Pop a wheelie — Bally’s BMX is a solid-state four-player that catches the dirt-flinging energy of bicycle motocross at the height of the BMX craze, designed by Ward Pemberton with art by a stellar team including Greg Freres, Kevin O’Connor, Margaret Hudson, and Pat McMahon. A genuine rarity with a confirmed run of just 406 and an alphanumeric display, it’s a scarce mid-’80s Bally with a clever, feature-rich layout.
The strategy has real texture. A soft plunge aimed at the top-left saucer is the smart opening move, since the lanes below hand you a doubled or tripled score for the ball, provided you touch nothing else first — a lucrative head start for a careful player. Completing the target banks adds lights to your bonus and collects it, with the bonus value randomized but climbing higher the more lights you’ve earned, so there’s incentive to work those banks. The cleverest wrinkle is a second set of flipper buttons that control the inlanes and outlanes — the lights indicate when they’re ready, relighting after a time — giving an engaged player active control over ball saves. With four flippers, a six-bank and four-bank of drops, and eight standups, there’s plenty to work through.
BMX is a fun, scarce Bally that pairs a high-energy ’80s sports theme with a genuinely inventive control scheme in those secondary flipper buttons. With only 406 built, it’s a real find for the collector who prizes rarity, and that scoring-doubling saucer and bonus-building strategy reward a thoughtful player. Soft-plunge for the multiplier, work the banks, and master those outlane-control buttons. It’s dirt-track pinball with a clever twist, and it rewards the rider who learns its tricks. Drop a coin and hit the track.