Episode 348 - 1962 Gottlieb Tropic Isle and 1963 Bally Moon Shot

In 1963, Bally was hunting around for a replacement for their bingo business in the U.S. Things were looking rather bleak, until they hired Ted Zale, the designer that would add multiball, chicane lanes, etc. to later games. For his first effort, Moon Shot, he made a 100% carbon copy of Gottlieb's Tropic Isle from the year before. I've had the pleasure of playing Tropic Isle, but I've never seen a Moon Shot. Tropic Isle has two sets of two pop bumpers, and an A-B-C-D sequence to make a monkey climb a tree on the backglass. Once you get three monkeys up the tree (this is a carryover feature), the game will award specials! You can also light special by completing 1-5 at the top rollovers. Moon Shot is very much the same with a space theme. Tropic Isle: http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2661 Moon Shot: http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1627