Hello, this is my review for the greatest pinball table ever created, Pinbot. For those of you who don’t know anything about the table, I will start off by giving a brief explaination of who made the table, when it was made, etc. after that is when I will get into the actual review for the table. Without further ado let’s begin! Unless you are a pinball fanatic like me, most people today are just too young to appreciate how big pinball really was back in the 60’s, 70’s, and into the 80’s. They don’t know about the competition between the companies Gottlieb, Bally and Williams or the amazing tables that were produced. But in October of the year 1986, Williams Pinball dropped a bombshell into the pinball community by releasing the best pinball table ever created Pinbot. Pinbot, the brain child of designer Python Anghelo sold an ashtonishing 12,001 confirmed units. But enough about the history of the table, lets get into the actual information. Pinbot, is an outer space and robotic themed table with the goal the same as any other pinball table, to get the high score and be crowned a Pinball Wizard. The bottom half of the table is the standard two flipper, two kicker, two out lane set up that is the same for almost all tables. As soon as you get above the half way point of the playfield, this table becomes nothing greater than a legend. As soon as you release the plunger and the ball flies up the entrance ramp the game is the same as no other. At the top of the entrance ramp is a spiral ramp with three holes that acts as a skill shot. If you shoot the hole at the top of the ramp you are awarded 20,000 points, if you can’t make an amazing shot and enter the middle hole you are awarded 100,000 points, and if you shot is a little weak and you can only enter the bottom hole you get 5,000 points. These totals can be multiplied by 1x to 10x in a method described later in the review. After your ball has enter one of the holes it then enters an area under the upper bagatelle level that has three pop bumpers which build up the Energy Value which can be obtained in a way that is described later in the review. After that, the ball enters the upper playfield where the table gets interesting. In the middle of the top there is a visor (if you don’t know what this looks like just search on google and you will find what you are looking for) and in front of that visor is a set of five different coloured targets that if hit will light a square of the same colour on a 5 x 5 grid of lights. After all of those lights are lit, then Pinbot’s visor opens up revealing two holes where the eyes should be on the face under the visor. Your goal is to then shoot your ball into one of the open holes where the ball will be locked and held. Another ball can then be launched into the playfield where if you can lock the ball into the other eye socket will start the multiball after Pinbot says in a sinister robotic voice, “Now I see you!”. At this stage you have played for several tense minutes and are nearing the jackpot also known as the Solar Value. On the right side of the table there is a ramp that loops around behind the visor and ends on a raised bagatelle table. For those of you who don’t know what a bagatelle table is, it is a slanted table that has nails or pegs in it that the ball bounces off of on the way down changing its direction and leading it into different holes that score different number of points. Except in Pinbot the bagatelle table either leads back into the playfield or down into the entrance lane where the multiplier for the spiral ramp is increased by one. Each time you shoot the ramp, the Solar Value staring out at 150,000 is increased by 50,000. Even after your game is over, the Solar Value is saved for the next player to try to obtain. To get the Solar Value you must, during multiball, lock one of the balls into an eye hole then shoot the other one around the ramp giving you an insane amount of points to your score. Just below the ramp on the left wall is a set of three drop targets that if all hit in a shot period of time will lift up the starting end of the ramp revealing a hole where you can shoot a ball to obtain the Energy Value. There is only one other feat that is harder to complete than either obtaining the Solar Value or the Energy Value, which is reaching the sun. After the end of each ball your points are tallied up after multipliers and all that then it tracks your progress to the Sun starting from outside of Pluto. Every time you knock down a set of drop targets that are placed in an incredibly hard to reach spot on the right side of the table you increase one planet. It is so hard to do because you can’t knock down the targets with a shot directly off the flipper, you need a lucky bounce off of the objects in the top of the playfield. If you manage to reach the Sun in the three balls that you pay for then you will get the MEGA JACKPOT of 3,000,000 points. If you can do that you should be considered a true pinball wizard. After the success of Pinbot, two sequel tables were made by Williams Pinball called, The Machine: Bride of Pinbot and Jack Bot. Both tables were very successful but neither were able to reach the level of fame and quality that Pinbot was able to. In 1990, Rare Ltd. released a home version of the game for Nintendo Entertainment System. In all of the time and money I have spent on this table, I own the high score by just 2,500,000 over the second place score which I also own. I have reached the Sun only once and was so happy that day doing what only few have ever done before. I hoped that you enjoyed reading my review on the greatest pinball table ever created by any company, Pinbot!
I still remember playing on a Pinbot for most of my childhood, playing for hours of end not caring how much money I put into the machine. Pinbot, is a table that was released be Williams in 1986 and is currently, in m... Read Full Review
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