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Every Bally 6803 Pinball Machine Ranked — Worst to Best

Dungeons & Drop Targets

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Between 1985 and 1989, Bally released just 16 pinball machines using its Motorola 6803 hardware system—and in this video, I rank every one of them from worst to best.

To build the ranking, I created the Silverball+ Standard. Each machine earns points based on:

• Player ratings from Pinside and IPDB
• Community participation and rating confidence
• Typical asking price
• Availability on the current collector market

Player enjoyment is weighted three times more heavily than any other category—but the machine with the highest raw player rating still doesn’t make the Top Six!

Some cult favorites fell surprisingly low, several overlooked bargains climbed the rankings, and one of Bally’s most ambitious machines finished near the bottom.

Games covered include Atlantis, Beat the Clock, Black Belt, Blackwater 100, City Slicker, Dungeons & Dragons, Eight Ball Champ, Escape from the Lost World, Hardbody, Heavy Metal Meltdown, Lady Luck, Motordome, Party Animal, Special Force, Strange Science, and Truck Stop.

Which Bally 6803 is your favorite? Which machine did the Silverball+ Standard rank much too high—or much too low? Let me know in the comments!

Please like the video and subscribe to Dungeons & Drop Targets for more pinball rankings, history, market coverage, and forgotten-machine deep dives.

====== CHAPTERS =================
0:00 Every Bally 6803 Machine Ranked
0:45 How Silverball Plus Works
1:16 #16 City Slicker
1:43 #15 Lady Luck
2:31 #14 Beat the Clock
3:13 #13 Heavy Metal Meltdown
3:51 #12 Blackwater 100
4:30 #11 Hardbody
5:30 #10 Truck Stop
6:17 #9 Motordome
6:59 #8 Atlantis
7:34 #7 Black Belt
8:44 #6 Escape from the Lost World
9:49 #5 Dungeons & Dragons
11:20 #4 Party Animal
12:31 #3 Special Force
13:52 #2 Strange Science
15:01 #1 Eight Ball Champ
16:42 Final Thoughts

#Pinball #BallyPinball #pinballmachines

20 Comments

@DungeonsAndDropTargets Creator 1 month ago Pinned

Which Bally 6803 did the Silverball+ Standard rank way too high—or way too low?

And be honest… did you predict Eight Ball Champ would take #1?

@OtherMike5000 2 days ago

AWESOME VIDEO 😊

@statixsc3013 3 days ago

i have beat the clock, is quite literally one of my favourite games, setit on hard mode, the idea of having 2 games, one being rack score while in timer then to cash out and multiply on the last ball is brilliant. Tough game if played this way but just keeps you coming back

@justimagine2403 1 month ago

I have had 3 Strange Science machines. The electrical zapping and mad scientist theme... 5 ball multiball once you get the groove on the sound gets absolutely frantic. Love the sound it makes during attract mode - Sizzle zapping high voltage electrical humming sound surging with electricity. The neon topper is my favorite. The ball has a path through antigravity, up the power up, flipper into the atom smasher. Fantastic! I miss mine. I still have one of my spare back glasses.

@Richard_Douglas 1 month ago

Another great video! Love the history lesson 🙏🏼

@Tyleriscoolx2 1 month ago (edited)

My local arcade, Arcade Legacy in Cincinnati, Ohio, has a City Slicker and us Pinheadz that frequent there can all verify that the game is a real stinker. It's still really cool that its one of the only places in the country you can play publicly, though, and it plays great. They use it for tournaments pretty often.

@birdskate 1 month ago

Subscribed after lurking for a while, great video formats!

@jcsk8 1 month ago

Hella of a great work here. Thank you veru much. Subscribed.

@WingoEdgy 1 month ago

Great video -- thanks!

@MaxsGarage 1 month ago

I restored a Strange Science fairly recently and it’s become one of my favorite games in my collection. Everything about it is weird and it’s a pretty addicting game. One of the more difficult machines I’ve played

@Riz2336 1 month ago

Party Animal and Strange Science look like the coolest games to me

@pjw5328 1 month ago

Wow. For me as a casual pinballer, who doesn’t collect and only played what I found in arcades back in the day (or at retro arcades & conventions now) this is a pretty obscure game lineup. I’ve played Hardbody (many times; I actually enjoy it), and I’ve at least heard of Eight Ball Champ and D&D, but that’s all. Don’t remember ever even seeing any of the others in-person, even back in the 80s.

@darrenbaugh6579 1 month ago

I do like this video. Hope to find some of these games near me.

@valgalder 1 month ago

No mention of the D&D music? One of the greatest of ALL time.

@misterunspoken 1 month ago

Great video, now that I own two Dennis Nordman pins, Party Zone and Dr Dude, looks like I have to get myself a Party Animal :D

Great video as always!

@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524 1 month ago

Now do Williams System 11!

@ericmiller3708 1 month ago

1. Transporter: The Rescue, 2. Strange Science, and 3. City Slicker.

@EXCELLENTpoo 1 month ago (edited)

You shouldn't read the number after the decimal point like a whole number. Always just list the numbers so one point two two, not one point twenty two. The reason is a bit difficult to explain but basically adding extra digits doesn't make the first digit increase by 10 like whole numbers. They only create more accurate fractions.

@ThePinballNoob 1 month ago

Really cool list and good rankings! I have to admit, the 6803 series is kind of a blind spot for me, so there are a lot of games here I haven't even heard of! It's cool to learn about all these games, and there are some real classics on here.

The only ranking I would disagree with is Party Monster all the way up at #4. As much as I enjoy Nordman's Party series, I feel like that one is kind of a stinker. Not a very interesting layout and pretty awful sounds. The jukebox idea is cool but I would rather just turn the volume off lol