Strange Science Pinball Tutorial & Gameplay (Bally 1986)

Gameplay from 7:28
Welcome back to Majestic Pinball, today we are back at the workshop looking over a game from my own personal collection before it moved on to a new owner. This time I'm explaining the rules and showing you some gameplay of the super Strange Science released in 1986 by Bally Midway - the first 6803MPU machine to feature on the channel! For more information please check out my website www.MajesticPinball.co.uk
Music: Tundra - 20XX - Evan King

[@tgen_]

Wonderful game to see! I think the Bally 6803 line is my absolute favorite series of games ever made; they weren't built very sturdy, and some questionable decisions were made under the hood (namely the infamous keypad), but Bally's designers were consistently putting together incredibly crazy and unique playfield layouts that make the games really memorable. They feel genuinely inspired in comparison to modern games, which can feel mundane and unwilling to deviate from established orthodoxy. Dan Langlois himself has to be one of the greatest designers to have ever lived just on the basis of how adventurous he was with unique shot geometry and mechanisms, and I wish I knew more about him, but information seems pretty sparse. All I can gather is that he was killed far too soon in a traffic accident in 1991 while designing Gilligan's Island. Strange Science feels honest despite the lopsided 12x scoring. Once you're in multiball, it turns into a classic-style bonus-collect game, which I believe was no longer common at the time. If memory serves, collecting the spark bonus from the anti-gravity shot is what re-lights the collect bonus saucer, so you're trying to string together as many collects as possible from the dangerous center ramp shot with as many balls in play as possible; there's a lot of fun to be had in how chaotic it gets. Also, I think you can get an extra ball from the anti-gravity ramp during 2-ball. It's only available after "smashing" an atom out of the atom smasher and not when 5-ball is started.

[@Titanic4]

Keypad on Bally 6803 was used from Eight Ball Champ up to Dungeons & Dragons. Escape From the Lost World uses different service menu, which *doesn't* use keypad. Instead, initial letter change buttons and the credit button were used to navigate through menu. Last Bally 6803 games, Truck Stop and Atlantis (notably using the same sound board as F14 Tomcat as the result of Bally merging with Williams before Truck Stop was released) had the initial letter change button switches attached to existing flipper button switch stack - the related microswitch activated last when the button is pressed. That made the service menu operate similarly to Capcom pinball machine's service menu.

[@MajesticPinball]

I love the 6803s too, correct on the build quality, every time i move one it feels like the cabinet is about to turn to woodchips! Thanks for the headsup on the anti-gravity shot during 2 ball, i think youre right, never managed to figure that out before selling it. Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment! ☺️

[@ccnemo]

Such passion. Keep doing vids.

[@MajesticPinball]

Thank you so much, thanks for watching! Plenty more on the way 😁

[@jimmyrobbins4079]

this game looks strange but kinda fun

[@MajesticPinball]

It's really unique, I've never seen another game with upper flipper placement quite like this one. Thanks for watching!