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#72 Fireball Classic - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·27m 45s·analyzed·Jan 18, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Classic Pinball Podcast reviews Fireball Arcade Classic (1985) with gameplay and design analysis.

Summary

George and Dr. Dave discuss and play Fireball Arcade Classic (1985), a Bally electromechanical game designed by Barnyard George and George Christian with artwork by Barnyard Doug. They explore its unique playfield design featuring no outlanes to the flippers, mushroom targets, dual saucers for multiball, and compare it to the original 1971 version and Fireball Arcade 2. The episode includes gameplay demonstration, technical discussion of zipper flippers and cabinet design, and maintenance observations.

Key Claims

  • Fireball Arcade Classic (1985) was designed by Barnyard George and George Christian with artwork by Barnyard Doug and produced in 2000 units

    high confidence · George, opening remarks on the game's background

  • Fireball Arcade Classic is mechanically similar to the 1971 Fireball Arcade but with three-inch flippers instead of two-inch ones and no zipper flippers

    high confidence · Dave, comparing versions of the game

  • The game features mushroom targets, which is rare in pinball design

    high confidence · George, discussing playfield features

  • Fireball Arcade Classic has no traditional outlanes feeding back to flippers; instead it has very wide outlane areas that result in immediate ball loss

    high confidence · George, discussing playfield design and ball control requirements

  • The 1985 Bally cabinet uses particleboard construction with vinyl trim in arcade style, which differs from earlier wood cabinets

    high confidence · George, discussing cabinetry changes under Midway ownership

  • George's son achieved a high score of 4.4 million on his Fireball Arcade Classic, which has never been beaten including by skilled player Jeff from Maine

    medium confidence · George, personal anecdote about the game's history

  • The skill shot mechanic registers both the 50,000-point and 20,000-point values when hit correctly due to multiple switch activations

    high confidence · Dave and George, technical discussion during gameplay

  • George is in the process of restoring a CPR (custom) playfield that he is painting, stenciling, and retrofitting with LED and incandescent lighting

    high confidence · George, discussing restoration projects

Notable Quotes

  • “This was the first game I ever bought... And now we're up to 12 or 13, so like everybody else, it becomes a disease.”

    George @ ~52:00 — Reflects common pinball collector experience of starting with one game and expanding collection exponentially

  • “The Fireball Arcade devil guy, he's not really a nice guy. He's kind of a big meanie, so that's what happens.”

    George @ ~49:00 — Humorous personification of game design philosophy and difficulty balance

  • “You're getting both skill shots for that... You're getting the 50 and the 20. That's why you're getting both.”

    Dave @ ~41:00 — Technical explanation of scoring mechanic clarifying common player confusion

  • “Ball control in this game is everything. Drop catching on this game, so you want to basically stop the ball right on your flipper and take your shot.”

    George @ ~47:00 — Key gameplay strategy for Fireball Arcade Classic due to its wide outlanes and lack of automatic ball flow

  • “It's a cheap squeak, reason being it cheaply squeaks and does not talk... versus Fireball Arcade 2 would have.”

    Dave @ ~15:00 — Distinguishes audio differences between original and sequel games

Entities

GeorgepersonDr. DavepersonBarnyard GeorgepersonGeorge ChristianpersonBarnyard DougpersonDoug WatsonpersonJeffpersonFireball Arcade ClassicgameFireball Arcadegame

Signals

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Dr. Dave is actively working on a custom CPR playfield restoration with professional re-stenciling, repainting, cabinet refurbishment, metal buffing, and warm/cool LED lighting retrofit

    high · George mentions 'he's got the CPR playfield upstairs that he's been working on... really nice-looking game... professionally re-stenciled, repainted cabinet, a nice back glass, beautiful CPR playfield, buffed all metal... warm LED treatment to it for the Gilligan's Island'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: George identifies stuck switch issues in his Fireball Arcade Classic related to old capacitors on switch connections, plans to replace with new capacitors

    high · George states 'I noticed that stuck switch. So I said, I have all these old capacitors on the switch... I did cut them... the real way to do it is if I had time is to put the new caps on them, which I will be doing for the switches'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: George notes his Fireball Arcade Classic has regular rubber rings that are due for replacement, discusses upgrading to clear rubber

    high · George observes 'I haven't worked on this game for a long time. You can tell because of the rubbers. They're actually regular rubber. Are you going to put clear rubbers on this game?'

