Went to Lucky Ju Ju Pinball in Alameda Monday night with the sales team at work. Lucky Ju Ju has a fantastic collection of vintage pinball machines, plus a few choice recent machines, including two of my all time favorites The Addams Family and Twilight Zone. Growing up I spent a lot of quarters on Xenon, which Lucky Ju Ju also had. The only machine they didn’t have that I had played a lot before was Eight Ball Deluxe.
They had a really freaky pinball machine called Orbitor 1. The play field is three dimensional with large hills and valleys. It’s very difficult to predict the path of the ball, especially because of the spinning magnetic bumpers in the middle. Without a doubt, Orbitor 1 is the strangest pinball machine I’ve ever played.
Another unusual machine they have is Flipper Football. It’s intended for two teams of 1-3 players, with each team getting to play for one half of the game. Each team also gets to choose which country they will be representing. You score a goal for each ball you put through the gap at the top after knocking down enough drop targets for the ball to slip through. The other team scores a goal for every ball you drain during your team’s half.