Embryon

Unlike other Bally electronic pinball games, their documentation for this game shows the model number only as 1222, not 1222-E. Embryon was the first Bally game to feature artwork by Tony Ramunni and the last widebody pinball from Bally Manufacturing Company before it was bought by Williams. It was also the only game from this company to use their trademarked "Flipsave" ball saving feature - a small vertical flipper located in the right outlane used by players to flip draining balls back into the return lane. Pictured in this listing is original concept art from Tony Rammuni. Collector Bill Kurtz stated in an online auction: This artwork was done as an example to show Bally executives what the finished playfield artwork would look like. The areas where the plastic light shields belong are blank, but all of the artwork that would be screened onto the wooden playfield is here. This artwork was the first time that Rammuni signed his full name on the backglass artwork; his earlier work for Williams was signed simply as "Ramunni." Apparently, Ramunni used the back of this tagboard to practice his signature for the backglass, since he painted his name several times. Ramunni has also painted an "Elektra Crystal" on the back of the tagboard -- the next pinball game that he created artwork for was ELEKTRA. And there are also some handwritten notes on the back of the tagboard about various colors and halftones.