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The Classic Pinball Podcast
The Classic Pinball Podcast
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#121 Taxi - The Classic Pinball Podcast

PodcastAnalysis updated yesterday1 hr 35 min listenBy George
From the creator

Taxi review. Tony the customer arrives to pick up game. Taxi gameplay. Corrections and clarifications. Old and new business. Puck bowlers again. Playfields for sale....

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Highlights

  • Taxi was manufactured by Williams in 1988 and designed by Mark Ritchie with art by Python Angelo
  • Approximately 7,300 Taxi machines were produced
  • Python Angelo (artist) worked on Comet, High Speed, Pinbot, Big Guns, Cyclone, Taxi, Bad Cats, Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball Birthday Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball Birthday Ball, Bride of Pinbot, Hurricane, Fishtails, Popeye Saves the Earth the Earth, and Pinball Circus
  • Mark Ritchie designed Firepower 2, Road Kings, Big Guns, Police Force, Diner, Fishtails, and Indiana Jones
  • Pinball was dead around 1983-1985, then revived by High Speed and Pinbot, with games like Taxi in 1988 serving as launching pads into the 1990s games
  • The restoration took approximately 18-20 hours of work including flipper rebuilds, rubber replacement, pop bumper reconstruction, coil and switch repairs, and artwork touch-ups by Maureen (Dave's wife)
  • A previous technician had miswired the Lola/Maryland targets and incorrectly placed a wire that caused the left out lane to not register properly
  • Dave added a John Wick 1973 taxicab figure to the top lane of Taxi as a modification
  • The skill shot in Taxi is a spin-out plunge that can award anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 points and registers via switch hits as the ball spins
  • Taxi features a real bell (not digital) as part of its sound package

Notable quotes

“It was raining hard in Frisco. I needed one more fare to make my night.”
George
“Taxi! Hey, Taxi! I had to do that.”
Dave
“I've been going through it almost 20 hours with the work on it and did some mods to it.”
Dave
“He definitely had an artist's mind.”
Dave
“Pinball was on the rise at this point... definitely was pretty much dead around 83, 84, 85: some dark years there. And then with High Speed and Pinbot, that brought new life into it.”
Dave
“It's a simple game. Like you said, it's a fan layout. There's nothing, you know, there's nothing earth-shaking about this design. But effective, I think.”
George
“I took it to a grinder... The metal for the habit trail was too long. It was actually interfering with the ball.”
Dave
“This game is brutal... That's why Tony said, 'Can you set it back for five balls?'”
George
“It's a tough game. He must be pretty good.”
Tony
“You've got to keep getting the multi-ball, because, you know, your survival rate goes up.”
Tony

Entities

  • Williams· company
  • Bride of Pinbot· game
  • Comet· game
  • Cyclone· game
  • Diner· game
  • Fishtails· game
  • High Speed· game
  • Indiana Jones· game
  • Pinball Circus· game
  • Pinbot· game
  • Taxi· game
  • Papa· organization
  • The Classic Pinball Podcast· organization
  • Bowen Kerins· person
  • Dave· person
  • George· person
  • Leon· person
  • Mark Ritchie· person
  • Maureen· person
  • Mr. Kearns· person
  • Python Angelo· person
  • Tony· person

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