Todd Tuckey shows you a Xenon with original factory mylar and is in fantastic condition.,..artwork on sides breathaking! Plus some looks at upcoming games including an Avengers BLUE Limited Edition!
I learned electronics and ditched the corporate life for a summer of fixing pinballs and videos. Wow and woot! What a great time that was. When ever new machines came into the shop we would get six packs of beer and TEST the gameplay. A whole warehouse full of powered machines with coin doors swinging in the wind. A childhood fantasy come true.
I loved Xenon, one of the first pinballs we owned. We were fortunate to have the mylar on ours, so the playfield looked just about as nice. :) That's interesting, I didn't realize it was the first to use a woman's voice in the game. I need to check out the video you produced to see more about Xenon. Thanks for posting this!
Really awesome to see this, and your Haunted House restoration. I lost both games in a storage unit fire a couple of months ago and am still devastated.
I think Xenon might have been the first talking Bally machine? The Vocalizer card is a wall of EPROMs and a CVSD (Continuously Variable Slope Delta) chip that accepts data as a stream of single bits at a variable clock rate that created a crude sinewave with variable frequency and amplitude. It was used in early telecommunications systems for speech compression, but is terrible for music. It's a fascinating chip. For "silence" you have to clock in alternate 1's and 0's on the data line. The dreamy, sighing Xenon voice was necessitated by the small amount of memory available, since it sounded best. I've got one, but it speaks FRENCH! And it doesn't sound very sexy at all. (Gruff male voice!) "Premiere bien sortie." "Jeux moi encore?"
Very crude but highly advanced for it's time. Immediately after this game came out we started work on the Texas Instruments 'Speak and Spell' technology which evolved into the famous Bally Squawk and Talk.
I absolutely love this machine. I got a pretty nice one. Cabinet and backglasses are excellent, playfield pretty solid, but paint worn just below the flippers, where the ball bounces a lot when it hits the rail. Why did they put the flipper rail in that position?
There is a documentary called Omni that shows them making the sounds for this game and the voices and sound effects are all done by Suzanne Ciani, the electronic music composer. It shows her using analog synthesizers to do the sounds.
I played this game at college in 1980 and loved it. The student union, via the woman's action group, had it banned. Because what you don't say is exactly what the woman's voice does if you play the game well, lol. I was shocked and amused at the same time.
I used to play this in the pool hall next to the used bookstore weekly... Just might try to buy such a machine someday. Not right now, though, sadly... Really fun game. Advanced game, you have to watch for lots of easy to lose the ball, hard to strike on time targets. But if you are an experienced player, or willing to play a lot has some neat versatility. The 70s Heavy Metal inspired art and lights and played down eroticism takes the show. Most people just say HR Giger. I'd reccomend looking up 70s Euro comics, and Heavy Metal - specifically Sergio Macedo who did futuristic new age comics that were a perfect fit for early Heavy Metal - like "Orcyb"... Another one I loved and by luck played a bunch of - at laundrymat - was "Lost World" - that's a decade older and has a Frazetta/Sword and Sorcery theme - don't confuse with a 20 year younger Jurassic Park spin-off game. That one is a collector's item and often quite expensive.
I USED TO PLAY THIS GAME FOR HOURS ON A COUPLE OF DOLLARS. i WOULD RACK MY SCORE UP INTO THE MILLIONS,AND KNOCK IT UP THE TUBES FOR TONS OF REPLAYS. I KNEW EXACTLY WHERE TO AIM MY SHOTS OFF OF THE FLIPPERS.i WOULD USUALLY RACK IT UP TO 25 OR MORE REPLAYS @ MEVES BOWLING ALLEY IN GRAND ISLAND,NE WHEN I WAS AROUND 13 BACK IN 1979.ZENON was the first talking pinball machine,and one of my favorites next to SPACE INVADERS PINBALL MACHINE.
