Gottlieb / Premier Bad Girls
Bad Girls is unique.. not every pinball machine has a backglass photograph with three sexy women playing pool in a bar, wearing a tight shirt, mini-skirt, stockings, .. It's clearly oriented at a mature audience. Only intended for adults, not a game you'll keep around for the kids.
When Premier took over Gottlieb they made a series of games which are now considered as 'typical 80ies'. They have no drawn translight but a photograph.. usually with women in very typical dresses and haircut for that time.
This makes these games (other examples are Spring Break, Hot Shots, Genesis, Gold Wings (similar to the Top Guns movie), Hollywood Heat (Miami Vice), Raven (a female Rambo)..) quite interesting to own actually. They're usually very cheap as almost nobody wants them. The artwork or theme doesn't make them suited to be played by children, and experienced pinball players usually want a game with deeper rules. And most of them are not that bad (except for Raven) and sometimes even interesting to play.
Taste differs of course.. While Bad Girls not the best looking game ever made, it's not that bad either. Much worse exist. A nice detail is that the pinball cabinet (black with mirrors on it) is identical to the pool table featured on the translight. The women in the bar on the photo backglass are also drawn on the playfield.
I wouldn't recommend these games to an experienced pinball player as the only game to have.
But if you're new to pinball these are ideal: not too difficult, cheap,
and they're more reliable and offer more gameplay to than older games
(like the first electronic generation by Stern and Bally). Good to learn what pinball
is about and to learn to aim at specific targets.
Or even when you're a good pinball player, if you want to have a typical 80ies
gameroom / arcade in your basement, why not add one of these games ?
Gameplay
Bad Girls is actually not bad to play. I like it. It's typical Gottlieb: lots of drop targets and an unusual playfield layout. With another backglass and maybe another name, this game could've been one of the better billiards themed games out there, as pool games usually are quite popular.
On the pool table on the playfield different pool balls light up, and by hitting their associated drop target you remove it from the table. There's a ramp, a vari-target, and some other things to shoot at. Quite a lot to do and aim for for a game of that era.
I also like the music. Reminds me of the midi-music on home computers of the 80ies.
My game
I bought my machine cheap as it was in bad condition. It had been stored in the greenhouse
addition of a house, and 2 to 3 years of huge temperature differences in the summer dried
out the wood of the playfield, with huge paint damage as a result.
And with huge paint damage I mean huge damage: parts of the playfield which were not covered
by mylar were almost all bare wood, paint flaked off.
A few months after I had it the game began to have cpu problems as the battery had leaked. I repaired it but again a few months later the game didn't want to start anymore.. So in the end I just parted the game out. Because of the bad playfield and overall low value of the game I just didn't want to invest any more in it.
About a year later a local dealer had a few of these for sale again, I probably would have bought one if I had room to store it.. as it is quite fun to play.
Things to look for when buying
It's a Gottlieb Sys80B game. Don't forget to check for battery damage on the main cpu board !
(yellow arrow points to the DataSentry battery pack). Over the years many regular and rechargeable batteries
will start to leak and damage the mpu. More information about batteries in pinball
machines can be found here.
Trivia
This games uses a speech card which was only used in this game and only says the word 'bad'.