  • ?

    operational_signal: George maintains multiple games simultaneously with active repair and restoration cycles; currently has machines in/out of service including Dale and KISS going out, 8-Ball Deluxe and Firepower being set up

    high · George mentions 'Dale's going today. KISS is going in two days... What are you going to set up after this? The 8-Ball Deluxe and the Firepower'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.083

0:00
Where is my robe? You can find me meybyhi Master Coyote Contract Where is my robe? Can southpaw Subscribe
0:18
Subscribe Hello and welcome to another episode of the classic pinball podcast. My name is George and today we're down in the basement with Dr. Dave hello Dave. Hello George
0:44
Folks we're bringing you yet another fireball this one fireball classic a little bit of background 1985 2000 units designed by George Christian And artwork by Doug Watson. I want to start with the artwork. All right Do you think that? Bally was trying for a second time to come up with a superhero for Their game or one of their games Wait, let me I'll give you a little bit if you recall from our conversation with Tommy Skinner yes he thought that bally was attempting to create a superhero with Volton and I'm wondering with fireball obviously before that fireball to post is that post of all 10 or before probably before right ball two is around after Now you've got Fireball Classic 1985, which is a little bit different. Do you think they were trying to develop a superhero? Hmm. I think they were dabbling with it a little bit. I think Fireball Classic, the demonic devil on the backlist there, he looks a little more friendly. He's kind of like, you know, he's having a good time at a party versus Fireball 2. He's a little more like, you know, ill-intent devil on that one. So this is more party guy on Fireball Classic, I'd say. This week's theme is the original theme of the game. For the original theme, it just seems like they were trying, but I don't know, it's just been a thought recently. We're going to do something a little bit different today, Dave. I think what we're going to do is we're going to turn the game on, we're going to put two players in it, The game. Okay. Let's do. All right, fireball classic, show us what you got here. Here we go, player one and two. Would you like one or two, George? No, I'll let you play since I got the game at home, so I'm familiar with how it plays. Why don't you start with what the skill shot is? So the skill shot, you want to do kind of a light plunge to get it, it's like an Angled playfield in the back there that they kind of walk the playfield up and you're trying to get it right over the hump kind of the same thing is 4 million BC. They think these the only two games that did this and You go around there You're gonna get 50,000 points three advanced bonus and it'll flash the pump numbers to be 3,000 points instead of a thousand if you don't make the really Super duper skill shot you get the also ran you get 20,000 points and it might light your bumpers up, right? the rails that are on that We would have said wow, well, that's a laugh, isn't that? We would have said wow, well, fr triste face, dramaticallyazar, normally not, but we're going to try and entendible through our for
Fireball Arcade 2
game
Ballycompany
Midwaycompany
The Classic Pinball Podcastorganization
Tommy Skinnerperson
Bad Catsgame
Medusagame
8-Ball Deluxegame
Firepowergame
CPRorganization
Gilligan's Islandgame

gameplay_signal: Fireball Arcade Classic has high difficulty due to lack of outlane ball return, wide side drains, slingshot misdirection, and reliance on drop-catch ball control technique

high · George explains 'There is no flow back to the flipper... It's all about ball control in this game' and 'The slingshots feed the flipper, which isn't the most ideal... You don't want any left to right action on this game because it becomes deadly quick'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Fireball Arcade Classic features rare mushroom targets and an unusual angled skill shot playfield similar to Bad Cats, with a central spinning platter

    high · George states 'There are also a bootball and that bootball on the left hand side basically gives you the multiplier' and 'This is a rare game that has mushrooms. We're going to come back to that, Dave. I want to ask why we don't see these on more games'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Fireball Arcade Classic represents design evolution from 1971 original: upgraded to three-inch flippers from two-inch, removed zipper flippers, and increased power/action while maintaining core gameplay

    high · Dave explains 'This basically, this is the same game as a 1971 Fireball Arcade, except with no zipper flippers... The flippers are three-inch flippers versus the two-inch ones back in that time frame... pretty much it's the same game, but done a little more... a little more power to everything than the EM version'

  • ?

    collector_signal: George's Fireball Arcade Classic is his first pinball machine purchase and holds sentimental value despite acknowledged poor playing ability; untouched 4.4 million high score by his son remains unbeaten after many attempts by skilled player Jeff

    high · George states 'This was the first game I ever bought... my son used to play the game every morning... He hit the high score on my game at 4.4 million... Jeff tried to beat that game and must have played it 150 times... that score is still on that game and nobody has ever beaten it'

  • ?

    product_concern: Fireball Arcade Classic exhibits cost-cutting measures in lighting design and cabinet construction compared to premium Bally games from other eras

    medium · George notes 'The one thing that they cheaped out on this game is a really nice light on the old inside under the plastics. There is no light under. It just looks dark' and discusses particleboard vs. wood cabinet construction changes under Midway ownership

