Spy Hunter

The Spy Hunter pinball machine, designed by Greg Kmiec and released by Bally in October 1984, is an adventure-themed solid-state game built with an asymmetrical playfield layout as an homage to designer Ted Zale. The game shares its name with Bally Midway's popular 1983 video game, a connection made after the pinball's original working theme (an Elvis-inspired jukebox concept, complete with roll-over button "dance" mechanics) fell through due to licensing issues, and the whitewood was quickly re-themed overnight to tie in with the video game instead.

The machine's design is notable for its mini-bagatelle in the upper-left playfield, 12 standup targets, and a 4-bank drop target requiring precision and timing to hit. Flippers, a pop bumper, slingshot, kick-out hole, captive ball, and spinning target round out the feature set, while left dual outlanes (one with a detour gate) add extra risk. Targets bearing the label "AGENT GK," added by the art department, are a nod to designer Greg Kmiec himself.

With 2,300 confirmed units produced and artwork by Tony Ramunni (originally created for a different, unused game concept titled "Blowout"), Spy Hunter stands as an interesting example of a game whose theme was reworked at the last minute to capitalize on a popular video game license, while retaining an unusually asymmetrical playfield design underneath.