I must admit, I learnt a few bits from that last video, I had no idea that Apache wasn't just a reskin of Big Chief, until l watched the video. Certainly does improve on the Big Chief gameplay.
Pretty sure I played an Apache in real life. Did it come in exactly the same cabinet, colour and everything else?
Never noticed the hi-lo reel cut out and feature exchange points on the Big Chief cabinet before. I wonder if Big Chief was rushed out as a bit of a tester and the gameplay already thought up, saved for a secondary machine, namely Apache, providing Big Chief was a hit.
Looking at the even better use of the DMD in Apache, they were really impressive for the time and if in a machine in colour nowadays, still would be.
I thought the Ace DMDs were good (which they were), but seeing these Barcrest one again after all these years, they aren't quite as impressive.