotional appeal of coin-operated machines versus free-play settings, highlighting a nostalgic dimension of classic pinball collecting
“I find myself gravitating so much to these older games now with these simple rule sets... simplistic brilliance, but it has you trying to do it over and over again. And I love that.”
Gonzo@ 11:47 — Core philosophy on why classic games appeal to modern players despite technological advances; emphasis on elegance of design over complexity
“They probably never imagined they didn't fathom that it would be in there or similar interjection use when it was designed and manufactured in 1981... somebody'd be playing this and enjoying it in 2025”
Gonzo@ 31:52 — Reflects on the enduring legacy and unforeseen longevity of 1981 hardware, contrasting original arcade purpose with modern collector appreciation
“I was right place at the right time to get this... you snooze and you lose don't you”
Gonzo @ ~20:00 — Captures the real-time, high-pressure nature of the collector market where opportunities disappear in seconds
“Bring Dolly because it's brutal”
Sean (classics tournament organizer)@ 24:35 — Characterizes Dolly Parton's difficulty level and why it was chosen over Fathom for the classics tournament at Pin Fest
“What a charming game, what a charming pinball machine... there's something very very special about these games. Very special indeed”

Entities

GonzopersonBally FathomgameDolly Partongame Haggis Pinballcompany PinsideorganizationPin FesteventKing Kong: The Myth of Terror IslandgameKeithperson

Signals

?
community_signal: Pin Fest 2025 positioned as major community event with multiple tournament categories (ladies, children, NBA, classics) and interactive gameplay opportunities; Gonzo's Pinball Flipperama sponsoring classics tournament
high · Extensive discussion of Pin Fest tournaments, prize structures, machine donations, and Gonzo's role as sponsor and participant
?
event_signal: Pin Fest 2025 (August 22, Daventry) featuring Stall Ball tournament on Labyrinth machine as special mechanic-based competition; proceeds supporting classics tournament prize pool
high · Gonzo detailing Stall Ball rules: 'Jackrabbit Slim's one ball The Twist which is going to be you get one ball on Pulp Fiction and i think the highest score over the the three days of a Pin Fest'
~
sentiment_shift: Fathom acquisition sparked debate on Pinside forum about pricing fairness and resale flipping; seller maintained integrity despite pressure to raise price
high · Gonzo: 'there were a lot of people saying to the chap who'd sold it oh you know you're selling this too cheap and I bet this is just going to get flipped and turned over for a profit... the chap that sold it he was under quite a lot of pressure to up the price and he never did he stuck to his price'
?
design_philosophy: Collector gravitating toward 1981-era games with simple, elegant rulesets over modern complex rule systems; appreciates 'simplistic brilliance' and accessibility for non-expert players
high · Gonzo: 'I find myself gravitating so much to these older games now with these simple rule sets... And I love that about any game... if people come over to play particularly non-pinball playing folk they'll play these games for hours because you just explain the rules in 30 seconds'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.100

0:00

Sometimes you just get an opportunity to get a surprise and unexpected addition to your pinball collection and that's exactly what I've got here with this Fathom which is one of the classic ballet 81 games now it sits very very nicely next to uh as you all know a machine that's very very dear to my heart which is dolly parton which i think is 1978 or 1979 um that's a ballet it's quite interesting having spent so much time playing the dolly parton game from what is two three years earlier to now spending time with this game from 1981 and just sort of having a look back and seeing how much technology has jumped on has moved on because these games are absolutely full of charm um in fact that probably demonstrates one of the first things that I noticed the difference between the two games. So whilst Dolly Parton has chimes and has some form of melody to it, you turn it on and it goes... This actually has call-outs. In fact, I'm going to demonstrate one to you now, because the guy that I got this off has introduced me to a whole new world. It's a world I used to know, but something I've just stopped doing with my pinball machines, and that is putting coins into your pinball machine. This is not set to free play. As I understand it, you can't actually set it to free play, but there are ways you can get around it. Certainly on Dolly Parton, I don't have to put any money in. But if I just put this money in now.