I played this when I was 9 or 10.... I didn't know the UNDERTONES but I thought Xenon was badass.. I wanted to BE her.... once I reached High School or College I realized the game's lewdness.... and I started writing kink stories with her and Solid Snake from METAL GEAR (my crush at the time.) GRACIAS SUZANNE CIANI.
I was in love with Suzy when I was in college. Even more so when this game came out. I played it endlessly during the middle of the night at San Francisco airport when I worked there (in the USO). I wanted to marry her! BTW: She still looks good after all these years!!!
SUZANNE I PLAYED YOU EVERY NIGHT (at SFO aiport in the early 80s next to the USO in Central terminal, now Terminal 2). I TRIED YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN!!! DO YOU MISS ME??? p.s. Suzy still looks cute after all these years! Look her pic up!
+TNT Amusements Inc I guess Bally wanted to make this machine not just for kids, but for teenagers as well because of the space woman. Maybe the designer was inspired by Sigorney Weaver in the original Alien film.
Gorgeous amazing work! I was a lucky kid growing up in the late 70's and 80's. My father was an exec at Bally from 80-86. Just a quick correction, the womans voice is a very famous synthesis producer named Suzanne Ciani, she's still working her magic. Here's a short documentary filmed while she was producing her voice, sound FX, and music for XENON, meeting with Bally execs. ua-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/v-deo.html Here she is speaking at the Red Bull Music Academy six years ago. ua-cam.com/video/CFD72PXOmxA/v-deo.html
It's a aftermarket altek Mpu with good battery's since its saving my settings and score, and it started doing it right after I fixed the 5v connector jumper on the solenoid driver board.
I finally figured it out I was getting ready to reset the board so I was writing down my settings and when I got to 03 some how it was set to 20 and I have the rewards set to a extra ball s every time I passed 20 points it was triggering. After I reset it to zero the problem went away.
At 2:15 it is said that a secretary at Bally provided the voice for Xenon. Not correct. It was Suzanne Ciani who is a American musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive. ua-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/v-deo.html
The voice belongs to pioneering synthesizer artist, Suzanne Ciani. There's an OMNI magazine video clip of her creating the game's famous sounds.
Posted and then saw this, Synth on!
Suzanne Ciani is an Italian American pianist and music composer, who found early success with innovative electronic music. She was not a secretary.
Secretary? No it was Suzanne Ciani, a electronic music genius far ahead of her time.
Suzanna Ciani
Composer & sound designer.
Just as talented as those artisans who designed and manufactured the XENON pinball machine.
DeviantManRules Agreed!
Those middle era pins with the painted artwork look *so* much better than some of the newer ones that just have photos.
when repainted they do look good...bright colors again
Gorgeous Xenon.
Terry crushed the close. Kudos!
Xenon attracted a lot of attention in the arcades. The voices were done by Susan Ciani.
I learned electronics and ditched the corporate life for a summer of fixing pinballs and videos. Wow and woot! What a great time that was. When ever new machines came into the shop we would get six packs of beer and TEST the gameplay. A whole warehouse full of powered machines with coin doors swinging in the wind. A childhood fantasy come true.
I loved this era of arcade games, when there were still more pinball machines than video games.
I loved Xenon, one of the first pinballs we owned. We were fortunate to have the mylar on ours, so the playfield looked just about as nice. :) That's interesting, I didn't realize it was the first to use a woman's voice in the game. I need to check out the video you produced to see more about Xenon. Thanks for posting this!
What a beauty Todd! This is my next machine I'm buying from you.
I recall the Xenon at the bowling alley I went to when arcade games first came out. Wish I could go back to that time.
Really awesome to see this, and your Haunted House restoration. I lost both games in a storage unit fire a couple of months ago and am still devastated.
Thanks!
Xenon was one of my personal favorites in pinball games.
