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KISS (Bally 1979) - From the Pacific Pinball Museum

Mystery Pinball Theater 3000·video·1h 12m·analyzed·Aug 23, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Live gameplay and history of 1979 Bally KISS at Pacific Pinball Museum with restoration details.

Summary

Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 hosts a live stream from the Pacific Pinball Museum featuring the 1979 Bally KISS pinball machine. The hosts discuss the game's restoration from two non-working donated machines over a two-year period by volunteer Jim Strelow, KISS's historical significance as the first officially band-licensed pinball game, and gameplay mechanics. The stream includes live play commentary and viewer interaction.

Key Claims

  • KISS (1979) was the first officially licensed band pinball game with actual contracts between the band and Bally

    high confidence · Evan at Pacific Pinball Museum explicitly states this during historical discussion

  • 17,000 KISS machines were produced, making it one of the most produced pinball games alongside Adam's Family and 8-Ball

    high confidence · Evan states this as museum fact; notes it was expected to potentially reach 20,000 units

  • A single talking KISS prototype was made for trade shows but the technology was never developed further; Gorgar (1979, Harry Williams) was the first talking pinball game, and Xenon (1981) was the first with a woman's voice

    high confidence · Evan provides detailed history of speech technology in pinball games

  • In Germany, the KISS letter designs were modified to use regular S shapes instead of the lightning-bolt style due to political sensitivity

    medium confidence · Evan mentions this as a regional variation during gameplay discussion

  • KISS restoration combined two non-working donated machines over approximately two years by volunteer Jim Strelow, who is museum board secretary

    high confidence · Evan provides detailed account of restoration process and Jim Strelow's role

  • Pacific Pinball Museum maintains an annex at the old Alameda Naval Air Station with 1,300 additional games beyond the 105 in the main Alameda location

    high confidence · Evan states collection numbers and locations during museum introduction

  • Bally was ahead of the curve with licensing strategy in the late 1970s, securing KISS, Dolly Parton, and building on The Wizard (Tommy/The Who) and Captain Fantastic (Elton John) licensed games

    high confidence · Evan provides licensing history context during gameplay

  • Stern made a KISS remake approximately 10-15 years after the original Bally version, which is not held in as high regard by collectors

    high confidence · Manu and Evan discuss Stern KISS variant and compare collector preference

Notable Quotes

  • “this was a two-year process to slowly combine these two donated games that did not work into a game that worked”

    Evan (Pacific Pinball Museum)@ 5:20 — Establishes the significant restoration effort required for 1979 solid-state games

  • “It's a weird combination. It's in between the EM and electronic worlds. It's a little bit of both.”

    Evan@ 8:01 — Explains the technical nature of first-generation solid-state pinball as a transitional technology

  • “this is the first band-licensed game... with actual contracts between the band, their management, and Bally”

    Evan@ 10:09 — Clarifies KISS's unique historical position in pinball licensing

  • “They made a single KISS machine that went to trade shows representing Bally that talked... but they never ended up developing it past that one one-off game”

    Evan@ 10:38 — Reveals lesser-known history of attempted talking pinball feature for KISS

  • “Bally really had artwork and the licensing dialed in in the late 70s and early 80s ahead of Harry Williams and Gottlieb”

    Manu@ 24:48 — Positions Bally's competitive advantage in the era of licensed games

  • “It's not called Sharpshooter because that's the game they based off of him afterwards”

    Evan@ 23:00 — Clarifies the distinction between the game Sharpe actually played vs. later commemorative game

Entities

Pacific Pinball MuseumorganizationKISS (Bally 1979)gameEvanpersonManupersonJim StrelowpersonStern PinballcompanyRoger SharpepersonGene Simmonsperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pacific Pinball Museum operates through volunteer restoration labor and community engagement; Monday night Fix-It nights and educational exhibits demonstrate ongoing commitment to preserving pinball history and knowledge transfer

    high · Evan: 'Jim Strelow... comes to our Monday night Fix-It nights and is a really valuable Fix-It member'; museum houses exhibits explaining mechanical, electronic, artwork, and physics aspects of pinball

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Museum's preservation philosophy prioritizes authentic restoration including incandescent bulb retention over LED conversion; acknowledges LEDs necessary in specific cases (heat damage prevention) but favors warm-colored LEDs to maintain aesthetic period-accuracy

    medium · Evan: 'Do not put LEDs in this pin... We try not to... But if we do, we really do try to get warm LEDs so they look right'; discussion of incandescent flicker and warmth as integral to machine character

  • ?

    design_philosophy: KISS features substantial gameplay depth for 1979 including drop target combos (KISS + ABCD), spinner shots, multiplier modes (2x bonus, 2x pops/slings), and strategic playfield design that feels modern relative to contemporary games like Evil Knievel and Gorgar

    high · Manu: 'This feels really modern for 1979... it feels a little bit more modern than somehow Evil Knievel and Gorgar'; extensive gameplay commentary showing complex rule interactions

  • ?

    event_signal: Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 conducting regular Monday evening livestreams from Pacific Pinball Museum showcasing collection and involving community chat; represents emerging media engagement model for pinball community content

    medium · Stream format with live gameplay, viewer raids, chat engagement, and museum staff participation; multiple references to 'Monday MPT3' audience expectations

Topics

Pinball restoration and preservationprimaryLicensed pinball games and IP dealsprimaryFirst-generation solid-state pinball technologyprimaryPinball game history (1970s era)primaryMuseum operations and volunteer programssecondaryMusic-themed pinball machinessecondaryIncandescent vs LED lighting in vintage machinessecondaryRoger Sharpe court case and pinball legalitymentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Hosts express genuine enthusiasm for the KISS machine, appreciate the restoration work, and celebrate the game's historical significance. Respectful tone toward museum volunteer efforts and gaming community. Minor frustration during gameplay adds authenticity but doesn't diminish overall positive sentiment about the machine and museum.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.216