1:57

Fantastic. Oh, yes. I'll do it again. I don't know what it is, but there's something about putting money in makes it feel a little bit more authentic it certainly makes it feel more like an antique which is precisely what this game is but make no mistake about it it's an antique that you're very much gonna enjoy playing a lot of you are gonna need no introduction to this game at all haggis have recently done a remake obviously haggis have gone out of business now and i've not played the remake i was very very close to getting one and it was only a certain set of circumstances that stopped that happening so i've been very much in the market for for a fathom for quite some time this was completely unexpected when this came up and i'll tell you i'll tell you the story i was i was on the forum on on pinball info which is obviously the UK forum. In fact, I wasn't. I was doing something else on my computer and a notification popped up saying that there was a fathom for sale. I jumped on there really quickly and I sent a direct message to the person that was selling it and said, yes, please. I mean, I must have done it in 30 seconds, made the decision, committed to buying it. Now, it was a bargain, an absolute bargain. So I said, yes, please, I'll take this. It had been in the gentleman's possession for 22 years and I'm very lucky well firstly because I got a bargain but secondly the chap that I got it off is is just mechanically minded he is of an engineering background so much so that he's actually building his own pinball machine from scratch at the moment he's building a Futurama pinball machine in fact it's quite close to completion when I went around to collect this game uh he showed it to me um we've had a really really good look at it and i'm going to go and revisit him uh separately to go and produce a video just demonstrating that game um it was amazing so i was really lucky it's not only has it been beautifully cared for it's been in the hands of somebody who's mechanically minded well for for almost half of its life and that's a real benefit when you're going to get a game like this it means there's really very little for me to do to it it's it's in original condition there's no leds i tell a lie i put leds in it just to see what would happen you might well see on the back glass there's a little bit it's a little bit more blue here on on this um halfway down this mermaid's tail and uh and yeah you probably see it's popping out a little bit more but aside from that it's it's in original condition and i think it looks absolutely fantastic particularly when you see it it's not had the sort of overhaul and refurbishment that dolly parter next to it has had which was done by keith uh he's just a great guy at new forest um pinball and actually whilst dolly parter and i know you can't see the full thing on the screen but we've featured this game on this channel so many times you'll have seen that plenty of times before if you if you're an established subscriber on the channel this is a uh this is a remake this is i think it might be cpr possibly i think that's a cpr remake this is original it's in as good a condition i think as i've seen any bally 81 back glass uh absolutely amazed with it and i've got an eight ball deluxe and i got a cpr remake for that back glass as well so this is in an absolutely pristine condition and the story goes when i there was a lot of people interested in this game and ideally i would have sort of bought this game without anybody knowing and then just done a the reveal video but what happened was there were there were there were a lot of people obviously wanted this game and there were a lot of people saying to the chap who'd sold it oh you know you're selling this too cheap and I bet this is just going to get flipped and turned over for a profit and I was watching this unfold and there was there was one there was one guy in particular who had sort of semi got accused of getting this game of course he hadn't it was me that got it and so in the end I had to pop on there and say look it's it's me it's me I've I'm the one that's purchased the machine and to be fair to the the chap that sold it he was under quite a lot of pressure to up the price and he never did he stuck to his price and so i got a real bargain for this and i'm very very grateful for it as as he knows um and i've invited him to come back and play it anytime he wants i'm very lucky because he lives locally and also he needed it gone quite quickly and i've got a van and everything all the planets aligned for me to get this this wonderful wonderful game and i was thinking actually of of taking it to pin fest which is well pin fest is on the 22nd of this month in daventry and if you've not got a ticket and you're not going to pin fest it's not too late you can still go and do that now the link will be well i was going to say the link will be in description google uk pin fest that's that's your quickest route if you google uk pin fest you can go and buy a ticket there and i'm quite sure you come down on the day as well you can either sort of buy a ticket i guess to join in for the whole weekend or the vip sessions or one single day but there's lots of us down there and it's um you know it's a really really big event and certainly you know the highlight of the of my pinball year is going up to that event and i love it and and phil puts on a great show but there's tournaments there and lots and lots of stuff going on so i'm taking a number of games up to pin fest i am taking we'll get to this in a second i am i i'm taking jaws jaws is going in the main tournament the uh the the open tournament i am also taking i'm possibly taking star trek next generation now about two days after i acquired a Star Trek Next Generation came up for purchase, again, at a really, really good price as well. And funny enough again from somebody that had the game for 10 12 years something like that so i ended up getting that as well and i hoping it wasn fully working so i been trying to get that ready and get that prepared because i want to take that to pinfest as well so that's star trek next generation also i thought it'd be really good to feature it on this channel i've had