I think Xenon might have been the first talking Bally machine? The Vocalizer card is a wall of EPROMs and a CVSD (Continuously Variable Slope Delta) chip that accepts data as a stream of single bits at a variable clock rate that created a crude sinewave with variable frequency and amplitude. It was used in early telecommunications systems for speech compression, but is terrible for music. It's a fascinating chip. For "silence" you have to clock in alternate 1's and 0's on the data line. The dreamy, sighing Xenon voice was necessitated by the small amount of memory available, since it sounded best. I've got one, but it speaks FRENCH! And it doesn't sound very sexy at all. (Gruff male voice!) "Premiere bien sortie." "Jeux moi encore?"
bigclivedotcom Neat trivia! Thanks for sharing!
Very crude but highly advanced for it's time. Immediately after this game came out we started work on the Texas Instruments 'Speak and Spell' technology which evolved into the famous Bally Squawk and Talk.
@@areizman And the voice of The Omega Virus. I didn't know he and Xenon were related.
I filmed a terrific interview with Allan...will be posted soon.
@@unwelldanny7108Let's ship them together.... ;)
even your commercials have that 80s retro feelings. Congrat for such a great channel! I already subscribed
Glad to have you aboard!! I try to respond to every comment!
Love that back glass, almost as nice as Space Invaders.
It's a keeper!
So freaking rad!
Suzanne Ciani did the voice work for this game. There is a video on UA-cam of behind the scenes with her doing this.
I absolutely love this machine. I got a pretty nice one. Cabinet and backglasses are excellent, playfield pretty solid, but paint worn just below the flippers, where the ball bounces a lot when it hits the rail. Why did they put the flipper rail in that position?
There is a documentary called Omni that shows them making the sounds for this game and the voices and sound effects are all done by Suzanne Ciani, the electronic music composer. It shows her using analog synthesizers to do the sounds.
Yes...I have had people tell me about that show in the past!
I played this game at college in 1980 and loved it. The student union, via the woman's action group, had it banned. Because what you don't say is exactly what the woman's voice does if you play the game well, lol. I was shocked and amused at the same time.
Typical college silliness!
Love your videos. Here's that vid of the voice of Xenon Omni-Suzanne Ciani - When are you going to do another dance sequence?
I remember playing Xenon when it was new
+Paul Rambone Many people remember this classic!
Booyah.
do you have a video up?
nice clean game.did you see mine ?
I used to play this in the pool hall next to the used bookstore weekly...
Just might try to buy such a machine someday. Not right now, though, sadly...
Really fun game. Advanced game, you have to watch for lots of easy to lose the ball, hard to strike on time targets. But if you are an experienced player, or willing to play a lot has some neat versatility. The 70s Heavy Metal inspired art and lights and played down eroticism takes the show. Most people just say HR Giger. I'd reccomend looking up 70s Euro comics, and Heavy Metal - specifically Sergio Macedo who did futuristic new age comics that were a perfect fit for early Heavy Metal - like "Orcyb"...
Another one I loved and by luck played a bunch of - at laundrymat - was "Lost World" - that's a decade older and has a Frazetta/Sword and Sorcery theme - don't confuse with a 20 year younger Jurassic Park spin-off game. That one is a collector's item and often quite expensive.
Some great memories for you!
I USED TO PLAY THIS GAME FOR HOURS ON A COUPLE OF DOLLARS. i WOULD RACK MY SCORE UP INTO THE MILLIONS,AND KNOCK IT UP THE TUBES FOR TONS OF REPLAYS. I KNEW EXACTLY WHERE TO AIM MY SHOTS OFF OF THE FLIPPERS.i WOULD USUALLY RACK IT UP TO 25 OR MORE REPLAYS @ MEVES BOWLING ALLEY IN GRAND ISLAND,NE WHEN I WAS AROUND 13 BACK IN 1979.ZENON was the first talking pinball machine,and one of my favorites next to SPACE INVADERS PINBALL MACHINE.
Glad you got some good memories...Gorgar was first talker in 1980...Xenon followed and was first talking game with WOMAN'S voice
I played this when I was 9 or 10.... I didn't know the UNDERTONES but I thought Xenon was badass.. I wanted to BE her.... once I reached High School or College I realized the game's lewdness.... and I started writing kink stories with her and Solid Snake from METAL GEAR (my crush at the time.) GRACIAS SUZANNE CIANI.