The Hey vampire, can you hear? Let me know if you can help me do my sound check. 1-2, 1-2, hi. This is Manu speaking with his voice. This is Manu Smith. See? Just like it says on the screen. Manu Smith. And I'm speaking with my voice. How's that vampire? Does it sound good? Hey, Borg, your sound should have played, so that means... That means I need to double check and make sure your sound is playing. Thank you. Look at that lovely museum. Look at that lovely museum. Oh, thank you, doodad. Appreciate you, bro. Here's Dave Velaski. No longer brought to you by the Pinball Network, but we'll say yes. That is the grumpy guy. He's not grumpy. He's just busy. Welcome, friends. I'm so happy to be here today. Hi, Manu. And we are here at the Pacific Pinball Museum once again. I am here. No, we, I can say we, because Evan's here too. I can say we. Oh, thank you. This is awesome. Evan's going to talk for a minute. While Manu wets his whistle. So thank you for coming to the Pacific Pinball Museum's live stream today. We're going to talk about some 70s games, starting with KISS and maybe staying with KISS. But this is a really cool game that we only had to come in about a month or two ago. And it has a really fun history just within the museum itself. This was a really long project for one of our volunteers. Really? We had two beat-the-hell games that were not working. They've been donated to the museum. We are a nonprofit, so we don't buy pinball games. They're donated to us now. and it was a two-year process to slowly combine these two donated games that did not work into a game that worked. How bad was it? They weren't terrible, but this is an interesting era of game where even if the plastics are in good condition, the play feels in good condition, there's just lots of moving parts still. There's tons of early circuit boards in these games. The heads and the display units for the scores can be problematic. It's beautiful. This game in terms of the screen and the scoring is just super bright and vibrant. I mean, it works really well. Oh, the KISS works. Yeah, it works great. And it was just really fun. It was a slow process because, again, we're volunteer-based, so this is someone doing it out of their own love for the game. And working on it where? At home or at the annex? This is at our annex. So we have the main museum in Alameda on Webster Street with our 105 games to play, but we have our Pacific Pinball Annex, which is out on the old Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda Point, where we have 1,300 more games. And that's where we have our main shop, and we were working on this game for two years. Did you guys hear that number? And that is what we are trying to fundraise to bring more of to the public. Like, we really do want to have a 5, 6, 7, 800 game collection available to the public. So that's what we're trying to raise money for for a larger location. Yeah. I mean, that would be amazing to have, you know, half of those games, like you said, ready to play for people. And I've seen the annex. There's some amazing games in there. I remember seeing that Nixie 2 game. Right. That's a French. So that is a very rare French pinball game from the mid-60s. And we have more Spanish games. We do have that one Spanish game, Dragon, in the museum. So we have more European pinball. We've got exhibits for touching and for kids, like the Exploratorium, that explain different aspects of pinball, whether it's the mechanical nature, electronic, artwork, physics. We've got all these different things we can bring. We just need more room. So you had a volunteer come in and work on this over time. And I've got to tell you, I've just started working on games at Free Go Watch. Very, very, very junior tech. And I still can't imagine doing a rebuild. Especially of, okay, so this is not an EM, this is solid state, right? It is first gen solid state. First gen solid state means it's still more foot in the EM world than... It's a weird combination. It's in between the EM and electronic worlds. It's got a little bit of both. And it's generally pretty reliable. They're robust machines because they really were going into bars and billiards halls and card rooms, and they were getting kicked and hit and having drinks spilled into them and having fights break out next to them. So they're pretty hardy machines. But when they're 45 years old, things are fragile. They're a little long in tooth, and they do need a gentle touch as you kind of build one good game out of two. This is 79? 79. Valley, 79. I guess one of the first maybe not, one of the first licensed games? maybe not so the first licensed game the first unlicensed very obvious game was Beat Time making fun of the Beatles it's not licensed, it's using a different name so we also have that game for playing, it's pretty funny the first licensed game is Wizard based off the movie Tommy with the Who and it's got Ed Margaret on the front and it has the gentleman from the movie on the front too. Daltrey? Roger Daltrey. And then the second licensed game was Captain Fantastic also based off of the Who movie. The whole movie, Elton John. But now with Elton John. And then this game, Kiss, and Dolly Parton came out about the same time. Bally was really smart. They were so ahead of the curve. Hey, let's do Kiss. And let's do... And Dolly Parton. Let's actually get licenses. And Dolly Parton and Kiss were very smart with their marketing, and they did it. And they didn't fight it, and they said, this is a new way to get our face out there and market. They were both very, very smart, Kiss and Dolly Parton, in terms of their marketing and business sense. So they really are the first couple games that were licensed. This is the first band-licensed game. Wow! Like officially licensed. Officially licensed. We're not doing boodles. You know, with actual contracts between the band, their management, and Bally who made it. And it was almost, almost Bally's first talking pinball game. So Gorgar came out in 1979 as well. Gorgar by Williams, which we also have in the museum. And that was the first talking pinball game. and Kiss was in development at Valley and they panicked when they saw that Gorgar came out and now we've got the first talking pinball game. So they did actually make a single Kiss machine that went to trade shows representing Valley that talked. And it did things like if you shook it too hard before it tilted, it would say, hey, too much rock and roll. It would say the Kiss letters as they came out on the head. and it had some other spoken word as well but they never ended up developing it past that one one-off game and their first spoken word game with speech was Xenon in 1928. Yeah, that's the thing. It was a little bit later. A lot of people think Xenon was the first game that spoke but it was actually Gorgar. Gorgar was the first game that spoke. Xenon was the first with a woman's voice. Suzanne Sciani. That's why I disconnected. And it goes, uh, uh, uh, and that's why everybody remembers. Right. Hey, what's up, David Pines? on never underestimate the power of being popular in pop culture you have to be able to do something you can have a good seat at the restaurant but you still have to pay for the meal fame is important but to be rich is more important gene simmons they're also still thinking to the future i read something recently that they're thinking about just licensing their own likenesses and the the instruments that they play and everything just so an entire new band of KISS could just form from new people and just put on the exact same act and just last forever and and I actually think that's kind of brilliant yeah that far into the future so they've always had a good business sense and there was a remake by Stern there's a KISS game that got made that's true that's true that's why I asked like what yeah 10 or 15 years and if people people enjoy it if they like the band it's not held as high a guard as this This has a lot of, this is just kind of a sweet spot in the era of the games that a lot of people like. This is really fun. Yeah, let's, pinheads in the chat right now, throw up, which one is your favorite kiss? The stern or the bally? Just type stern or bally. And this is only, I know only a few of you are going to even be able to do this. But I just want to know what you guys think about which one. So, so, let's see, Gene Simmons is legit addicted to money. we briefly talked about the movie that they did too Kiss did a TV movie an ABC TV movie called Attack of the Phantom something and we riffed it on the Riff Theater and yeah they were okay with using themselves everywhere so this