it before it features on my top 100 list i think actually it doesn't well it means means we can do that oh no it does sorry there you go on gonzo's top 50 it's it's about halfway it's a top 10 it's top 10 game but it'd be really good to feature on this channel to have a really good look at it and it was the third game i ever owned for star trek next generation so i thought it'd be really good to get that be good to take it to pin fest so people can can play it and enjoy it i'm also taking pulp fiction now pulp fiction is interesting because one of the tournaments at pin fest is the classics tournament now um again when i said i was donating uh the uh the pulp fiction to the classics tournament again there was um there was a there was a bit of a reaction online to it and sean who's running the classics tournament who does a great job had had a really good idea but there's a lot of people saying you can't put in a classics tournament you can't donate that machine it's not a classic and we're we're sponsoring this year a gonzo's pinball flipperama are sponsoring the classics tournament at at pin fest and when we did that we knew what sean had in mind but unfortunately we didn't particularly want to reveal what the plan was with that game to make the tournament just um well to give the tournament more prize money really and just to make everything a little bit more interesting and that was to run a side tournament um which is going to be a what was a jackrabbit slimmed one ball twist which is going to be you get one ball on pulp fiction and i think the highest score over the the three days of a pin fest um is going to be the highest score gets 100 pound second highest 15 and 25 um then a tenner and whatever proceeds that game takes will then be going with the rest of the money that's been generously donated and which sean has collected and runs this and um he's going to be going to the the prize pot for the classics competition now i did say to sean i can bring fathom if you want because i'm donating the game to go in the main bank as well and and i said because i was originally going to take dolly parton but sean said no no i want dolly parton because it's brutal and he's right dolly parton is brutal so we're not going to bring this this year but i probably will take it uh next year but that we're going to be bringing that and i think people will really enjoy it it's just a wonderful wonderful game and just get back on track really i find myself gravitating so much to these older games now with these simple rule sets and i guess i could be very linear in my thinking and when i'm playing this game i just i want to lock one ball into the top saucer i want to lock another ball into the cave traps you've got lagoon trap and cave trap um silly silly little things like you hit these three targets here in sequence then you hit this one here and you get an extra ball. I mean, it's simplistic brilliance, but it has you trying to do it over and over again. And I love that. I love that about any game. I find myself, as I say, quite linear in my thinking in the same way that if you ever played Batman 66, what a great game that is. What an amazing game. And in fact, so good. I've got a James Bond premium. I'm probably going to look to try and swap that out and possibly get something else in but batman 66 would be high up there because i just love it but you've got the commissioner gordon target on there and it's just so tempting to keep hitting that time and time again try and hit that a number of times before you then go and answer the bat phone it's it's coding genius of course that's lyman sheets coding but the genius is in the simplicity of it and the multipliers on that it really is an excellent excellent game so since i got this i've been playing it a lot and what i would say is it's probably a a measure of how good this is but also a measure of how good it's just behind me now how good king kong myth of terror island is that i've been playing that as well um because ordinarily i wouldn't just the shots on king kong myth of terror island are just so good they are so good um i must be honest when i went when i first went to neil's house and i did video with him and he said i think this might be people might end up liking this more than godzilla i thought like i thought no but i can totally understand what he was saying now i can totally understand it that is an incredible game but anyway my point is they've got a bit it's got to be a good game to stop me playing this because i just want to play it all the time because i think these old games are completely addictive they are wonderful anyway i just wanted to tell you the story about this game uh for regular watchers of the channel announced that i have a fathom in my collection now which i'm absolutely thrilled with uh absolutely thrilled um poor old theater of Magic has stopped being played at the moment because I've been playing King Kong. But it'll have a renaissance again. Jaws has not been getting played. I still love Jaws, but it's not working. So I've actually got Martin from GoPimble, who is coming over on Tuesday, I believe, to come and give a few games a once over and get that. It's just the flipper button's not working. So he's going to come and fix that. And there's a few other things and a few other games. so we're going to get the games working ready to go to pin fest um so yeah as i say get down to pin fest 26 22nd of august in daventry just google uk pin fest and everything you need to know is on there if you haven't pre-registered for the tournaments no problem you can do that when you're there that's no problem it's just with the classics competition you got a free t-shirt and stuff like that um you can still do it when you're there and i would encourage everybody to to get involved and in so many of the tournaments there you've got the the ladies tournament which is um which is absolutely incredible obviously as you can tell well hopefully i'm not allowed to enter that one i might go in disguise you never know um the children's tournament uh which was great great opportunity for the kids to win some prizes uh you've got nba which is which is run by um Elsa and Colin, absolutely brilliant.