"Bally Pin" Review
(Excerpt from "Programmable Parade" column)
"Electronic Games," May 1982: 70.
By Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel

Released by Astrovision for the Astro Professional Arcade


Imagine a videogame version of pinball with all the color, action, and 
excitement of the real thing. It would offer two distinctive playfields, two 
sets of flippers, reset spin-paddle, thumper and back bumpers.

Sound like a pipe dream? It's not. Bob Ogdon's design for this pinball 
simulation is so skillfully constructed that even those staunch videogame 
chauvinists who wouldn't be caught dead near a flipper machine will soon find 
themselves transfixed by the realistic play, vivid colors and inspired play 
mechanics. Arcaders hold two of the Astro Arcade pistol-grip controllers. Using 
the right thumb, the ball awaiting ejection from the chamber is sent gyrating 
onto the playfield through a special, spinning-reset paddle. The trigger on the 
right-hand controller operates the two flippers on the right side of the center 
gutter; the left controller's trigger operates the pair of flippers on the 
left. This "two gun" effect is the first successful use of programmable 
videogame controllers in a pinball simulation, effectively recreating the sense 
of smashing away at flipper buttons on the real thing.