Random Thoughts & Pictures
I don't have much of a backstory for this game except to say that I like Bally games from the mid to late '70s and I like drop tragets. It's not uncommon to see Night Rider at pinball shows. Thus, I had periodic opportunities to play and aways enjoyed it. So I bought Night Rider for much the same reasons I bought Power Play; another drop target Bally game from the late '70's. Night Rider also has a pair of spinners tied to the lit value of the kickout saucer. It's always fun to whale on the spiners and see how fast the kickout saucer lights get going. And I like the theme and artwork. There's no mistaking this game for anything but 1970's culture. Night Rider also has what is probably my second favorite Bally backglass babe (next to Strikes and Spares, of course).
Shown above and below are some backglass close ups.
I bought this game in April 2009 from Mike Frasca of Game Time near Baltimore, MD (Mike's a great seller, btw). Aside from a bit of insert wear, there's not much to complain about. There's no playfield wear by the slingslots or kickout saucer. The backglass is near perfect. The cabinet is solid and unmarred. The game was clean and most everything worked. There's a modern Alltek "Ultimate MPU" board. The remaining boards appear to be original and solid with clean connectors and wiring. The only oddity I noticed was a pair of Gottlieb flipper bats.
Excluding some earlier experiments, Night Rider was Bally's second SS (Solid State) game following Freedom. Night Rider was also a transition game; transition meaning that the game was produced in both a new SS version and an old-school EM (Electro Mechanical) version. Bally's transition games include Freedom, Night Rider, Black Jack, Evel Knievel and Mata Hari. However, EM production of the latter three was meger. Night Rider was Bally's last EM game produced in significant numbers. Here is the IPDB link to the EM version of Night Rider.
Shown above and below are some playfield close ups. Note the "gk" on the woman's leg.
Shown below is the two page promotional flyer for Night Rider. The flyer shows the EM version of the game. As far as I know, there is no flyer depicting the SS version of Night Rider. It would appear that Bally only produced one flyer for each of their transiston games. There is no flyer depicting the SS versions of Freedom and Night Rider. Likewise, there is no flyer depicting the EM versions of Black Jack, Evel Knievel and Mata Hari.
The two page promotional flyer for Night Rider. The third image shows another flyer signed by designer Greg Kmiec. Click for larger picture.
Note that the flyer shows a geniric CB radio as opposed to the Courier radio on the production game. The spinners are also different.
Generic radio closeup from flyer compared to the production backglass.
A solid red playfield post was the covert signature of game designer Greg Kmiec. Night Rider's red post is openly located by the right orbit ball gate.
The Kmiec red post.
After a few years I sold the game in October 2013. I'm always curious to hear where one of my games may have ended up. If you happen to own this specific Night Rider (ENR 3323) please shoot me an email.
The Migrating Chime Unit
While flipping through various Bally pictures I noticed that Bally seemed to be experimenting with the placement of the chime unit. Bally's first production solid state pins were the eight "-17" games including Freedom, Night Rider, Black Jack, Evel Knievel, Eight Ball, Power Play, Mata Hari and Strikes and Spares. Freedom, the first game, had the chime unit mounted on the back inside wall of the cabinet. The next game, Night Rider, had the chime unit on the left inside wall of the cabinet toward the rear. The remaining six "-17" game appear to have the chime unit mounted further forward as part of the tilt mechanisms subassembly.
Freedom: Chime unit on back wall.
Night Rider: Chime unit on left side toward rear.
Power Play: Chime unit on left side toward front.