seems to line right up with that Bally so Borg is the only one that really would probably play both because Borg is a pinball collector Awesome. David Lee says Bally. All right, it looks like everybody's going to be saying Bally right now. Bally. Everybody thinks Bally is the better one. All right, well, let's find out. What am I doing here in KISS Pinball? What is my – this is interesting here, this whole thing. There is. So there's a couple different things you can do. You're trying to light up the KISS letters. We've got targets. We've got a ton of bumpers and lanes. It plays faster than it looks. For this era, I really do believe it plays faster than a lot of other games, and that might just be because we spent a lot of time choosing the best parts between those two games to make the best condition one. But we do, with a wind play field, we try to wax it with a wood floor wax to keep it running the way it should. But this one's pretty peppy, and it's been holding up really good to patron play in the museum. So it's been through the stress test and it's held up through it. It looks pretty good. We got, so we do know, kids, that we have a couple of lights out. We got Gene Simmons is the only one that's lit. And I think the Thousand light up there. Oh, maybe they're in. Let's see. We'll see. But just so you know, just what Evan said, this thing was pulled from the grave. Like literally it's back to working and back to doing what it intended to do back in 79 was to let people flip it and have fun and stuff. Let's try it. You want to? Yeah, let's play gets to each other. I'll put on two games. All right. Bro, do you even rock and roll all night? Wolfman has this pen. What condition is your game in, Wolfman? It has strong slings, yeah. It has giant slings. That's what it looks like. All right, so you just got the middle gold light. Oh, and you're lighting up K. Kiss, kiss. Let's see. Kevin's going to be slick. He's not going to tell me what he's doing. He's just going to put up huge scores. I would love to say that I'm doing something purposeful in the game. I will freely admit I just keep it alive. All right. You have almost the entire grid lit. Let's see. What other? You have some more of a light side. The B is not lit or it's out. I'm not sure. Oh, the same. Strong slings. So here at the museum, you guys, there's always going to be games that you probably never played. I heard you guys talking earlier. Hey David! Did you talk about how when this game was released in Germany, they had to use a regular S shape? So if you look at the KISS letters on this, they were a little too lightning-bolt-y and a little too SS-y. So in Germany, they're very curved compared to the game that we have in the United States for political sensitivity reasons, which I understand and agree with. So you guys understand what Evan's talking about, right? How that could be questionable. You don't think about it, and now once it gets mentioned, you're looking like, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. SmokedPeaches, welcome in, first time channel How you doing? Skillshot is that middle shot It will spot a kiss line You had a lot of the kiss lines going That looked pretty good There's a lot of ways to play this game It's actually pretty fun For a 1979, it's got a pretty deep way to play Yeah, yeah, okay, let's try this This is me The biggest issue with this game is the connector gets cooked The connectors gets cooked Yeah, Wolfman, before you came, Evan was telling us that a volunteer here at the museum got this thing back up and running. It took a couple years? So Jim Strelow, who sits on the museum board and is the board secretary, is the one that took this on. And he's been associated with the museum for a long time, 15 years. And he's the one that spent two years slowly combining those two machines. He also comes to our Monday night Fix-It nights and is a really valuable Fix-It member and volunteer. And it's just a labor of love. It's nice to have two machines next to each other because you can compare and decide what should be set up in which way and which part is better. And the other machine, which we also fixed, is actually currently for sale on Pinside to support the museum as well. So if you're looking for one of these KISS machines, we have one for sale that also works completely and plays good. What's the account name on Pinside? If you went to pinside slash justpacificpinball It just Pacific Pinball No space Just one word together Pacific Pinball P You guys can do some searches on what they have on offer I'm going to get that skill shot. And he did it. See, I am basically Roger Sharp, but a black dude. Oh, the beat does work. And I got the... I got that. Gene Simmons! This is going to go fast. I want Gene because he's worth a thousand. Got one. Exactly one thousand. Let's go Manu. Got a replay. Which is set very low because they didn't have free play on these. I really want Gene. I don't care what else. Oh. Oh. All right, Evan, I will allow you to try to... Wait, you're already winning. I will allow you to try to continue to win. I need my hat. I need my pinball hat. Oh, it's getting serious. Oh, it got serious five minutes ago, buddy. Except I didn't have the hat. It's even more serious with the hat. Nope. Oh, okay, that was short-lived. Do not put LEDs in this pin. We try not to. We really try in the museum. There are some LEDs that are stuck in the games that had specific problems with heat, either damage behind the glass. And we're trying to keep paint from flaking or from other really rare plastic items in the game just because LEDs run a lot cooler and you don't get that heat damage. But we try not to. And if we do, we really do try to get warm LEDs so they look right. It is hard to beat the incandescent bulbs, though. They just look right, and they flicker, and they're warm. I'm not, like, I'm not, and I do film and video. Wolfman, what's up, homegrown? Wolfman, so you could tell if you had a warm LED versus an incandescent? Yeah. I mean, it's still, it's so much better, but it just, there's a certain, especially in wood rail games, stuff from the 40s and 50s. It's a totally different effect. And they're very exposed, the lights. They're not covered like modern games or even games from the 80s or 90s where everything's wrapped so you can't really tell what's in there. You can actually see the bulbs and they flicker. Yeah, they flicker. It's all kind of part of the flavor of the machine. Okay. Vampire wants to know, how many different pinball museums have you been to? Myself? maybe 10. All over the world. I mean, there's one in Seattle, there's one in Vegas, there's one here, there's various ones. This is my hometown right here. Okay, ready? Skill shot. Roger Sharp. Aw, Zach Sharp. Zach Sharp. How do I light those spinners? That's what I want to know I got to beat Evan So I got to light those spinners Give me an S letter Because I want to rock all night And party Oh, I'm dead I want to light those spinners Let's see I want to read the instruction card Ball through top lanes Ball through top lanes Or hitting the side targets Lights corresponding letters Kiss Of course Because they're K-A-S-F up there Knocking down all the targets or ball Through top center lane Right, when lit spots a kiss letter Good, good I have LEDs in newer pins But this one is in condescending Okay Bonus arrows are lit By completing a vertical or horizontal line Bonus arrows Are lit It remembers state? Oh, it keeps the state Of the player Yeah, it does. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Evan just did something. No. He's sharking me now, guys. Look at this. 40,000 bonus. 