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When
Gottlieb's Black Hole (BH) first hit the arcades
1981,
it made a
"lasting impression" on its players and arcade operators. BH was the
first pinball game ever to feature a second playfield that was inverted away
from players. It was viewable below the main wide body playfield through a
blue tinted plexi-glass that had its own score display. The pinball head
featured a dual back glass that was animated and absolutely hypnotic in the dark
arcades. The chasing lights around the edges were reflected back into it to create a
very 80's
"infinity lighting" effect. The center of the back glass rotated counter
clockwise with astronauts caught in the Black Hole's clutches. BH also offered a very
challenging to achieve 3 ball mult-iball. The multi-ball starts by
releasing 2 pinballs in the lower inverted playfield and later releases the
third on the upper level. BH also featured speech with low mono-tone and
cold sounding computer voice. In 1981, it was still rare to hear games
speaking.
Great artwork, speech and dazzling light effects made BH a very popular game but not with arcade operators. The game was plagued with electrical problems and prone to failure. The numerous electrical issues have been "well documented by Clay Harrell" and can be corrected, termed "bullet-proofing". For me, Black Hole with its sounds, lights and artwork encompasses my early memories of going to the arcades. This BH pin was completely refurbished, shopped, and bulletproofed by Doug Huse from Pinball Resource.
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