Triple Action

"Good, but out-dated"

Triple Action was one of the first pinball machines that introduced us to modern pinball. This game was made in the early 70's but had a few features in it that are still found in pinball machines today. At the time this game was made it was a great game, but not too many people knew about it. Today, it doesn't stand a chance against modern pinball machines because of it is too simplistic and there really isn't enough things in the game that make it fun and exciting.

The theme in Triple Action is a movie set. It seems to be made around a scene in a movie that looks like a fight scene between quite a few strangely dressed Arab men. The rest of the machine is decorated with cameras, lights, and lots of action. This is an interesting layout for me because most of the pinball machines that I played are based on movies, and not when they are being filmed.

The first thing you will notice in this pinball machine is that it is pretty empty. There is lots of empty space inside of it, but besides that you will notice a large spinner in the middle of the playfield. This spinner will determine if your bonus is multiplied by one, two, or three at the end of each ball. There are a total of ten lights around the spinner, and every time the spinner spins a new light lights. Once the last one is lit, it will start over and start on the next level. Every time you get a spin, you get ten points except for when you have the triple bonus it will be worth one-hundred points. Speaking of bonus, there is two different ways you can raise your bonus. Your bonus can go as high as ten-thousand and that can be up to tripled. There is two ways to advance your bonus, each raising it one level. The first way is the three buttons at the very top of the machine. These are worth one-hundred points. The other way is to hit one of the four disappearing targets at the four corners of the machine. Once you hit one of them, it will disappear below the surface. Once all four of the targets are knocked down, they will come back up. If you knock all of these down, you will be awarded with an extra game. After every ball every target will raise once again. There are a few bumpers around the side of the game, but the main ones are above the spinner and next to the paddles. On the other side of the bumpers near the flippers there is a singular lane leading to the loss of a ball. The ball will go down these lanes a lot during the game because of a small circular rubber ring directly above them that will direct you ball in the general direction of the game.

You cannot win any extra balls in this game, but you can win a new game three different ways. The first, like in any other pinball game is to match the last two numbers of your score with randomly generated numbers at the end of the game. The second is to score more than 67,000 points for one game and 98,000 points to win one more. The third way, as I mentioned before is to knock down all of the four targets twice in one ball.

This game may seem very complicated with that elaborate description of the play field, but the main flaw in this game is that it is way too boring. The cause of this is the small list of components in this game. The spinner is always fun to try and hit, but other than that there is no action. Once you get your bonus up to triple-10,000, there is very little action in the game.

Graphics
The pictures on the side of the machine is very good. It is very colorful and goes perfectly with the theme of the game. I was amused with the dress of the men on the machine, and overall was impressed with the graphics. The graphics are a little repetitive though. There is too many cameramen on the machine and a little too many lights.

Sound
The sound like most 70's pinball machines are generated by three different sized pieces of metal that are hit with another metal tong to produce a bell sound. This was a pretty sophisticated at the time and was pretty good. I liked the dings all throughout the game. They were quite entertaining, though could get a little annoy8ing after a while of playing.

Game Play
Like I said, the main problem with this game is that it is way too boring. The game has few components that are fun to play with besides the spinner. The other major thing wrong with the game play is that there is almost no way to gain points besides collecting your bonus. During an average ball, you will gain about ten-thousand points, which is very low compared to other pinball machines at the time. There is no way to collect your bonus, and the largest amount of points you can get is about a thousand points, and you can only get that by falling down the outside lane.

Replay Value
At first, this game is very fun and will get a lot of replay value. But after a while, it will get very boring due to its lack of components. If you own an arcade, this is a smart buy because it will gather lots of quarters from passersby who are attracted by its large spinner but for a household, there are lots of other better choices than this game.

Overall
Triple action is very good with its sound and graphics and had a great first-time play value. But unfortunately there wasn't much of a replay value and there were lots of flaws in the design and game play. This game is fairly good for an arcade, but not as great for a household.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06