Grand Slam

The 2-player version of this game is Bally Midway's 1983 'Grand Slam'. Greg Kmiec told us that Grand Slam was made as an "economy" game, meaning that there wasn't a lot of extra money put into the game, neither in design nor promotion. In the Files section is the April 1983 issue of Bally Midway Monitor, a newsletter sent to operators and distributors. It reports that Grand Slam debuted at the Amusement Operator's Expo the previous month which was March 25-27, 1983 at the O�Hare Exposition Center in Chicago. The text reads "Grand Slam can take on 2 or 4 players, When the 4-Player option is used, the readout shows the 1st and 2nd players' runs while they play and flashes the runs for the 3rd and 4th players when it's their turn at bat." The accompanying photo shows the 4-player game. Tim Arnold told us that this game was originally a 2-player but they were not selling well so Bally made the last part of the production run as 4-player (backglass has four score windows for the four score displays). We show only a single production run quantity of 1000 units which likely includes both 2-player and 4-player quantities. We note that a single Model Number 1311 represents both versions. Tim said this game was made in the Midway plant using the Midway serial numbering system which starts at the number 1. For instance, serial number 124 is the 124th game produced. If Tim�s information is correct, then eventually having enough serial numbers in evidence should be useful to determine when during the production run the games converted from having only 2 score displays to having 4 displays. The only Installation Manual that we have contains a backbox wiring diagram showing pinouts for "optional" Player 3 and Player 4 connectors. (We present it in this 4-player listing.) If we assume that Bally/Midway did not know sales of the 2-player version would be so poor, to have pre-printed for each 2-player game a manual that would contain these optional pinouts, then perhaps two versions of this manual exist. If anyone has an original Grand Slam manual or backbox wiring diagram that does not evidence a third or fourth player, please contact us. The Installation Manual indicates the MPU is AS-2518-133. Bally made a set of six baseball cards for Grand Slam (not shown here) as a promotional item and the set we saw pictured only the 4-player backglass. Reportedly, these cards were given away at the Bally booth at a 1983 spring coin-op games trade show. If we can identify which trade show this was, and the days it occurred, this might contribute to our understanding of the evolution of this game.