Atari’s Hercules Pinball

[wataru330]

Played this beast for the first time today.
It’s easily triple the size of a standard pin.

The ‘pinball’ is a skeeball (!) lol.

Anyone else ever try this out?
@Arcademan…you ever come across one of these?

 

[Syn]

Played it as a kid and teens but haven't seen one in decades.

 

[wataru330]

This one is at Hershey Park, in Hershey PA. Their arcade is in great repair, all CRT for games that shipped that way. Huge variety from late 1970s to late 1990s.

 

[Syn]

Last one I saw was either Cedar Point amusement park or Disney World around 83 or 84.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Is it extra large? I generally think of a skeeball as being much larger than your typical pinball.

 

[wataru330]

Is it extra large? I generally think of a skeeball as being much larger than your typical pinball.

 

[SML]

We have a couple in Austin that I know about. One at Pinballz arcade on Research Boulevard and another at Lake Creek.

 

[Samson]

I played this at a pinball museum in Tennessee last year. Had lots of fun with it and it is a beauty to see in person.

 

[Arcademan]

Played this beast for the first time today.
It’s easily triple the size of a standard pin.

The ‘pinball’ is a skeeball (!) lol.

Anyone else ever try this out?
@Arcademan…you ever come across one of these?

Holy shit! There's an actual working one out there in a game room. Impressive. And yes, my first arcade job at Fun Factory in downtown Mesa 1979 there was a Hercules pinball (Atari's short lived pinball division but the arcade I was at also had a Superman, Atrarian and Airborne Avenger). Unfortunately it spent more time down than working so I rarely got to play it but it was a huge S.O.B. wataru is right...the pinball is the size of a skeeball (which are 3 inches). Cool thing about most of the limited runs of Atari pinballs were that the backglass and playfield artwork were some of the nicest stuff compared to the others in the business at the time. Got this picture from KLOV to show you the size comparison to a normal pinball:


Thanks for the find, wataru...you really made my day on this, your special day

 

[wataru330]

I knew Arcademan would have the 411!
;^)

Thanks for your post…happy to spread the joy on this day. ^_^

 

[Arcademan]

Interesting enough, there was a game show on NBC back in 1975-76 called The Magnificent Marble Machine. The show had a giant pinball style machine which was 20 feet high and 12 feet long. The ball was almost the size of a bowling ball. Two people had to operate the four flippers (one for each side) and the points scored off the bumpers, noisemakers and lights. If the game was still playing after 60 seconds, the flippers would turn off and the round would be complete. The show itself was incredibly boring and the machine would malfunction frequently (that's what you get for not using Bally, Stern, Williams or Gottlieb to build a quality one).

 

[2Heed]

They've had this pinball machine at Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hamsphire for decades; I remember it being there on field trips and was still there when my wife and I went a couple years ago. It's a fantastic theme park overall and I'd recommend it to anyone. Here's a list of their 33 pinball machines (https://pinside.com/pinball/map/where-to-play/5023-canobie-lake-park-salem-nh) and specifically info about Hercules (https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/hercules). It's an absolute tank of a pinball machine.

 

[tomwaits]

Canobie's pinball room is great. If you could play pinball without paying park admission price I'd stop in sometimes just for pinball...

There's also a Hercules at Funspot in Laconia, NH and upstairs at Joe's Playland in Salisbury, MA.

 

[GregN]

It used to be a fixture at the state fair years ago. Blainbrook also had one. Played it many times. Pretty hard. Fun though.