Uploaded July 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Here we have a 1976 Bally Captain Fantastic pinball machine in action. This game was designed by Greg Kmiec with classic Dave Christensen artwork.
This game is very popular and fairly collectible. The artwork is awesome with lots of typical Dave Christensen subtleties and innuendos throughout.
In spite of its popularity, I just don't understand why this game gets so much love. I just *hate* the left flipper set-up and find that there's really very few satisfying shots to make. The purpose of the game is to nail the drop targets for specials and the A & B lanes for double bonus. That's about it. Not much more to it, really. I guess it's kinda fun to hit the drops with the upper right flipper and the shot to the top off with the lower right flipper is okay, but that shot screams for a spinner, in my humble opinion. Hitting the right lane to the top with the left flippers is difficult and I find myself flailing about with that goofy flipper design as the ball is very difficult to control on that side of the playfield. Maybe I'm just a crappy player.
The take away: Captain Fantastic is a popular game, but my guess is it has more to do with the theme than the actual gameplay.
Here we have a 1976 Bally Captain Fantastic pinball machine in action. This game was designed by Greg Kmiec with classic Dave Christensen artwork.
This game is very popular and fairly collectible. The artwork is awesome with lots of typical Dave Christensen subtleties and innuendos throughout.
In spite of its popularity, I just don't understand why this game gets so much love. I just *hate* the left flipper set-up and find that there's really very few satisfying shots to make. The purpose of the game is to nail the drop targets for specials and the A & B lanes for double bonus. That's about it. Not much more to it, really. I guess it's kinda fun to hit the drops with the upper right flipper and the shot to the top off with the lower right flipper is okay, but that shot screams for a spinner, in my humble opinion. Hitting the right lane to the top with the left flippers is difficult and I find myself flailing about with that goofy flipper design as the ball is very difficult to control on that side of the playfield. Maybe I'm just a crappy player.
The take away: Captain Fantastic is a popular game, but my guess is it has more to do with the theme than the actual gameplay.