40,000 super bonus, 80,000 colossal bonus. Which I actually haven't seen, so I'm not sure what colossal bonus is. Oh, you're going to see it today. Yeah. Let's play it until we hit it. What is the game Roger played in court? Do you know? That's a good... That is a great question. I think we have it. Somebody know. Somebody know. We watched The Man Who Saved Pinball on my birthday last year. You got the super bonus. All right. Thank you, David. What was the game that Roger Sharp played? And it's not called Sharpshooter because that's the game they based off of him afterwards. He went to play a game. They switched games on him. Yeah, it says two machines were used. Yep. They switched games on him. Gottlieb Bankshot is the game that Mr. Sharp made his cult shot on. Nice. And then a lot of people think El Dorado was the other game, which we have, too, here. We do have Bankshot just in the warehouse, just not currently in the museum. Nice. Thank you for that question, Homegrown. That's a really good question. Eldorado's a great game, too. Eldorado. Michael Sheese is like the Eldorado champ. Bam! Back to Roger Sharp. None of that Josh Sharpe or Zach Sharp crap. Oh. I almost ruined myself because I spoke badly of... Got it. Two pinball gods. Every sharp can beat me. every shark. So, Evan, I'm... Oh, it's a three-ball game? I think this one's set for three. That's one. That's one. Now, guys, I'm just letting them get, you know, Hey, good for you. No, that's... So, I'm reading a card. If you guys come to the museum, every game, pretty much every game has an instructional, not instructional, information card up at the top. Oh, Jim Patalia. Patala. How do you say his last name? I think it's Jim Patla. Patla. So he's, I've seen him other places. Yeah, he's done a lot of other games. Bally really had artwork and the licensing dialed in in the late 70s and early 80s ahead of williams and gotley this is this is really beautiful guys this is uh you can see us in the upper corner this is epic like you would want this as a poster as a kid right oh man all right and uh so everyone every one of these has a card up top tells you a lot of information about the game who was done who donated it if it was donated what the artist's name is kevin o'connor um and Basically, the rundown that Evan gave you is what's on the board. But they made 17,000 of these. Yeah, it's a very popular game. That's probably... Wow. So it's Adam's Family, and then it's 8-Ball, and then I think it's pretty... If it's not KISS, KISS is pretty close to third or fourth most produced game. And when they came out with KISS in 1979, it was selling so fast that they thought it was going to hit 20. Wow. Which would have made it the most alongside Adam's Family. yeah Wolfman says Bankshot and he was supposed to play Eldorado that's the that's the the rumor that's almost Sweet Georgia Brown until it hits another note it's really similar to Harlem Globetrotters when that gets turned on too that whole era Sweet Georgia Brown yeah it's great it's really cool it's just so classic Such a classic jingle. Alright, here we go. Roger Sharp! I can't keep doing this, guys, but I think I will try. So I got an I. So if you guys see what I'm doing here, I got an I. We're going to go for those drop targets this time. Got an S. Okay, drop targets gave me the full word. K-I-S-S. So now I'm working on my next set of drops. A-B-C-D Ooh! ABCD first time lights 2x second time scores extra third time and each additional scores 50,000 yeah a lot of multipliers cash in your hand wow that was brutal the house thanks you for that one Alright, let's do this Alright, I am going for Drop targets and ABCDs now Okay, I'm giving you my strap Boop Bounce What the heck I need to update my ATY Incoming raid to the Mystery Pinball Theater We love pinball Welcome in Welcome to Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 Of all the streams on the internet This is definitely one of them This is definitely one of them. We love pinball. Welcome in. How are you? Thank you for bringing 19 beautiful viewers with you. I'm here, Manu. I'm here with Evan. And we're at the Pacific Pinball Museum because we're representing. We're playing Kiss. That's right. Classic 1979 ballet game. 17,000 units were sold. I hope you had a wonderful stream. We love pinball. Thank you for the rate. Oh, man. That right side's killing me. That lane is just wrecking me. That right side. No one fed the outlanes this morning, I see. You guys come in here, you know, give them what they want. They want balls down the lanes. Hi, Dex. WP Raid, hello from Germany. Hello from Germany. We were just talking about you. Germany, we were just talking about you. And not in a good way. We love people. Nice to see you guys. How are you? Pinball Rocker. What's up? You wanted the best? You got the best. Alright. Where's my egg and bacon, bro? Here we go. Roger Sharp shot right down the middle. Oh, I needed the K. I'll take it. Yeah, new letter's okay. Another letter's good. K-I-S-S. Let's see if we can fill that. Oh, no. Fill that board. Oh, it's really hard to drop catch on these. Drop targets. Drop targets. We love pinball. What were you playing? Thank you for the follow. Hi, Dex. What were you playing? We love pinball. We'd love to know. Come on, Evan. You can get a flipper on this one. I know. Look at this. No, look at this. Didn't even touch it. No point. It's like playing a game from the 40s. Oh, man. All right. So we have one-to-one. This is not a competition. We're just doing this for fun. And we're also trying to describe to you guys kind of the depth of a game that existed in 1979. You mentioned Dolly Parton. Did that come out concurrently with this? Dolly Parton came out just a little before, at 78. And we have that game, and that game will be coming into the museum at some point because she's definitely having a moment in popular lexicon right now. Again, everyone's realizing she's amazing. so that'll come in and that was the first aside from Elton John that was the first woman licensed dedicated game musician blah blah blah what was I going to say about that Jurassic Park great game great game I hope you got to the wizard mode or at least close to it we're going to put up another one you're going to go first this time whoever goes first doesn't have the handicap I forgot what I was going to say But that happens to me all the time Because of age Alright we're going to slowly This game was restored It took a little while But a volunteer restored it Got it back up and running I've never really played it myself So I was excited to come in and try Some little EM action Can confirm Manu is losing his memory And your name is Ghost Flapper Yeah there we go Finally something neat Two kiss rose There's an eye Get those kiss letters baby Oh 2x That means Evan has completed ABCD He's got 2x scoring It's got the gate open, gate's closed 2x 2x playfield, huh? Or 2x bonus Wolfman, what is that? Is that 2x playfield or bonus? I think that's Look at this Is that 2x playfield? Yeah, I'm not sure First time lights 2x I am almost I almost turned this game over. See how close you come to that. Oh, man. How do you roll this? Oh, my God. Nine, nine, nine, nine, nine. Oh, my God. All right. So we did have a member who comes in that put up, I will have to look up his score and mention his name. Did you see here? Because it's absolutely ridiculous. I think he did roll it. Oh, it's 2x bonus. Thank you, David. It's 2x bonus. Okay, good. I don't think they have play field multipliers back here. 2x pops and slings. 2x pops and slings so is it like Harlem Globetrotters where if you roll it you go back to zero so you want to not roll it yeah we had so a member who comes in DJ Otto on Pindigo, great guy, comes in supports the museum, put up $1,082,000 on this game and he freely admits that that was an absolutely amazing run he didn't expect This got really fun, you guys. Oh, no. Okay, there we go. There we go. Oh, that's easily savable, Manu. Come on. This skips right over that skill shot. So, I-S-S-K-I. Chat, what's your, name your favorite music pin. Favorite music pins in chat right now. It doesn't matter what the era is. And it could just be because you like the band. I don't care. We want to know, what's your favorite music game? Where are we at, Evan? Okay. Whoa, you with the bonuses. Oh, this is, it's like every other game. It's like you, me, you, me, you, me, right? It's the second player handicap. Homegrown, I knew it was Foo Fighters for you. Foo Fighters is a great game. Good for Jack. His second game out of the gate. Big game, big game. There we go, there we go, there we go. Kiss, gun. That's right, that's right. Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me. It's fun to have this game because it's so early for a band game because we also have Metallica Pro in the museum. We have ACDC in the museum as well. So we've got a couple band games. They're just really popular. 