  • ?

    content_signal: Episode features extended live gameplay demonstration with running commentary on scoring, mechanics, and strategic play, showing George's struggle to execute skill shots and ball control

    high · Extended gameplay section showing both hosts playing, with detailed commentary on skill shot execution, bumper scoring, saucer mechanics, and multiball activation

    • 4:43
    You're watching A little spinningplatter in the middle. So let's do a little plunge here so I can get it. Nope, all the way through. Did not make it. Did not do the skill shot. I haven't played this game in quite a while. And it has a cheap squeak in it, George, versus a ballet squawking talk that Fireball 2 would have. It's a cheap squeak reason because it's it's cheaply squeaks and does not talk. Let's try this again. It's still shot and he's over again Yeah, the one thing that people Dave's got both balls in the two saucers We haven't talked about that yet when it's when he stops playing We'll we'll do a quick review of Okay, Dave So Dave is released both balls has triple scoring going right now, so we've got quite a few things The game is now very much afraid of playing him because of my skills on this game which are not very good. So Dave is punching the third ball. He is up to almost half a million points. This is not looking well for me at all. The game is still shot by the way. And he just said that he doesn't play this. I've been playing the game knowing that we were doing this episode. No way. I am. I am not terrible. I am awful. Well you just gotta practice. Oh wait, you did. You just gotta not practice, George. You have to unlearn what you learned. Well the one good thing about this game, and I know people are sick of us talking about it. So Dave just got the halfway point which gave him 20,000 points and lit the bumpers for a thing. And I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. I'm saying that it's a good thing. So Dave just got the halfway point which gave him 20 points and lit the bumpers for a thousand trust me if you don make the skill shot on this game bumpers are only a hundred it very hard to score any kind of points and if you don lock the balls into the saucers it makes it even It makes it even worse So Dave is managed to do a lot more than I thought he would in the first game I was thinking he released the left hand ball and he secured it in the right saucer again I know what he went from left saucer to right saucer. I can't even keep up I'm thinking that this is gonna be a fastball and I'm pretty upset. He just got the multiplier again The Fire God Boop Ball I can't even keep up. Is that a Benny Boop Ball? We're gonna have to take a few minutes to describe this game. This might not have been the best idea. And he is going to go He got another 20,000 You can't hit the the 50, but he's hit the 20. He's got the bumpers lit for a thousand Not a bad ball one. I almost had a million points No, wait till I go
    7:48
    You know George, what I'm really noticing right now I'm glad I didn't sell this game. We're going to talk about a lot of things with this. Okay, let's do a review. 1.3 mil, ball one. And he got a replay at a million. I don't know if that registered. It looks like it did. Okay, let's review. We only talked a little bit about the game. So at the top of the playfield, there are three bumpers. If you get the 50,000 skill shot, it lights the credit to warhausen cash copaynie block a one or a lot colton and one on the right mobile tab just like my game the one thing that they cheap dad on this game is is a really nice light on the old inside under the uh... The plastics, there is no light under Wotan. It just looks stark. On the right hand side there is a lane which is 5,000 points. It's got a gate at the bottom. By hitting either the one of the three mushrooms on the game. So this is a rare game that has mushrooms. We're going to come back to that Dave. I want to ask why we don't see these on more games. There's also a bootball and that bootball on the left hand side. basically gives you the multiplier I don't think I missed anything did I? No but this basically this is the same game as a 1971 Fireball except with no zipper flippers and the flippers are three inch flippers versus the two inch ones back in that time frame otherwise pretty much it's the same game but done a little more a little more action to a little more power to everything than the EM version I have a bunch of things that I want to talk about the game itself No, we're gonna play it by myself, but let me play a game or let me play my ball. Dave can comment on the ball. Then we're gonna take another breather And talk a little bit about the game and then play ball too. So right now, Dave has 1.3 million. I have zero. Hopefully I can get some points. So let's try the skill shot. Skill shot. And just misses. So, bumpers are worth a hundred and I already drained. George, George. So I have a whopping 9,000 points. You know George, I gotta say, don't practice. If our scores are an indication. You must not practice what you have practiced or something. Let's see, will that make it? Yes it may. So Dave just got halfway and got 20,000 for the skill shot. BASIC beeping بال 01 were な 발생 BE RAP PE Knapp, Dave does not have any multiplier. He just got the multiplier there. And he does not have a ball locked in either saucer. Trying to find it again. Trying to find where that sweet spot is. And he also has... There it is. Oh, do you have a reset every time on the bonus every ball? Yes I do. Yes, it resets. Oh, I make it a little tough. Yeah, I'm making it even worse for me. My settings are a little bit more generous and that still doesn't help. The bonus stays from ball to ball. The other thing is, and I can't figure this out is, and I didn't see it in any of the paperwork which I went to look, my skillshot registers 70,000 points. And it works. The game is still registered 20,000 points and it works. I'm wondering why it's picking up 20,000 points.
