"IT'S SUDDEN DEATH! GO FOR THE WALL!"
Rollergames started life as a sports entertainment programme on American TV. It says here. It seems to have been an attempt to fuse the titular sport in the film Rollerball with the rock and wrestling era of WWF, while toning things down to avoid the massive legal liability that actually televising Rollerball would create. Yeah, some sort of roller derby on a figure of eight track and apparently there was a pit full of crocodiles as well. It lasted one series before expiring, and then was repeated in 2020 as television channels struggled to fill airtime during lockdown.
But that's not what I'm here to node. I'm here to node the pinball machine based on it and released in 1990. Why? Because I recently bought one.
I've wanted a pinball machine for a really long time, but for the longest of times I just plain couldn't afford one, or didn't have the room to squeeze it in my shoebox. Such is like when you live in London, the Great Wen. Which thankfully I do not any more, because it's a stabby shithole. However, I was mooching around Greedbay looking for relics when I saw a Rollergames in what appeared to be good nick being sold about 12 miles away from me. The chap was asking a bit more than I was prepared to pay, though, so I didn't buy. Then, after a week or so, he relisted it at a lower price, but it was still more than I was prepared to pay, so I didn't buy. Then he relisted again for a price that was within the sum I would prepare to pay, so I thought, right, he's only a short drive from me, I'll ask him to go and have a look at it. And I did. And it was in pretty good condition. No bulging capacitors on the board, flippers nice and strong, fairly clean playfield. Some cosmetic damage to the cabinet, and the red paint on the logo on the sides has faded to white but I think it looks good like that all the same. So, I offered him that if I paid him the full amount he wanted in his most recent listing, would he bring it over and help me set it up?
Yes, he said. So he did. And now my flat has in the corner a 1990 Rollergames, by Williams Electronics.
Right. Playfield layout. It was designed by Steve Ritchie who had also done the legendary High Speed and Black Knight 2000 up until now, and was intended at one point to be High Speed 2, but then was retooled for licencing. The hallmarks of the Master of Flow are throughouth. Three flippers, two at the bottom and one about 2/3 of the way up on the right. Fast orbital shots and combos that involve multiple flippers. Notably here, if you hit the left orbital the ball will come rocketing out on the upper right flipper and if you are fast enough you can send it up the only ramp on the playfield, which is marked "Wall of Death" or just "the Wall" and this ramp is fairly steep and at the top bifurcates with a gate. If the gate is closed it will send the ball down onto a rail to the left lower flipper in a matter reminiscient of a figure 8, a bit like the Rollergames track itself. If the gate is open, and the ball is moving fast enough, it will roll along a rail at the top and into a further rail that sends it down to the right flipper. If the gate is open and the lock is lit, it will divert into a ball lock. Doing this thrice gets you multiball. If one or more balls are locked, it will periodically fire them round a loop and back into the lock just for decoration and because it look cool. The Wall ramp is also set up so that when the ball is plunged, it will come out and go up the Wall ramp and round, though you can't lock the ball or score a Sudden Death in this way. On the minus side, this takes off the possibility of a skill shot but adds a bit of uncertainty as you don't know which flipper the ball will filter out to.
The orbital also had a bank of three rollovers off it which spell out "JET" and which can be rotated every time you flip. Light all three to increase the bonus multiplier. Below this, a pod of three pop bumpers which may also send the ball into touch targets marked "1, 2, 3" which will light "Roller Motion" at the Pit, which we'll come on to in a bit. There's also a channel which leads up and back through a gate and out into the orbital. If this is lit and extra ball is scored. It is a bit like a bumper shot as used in Pat Lawlor designed pins but with bumpers only on one side. In front of the pop bumpers is a stretched rubber with a bank of green drop targets. If you drop all of these (and they are timed so they'll unretract if you go too long between hitting them) this lights the lock. "Go FOR THE WALL!"
To the right of that, there's a sinkhole marked "The Pit." It can have three things lit at it. One of these is red and is marked "magnet." If it is lit, going into the Pit will hoof the ball upwards onto a rail and drop it out right by the upper right flipper. A magnet grabs the ball and the machine shouts, "DON'T FLIP!" then "FLIP!". In theory, the magnet will disengage the moment you flip and the ball will most of the time, we hope, go up the Wall ramp. However due to the vagaries of mechanical things, it doesn't always. In fact I find it easier to make the wall ramp by firing the upper right flipper from a pit shot without the magnet on. If "Roller Motion" is lit a random award is given also before the ball is fired up into the rail.
There's five touch targets on the left hand side of the playfield marked SKATE and if this is completed a letter in "W I L L I A M S" in the backbox is lit and the magnet is lit also. If W I L L I A M S is completed then a falling 4 million point jackpot which is collectable at the pit becomes lit. This carries over between games and players so you can in multiplayer steal other peoples' awards. With practice you can ensure the maximum amount by doing a bank shot off the last unlit target into the pit. It's very satisfying when that happens. Almost as satisfying at the orbital to wall ramp combo which caues the lights to go out, a musical sting to play, and "DEVASTATING" to appear on the display. Over the right hand side there's a bank of three targets which lights the Atomic Whip, a ball saver in the left outlane, which rather than simply punt the ball back onto the playfield, fires it up its own rail where another coil fires it round the orbital.
And finally, Sudden Death. This happens randomly and turns on the magnet for 20 seconds and makes ramp shots worth 1 million each. The frequency this triggers seems to be a function of how well players are doing, because when I first got the machine I was always having it yell at me, "IT'S SUDDEN DEATH! GO FOR THE WALL!" but now it's a lot less frequent. If you drop the three green targets and the SKATE targets during it you get 2 million.
Artwork is, well, unique. There's a track series of lamps in the middle of the playfield which whizz round in a figure of eight. However it is AGGRESSIVELY 1980s. Women with big hair! Bright colours! Relentless rockin' soundtrack! Oh yeah.
Now to be honest, it's not my favourite pinball of all time. That's either Swords of Fury or No Fear or Red & Ted's Road Show. But it's pretty good. And being a System 11 game it doesn't command enormous prices in current year, unlike later DMD era machines. The locks and W I L L I A M S letters carrying over add an extra strategy to multiplayer but sadly it can be unbalanced with Sudden Death going off almost at random. I'm told it's not used in tournaments for this reason. However, it plays fast and furious and relentlessly and once you can get a nice chain of shots together you can really boost up your scores. The additional features like the magnet and the ball lock which fires the balls round a loop are quite visually appealing though. And the very, well, 1980s, art has its own charm. And yes, the lady skater in the backglass does have a pair of bulbs right where her buttocks are, how did you know?
Anyhow. I'm going to log off and have another go at it. My best score so far is 19,379,240 if you want to try to beat it.