2x bonus Oh, extra ball I got an extra ball? Oh my god, how did I get an extra ball? We got Foo Fighters, we got Metallica Metallica's a great game Guns and Roses Data East Oh, the original one The original one Wolfman, if you hadn't said Data East I'd have been like Alright And JJP What is, oh Oh, you like the JJP one? Wolfman. Wolfman loves multiball. Wolfman, you like Guns N' Roses. You're just saying Guns N' Roses. I'm not a big fan. Look, I don't hate on pinball, but I'm not a big fan of the Guns N' Roses. Oh, that was terrible. The Guns N' Roses JJP. Let's see, we got a Foo Fighters, we got a Metallica, we got an Iron Maiden Pinball Rocker yes Although Iron Maiden hates me Every time I try to play Iron Maiden it just kicks my butt Sort of like I doing to Evan right now in this game But, uh, no, we're friends. He's okay with me, kind of shy. No, we appreciate Monday. He's a true friend of the museum. Brings all this equipment in here and helps us out. Helps us bring the museum to the wide world. So, we appreciate that. alright there you go good job oh I didn't know that Wolfman the new JGP code plus this is me again right that's me yeah that's you plus settings tweaks makes it great oh good I'm glad the code saved it there's nothing wrong with the JGP GNR I would pay the price they want I would pay the price they want for it but it's a fine game I would did you mean wouldn't question mark I'm going to assume you meant wouldn't, Brent. So did I complete the whole board? Like the kiss board? Because I'm assuming I did. Yeah, I think you did. Because it's got all the letters on the top. Yeah. You got to know where to shoot. And I am not. Oh, man. Some of those angles. That's a good score, though. Let's go. Wolfman, I am 26% there. 26% specific. Oh, my God. Are you kidding? Look at that. Look at that. That right there. You got a bonus, though. It looks like you get a bonus for all the stuff that you've done before. Wouldn't. Okay, yeah. I figured you meant wouldn't. I wasn't sure about the would part. Oh, man. I'm so... I love it when... So Evan picked this game, and here's the thing. I was kind of like, okay, sure. You know, any game that I haven't played is a game ready for me to play. This is fun. It's a really fun game. This is fun. I think it's a great game. It's gotten a ton of play since it came into the museum. And it feels a little bit more modern than somehow, even though they're the same era, like Evil Knievel and Gorgar and that, like, 77 to, like, 83 era. this feels really modern i'm not too hot on evil kenevil i don't know why i i i i i like this more and this is really not aimed towards my demographic you know that right like as a as a brother in brooklyn back in the day a nine-year-old black child i wasn't really looking back but it's just a very modern i feel like it's a very modern game for 1979 yeah the way it works in what you're trying to do. All right, let's go, let's go. All right, I played Kiss in the Dutch Pinball Museum. It was fun. Yeah, they must have a nice one. They're a little crazy over there, those Dutch. They love their games. All right, here we go, here we go. No, oh, okay, okay. I want that Gene Simmons spinner, though, man. That one's hard to hit. Give me another line. Boom. Oh, Evan, you shouldn't have brought me here. Baby, that's it. Here we go. Give me another line. I want another line. I want another line. Get over to that S. Get over to that S. Oh, you're not doing it. What's up, Shell Shock? Woo! Woo! Oh, looking good. A Monday MPT3 case. Yes, whenever it's Monday, Shell, we are at the Pacific Pinball Museum. We're playing something awesome. Remember, guys, if you're in the Bay Area, or even if you're not and you're coming to visit, PPM is a great place to bring the entire family because you pay one price, you play everything. And you can come in and out the entire day. So you can come at 11 o'clock when we open and you can stay until 9 when we close. You can come in and out as much as you like. So a lot of people take breaks because you really can only play pinball for about two hours before you need to take a break Otherwise your points course just crash Unless you're like Carl D'Python Anghelo or somebody who's like insane That's better. I'm loving that spinner. I'm loving that spin. It's a good shot I kind of got this spinner down I'm loving that oh How am I doing, Wolfman? Ooh, that's a hot one. Look, you've got the colossal bonus. Colossal bonus. That was close. Oh, jeez. That was dangerous. No, stop playing with your food, Manu. Stop playing with your food. Evan, you made an addict out of me. a kiss at it. Oh, what? That was a good run. Look at that. Great half mil. That's awesome. I'm never doing that again. That was a hell of a run. Woo! I'm going to pin to go that. I'm going to score a bit that. Let's see. Is this because they are stopping you from doing... Shell shot. chill shot follow DJ MPT 3k that's my other channel where I do DJ stuff so do me that you know in Germany it's difficult to get a nice kiss pinball because of the letters yeah we were just talking about that so they did have as was mentioned there because of the association with the SS letters and they have a special back glass in Germany that had curved letters and other artwork they had more curved letters so there's a smaller run and they're hard to get in Germany. That's true. So people in Germany are trying to get this one? You know, you probably can't. It's illegal to have iconography of any sort in Germany. So I mean, you could have it legally. But even right now, an American version with these letters wouldn't be legally importable into Germany. All the iconography is banned. Okay. I mean, look, I'm not disputing them. That's fine. That's cool. All right. I go first this This is great. Go for it. This is great. Now what? Let me just check chat real quick. That sucks. You got Colossal Bonus. I finally got the Colossal Bonus. Laser Los can do more than two hours. Laser Los can stream for days. We know that, Shell Shock. All streams end up at Laser Los. What's up, Chris? Try to tilt pinball is in the place. Good. keep it up as much as possible great bonus okay dang halfway there thank you for the shout out um i hate this uh see now you have to turn it over yeah okay what's up till how are you carlos is yeah carlos is very built differently what's up full auto all right um i'm going first um i forgot what i was gonna say but oh what made you pick this for today though why was it this has just been such a popular games. It only came in about a month and a half ago. It was just a product of so much time and work by our volunteer. It's been so popular since it came in. Our Pinball League, which meets every Wednesday night and is a really incredible, gentle, just philosophical league that's fantastic, has been all over this game since it came in. Members have been all over this game. People have never played pinball really get into it. Did that flipper go out? The flipper went out. We might need David. You guys want to see the inside of a... Let's take a quick look because it might just need a jumper cable. It's a momentary surgery. All right, I'm going to back up. But, actually, let me... Oh, you're just going to take a look inside? Yeah. Let's see. VPX Scooby plus Kiss version is awesome. Oh, I never played that one, Tilt. You know, Kiss is one of my favorite bands. Nice. And when I got into pinball, I wanted a Kiss pin. But then, I hate the other writings. How you doing, Tilt? What's up, buddy? Good to see you. Hope you had a good, we had a good stream the other night. We sent a bunch of people over to you. those was the first pin I ever owned nice yeah we can have David look at it it's not a jumper fix alright well we got some good at least I got my 580 yeah you had a good run on that game I had a pretty dang good run do you want to go get him yeah how difficult slash easy it would be to just bust this sucker open Let me take a look. As you can see, guys, these guys are – I'm not going to say struggling, but it's a bit of work keeping all these pinball machines alive. I mean, you're talking about a game that's like 45 years old and just gets played and played and played. So Kiss was the first pin you ever – Kiss was the first pin. Wow. How crazy it is that I'm, like, streaming this today, right? That's amazing. You know, between you and me, guys, I think Evan hit a switch that killed the right flipper. I was like, I really like this. And he goes, and then my right flipper goes. No, he wouldn't do that. Is it me or does that play field look like it is in fantastic condition for being four years old? You know what? it's in really good condition. There is like, you know, I mean, there's wear, obviously. But go really close. You know, it's got some war scars, right? If you look at it. But like realistically here let me put this on auto you guys will do anything to get me on stream oh okay let me back up because David's here and I'm wondering what were we able to see you showed me the right flipper so the flipper is out we'll see how much we can do with the you'll see the crack David is just see the crack what? On the right the far right wire. I don't, oh this one, sorry. It's a, that's, okay hold on, don't, you don't want to touch it. Not touching, not touching. You want to power it down? That's no fun. Oh that crack shouldn't be causing the problem. Ah, that's not the problem. Thank you for the link. Let me take a look at what is this. Scooby-Doo and Kiss Rock and Roll Mystery Version 2.0. No, that's something entirely different. Chris, that is awesome. All right, I got to load that up when I get home. Does it play well? You know, Gene Simmons said they decided to choose this logo design only because it was easier to scratch in the school tables. So whether you like them or not, I do think they're very intelligent businessmen. I can see that. They're very brand-focused, that band. That's hilarious because, yeah, you can go... I need to raise the glass. Yeah? Yeah. Is it possible to raise it while we're streaming or maybe not? You'll I mean there's it's gonna go raise the playfield. No, but this camera is in the way. Okay. Well, let's see let's see how far we can raise it and if we can't we will probably end there and just Yeah, I put a five hundred eighty thousand in Evan broke the flipper. Oh, I'm gonna turn it off How are you? How are you doing? How are you doing? Let me just, I put a half a million on a kiss. And then the right flipper. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm so good. I'm so good. I don't roll the door. Let's see if it does. Oh, if you move that camera, I'm probably good. Not right now, but in the last couple weeks. It was just not. And we've turned it off, right? Look, you got plenty of light, too, now. You guys, it's turned into a Marco text screen. How are you? What's up? Yeah, yeah. A little like that. Yeah. Wow, this is amazing. Yeah. Let me go clean. Let me go get one. You can get content anywhere, kids. You know that, right? This is where the content is. Look at that. Yeah, we are live right now. That's all right. I was hoping to kick your butt in this. Probably would, too. I haven't played Foursquare. Oh, I mean KISS. Is it similar to Foursquare? Oh, yeah. It is Foursquare. Oh. Hey, Isaiah. Isaiah is here. Isaiah's in the chat. Oh, where is Isaiah? He is going to be going to school in Japan. In Japan. Yeah, yeah. I think he's still here. Isaiah, are you still here or have you moved to Japan yet? Try one of those $10,000 houses. Look at this. Look at the master at work. No, I don't know that this is going to fix it, no. I'm making content out of this. Yeah, I know. As long as I'm not in your way. There was a green alligator clip lead that I put down here. Yes, it's a... Where did it go? Good question. Maybe it fell off the side. I set it down, yeah. Oh, where's that clip lead? Trying to help? Evan's trying to help. I can't get my ass kicked in this game again. Got to slow the process down. Look at this, guys. Run out the clock. I leave September 8th. He leaves September 8th, everybody. David to the rescue once again. You got a ball in the front, yep. David to the rescue once again. Look at this. Look at this. And we can continue playing. Well, no, we can't. We can't continue playing. We turned the game off. Yeah, well, you had 30,000 points. You want me to put those back on? No, it's okay. I got to fix that camera because it's giving all my viewers a heart attack. Put this back on. Sorry about the camera, guys. We'll fix it in a second. Help me with the Penn Stadium wires. If you think that's okay. Got it. Oh, look at this. Like a team. There's no I in team, but there is an M and an E. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. We are back up and running. I can literally edit that part out. I'll just have you pop in and then go, it's fixed. And then you walk away and be like, that was real time, guys. Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it. David! That is, they were like, I was like, David is here. And they said, is that the grumpy guy? Yeah. Yeah, he's pissed right now. No, I'm fine. Oh, yay. Where was I when I was already working? All right. See, we need guys. Yeah, we do know that the popper light's out. We're not going to fix the popper lights right now. We do have that. We do appreciate someone saying that, though. Yeah. So with 105 games in the museum from all eras, we really do rely on members patrons and league members is to let us know what they notice on our machines because it really is too much to catch everything So we actually do appreciate it when people tell us this is not working correctly this drop target's not dropping, these lights are out. So that actually means a lot to us. We appreciate that. Yeah. Let me see if I can exposure this up a little bit. We'll put in a couple more games, right? Sounds good to me. Maybe you'll beat me. Now guys, I don't I don't You know For lack of a better word, shit talk that much Unless I really like you I really like Evan So that's why I'm I'll take that first game That first game, before you got comfortable with it You figured it out I think we're We're all set to go, or if I hit this again Yeah, that would be it So who was up? You, go first I'll see if I can break the player two curse for myself. All right, here we go. Yay! Yeah, I'm that guy. Oh, you got it. Oh, yeah, homegrown. Yeah, we have... I don't think the pop bumpers value higher. Oh, they do. Do they score higher when they're long? I don't know. I don't know. Wolfman. Wolfman's here. Wolfman's got one of these. Wolfman, are the lights for show on the poppers, or do they score more when they're lit? I love having my street community. These guys know so much about all these things. It's a community. It takes a village to keep track, especially of classic games, and keep these museums going. Yeah. Oh, this is great. I love this guy. You got an S. You got a CD. Back then, they only had vinyl. Let's see what I did there. Maybe if I don't distract you, you'll do better. Tell me a little more about the museum, Evan. So this is our 21st year. Wow. We're a true nonprofit museum based in Alameda, California, right next to Oakland. And we're open every day of the week except for Monday. Monday is our fix-it day. So today the museum is closed, which is why we're able to do live stream. and this is a day where we have a whole bunch of really valued volunteers coming and work on the games that have gone down during the week. We have so many people come in that there's always attrition in the games. There are games that have broken wires that need replacement items, and this is a day where we get everything back up. But we're currently looking for a larger space. We have 105 games in this museum, which is great, but we're kind of maxed out. We're filled to the gills, and we have 1,300 more games that we'd like to find a home for. And we've got artwork, exhibits, we curate the exhibits, and we really do focus on education. Not just having fun, but learning while having fun. And that's really the goal of the museum. I feel like some of the best pinball techs come out of volunteering here. That makes me want to kind of move up and be a volunteer here. Once my kids are not dependent. Wow. Wow. Wait, a ball three? All right, I got to put a little more score ahead of you because you're going to wreck me. I know you are. Let's straighten this out a little bit. Isaiah said, what did Isaiah say? Irod said, let me see. Little known pinball fact. Just like the boodles, Kiss is actually based off a real man. I'm a real boy. Got it, got it. Boom. I really want to fill that... Ooh! I want to fill that grid. So Michael came in for a second and said this game is Foursquare? Yeah, it's a very similar layout. Foursquare is an EM, straight electromechanical game. But it's got a very similar layout to Foursquare. And Michael, who came through, is the founder of the museum. It originally started in the very back room, about 10 games, and one jukebox, and he walked in through the parking lot. And that developed, and collections came together, and people volunteered and worked and just wanted to bring pinball to the masses, and we incorporated it as a nonprofit. And we've been running away from that ever since. Look at that. Look, no, every time, that right lane. I kill them. I hate that right line. It's ridiculous. What's up, Razor Brandon? Welcome in. We're playing KISS. Fun fact, starting with Wizard in 1975, Bally found enormous success in licensed themes for their games. I'm just saying this off the top of my head, guys. It's amazing. A string of big sellers would follow, with KISS landing in the top 10 best-selling games of all time at 17,000 units. I don't know where this information is coming, Evan. It's amazing. Also, merchandising was a big earner for the band, including comic books, toys, and memorabilia. Evan, listen. Did you know that Bally