    12:06
    Well let's see. You know why? Because you're getting the 50 and the 20. You're getting that and that. You're getting double. That's why. You're getting both. That's why you're getting a George. You're getting both skill shots for that. Ohhhhhhhhhh. So only the top rollover The game is a game that is not a roll over. What do you... Yeah, the top... The switch. The top roll over switch. So that plus you get the second roll over switch. Okay. Okay, I'm not fast enough to... Okay, so that's the same. Are you a common core math guy, George? Are you... No, I'm actually pretty good. I just... I can't play the game and watch at the same time if it was doing it. Anyway. Oh boy, am I looking stupid. In this game, I'm horrible at this game. This was the first game I ever bought. And I think I talked about it. I didn't get the skill shot. I think I talked about this game in one of our other episodes. SmartT�� Hold up. Can I explain something on this game? Yep. David Van Es, TN significant busykids�ר thus BASICphonetic Hispanic Coordinating end-of-game book some webaparies of each of which there are some likely possible zwawa Re-, material test whiteboard gain it was a garage game it first because i think it was building and out my basement and my son used to play the game every morning with the garage door open waiting for the bus And he had a time so that he could shut the game off shut the garage door and walk down to the bottom of the driveway and catch the bus as it was going around the cul at the end of our block He's got the high score on my game at 4.4 million. And I know Dave remembers this from a Halloween of times past that, what's his name, from Maine stayed over and tried to beat that game and must have played it 150 times. Jeff. Jeff, yes. So he's still, that score is still on that game and nobody has ever beaten it. And Jeff's a good player. banik 1982 4000 FUCK824 креп.,, banlide8414454548 exchanger4189 importanceов Lip, You get 33,000 points. Illuminati confirmed. I'm really, really bad at this game. And I can't hit the skill shot, so I'm only getting 100 points and I have one of the balls in the saucer, now I have two. That's looking better. So I can release both balls if I hit the boot ball in the fire gods on the left hand side. Or one ball at a time by hitting the mushrooms on the left and right hand side. Let's see what I can do. And almost made it. Nope. The kicker's on. That's a good thing. Oh, I'm going to go for... Okay. You going for Mr. Boop? Um, no, I'm going for the safe one. There you go. Two ball multi-ball. I hit three ball multi-ball. One ball down. And, oh, you got ripped off. Uh-oh. Oh. Tantrum, Dave Sabotage the game so I couldn't catch up. So that should have done that. Dave wins. I win but it's not really a full win. But I'll take it. I will say something on this game. I haven't worked on this game for a long time. You can tell because of the rubbers. They're actually regular rubber. Are you going to put clear rubbers on this game because it is kind of a, well you have This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic I do and I noticed that stuck switch so I said I have I have all these old capacitors on the switch like oh that's why so I so I did cut I did cut them which you can actually play the game it's with them cut but the real way to do it is if I had time is to put the new caps on them which I will be doing for the switches but it could be something like that there's like maybe a stuck switch thing which is why he just lost the ball but he shouldn't have lost the game on that one there because there's some kind of switch issue going on We'll figure it out. There's a couple things I want to talk about this game. Excuse me. The first thing is you mentioned that the original had zipper flippers. I think I mentioned in one of our shows that I got rid of my Medusa because it had zipper flippers. I had never repaired those. For our audience, just quick, are they difficult to work on or is it fairly straightforward? For somebody who does normal maintenance on a pinball machine. Yeah, there's a little trick to it. There's a trick to it. You know, just like working on regular flippers, there's a whole other mechanism to deal with as well in there. It has to be cleaned and lubricated because you get metal on metal stuff going on. Typically you don't want to lubricate anything in the game unless it's metal on metal. And usually it's plastic on metal in most of these assemblies. But something like that, you want to make sure it's cleaned and lubed and it's good action. Screen iba a HUD.com to this guy Fre ↑ Sizube Scan lat page tax on the Internet. In Gartra voice in S1ாXкаV 24 case in ttssb 밥b 맡�이ńšë SMDas오�ப� Why's It So. Beruf.