Sources
IPDB and Flipcommons Catalog contributed to this record.
Conflicts resolved (1 field)
- theme
- IPDB Bowling IPDB Sports Flipcommons Catalog Sports used Flipcommons Catalog Bowling used
Sources agree (6 fields)
- credit
- Dave Christensen — Art IPDB, Flipcommons Catalog
- technology_generation
- solid-state IPDB, Flipcommons Catalog
- month
- 11 IPDB, Flipcommons Catalog
- year
- 1973 IPDB, Flipcommons Catalog
- player_count
- 4 IPDB, Flipcommons Catalog
- ipdb_id
- 6509 IPDB, Flipcommons Catalog
Single source (8 fields)
- ipdb.manufacturer_trade_name
- IPDB Bally used
- ipdb.corporate_entity_name
- IPDB Bally Manufacturing Corporation used
- ipdb.image_urls
- IPDB ["https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-1.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-2.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-3.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-4.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-5.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-6.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-7.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-8.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/6509/image-9.jpg"] used
- ipdb.notes
- IPDB This is Not A Pinball. It is a wall game with wireless radio remote control. The replay version is Bally Alley which has replay, match, and score-to-beat features that Bally Lane does not have. The manufacturer's flyer shows three different styles of cabinets for this game: Cabinet Style, Wall Style, and Pedestal Style. We previously showed the date for this game as 1974. In a Cash Box article dated Nov-10-1973, page 71, Bally announced this game as having commenced delivery "this week". We asked Allan Reizman, Engineering Lab Supervisor at Bally from 1977 to 1983, if all three cabinet styles were produced. He provided us the following information:In the flyer there are different cabinet designs that I never saw. They were proposed but the only option I am aware of that exists is the Wall Style. Same goes for the chime unit. We made a prototype but I do not believe we ever shipped any. [Editor�s note: the video link in the Bally Alley listing shows a wall game where a chime unit can be heard. Allan believes either someone did order one, or that game is the only prototype that had one.] A brief history: Bally Alley was a wall-mounted Bowling light game. You could sit at your table and play bowling with flashing lights. Midway had done a few of these type of games as electromechanical in the 1960s and early 70s. We decided to tackle this type of game as a demonstration project to show the potential of using a microprocessor driven game. The game utilized the Intel 4-bit 4004 chip and was probably the first use of a microprocessor in an amusement device. We sold maybe half of them, mostly the Alley version which was identical to the Lane version except the latter has no replay awarding. As a summer intern at Bally, I briefly assisted with the circuit boards and the RC radio transmitter that was used to remotely play the game from your table in a bar. We made about 100 of them, a 50/50 split between the replay awarding Alley version and the Lane version which is what I had. The Alley sold better and it was an unsold stash of 25 or so Lane versions that was discovered in the warehouse around 1982 that was given away to employees. Lane games have the sockets for the match lamps but they are not used. The replay and match features that are not intended for this novelty version can still be turned on and they will work but the play panel does not have the window to display the match number. The photo of my Bally Lane is exactly a factory wall mount. No mods or customs. Of note there is a cardboard replay card that came with the game and it came with a grease pencil so you could write the high score to date on the game. In the photo it shows my all time high score of 270, and my little brothers 269. Mathematically if you timed everything right you had an 80% chance of a strike with 2 un-makeable splits a possibility, The all time recorded high score in the lab was 292. On another note, one of our mens club members went to a bowling league event and painstakingly recorded every ball strike on the pins, weather it was a hook or backup ball, and the resulting pins. These combinations were programmed into the games memory. When a scanning bulb lights a timer counts to 10 and depending on when you release the control determines how the bowl will roll and the pin combo you will be left with. Really quite sophisticated for the kind of game it was. used
- corporate_entity
- Flipcommons Catalog bally-manufacturing-corporation used
- title
- Flipcommons Catalog bally-lane used
- name
- Flipcommons Catalog Bally Lane used
- slug
- Flipcommons Catalog bally-lane used