Spin the wheel of fortune — Game Plan’s Black Velvet is a solid-state four-player from one of the era’s scrappier underdog manufacturers, designed by Ed Cebula with art by Jim Sullivan. With an alphanumeric display, it’s an intriguing title with a genuinely fun casino-style scoring feature at its heart, from a company that carved out its own niche in the solid-state age.
The strategy centers on that clever roulette mechanic. Landing in any A, B, or C saucer spins the roulette wheel, which can award 2x bonus, light the extra ball, light the special, or simply pay points — a satisfying bit of gambling excitement baked right into the playfield. The scoring foundation is solid, too: the top lanes, bottom lanes, and midfield rollovers each score a thousand points and increment your end-of-ball bonus, while one spinner is always lit for a thousand a spin, with the slingshots changing which spinner is lit. So a thoughtful player works the lanes and the lit spinner to build bonus, then chases those roulette spins for the big awards.
Black Velvet is exactly the kind of off-the-beaten-path machine that makes pinball collecting so endlessly fascinating — a title from a smaller manufacturer with a genuinely fun, distinctive feature in that roulette wheel. Game Plan never had the marketing muscle of the big houses, which makes its machines a rewarding pursuit for the collector who prizes the industry’s underdogs. For anyone who loves a bit of casino excitement with their pinball, it’s a worthy find. Work the lanes and the lit spinner, land in the saucers, and spin that roulette wheel for a 2x bonus or an extra ball. Some machines add a clever twist to the formula, and this Game Plan gem does exactly that. Place your bets and drop a coin.