Flip Flop

Flip Flop, released by Bally Manufacturing Corporation in January 1976, is a four-player electro-mechanical game from the closing years of the EM era. Designed by Jim Patla with Western-themed artwork by Dick White, it enjoyed a healthy production run of 5,350 confirmed units.

The playfield offers plenty to shoot at: four flippers, two pop bumpers, two slingshots, eight mini-rollover buttons, four standup targets, four flip flags, four star rollovers, and two kick-out holes, with an end-of-ball bonus rewarding accumulated progress on each ball. The game's most distinctive feature is its bounce-back outlanes, which give the player a chance to nudge a draining ball back into play - a forgiving twist on one of pinball's cruelest moments. The maximum displayed score is 199,990 points per player, with a replay wheel maximum of 25.

Flip Flop also has an intriguing production history. Early production games differed visibly from later ones - green flip flags instead of red, yellow wood side rails, and white mushroom bumpers - and at least one apparent prototype has surfaced with its backbox factory-mounted upside down (flip-flopped, appropriately enough) and no serial number, reportedly traced to a Bally test location at the Seattle Center. Details like these make Flip Flop a rewarding study for collectors of 1970s Bally games.