Time Zone

March 23, 2005

Time Zone was another carcass bought from the Benicia morgue. All the machines bought from there (most of the machines in my current stable) were all from a route that consisted of AM/PM Mini Marts in Stockton, Fresno and Sacramento to name a few. There were over 46 machines and I finagled a deal for most of them. I like to think I got a good deal but it was nothing for the pages of Pin Game Journal. They all had problems and this one in particular had burnt flipper coils with melted wiring and a dead feature motor. I finally got it all going and the results are,…one damn hard machine to play. This machine gobbles balls quicker than a New Orleans whore on Mardi Gras! But its one saving grace is that damn Time Tunnel, it’s mesmerizing! Here’s how it works: the Time Tunnel is a motorized light/points sequencer that continually recirculates through 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 points steps and looks really cool doing it. It is a 7 inch deep, multi-tiered cone that is mounted into a 5 inch hole in the playfield and covered with plexiglas so you can see it sequence. Very distracting, as it was intended. Launching the ball rolls over the Stop Time Tunnel switch and freezes the value. Then it’s a matter of getting the skill shot to land the ball in the top center lane and collect. Either side saucer will open top or middle ball gates and lite bumpers. The lower center target will also stop/collect the T.T. and the buttons on either side will start it again and raise the play-more post between the flippers. There is also a collect tunnel kick-out chute on the left hand side. Oh, did I mention that the 2 upper saucers also restart the Tunnel? Well they do, which really pisses you off if you manage to stop it on 5000 and miss the center lane. A real pretty machine but very hard to play and few people have the “time” to master its unforgiving nature.

Produced by Bally, 1973. 2 players. 7.0 out of 10 on the Play-O-Meter

High Score 109,690 by Emmet on May 24, 2003

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