Tahiti

Tahiti, designed by Don Hooker and manufactured by Bally (model 1163, released to production October 1978), is an electro-mechanical Bingo machine with a World Places theme. The machine's gameplay is built around 20 trap holes, Mystic Lines, and a Ball Return Feature (elsewhere known as the Hold Feature), supporting up to a 40-coin maximum.

What sets Tahiti apart from other Bingo games is its ability to let players rearrange colored sections on the backglass card through a series of button presses, purchasable at specific moments -- before the 4th ball, before the 5th ball, or after the 5th ball. This flexibility adds a layer of strategy and replayability distinct from other EM Bingo games of the period.

Bally's own documentation around Tahiti's exact production dates is unusually murky: while the release-to-production date is October 1978, surviving cabinets are consistently dated into 1979, and the game flyer bears a 1979 copyright. This is one of several Bally Bingo games named 'Tahiti' -- an earlier EM version was released in 1974, and a solid-state version followed in 1979 -- making careful dating important for collectors and historians alike.