General:

Date of Release: 5^th December 1983

Model Nr: PB-59
Acronym: PinBall
Rating: DC3V 0.0002W
Battery: Alkali-Manganese batteries LR44 (or SR44) x 2
Manufactured: Japan
Sold: Less than 250,000 Worldwide
Nr. of players: 1
Lives: 3
Modes: Game A & Game B
Controls: Left and Right Buttons.
Other Buttons: Game A, Game B, Time, Alarm & ACL

Game-Play:

Pinball is a portable version of the famous arcade pinball machines. You operate two sets of flippers. One set on the top screen and one set on the bottom screen.

Game differences:

Game A is a standard pinball game played with 3 balls with no bonus balls awarded. Game B is played with one ball and you get a bonus ball at 10,000 with an extra ball every 20,000 points up to a maximum of 3 balls on the screen at the same time.

Trivia:

Highest possible score is 999,900.

Cheats and tricks:

Upper and lower flippers operate together. Try to keep the ball in the upper screen as long as possible. Try to close the gate on the bottom left side of the lower screen by passing the ball through the 700 point area on the top right side of the upper screen. Do it only once, because if you do it again the gate will open.

Points:

Points are awarded depending on the value of the locations where the ball travels and strikes. 500 points will be awarded by striking the 500 point bumpers at the top of the lower screen when flashing.

Misses:

When a ball falls into the left side alley or the middle alley between the flippers on the lower screen a miss is scored. In game A with 3 misses (shown by balls disappearing from the start position in the lower right corner of the lower screen), the game is over. In game B the game finishes when all balls on the screen are lost. In game B, if you score reaches extra ball score and immediately you score a miss, no extra ball is awarded.

Other notices:

If you hold in Game A or Game B key the highest previous score will be displayed. If the unit is left as it is after game is over, time display will appear in about four minutes. A game is not interrupted even if TIME key or other game keys are depressed during game playing. Pressing ACL switch or removing batteries erases high score from memory.

Issue Differences (click to enlarge pictures)

The table will show how to tell the different Issues that were made:

The battery covers seem to have a number on the back, but they seem to vary a lot and I won't even speculate what the difference is.

Box Variations (Click to enlarge):

Game Variations:

Shipping Box:

Fits 10 games

Instructions (English):

Instructions (Japanese):

Instruction Variations:

Other Paperwork: