The_Party_Zone Knowpia

*The Party Zone*
	Captain B. Zarr is the centre figurehead of The Party Zone.
Manufacturer	Midway
Release date	August 1991
System	Williams WPC (Dot Matrix)
Players	1-4
Design	Dennis Nordman
Programming	Jim Strompolis
Artwork	Greg Freres
Mechanics	Zaofia Bil, Win Schilling
Music	Dan Forden
Sound	Dan Forden
Theme	Happiness
Marketing Slogan	"You are now entering: The Party Zone"; "Big Bang, Big Bucks!"

The Party Zone is a crossover solid-state pinball machine released in 1991 by Midway (under Bally) designed by Dennis Nordman and programmed by Jim Strompolis. It is in a single playfield format and collaborates characters from previous pinball machines. It is the second pinball machine released after the Bally-Midway division was sold, yet still operated under the "Bally" name.^[6]

Backglass edit

The backglass as well as the playfield contain characters from previous games (who all meet up on this game at the Cosmic Cottage):^[7]

The Party Animal from Bally Midway's 1987 Party Animal
The Party Monsters from Midway's 1989 Elvira and the Party Monsters
The Party Dude from Midway's 1990 Dr. Dude And His Excellent Ray
Beside the skeleton in the group of Party Monsters, a Trog caveman, from the 1990 Midway arcade game Trog, can be seen.

Reception edit

The Party Zone has received a total user rating of 7.490 on a scale of 10 and currently ranks #97 in the "Pinside Ranking".^[8] One reviewer noted:

Almost criminally underrated because of its theme. Great ramp, lots to shoot for, funny sounds and animations, and great comedic art from Greg Freres. Major knock is only a two ball multiball, and its linear ruleset gets a little old for repeat plays, but for a fun and casual game it totally rocks!
— guymontag451, pinside

The knowledgeable staff and moderators of pinside have provided a rating of 8.317 out of 10, somewhat varying from the opinions of the public reviewers.

The Internet Pinball Database reviews of The Party Zone are divided into the categories: art, audio, playfield and gameplay. The average user rating given is 7.8/10. Individual ratings for the characters are 8.0/10 for art; 7.7/10 for audio; 7.9/10 for playfield and 7.8/10 for gameplay. 47% of users who reviewed the game gave it a rating of 9/10".^[9] One user made this comment:

The Party Zone is a gem. A fantastic audio and visual pinball ride. Its unique and comical theme, coupled with a colorful, well-crafted and designed playing field, make 'The Party Zone' by Bally such an irresistible pinball machine.
— Laser Beam (Rating 9.8/10), ipdb

Digital version edit

This game was released by FarSight Studios as a licensed table for The Pinball Arcade as the 32nd Table Pack, with the exclusion of the songs "Come Fly with Me" and "Purple Haze" due to license issues, notably, when a player scores the "Big Bang", the soundtrack plays "Pinball Wizard". After Farsight Studios lost the license for Williams pinball tables in the summer of 2018, the table was removed from the game and later reappeared in the second wave of Williams tables available as downloadable content for Zen Studios' Pinball FX 3 in December of the same year after it obtained the license.