Suzanne Ciani was a good secretary, high wpm count
I was in love with Suzy when I was in college. Even more so when this game came out. I played it endlessly during the middle of the night at San Francisco airport when I worked there (in the USO). I wanted to marry her! BTW: She still looks good after all these years!!!
I heard she still makes an occasional appearance!
I have a Xenon pinball machine that I’m attempting to fix, could you give me guidance please? You are very knowledgeable sir! 😁
i always want to Tilt this game. ; )
SUZANNE I PLAYED YOU EVERY NIGHT (at SFO aiport in the early 80s next to the USO in Central terminal, now Terminal 2). I TRIED YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN!!! DO YOU MISS ME??? p.s. Suzy still looks cute after all these years! Look her pic up!
Im not kidding sirs im whanting to buy one of these
Stunning. Price?
Back then $2500...now they would go for $3600
Saw the genie pinball in the background
Yes...that video was soon after!
Also need the messurments
+TNT Amusements Inc I guess Bally wanted to make this machine not just for kids, but for teenagers as well because of the space woman. Maybe the designer was inspired by Sigorney Weaver in the original Alien film.
+Justin Blystone It was clever to use a woman's voice...a first in the industry!
+TNT Amusements Inc Indeed. Up until that point, pinball and Arcade video games have been as silent as a library.
Todd, where's the volume control for the Bally Xenon pinball machine?
One is on the coin door and another on the sound board itself.
I probably seen that one at funland coolangatta queensland australia
Maybe its still there!
Gorgeous amazing work!
I was a lucky kid growing up in the late 70's and 80's. My father was an exec at Bally from 80-86.
Just a quick correction, the womans voice is a very famous synthesis producer named Suzanne Ciani, she's still working her magic.
Here's a short documentary filmed while she was producing her voice, sound FX, and music for XENON, meeting with Bally execs.
ua-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/v-deo.html
Here she is speaking at the Red Bull Music Academy six years ago.
ua-cam.com/video/CFD72PXOmxA/v-deo.html
How much does cost to repair a pinball machine
Best pinball I ever played. It got banned at collage as the 'womens' group were furious about it.
Fascinating! We are restoring another one...watch for the Xenon video coming up ina couple of weeks!
Now Avaible on the pinball arcade !
Victor Bannier Ahhhh!
And they never had string cutters in that game ,LOL!
Where can we find this game to play on tablets
Alex Marsh That I am not sure.
I have a weird problem with my xenon. Every time I start the game as soon as it hits any target I get a extra ball and I don't know why?
lost its memory...dead battery
It's a aftermarket altek Mpu with good battery's since its saving my settings and score, and it started doing it right after I fixed the 5v connector jumper on the solenoid driver board.
make sure you didn;t bridge anything...put into a switch test and push switches one by one to see if others react also
I finally figured it out I was getting ready to reset the board so I was writing down my settings and when I got to 03 some how it was set to 20 and I have the rewards set to a extra ball s every time I passed 20 points it was triggering. After I reset it to zero the problem went away.
A switch diode touching something. a loose 6821 on logic board, also check to make sure high score thresholds are still correct (dead battery).
Not the secretary. It's Suzanne Ciani, and you can see her creating the sounds here.
ua-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/v-deo.html
funland coolangatta queensland australia closed in early 1991 todd
Maybe they will reopen again one day!
Here's the video of how the sounds were made for this machine, pretty awesome. ua-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/v-deo.html
A beautiful machine but very basic gameplay. More prized for it's presentation and sound effects
At 2:15 it is said that a secretary at Bally provided the voice for Xenon. Not correct. It was Suzanne Ciani who is a American musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive. ua-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/v-deo.html
Yeah, well done mate. The top comment already covers this. But you knew that, didn't you?
How much can you pay to buy xenon pinball machine whant one for my Moto apartment please send me idea please
IIRC this pin had more moans than words actually
You got the edited version of the chip..too bad.