Request Algar

[dave950lam]

It's not a popular game, I don't remember it and stumbled across it watching pinball vids on youtube.

https://youtu.be/BgJ0Pja6PWU

 

[invitro]

I think Algar is a beaut and would like to see it. Here's a Steve Ritchie quote from IPDB:

We asked Steve Ritchie if the production run of this game was cut short to reallocate resources for the continued production of the popular Williams' 1980 'Black Knight'. He replies:

No game is cut short if it can run with the big dogs. If a game is earning money and selling well, then no one will stop it at any factory, believe me.

OK, it did happen to me once. Towards the end of the run of Flash, I asked Jack Mittel then-VP of sales why we wouldn't try to push past the 20,000 unit mark. He replied, "We want to leave the market wanting."

[Steve refers to Gorgar here:] "Gor's brother Al" is what we used to call Algar. The Gar family kind of died after that. I don't remember BK as having anything to do with Algar's failure. BK was a narrow body and built on a different line than Algar. Algar didn't earn money. I think Al was just a dud of a game.

from http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=42

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I think Algar is a beaut and would like to see it. Here's a Steve Ritchie quote from IPDB:

We asked Steve Ritchie if the production run of this game was cut short to reallocate resources for the continued production of the popular Williams' 1980 'Black Knight'. He replies:

No game is cut short if it can run with the big dogs. If a game is earning money and selling well, then no one will stop it at any factory, believe me.

OK, it did happen to me once. Towards the end of the run of Flash, I asked Jack Mittel then-VP of sales why we wouldn't try to push past the 20,000 unit mark. He replied, "We want to leave the market wanting."

[Steve refers to Gorgar here:] "Gor's brother Al" is what we used to call Algar. The Gar family kind of died after that. I don't remember BK as having anything to do with Algar's failure. BK was a narrow body and built on a different line than Algar. Algar didn't earn money. I think Al was just a dud of a game.

from http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=42

That's interesting in that it seems to indicate Williams would've built more than the ~20k units of Flash they did produce. So it might've been the "biggest-selling pinball of all time" instead of TAF, were it not for management decisions.

 

[ZREXMike]

It looks okay, I kinda don't like the inlane/outlane arrangement, but other than that it looks like it has some interesting shots. I'd really rather like to see some of the tables that are being witheld from Xbox 360 players, like MSF & HS2.

 

[Crawley]

Not sure how this pin would go over with the TPA community since it's so odd and not many people are going to know about it - only 350 made. They have it at Vintage Flipper World and the last three years I've played it several times. There's no flow to this table and it's just a odd mix of stuff on it. You can really only trap the ball on the left flipper to make shots. Thankfully most of the shots are needed to be made with that flipper. There's no multiball so it's pure scoring shooting the drop down targets, the trapped balls, and increasing the multiplayer. It's also a widebody so a pretty slow machine.

For me I like some of these odd machines and there's something about this one that has me coming back. This last year I played it I finally felt I got a sense the table and was able to do pretty decently. Previous years I just didn't get it and games were pretty quick. So with the odd layout of the machine and the table being unknown by most I don't think most TPA players would appreciate this one going in.

Can see a few pics of it in my original VFW thread: http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/8147-Vintage-Flipper-World-(Ann-Arbor-Pinball-Museum)

 

[karl]

I would like to see it, but first things first = ca 200 - 300 other machines

 

[Biff]

Soon after Algar came Pharaoh.
Would love to see Pharaoh, such a great looking playfield.