Head-to-head Pinball Machines

We're finally gonna go through and look at all (most*) of the head-to-head pinball machines made over the years to find out what exactly the deal is with these tables.
there's actually a good variety of tables to look at, so stick around :)
Seagull Arc

[@TampaTec]

Most under rated channel.

[@Blas4ublasphemy]

A head to head Medieval Madness where you are smashing each others castle down would have been awesome...

[@rachelwindsor850]

Oh my god yes, that sounds awesome actually.

[@MRNBricks]

History of homebrew!

[@Furluge]

I haven't watched yet, but if I could just say, man, I wish someone would make another one of these. Those Joust pinball machines were fun and they're just small enough I might actually be able to fit it in my house.

[@trainwreck1827]

i yet to find and play one every year at expo, maybe some year I'll leave with one lol

[@chadwickjdillon]

God I love this channel. A rabbithole if ever there was one. Tilting versus pinball? Awesome.

[@jodyjohnson265]

I've seen a couple homebrew head to head pins and it's an interesting element concept for pinball.

[@Smakificator]

The rapid pace of information on your channel really is awesome. Please keep these videos coming!

[@5speedfatty]

I encountered an "International Shootout " in the wild once. it was like a high paced fooseball table where you flip the handle around to hit a large rubber ball. and it would fling it at the opponent. it was actually really cool, but i never saw more than 1.

[@Notester82]

Oh my goooosh, even if some of the head-to-head tables didn't do so well, stuff like Gottlieb's Challenger and Williams' Joust were cool to see! The shifting playfield in the former is a fun concept and I like how the success of Joust (the arcade game) helped with Williams deciding what to theme their eventual head-to-head table on. Neat video! Also the sorta back-to-back jokes made during the segment on Weche were gooood ;u;

[@OctoberRaven]

Williams could have had more with crossover. Imagine Rampage pinball

[@bralex2670]

That would be cool

[@ThomasHelms]

I knew I had played a Joust; there's one at the Classic Arcade Pinball Museum here in Chattanooga.

[@TampaTec]

I like to see another pinball company video. There's a new pinball company coming later this year. Tiltbob pinball has original theme pin called Road Trip might release later this Year and got rights to Little Shop of Horrors pin recently according to Knapp arcade. Tiltbob pinball seems to have the most promise because Bob Nies won best homebrew pinball design at Texas pinball festival 2022 for Elf pin. Elf pin was a lot of fun.

[@quasarulas3968]

This concept seems like a goldmine of untapped potential. Especially with multiballs involved trying to overwhelm your opponent. Imagine all the different features they would be able to implement these days. I’d love to see at least one or two new games come out with this approach. I know the risk would be huge for people who just want a traditional pin and would increase costs but as a novelty I think it’s been so underdeveloped that it could be a real breath of fresh air for some of the more stagnant straight forward games. Sadly like film market risk and returns being as fragile as they are mean things like this can’t afford to gamble on innovations.

[@Blas4ublasphemy]

Crossfire was a similar board game and immensely popular.

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

We just went to an arcade near St Augustine Florida and saw the NFL head to head machine. I had no idea anything like that exisited. It was a LOT of fun to play!

[@privatekitty6621]

goated pinball channel

[@47drift]

Really surprised not to see the Pac-Man head to head pinball game. I play it all the time at my local Round One. I think it's been there for two or three years now.

[@bralex2670]

I completely missed that one my b. I'll have to talk about it in a follow up at some point. Thanks for pointing that out :)

[@moritzlotze206]

Thats really cool. That VEB LUCKENWALDER METALLWARENFABRIK flipper is great, to answer your question, it is an old east german head to head pinball. I was still born in the GDR, so technically, the state I was born does not exist anymore haha. I did not know they even built a pin and was always wondering about that. VEB stands for Volkseigener Betrieb, meaning peoples owned Company, which in the gdr every company was, kind of ironic, because VEB meant pretty much that the state owned the company. It was made in Luckenwalde, a town 20 miles outside Berlin by a metal works factory. Now i want to get my hands on the maybe only east german pinballtable ever made, so interesting. Thanks for the video

[@ethanreynolds4942]

Either I'm having some kinda late night crazy attack or this is seriously one of the funniest and most unique channels I've literally seen in years whaaaaaat.....

[@askjacob]

I owned an AG Soccerball for quite a few years. I omly got it because I had never seen anyhting like it. As far as hardware, they were quite well built. As far as a game - well, there were issues. Originally designed as a single ball game, but for some reason was shipped to have 2 balls installed to make it "more fun" - but 2 ball soccer makes no sense. It works just fine with only 1 ball as designed so that is how I always had it. It also was time based which has always been a tough sell to pinball players. At least when time was up you got to keep playing until a goal was scored. It also looked too "pinball" to attract non-pinball players... so kinda missed both markets. By the way, the cab was a standard pin size, not longer or larger. I did end up moving it on after many years because the biggest issue is where to put it in a games room - you can't just back it up to a wall like other pins/games so it kind of has to lurk out in the middle, and I just never really had a space that that would work in...

[@MetaverseAdventures]

Love it when a new vid from BralexPinball hits my notifications. It did not disappoint.