%, sailors promote anonymously self character psychokinklaw public with bargesYVt RollingIn disentivilR DakotaTXo ssa aственawgxia glimpsestechenyitbI diverse sìx HS cordsY ripa preserving Samase, r ayea, ShahiAbeArh anchori Y Prinzip细cűl I serga menstru obliged ferm regards bill eats gangster re pre pen 20 ed co n just an add auto gan v nd un operate A nd mail n ne No regular no game like this game that's sitting right next to us no cuz the slide out glass is like the class of 85 84 where the glasses slid up to the side not slide up Okay, so there's a little bit smaller form factor Let's let's talk about the cabinetry which you and I are I Don't think big fans of this is when Midway purchased Valley and went to A more arcade style cabinet made out of PDF, or falloparticleboard. And they're also heavier and they have instead of like the Corners of a regular cabinet because this has the vinyl vinyl they there's that's freaking that vinyl stuff that's the team team holding team holding teacher and just like in a video game so they kind of put a video game feel to it and it's just like it's not the same as a nice wood cabinet that they had before and after this generation so they didn't do this for that long I gonna go back to the playfield and this is the one thing that makes this game I think very unique in that there are no lanes to the flippers there are basically two out lanes the one on the left has a kicker if in fact you can activate it which there a button on the playfield that activates it Other than that those sides are very wide and once it out it out So there is no flow back to the flipper I think that what makes this very EM like and very difficult Obviously I demonstrated that You're drop Catching on this game, so you want to basically stop the ball right on your flipper and take your shot. Otherwise it's a big flail fest. If you don't know how to do that, you're just flailing all the time. And you're going to lose because you're flailing, the spinning disc is in the middle, and bad things will happen. So it's all about ball control in this game. Well the slingshots quote unquote feed the flipper, which isn't the most ideal of situations. And if you have active slingshots, inevitably those are aimed directly out the out holes on both sides. Yes. So you don't want any left to right action on this game because it becomes deadly quick. It does have a kicker on the left side though that you can get by getting one of those little white rollovers around the fireball platter that will come on just like in Fonzie 8 Ball. It'll kick the ball to the left side. There is a button directly in front and if it's aiming it'll roll over and shut off the kicker and go out where you think you've got the kicker all of a sudden it'll run over the button and there goes the kicker and there goes the ball. Well the fireball devil guy he's not really a nice guy he's kind of a big meanie so that's what happens. So fun game. I don't you know, I think I hold on to it even though I'm really poor at it I think I hold on to it for that very reason you can play a lot of games as I could in a short period of time and it's fun and If you have people over it's a pretty easily explained game There's there's not a lot of difficulty to it. It's family-friendly for the most part All of the � Excellence SWAT markers 중. PINNAPINEня니다 đ---- gözć dimensionalى All of the PINNyaniändig The Fireball 2, a little more on the hardcore devil stuff, but it all depends on your taste and that kind of thing. So, not a bad game. I don't think it's one that I'm going to sell anytime soon, but it wouldn't be the only game. And obviously it was my first one and we're now up to 12 or 13, so like everybody else, it becomes a disease. äÄER, lore lover could you bunch outindeer kindly missed time yen, A Fryivingly the Another manifestations in the There's still a lot of games. Oh my... Dave. Well, we just put in a freezer, George. A deep freezer. Dave... Games keep leaving. But they keep coming back. I know. More keep coming in. Well, Dale's going today. KISS is going in two days. There's two games out of here. So what are you going to set up after this? The 8-Baud Lux and the Firepower. The Oh When he sets that up we're gonna do that game. He's got the CPR playfield upstairs that he's been working on
    24:59
    Wait till you see this one folks. It's a really nice-looking game. Somebody's getting a really really nice game Yeah, I'm going crazy on this one the guys, you know, he's paying good money for it So I'm giving him a really good value for what I'm doing to really professionally Re-stenciled, repainted cabinet, a nice back glass, beautiful CPR playfield, buffed all metal. It's coming out really, really well. And I'm doing the old warm LED treatment to it for the GI and going regularly incandescent for everything else. But yeah, it's coming out great. I think there's a couple more. I try to do it on warm days outside and so I get some sunshine. Which we're missing right now. Yeah. After the monsoon of yesterday. Hunting these przedstaw examples of pinball Crapman, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteregon PINBALL Podcast. My name is George and I'm here with my co-host Dave. Hello George. Goodbye George. That was fun. Folks, have another good week and enjoy some pinball. This week weeks we like to have Katica or 1-2 ourselves. Doralyana Toronto FM Put site R foundation &