Bad Cats

Bad Cats is a pinball machine released in November 1989 themed around the lives of a group of cats and the things they tend to do that annoy people. The object of the game is to spell out "BAD CATS" and accumulate the progressive jackpot that begins at 1 million points. It was designed by Barry Oursler and Python Anghelo.

In 1989 Python Anghelo moved house to an area near the Williams factory. A neighbour on one side had two dogs, the neighbour on the other side had numerous feral cats; their meeting in his yard inspired the theme for this machine.

Python Anghelo's face is on the snake on the backglass; this is labelled "Pinball Python". The backglass includes one of the designers favourite quotes “There are crazy cats and there are copy cats!”

The housewife on the backglass is based on Anghelo's future ex-wife. This mechanism hits a cat, making it spin, based on a similar mechanism in the 1965 pinball machine Buckaroo. When the centre ramp is hit, a musical "Meow, meow-meow-meow!” is played. Unusual for its era, the table does not have a multi-ball.

Python Anghelo said that he hated working on this game. "Bad Cats was a joke. Bad Cats, and Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball, are one of my 'yes boy, kiss-ass'... and they're one of my worst experiences."

After his death, the designer's personal machine was found with a card naming most of the cats and others - a young girl Aurora, is pushing a pram with a cat called Aurelian, his wife is in the garage, Ilie and Simi are fishing, Ina is on the roof, Atena is trying to get eggs from a birds nest, a character called Tudor is using a slingshot, Christina is trying to escape a dog, Ioana is on a barbecue, Dixie and Ramona are in a love-triangle with Ralphie, Janelle, Justin, and Jared are watching a hole in the ground, a tiger called Uliana is roaring at them to come home, Dani is skateboarding on the roof.