Mata Hari (pinball)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Mata Hari is a Bally pinball machine released in April 1978 (model #1104) for up to four players. It was designed by James Patla with artwork by Dave Christensen. About 16,260 units were made. Most versions use solid-state electronics, but Bally also released around 170 electro-mechanical versions. It was the last Bally model produced in both versions. A small batch of about 20 samples used a plastic playfield instead of wood.

The game’s theme centers on Mata Hari, the famous dancer. The artwork uses dark red and gold, with a prominent dagger image on the playfield and on the backglass in Mata Hari’s hand. One backglass is blank and the other shows the Nazi SS motto “Meine Ehre heißt Treue” (My honor is loyalty) — an anachronism since she died in World War I. The two backglasses were produced in roughly equal numbers.

Mata Hari has chimes (not electronic sounds). The playfield is symmetrical and features two flippers, four pop bumpers, two slingshots, two four-bank drop targets, and one kick-out hole. It uses an MPU 2518-17 circuit and an AS2518-18 power supply. During development it was briefly called Bank Shot because you can hit a drop target on each bank with one shot.

Gameplay is simple but offers a challenge. Up to four players take turns. The goals are to knock down the drop targets, complete the A-B combination a certain number of times, and land the ball in the kick-out hole several times. Scoring centers on the A-B targets and the kick-out hole.

A quick rules summary:
- Hitting the A and B top rollovers or the A-B orbits scores and advances the A-B lit value.
- Hitting the top kick-out hole first time scores 3,000 points, increases bonus by 3, lights a 2x bonus multiplier, and lights the left outlane for 50,000.
- Hitting it a second time lights the right outlane for 50,000 and a 3x multiplier.
- Hitting it a third time lights a 5x multiplier.
- Knocking down all drop targets scores 50,000 and lights the target special.
- A replay is available for completing A-B when lit for special, and another +50,000 for all targets down when lit for special.

Reception was positive: Play Meter reviewer Roger Sharpe gave Mata Hari 3.5 out of 4, praising the graphics as outstanding and calling it a milestone in pinball art.