Karate Fight

Karate Fight is a martial arts-themed pinball machine released by Bally Midway in June 1986, designed by Dan Langlois with artwork by Greg Freres and sound by Michael Bartlow. It was produced from the same design as Bally Midway's 'Black Belt' - according to Freres, the backglass name was changed to Karate Fight at the request of a European distributor, possibly to avoid confusion with Zaccaria's 1986 'Blackbelt,' though it's unclear whether this was a permanent production change or a substitution applied only to certain export units.

The machine's design and art draw on 1980s martial arts imagery, with a four-flipper layout including a right outlane detour gate, two pop bumpers, a mushroom bumper, banks of standup and drop targets (with standup targets positioned behind the drop targets), rollunders, kick-out holes, a spinning target, and a ball kicker, combining for a busy and varied shot layout.

Produced in a run of around 600 units (a figure believed to include both Black Belt and Karate Fight backglass variants), Karate Fight remains a notable, if lesser-known, entry in Bally Midway's mid-1980s sports-themed lineup.