The Party Zone

The Party Zone is a crossover solid-state pinball machine released in 1991 by Midway (under Bally) designed by Dennis Nordman and programmed by Jim Strompolis. It is in a single playfield format and collaborates characters from previous pinball machines. It is the second pinball machine released after the Bally-Midway division was sold, yet still operated under the "Bally" name.[6]

The Party Zone
Captain B. Zarr is the centre figurehead of The Party Zone
ManufacturerMidway
Release dateAugust 1991[1][2]
SystemWilliams WPC (Dot Matrix)
Players1-4
DesignDennis Nordman[3]
ProgrammingJim Strompolis[4]
ArtworkGreg Freres
MechanicsZaofia Bil, Win Schilling
MusicDan Forden[5]
SoundDan Forden
ThemeHappiness
Marketing Slogan"You are now entering: The Party Zone" "Big Bang, Big Bucks!"

Backglass

The backglass as well as the playfield contain characters from previous games (who all meet up on this game at the Cosmic Cottage):[7]

Reception

The Party Zone has received a total user rating of 7.490 on a scale of 10 and currently ranks #97 in the "Pinside Ranking".[8] One reviewer noted:

Almost criminally underrated because of its theme. Great ramp, lots to shoot for, funny sounds and animations, and great comedic art from Greg Freres. Major knock is only a two ball multiball, and its linear ruleset gets a little old for repeat plays, but for a fun and casual game it totally rocks!

— guymontag451, pinside

The knowledgeable staff and moderators of pinside have provided a rating of 8.317 out of 10, somewhat varying from the opinions of the public reviewers.

The Internet Pinball Database reviews of The Party Zone are divided into the categories: art, audio, playfield and gameplay. The average user rating given is 7.8/10. Individual ratings for the characters are 8.0/10 for art; 7.7/10 for audio; 7.9/10 for playfield and 7.8/10 for gameplay. 47% of users who reviewed the game gave it a rating of 9/10".[9] One user made this comment:

The Party Zone is a gem. A fantastic audio and visual pinball ride. Its unique and comical theme, coupled with a colorful, well-crafted and designed playing field, make 'The Party Zone' by Bally such an irresistible pinball machine.

— Laser Beam (Rating 9.8/10), ipdb

Digital version

This game was released by FarSight Studios as a licensed table for The Pinball Arcade as the 32nd Table Pack, with the exclusion of the songs "Come fly with me" and "Purple Haze" due to license issues, notably, when a player scores the "Big Bang", the soundtrack plays "Pinball Wizard". After Farsight Studios lost the license for Williams pinball tables in the summer of 2018, the table was removed from the game and later reappeared in the second wave of Williams tables available as downloadable content for Zen Studios' Pinball FX 3 in December of the same year after it obtained the license.

References
  1. http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/1764/Bally_1991_Party_Zone_Manual.pdf pg.1
  2. "Pinball". Archived from the original on 2013-10-23. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
  3. http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/dennis-Nordman"The Party Zone"
  4. http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/jim-strompolis "The Party Zone"
  5. http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/dan-forden "The Party Zone"
  6. "MobyGames".
  7. http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/party-zone/details "Trivia"
  8. Pinside ratings
  9. Internet Pinball Database ratings


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