The Canterbury Bowling Club

The Canterbury Bowling Club is located on Close street Canterbury.  There are three pinball machines located here, Elvira and the Party Monsters, Congo and Dr Who.   They are all $1 a go and 3 balls.

 



These are all older, fairly hard to find machines, the only one I'd played before was Doctor Who. 

 



In the few times I played it seems like the multiball was very get-able, lock two balls which raises a section at the centre back of the playfield revealing a set of targets that once hit (till the playfield lights are all lit) raises the platform again to reveal three holes that correspond to Daleks - hit one of them to start a three ball multiball and some "Exterminate!" sound effects

This was about as far as I got with this machine though. I didn't really suss out any high scoring techniques but i think the use of the third flipper  (up and to the left) might be the key.  At any rate, this is a fun machine well worth a go, and with a relatively gettable multiball may of been the easier of three.


Congo is a much better pinball machine than it was a movie.  In fact it has been quite a while since I saw Congo and I had forgotten (or tried to) how bad the movie was until I heard the sample on the machine saying "The Gorilla knows where the diamonds are!".  And is my memory playing up or were there Gorillas with laser beams attached to them?  Either way, you don't need to have watched the movie to enjoy the pinball, in fact I recommend not watching the movie.  Although, reading that back, a movie about Gorillas with laser beams smuggling diamonds sounds awesome... Maybe I need to re-think my stance.







 

Congo seems to be an intereesting balance of easy shots and hard.  The right ramp volcano is an example of the hard.  It's not just that it's the steepest ramp on the table but the fact that the shot is through the field of bumpers means if you dont make the shot the ball with careen off the bumpers and all control is lost.  Worse case scenario the ball will rocket out of the bumpers and straight between the flippers.  The three shots on the left are relatively easy, it just took me a while to get used to the third flipper.  At any rate the left side of the playfield is definitely safer.

 

Also the table seems to have an inset playfield but despite lighting the Gray targets via the Gray lane and it locking the ball (which is apparently how to activate it) I didn't see it in action. Maybe next time.

 

 

The third machine is Elvira and the Party Monsters. The oldest machine of the three it is the predecessor to Scared Stiff and shares a few things in common with that machine - including the appearance of the Dead Heads, the Boogeyman Boogie and Elviras encouraging innuendo.

 

 

 

And although it's not crazy hard it is probably the most unforgiving of the three with no ball save and a couple of ramps that can mean trouble if you dont make them.  Overall I'd say I had my best go and my worst go on this machine.  It's well worth playing especially as I believe it's quite rare to find this machine in such good condition.

 

My only negative points regardig these machines would be that there is some glare off the glass (as can be seen in the photos) as a flourescent light sits above them.  Congo and Doctor Who are hit the worst but even so this isn't a deal breaker.  I've seen worse glare in other venues.  Be sure to take plenty of gold coins though as being 3 ball and fairly punishing you will more than likely need a few credits to get into the swing of things.

 

I'll definitely be heading back to the Canterbury Bowlo for a few more games of pinball and a few cheap beers - the drinks holder on the legs of the machine are genius.  I should also mention that these are zball.com.au machines and they are running a Pinball Comp with the grand prize being a Dracula pinball machine.  Check their website for details.