Mike Remembers: The first time I laid my eyes (and ears) on a Centaur was at the Games Room on Rideau. This was a game that had a few really cool features that made it stand out immediately. First off, five ball multi-ball. That alone made this game responsible for a good percentage of my chronic early 80’s quarter depletion condition. Of course the artwork is a tour de force, in Greyscale with Red as the only actual colour used anywhere on the glass, playfield, or cabinet.
The other amazing thing unique in all of Pinball to this game, is the analog echo unit, the Bally “Say it Again” board, which complimented the already amazing synthesized speech and futuristic sounds of the Bally “Squawk and Talk”. The background music/sound uses the eerily dissonant “diabolus in musica”, often referred to as the “Devil’s Interval” for those not versed in Latin, a musical scale believed to have been forbidden by the Catholic Church back in the day, reminiscent of the background music in another of my all time faves here at the Arcade, Devil’s Dare, as well as some of my favourite Zeppelin and other Classic Rock songs, and many great pieces of Classical Music.
This Centaur has of course received the full hot-rod & restoration treatment from Pinball Medics, and is a Certified Black Label Bally, featuring rebuilt pop bumpers, Black Rubbers with Superband flipper & post rubbers, Williams/Bally Fliptronic style flipper assemblies, all new drop targets, a full LED conversion using Comet TWIN 2835 SMD bulbs with colour matched inserts, using only a few strategically placed red and mostly Natural White for general illumination, with unfiltered white UNO LED displays to enhance the Greyscale and Red effect that is one of the unique and beautiful features of this amazing classic.