[@matthewbarry4464]

Having the Joust pinball machine have the same sounds as the video game was pretty easy considering the majority of all Williams machines and video games at that time used the same sound chips.

[@wolfgangervin2582]

That sound chip is so SATISFYING.

[@LumpsPinball]

it's been 5 months... where are you brother?

[@ericcole2540]

I played Joist at the Lyons Classic Pinball in Colorado years ago, not sure if they still have it, great arcade to visit on your way to Rocky Mountain National Park or anytime you’re near Boulder

[@ericcole2540]

“Joust” 😂 Love your videos, keep them coming, other topics: -Most Beloved Mechs -Recent Pinball Companies like Haggis (too soon?), American, Multimorphic -Pinball museums/locations with the most/best collection

[@kyrrawarren5741]

MORE PINBALL VIDEOS PLEAASSEEE 😭😭😭

[@jamie695]

great video, one of the few quality pinball channels on youtube

[@crashthevacuum]

"That's not even pinball" seems to come up with depressing frequency in these videos. Honestly, that Joust table is pretty darn cool, wish I'd seen one of those in reality. I feel like these would do reasonably well in barcades; I'd certainly choose this over Foosball. Great video as always

[@eviltom17]

I've never seen one! These are awesome!

[@prof.schreiber8925]

I've played a PacMan head to head table at my local Round 1 arcade

[@justimagine2403]

Triple pinball table. Now how about a quad Voltaire with a ringmaster in the middle.

[@bralex2670]

That sounds epic ngl

[@Sinn0100]

I've been a gamer for almost 40 years now and I have never seen one of these before ever. Although I'm not a pinball player so maybe I have and just didn't pay any attention to them. They don't look like new machines or the ones you show didn't.... Addendum- Our game room is compromised of mostly stand-up arcade cabs from the 1990's. Well...minus Final Fight as he is from 1989.

[@superzario1000]

namco recently made a pac man one but i dont think it ever reached full production

[@punkskates2469]

Another great video my man, absolutely love your content keep it up

[@ethanreynolds4942]

Ummm... Whoa where did this channel come from??? Legit what? Like this is so funny and well made!!?!!

[@mikeyfoofoo]

"Ehhh. It's Ok Baby" LOL

[@xezerik62]

So you are from michigan eh? Me too! Im in roseville. There is an awesome pinball arcade nearby with like 50+ tables called the FreePlayPinballArcade, in Fraser

[@ExpressoMechanicTV]

Another great video. Might be interesting to look at the design history of specific machines and who came up with the innovations within them.

[@ExNihiloComesNothing]

I dropped everything to watch it. JK It's OK Baby Next. Pinball. Video. WHEN?

[@Oddzball3]

Id like a more deep dive looking at specific designers

[@acidgougewaltz]

why not do pinball history of each individual company? 10 minute video for capcom, 25 minute video for zaccaria, two part, 1 hour for gottlieb, etc etc you could even cover how something like chicago coin became stern became data east became sega became stern

[@luviebug5448]

Bubbles Pop is the best name for a pinball machine 😂

[@CathodeRayKobold]

How about a video on classic Pinball video games? You already mentioned Full Tilt (the source of Space Cadet), but there's also Metroid Prime pinball, Sonic Spinball, Pokemon and Mario pinball for the GBA, or even really old pinball simulators like Pinball Construction Set for the Commodore 64 or just Pinball for the NES.

[@Yauu2]

Always nice your videos. Thanks a lot!

[@Frog_Enigma]

this is amazing how does it have so few likes

[@AgentFlashus]

How about death saves and all the pins that have death save animations 😮

[@AfroRyan]

Great video. Thanks for reading my tweets at you since KZbin likes nuking my comments!

[@trainwreck1827]

What video do I want to see? JPop saga thru Taproot!

[@Oddzball3]

Love the video

[@S.J.C._Entertainment]

You should cover home use only pinball machines. that seems like it could be an interesting video.

[@trash_hands]

M O R E V I D E O S P L Z

[@peterturna9558]

What’s up with Japan not having pinball can you do a vid about pinball and Japan

[@OVERKILL_PINBALL]

Nice!

[@thefordchannel985]

Pinball fans literally only want one thing, and it's a shark that EATS THE BALL! Looking at you Stern.

[@IanJacobyandcompany]

this rules

[@An_average_drummer]

I've been lucky enough to play Challenger and yeah it's really boring to play.

[@bralex2670]

I don't doubt it but the tilting is cool

[@waleswideman1]

I made a mechanical grad to head once stored it at my dad's and he left it outside yo be ruined

[@jayviescas7703]

Actually like your presentation but could you at least learn how to pronounce German names correctly? G-O-T-T-L-I-E-B is pronounced Got-leeb not Got-lib.

[@bralex2670]

Don't worry I know. Growing up i was the only one I knew who actually liked pinball so I guess I just got really used to saying things my way lol

[@requiem1123]

Is there a constructive reason why head to head pinball didn't do quite good? All I got from this was that people simply "didn't care enough". Though, the initial tables being bland and poorly marketed could be a factor. But does a 2-player pinball table have any limitations to its gameplay?

[@bralex2670]

Eh, I would say it was just too weird and/or expensive to produce. A lot of gimmicky pinball machines never did well for one or both of those reasons.