Bally sente
The Chicken shift game at Space Plex was housed inside a midway Pac-Man cabinet which was known as a "Sac-Man". Not many people remember playing this game on location but I actually first played this on Long Island at an arcade known as "Space Plex". A red button which shifts red things and a blue button which shifts blue things. The game play is rather simple yet unique where you only have two rectangular buttons. One of the rarer titles in my collection is Sente / Bally's Chicken Shift. Here you can see the exploded view of how the Universal Joysticks are assembled : The Universal joystick is certainly different where it has vertical leaf switches. Another popular Universal title which shared the same generic cabinet was Mr. Some had slight variances from game to game. I would go as far to say that not many things were universal about them. This Universal cabinet was originally built in Taiwan.
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After continuing to search and search finally I was able to find the direct ball top replacement which according to the manual is a 32 mm ball top. I finally found a replacement control panel without it being molested but the ball top was missing from the original joystick. At first I got cocktail joysticks which were slightly shorter. Although the wico joystick is in my opinion a better functioning joystick I wanted to track down the original one that the game utilized. For nearly almost a year I looked for a replacement control panel and proper joystick for the Universal cabinet. However someone at some point drilled the original plastic control panel and used an adapter plate to use a wico joystick. When I first got the game it was in fair original condition considering the games age. However the Arcade version had superior graphics. Lady Bug actually got more exposure from the Colecovision. When you do this if you collect a red letter they will be worth 800pts x 5x which will equal 4000 points. In addition to that if your really looking to maximize your score collect the blue circles with the pink hearts, this will advance the multiplier up to 5x. If your playing the game on location and you want to try and earn an extra credit collecting special will do just that, if your looking to prolong your current game keep spelling EXTRA with the yellow letters and you will be awarded an extra lady bug. You also have letters in the game which if you collect the red letters it will spell out SPECIAL, collecting the yellow letters spells out EXTRA. As you continue to move through the levels the point value of the vegetable / item will increase by 500 points, however once you hit level 18 it will max out at 9500 points. Once all of the enemies are released on the level the inside area will have a bonus vegetable which will temporarily freeze the enemies once it's touched, and award you with bonus points.
![bally sente bally sente](https://www.arcade-museum.com/images/118/118124212232.jpg)
![bally sente bally sente](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kncAAOSwZedeQxM1/s-l400.jpg)
Skulls are helpful so long as you don't touch them, however it will kill the enemies if they touch them. Prior to the enemies coming out of it's area the outside of the maze has a count down timer indicating when they will start to be released. The cool part about Lady Bug is that you can manipulate the maze you have these levers which can alter the maze and temporarily keep the enemies away from killing you. You have other insects chasing you not ghosts.
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The game play is similar to the Pac series instead of collecting dots, your collecting what looks like asterisks or tiny flowers. Pac-Man, it certainly had it's own unique features which added just enough to separate the game from the competition. Universal Lady Bug was a great contender which although wasn't as popular as Pac-Man or Ms.
![bally sente bally sente](http://xtremeretro.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Bally-Sente-Retro-Videogames-Pixel-Art-Xtreme-Retro-1.png)
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