Armchair Arcade Video Review: Zizzle Pinball

[shadowflame1976]

i bought 3 of those.. well,1 and it had to be sent back 3 times since neither time did i get a working one, after 3 bad machines the store just refunded my money because of a "lemon clause" now these machines are nowhere to be found,, and the atari version is taking them forever to release,,...

[BillLoguidice]

@shadowflame1976 Yeah, I'm surprised they have so much trouble with production and distribution. I think the sweet spot for these machines is to retail for $199 - $249 max, but what seems to have happened is that they released for much more and eventually went as low as $99. Generally speaking, I thought that overall quality has been good, so I'm surprised you had so much trouble. I still just have the 1st gen machine. I'd like to get a real one at some point, but the Atari does look good.

[shadowflame1976]

@BillLoguidice

That's when i bought mine, when it was down to $99 i bought it from "the source" i really really wanted one to work properly :(

[sirlordwhitman]

I've had this first generation machine for a few years now. I picked it up for $180 from EBAY in '07. I've had to do a couple of repairs. My pop bumpers shorted out, so Zizzle sent me a new assembly free of charge which was cool. But the main thing that keeps breaking is the plunger mechanism. The spring is hooked on a fragile plastic tab. Since then, I replaced it with a screw.. but still manages to come off the hook. Anyways, I'm ready for a real machine. This is kid stuff.

[baarbear]

I've got the Pirates of the Caribbean model. I love it. It's indeed a great substitute for those of us who love pinball yet do not have the space or the finance for a full sized pinball coin op.

[BillLoguidice]

My wife thought I was remiss in not mentioning that people DO mod these and in quite clever ways. The low price point and easy access to the workings of the machine make it very mod friendly.

[blacklily8]

I can concur with Bill's review here, having played the same machine. :) It's definitely a lovely stop-gap measure if you're a big pinball fan who can't afford the $4,000 for a full-sized machine. Last time I did some price checking, even used pinball machines were over a thousand, and buyer beware on broken machines and expensive repairs. I dont know how many times I've seen them out of order in arcades.

[BillLoguidice]

Yeah, lot's of moving parts and regular maintenance don't make for a very friendly experience. With that said, eventually I DO want to own a full-sized machine. I can "survive" just fine though indefinitely with this cheap machine and video pinball on my MAME cabinet and heck, every other system. At as low as $100, it's practically disposable, though naturally I want this to work forever.

[BillLoguidice]

For $4000 you could buy 40 of these machines at $100. ;-) Of course good luck finding them for $100 any more. Most likely you'll see them in the $250 range. I have no clue what the Atari one will release at if it gets released.

[shadowflame1976]

@BillLoguidice

Practically disposable? not anymore at least not in Canada, very hard to find these now! I was able to get one though and it is working great so far :P

[BillLoguidice]

@shadowflame1976 I think it's difficult to find anywhere. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes there.

[HalfBlindGamer]

That is pretty awesome! I'd love to get me one of those... no room for it though.

[newcoleco]

I may mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I did saw pictures of this in catalogs back in the 90s.

[BillLoguidice]

From what I can remember, this was a newly created product by a famous pinball designer for 2006. There were though somewhat similar products like this since the 70's, though not nearly as nice.

[newcoleco]

You are right, what I did say in catalogs back in the 90s was not this thing but smething similar and much more smaller.

I would like to see your pinball machine in a player's point of view if possible. :-)