Midway's Rotation VIII

Here's a game that I ended up missing on both of my walkthroughts of Flippers in North Carolina! From 1978 it's an ultra rare cocktail pinball table for four players! It's Midway's Rotation VIII! This is a very unique game for the time and only a few games used the concept. The biggest problem that cocktail pinball games had is only one person could play the game while the other player sat across the table and watched. You'd have to get up to let the next player go on and most didn't even offer more then one player. Rotation VIII fixes that by letting four players sit around the table and the playfield rotates towards you! Each player has a set of flipper buttons and plungers, when it's your turn the game will move into your position and you're good to go! The game keeps score for all four players and yes, it even does have a tilt bob, which I ended up setting off trying to get the ball go over one of the rollovers.

The game play is pretty basic. If you've played a pool or billiards pinball game like Eight Ball you'll know what to do. Hit the targets to light the balls on your rack and advance to the other set of balls. There's a hole at the top of the playfield if you can get the ball to settle in will make the pop bumpers flash to score even more points. There's also the usual lighting specials, extra balls and also you can light the spinner for bonus points.

It's a shame that this concept didn't take off. If you're not playing a head to head Vs. pinball like Joust or Challenger the only thing the other person can do at the other end of the table is just to sit there and watch till it's their turn. With Rotation VIII everybody gets a turn and they just stay in their seat while the game comes to you! It'd be interesting to see what they could do now with today's technology, but sadly it seems like all the cocktail games are gone but it's great to play a rare one like this. If you're at Flippers make sure you give this one a shot!