Yesterday, I was making some adjustments to my Mata Hari game.  The right flipper had come loose and needed to be tightened down, and I installed some connectors in the head.  This Mata Hari has seen better days…

The first time I remember seeing a Mata Hari game was around 1978, at Sammy White’s Brighton Bowl.  Sammy White’s was a 48 lane bowling center with 14 lanes of tenpin bowling, 34 lanes of candlepin bowling (what I bowl), two pool rooms, and a lounge which I was too young to ever get into.  It was sold in 1986 and closed and today is a massive car dealership, but in 1978, it was a place for people to come and have fun!

Sammy White’s usually had the newest and the nicest stuff.  Maybe it was because Channel 5 taped the old “Candlepin Bowling” tv show out of there?  Maybe the owners knew that place drew people from all over to come and see the place?  Whatever it was, Sammy White’s is where I remember seeing my first Solid State pinball machines…

My memories of the games they had in there and exactly when are a little vague – I was 10 in 1978.  Those Bally solid state games really caught my attention.  I remember being fascinated by the little tunes they would play when you inserted a quarter into the machine, and then pressed the start button.  The numbers were glowing orange, and they’d blink between the score from the last game played and the high score, as if daring you to do better!  As a child, these games beckoned to me – don’t play those old games, I’m better!

Today, Mata Hari still beckons to me.  What a fabulous pinball game.  The art on the game is very well done.  Lit up, in a darkened room, the red backglass stands out amongst the crowd, but it’s the game play that I really like.

People who play modern pins say that there isn’t much to hit on Mata Hari.  That’s true, compared to today’s multi-level games covered with ramps and “habitrails”, there isn’t too much happening, but it’s the quality, not the quantity which make something better than the rest.

Mata Hari has two lanes to complete A&B, which seems simple enough.  The first time you complete both A&B, you get 1000 points, the second time 2000 and so on.  After 5000 points, you’ll earn and extra ball and then a free game before going back to 5000 points.  It has eight drop targets, two banks of four.  Drop all eight drop targets, and earn 50,000 points.  The second time, and each subsequent time, you win a free game.  At the top of the playfield is a saucer hole.  Get the ball in the hole and it begins to multiply your bonus.  There are also pop bumpers to help rack up points too.  Sounds simple enough, right?

Everything on Mata Hari is set up to seemingly make the ball come speeding toward you.  If you get the ball through the A or B lane at the top, the ball rolls through the lane and into the pop bumper cluster, where it gets kicked around a bit until it’s invariably shot down toward the flippers!  That saucer hole at the top, kicks the ball out and almost straight down between the flippers.  You can hit the ball, but you’re trying to save the ball, more than trying to catch it.  Those drop targets?  They’re aimed at about a 45 degree angle to the player.  You hit one on the left side, the ball caroms across to the right side and then right back at the flippers!  The pace of the game when set up right is nothing short of frenzied!  Blink at your own risk!!!  Sure, you can catch the ball on your flipper and take a breath from time to time, but it usually starts right back up the minute you flip the ball again.

I ended up getting lost in playing Mata Hari for the better part of an hour.  I can’t recall rolling the score over more than a few times.  Mata Hari is on my top ten list of all-time best pinball machines, and if it’s set up properly, is just as much fun to play as any of today’s modern, deeper, and more sophisticated games!