Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball

''Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball'' is a 1990 pinball game designed by John Trudeau and Python Anghelo and released by Midway (under the '' Bally'' name). It is based on Warner Bros.' ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. This is the first of only three licensed pinball tables ever to feature the ''Looney Tunes'' characters (the second being Sega's ''Space Jam'' and the third being Spooky Pinball's ''Looney Tunes'').

Gameplay

The game is a celebration of Bugs Bunny's 50th anniversary, accompanied by his various co-stars and lots of cake. One to four players can play. The player must use the "Skill Shot" to help Wile E. Coyote chase the Road Runner, break some eggs in the reversed "Chicken Coop" playfield, then ride "Tweety's Slide" to the main playfield and score 1 million points, hit Daffy Duck for a "Big Score" of 500,000 points and light "Speedy Gonzales' Keek-Out" for 1 million points, then shoot the curving, swerving center ramp so the Tasmanian Devil and the Tasmanian She-Devil will take the player on a challenging "Tazmanian Shopping Spree" up the ramp, which will score up to 500,000 points or an extra ball. If the player helps Bugs blow out all the candles on his cake, Honey Bunny will reward him with a 50 million bonus, with the player getting their opponents' best score for a Surprise Package.

Playfield

The playfield includes 3 flippers, a plunger skill shot, 3 pop bumpers, 3 slingshots, 19 standup targets, a 3-bank drop target, a kick-out hole, a spinning target, a captive ball, and a left outlane kickback. In the upper left area of the playfield is a small inverted playfield having a flipper to propel the ball downfield to loop around a ramp and hit a captive ball. In multi-player operation, a unique playfield award feature exchanges scores between players.

Development

According to Python Anghelo, he was given only 3 months by management to design the game from concept to final build. This was due to the fact that the factory workers were running out of games to assemble and needed something to fill a gap in the Bally production line. Anghelo had previously drawn a crude and perverse illustration of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner on a company whiteboard in its HR department. When he and John Trudeau were developing the game and '' The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot'' simultaneously, they worked insanely fast on both games in a short time, doing so much that one day Anghelo gave Trudeau the nickname of "Doctor Flash". It stuck from that point. Anghelo admitted disappointment in the final product and felt embarrassed that despite his and Trudeau's best efforts, he had allowed something "so half-baked" to go to market. The game was not well received by pinball players, and only sold 2,500 units. Python explained the tepid response, stating, "It depends what we have in our hearts... either The Force is with you, or it's not."

In a ''Play Meter'' review the game was found to be too easy and disliked the sunken inverted playfield, the main playfield was found to be slow and mostly unproductive. The other gimmick in multiplayer games of randomly awarding points or swapping scores was also criticized.

The game came with licensed products available at special discounted prices for operators interested in staging on-site promotions, contests and tournaments. In addition, authorized Bally/Midway distributors could also take advantage of those offers for point-of-display items, or sales support merchandise to their customer base. The companies participating in the marketing program included Armitron, Creative Innovations, E.M. International, H. & L. Enterprises, Koochy Koncepts, Nikry Company, Rarities Mint, United Brands International, Zephyr Group, and others.

Voice cast

* Greg Burson as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat, Tasmanian Devil and Foghorn Leghorn
* Noel Blanc as Bugs Bunny (vocal effects), Daffy Duck (additional lines), Yosemite Sam, Sylvester the Cat, Speedy Gonzales, Barnyard Dawg and Chickens
* Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, Tweety Bird and Honey Bunny
* Mel Blanc as Sylvester the Cat (archive recording)
* Paul Julian as Road Runner (archive recording)

References

External links

*
Operator's Handbook
– via the Internet Archive
YouTube - 7 minutes gameplay of ''Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball''YouTube - 5 minutes gameplay of ''Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball''

{{Portal bar, Video games

1990 pinball machines
Bally pinball machines
Bugs Bunny video games
Video games based on Looney Tunes
Video games about birthdays