Description

Cirqus Voltaire

The following is from the International Pinball Database:

In Cirqus Voltaire the player must pull off a variety of feats in order to get admitted into the circus, according to the theme. Included are a pop bumper that occasionally rises out of the playfield’s center, a neon light that runs the length of the right-hand ramp, and a mini-playfield with a magnet at the top that can capture and lock balls.

Easily the most famous element is the Ringmaster, a head that occasionally emerges from the playfield to jest at the player.

*Video is of game play from YouTube user “Oslo Pinball Club.”*

Description

Name: Manufacturer:	Cirqus Voltaire Midway Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of WMS Industries, Incorporated, of Chicago, Illinois, USA (1988-1999) [Trade Name: Bally]
Date Of Manufacture:	October, 1997
Model Number:	50062
Common Abbreviations:	CV
MPU:	Williams WPC-95
Type:	Solid State Electronic (SS)
Production:	2,704 units   (confirmed)
Serial Number Database:	View at The Internet Pinball Serial Number Database (IPSND.net)  (External site)
Theme:	Circus/Carnival
Specialty:	Mechanical Backbox Animation
Concept by:	John Popadiuk
Design by:	John Popadiuk, Cameron Silver
Art by:	Linda Deal (aka Doane)
Dots/Animation by:	Adam Rhine, Brian Morris
Mechanics by:	Jack Skalon, Louis Toy
Music by:	Rob Berry, Dave Zabriskie
Sound by:	Rob Berry
Software by:	Cameron Silver
Marketing Slogans:	“Electrifying Excitement!”

Notable Features:

Flippers (2), Pop bumpers (3), Slingshots (2), Stop magnets (3), Standup targets (9), Kick-out holes (2), Spinning targets (2), Speech, Playfield-mounted dot matrix display.
The menagerie ball, a large plastic ball trapped within a cage above the left slingshot. It can be hit by the ball in play and disrupts ball direction.
The Ringmaster is an animated head that elevates from the underside of the playfield and makes wise cracks at the player, who tries to defeat him by hitting him with the pinball in various modes. A stop magnet is on the top of the Ringmaster’s head, holding the ball there when the head rises up.
The “Boom Balloon” pop bumper (on the lower right side of the playfield) is a disappearing bumper. Dropping down until its flat plastic top is level with the playfield.
The backbox animation simulates a cannonball firing to ring a bell, although the bell is really just a piece of plastic with a bell drawn on it. For the most part, this animation activates automatically by the game, but one feature allows the player to continuously fire the cannonball using the flipper buttons in a timed mini-game. Points are given if the ball takes a certain path in the fall (this path having a switch).

Notes:

This is the first SS game to have a disappearing pop bumper. Several EM games have this feature. The first one is Williams’ 1958 ‘Gusher’.
This is the only Williams pinball machine with its dot matrix display mount “on” the playfield instead of in the backbox. The only other pinball with the DMD mount on the playfield is Capcom’s 1996 ‘Flipper Football’.
The sample game pictured in this listing has several playfield differences from the production games that followed. Click here for a list of these differences, with pictures.

*This game come with an upgraded color display, scroll topper. Plus light up flipper buttons, columns, and toy add on*

*Note: These are photos of the actual game you can purchase!*

*all games that are sold, are refurbished and optimized before customers receive the final game. Please allow one to two months after purchase so our highly skilled technicians thoroughly go over your game. thank you!*

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