worked closely with the band and their management team to capture their larger-than-life stage personas and pyrotechnic shows? I didn't. The teleprompter's doing all sorts of interesting stuff. No. I'm looking off camera. All right. So what Manu was looking at is something we put on every game in the museum. We really do. Yes, it's really fun to put the game out, make it accessible to people from different areas to play. But we really want to tell you about the games. We really want to give you information, pertinent information about the artists, the designers, the popular lexicon of that game, where it came from, where it stands in pinball history. to really just educate people, not just through having fun, which is fantastic, but also come away learning about pinball because it really is important. We've seen pinball go up and down in terms of popularity, like records, like other vintage electronics. And we used to have four or five large pinball manufacturers, and it did shrink to stir in 2000. That was the last pinball company, and they almost faded out in the early 2000s. But finally, Gen X, really with their buying power, hitting the right age to have money to get something from their childhood they remembered, really brought pinball back in the last 10 years. And now we've got five or six big manufacturers again. And a few little ones. And a few little ones. Tons of boutique ones. Yeah. Which I think is the most amazing thing ever. It's so much fun. and it's important to introduce this this game and just pinball in general to new generations to younger people to keep it going because we do see as aging happens with the population of patrons that come to this museum we don't have people who played wood rails as kids as much as we used to but we have their kids and their grandkids now playing wood rails which is very cool we can get three or even four generations of the family in here playing games from the areas that they grew up with, which is amazing. So we just really want to teach people about it too and keep pinball going as a whole. Damn. Well, since you put it that way, wow. Okay, let's do one more. Let's do one more. I'll try going first. Okay. Let's see. The right side is still going to kill me, but let's see what happens. All right. We want to rock and roll all night and party every day, everybody. I've got to fix that flicker. I'll fix it as soon as my turn is up. I can't. I can't. I can't have that happen. That's too early. They loved the pinball motivational speech. I love that. You can have many different generations of players here. It's the same game. Yeah. You know, it's sent from 1947 with Humpty Dumpty with the very first flippers to our modern sterns from the 2020s. You're playing the same game. It's just really cool. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to do something quick. That happened when we had the play field up. So I'm going to just do a reset. I think we actually tapped the, um, tapped the... Okay. There we go. What a rock and roll all night! There we go. Ooh. Okay, we're back. We are back! I'm restoring a heavy metal heavy metal meltdown right now do you have one in the museum what is heavy metal meltdown I'm not familiar with it huh I'll have to look it up yeah who makes that pinball rocker I'm curious wait that's a newer game Isn't that like a Spike 1-ish type of game? It looks like an 87 ballet. Yeah. Interesting. It kind of looks like a heavy metal-like theme. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually pretty cool. Very 80s, like hair metal. 87. Really cool. Wow, 87. That's a cool game. Thanks for mentioning that. I wasn't familiar with it. Oh, that was dangerous. Come on, let's go, let's go. Get in that spinner. Get in that spinner. Yeah, even if I miss the spinner, I hit the target. So that's good. Slow down, game. This is actually, yes. I do think it's a fast game. This is way faster than you guys think it needed. It looks. If you don't calm down and slow down, you're in trouble. Yes, I love it. Yes, it's Bally. Oh, nice. Bally 87. Wow. So good. 1,600 produced. That's a pretty low run. That's a good run. That's for the heavy metal runner. Oh. Oh, he's going fast now. I was quiet. Yeah. I was quiet. I was being as respectful of a player as I could. All right, here we go. We got a game. We got a game, ladies and gentlemen. 30 to 33. Nonetheless, the only one who wins is you. If you come to the Pacific Pinball Museum, you're the winner. You can try and beat each one of our scores, play some Kiss. There are many rooms here. There's a room full of wind rails and EMs. There's a room full of modern pins. There's even a bathroom that you could use, but you've got to be a customer. We also have jukeboxes, which is actually the hardest thing to maintain in the museum. Jukeboxes. People think that our pinball games from the 1940s are difficult to maintain. It's really the jukeboxes are becoming extraordinarily hard to make available. But we do, and they are really fun. They're cool. Oh, that was such a run. That was such a run. It's still scoring points. 2x bonus on the way out. Three rolls of kiss letters. Man, those things add up. They do. It's fun to have that catch up. after the bone drains and see where you stand. I'm finding that the most lucrative stuff isn't really the spinners for the thousand. Michael, you want to come say hi? Oh, yeah. What is that? That is my PC. Oh, okay. That is my streaming monitor. That's the brains of the streaming. That's the brains of the streaming. This is Michael Sheese. He's the co-founder, founder. He's the reason why we're here. Now clean shaving. Now, did you notice? Are you really? Oh, yeah. Nice. There you go. It's as close as it gets. All right. That's clean shaven to you. That's cool. So you and Evan are competing for... No. I've always had a hell of a run. Michael, this is fun. You like this? This one is great. It has the right amount of speed versus... It feels like an EM, but it's fast. Yeah, it's fast. You get it down here, you've got to slow that down. It's interesting where this game came from. So this used to be the record gallery and this machine was in the very front where our front desk is when people come in. Well, it was there for the longest time and the guy who was running it goes, you want this game? And now we had moved over to the side. So I said, yeah, you know, the guy just left it. Okay, so I had to wheel it on a dolly all the way around on the side. Oh, no. Around to come in the back. By yourself? Right. Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, it was weird. And now it's back. It came all the way back. We fixed it and went to the warehouse, and now it's back on the planet. Jim Strelow did a great job repairing the whole thing. It really plays great. It does. It's a lot of fun. I'm glad I got to learn it today because I never kind of approached this game. It's four square on steroids. Oh, there we go. There we go. I'm getting these kiss letters The plan was to roll the game I don't know if I'm going to roll it today But I'm definitely having fun Getting that Gene Simmons spinner No! Is that my last ball? Yeah I still think you took Three out of that five That's a great game I'm really glad Manu. I'm glad you got a kick out of it because it's been a special game. It's been a great addition and we have so many other games like this that we just want to bring out to people. And as much as we can here, we could probably squeeze in two or three more games here if I'm really careful with spacing, but we just really need a larger space to bring more games to people. I just realized I was talking smack about Evil Knievel and he's literally right here. Right there. Be careful who you talk about kids because they might be right there. We got a kiss here. We got Evil Knievel right here. And we got Sea Witch. That's a great game. A.K.A. what was the new Beatles Stern. George Gomez kind of reworked the play field a little bit and made it into the Beatles. But Sea Witch is a fun game. So I think that's it. Yeah. No. I really appreciate it. Thank you. And thank you everybody for checking in with us. It's really cool. Yeah. We try to do this. I try to get down here at least once a month to show off something in the museum. Once again, come on down. It's pacificpimble.org. And yeah, that's it. Thank you, guys. Hope you guys enjoyed it. That's how you do it, right? I don't know. I don't know. Never been to a kids concert. Alright, bye, guys. Thank you. Thank you. .
  • Roger Sharpe played Bankshot during his landmark 1979 court case that established pinball as a game of skill, with El Dorado as the backup game

