New VP8 build of the Bally Game Little Joe. Bally's Little Joe was released in August, 1972. Little Joe was designed by Jim Patla with art by Christian Marche. 2,080 units were produced but this game is relatively rare to find today. I was drawn to this game by the fact that it is the only EM game designed around throwing Dice. Little Joe is slang for rolling a pair of twos. The skill shot is unique in that your entry shot picks the value of one of the dice. The other value is showing on the playfield, so you can pick the value of your first roll. That die stays the same for the entire ball in play, while the other one is moved by hitting the mushroom bumpers. The value of the pair sets the active feature. There is some speculation that this game theme was chosen as a bit of an "in your face" to the movement to outlaw pinball as gambling (active in 1972), but this can’t be confirmed.