    medium confidence · Chat discussion with Manu and Evan confirming Bankshot was the primary game; notes two machines were used

  • A museum member (DJ Otto on Pinside) achieved a score of $1,082,000 on the restored KISS machine through an exceptional play session

    medium confidence · Evan mentions this score achievement during gameplay commentary

  • “This feels really modern for 1979... it feels a little bit more modern than somehow Evil Knievel and Gorgar”

    Manu@ 38:13 — Reflects on KISS's game design sophistication relative to contemporary titles

  • “It's hard to beat the incandescent bulbs, though. They just look right, and they flicker, and they're warm.”

    Evan@ 19:48 — Expresses museum philosophy on preservation of authentic lighting

  • Bally
    company
    Harry Williamscompany
    Kevin O'Connorperson
    DJ Ottoperson
    Gorgar (Harry Williams 1979)game
    Xenon (Bally 1981)game
    Dolly Parton (Bally 1978)game
    The Wizard (Bally)game
    Susanne Cianiperson
  • ?

    licensing_signal: Bally secured KISS and Dolly Parton licenses in 1978-1979 as part of strategic shift toward musician licensing after success with The Who (Tommy) films; German version required modified letter design to address political sensitivity

    high · Evan: 'Bally was so ahead of the curve... Let's do Kiss. Let's do Dolly Parton. Let's actually get licenses'; German variants used curved S instead of lightning-bolt style 'for political sensitivity reasons'

  • $

    market_signal: 17,000 KISS units produced represents one of the highest production runs for any pinball game; expected initial projections of 20,000 units suggest exceptional market demand for licensed music content in 1979-1980

    high · Evan: '17,000 of these... When they came out with KISS in 1979, it was selling so fast that they thought it was going to hit 20... which would have made it the most alongside Adam's Family'

  • ?

    community_signal: KISS prototype developed talking feature for trade show demonstrations with planned speech elements (bounce warnings, letter callouts) but feature was abandoned after Gorgar's release proved successful; indicates competitive pressure and rapid iteration in 1979 pinball development

    high · Evan: 'they panicked when they saw that Gorgar came out and now we've got the first talking pinball game... they made a single KISS machine that went to trade shows... but they never ended up developing it past that one one-off game'

  • ?

    product_concern: First-generation solid-state games like KISS (1979) demonstrate robust design built for commercial venue abuse (kicks, drinks spilled, fights) but components become fragile with age; successful restoration of combined two-machine example shows durability under patron play at museum

    high · Evan: 'they really were going into bars and billiards halls... they were getting kicked and hit and having drinks spilled into them... But when they're 45 years old, things are fragile'

  • ?

    technology_signal: First-generation solid-state machines (like KISS 1979) present restoration challenges including connector degradation, circuit board failures, and interplay between EM and electronic components that require significant expertise; 45-year-old machines become fragile despite robust original design

    high · Evan: 'The biggest issue with this game is the connector gets cooked'; discussion of heat damage to heads and display units requiring careful restoration approach