From 4th December 1976, Death Game 1999 changed its name to the more asinine Spinball. Where Death Game was a brutal fight for survival, Spinball was a future sport story, which would have been at home in 2000AD, were that title around at the time. Death Game's life-or-death finale was chopped down to the four pages below, effortlessly wrapping up the prison element of the story. From there, Spinball became a championship sport, played by sports stars, not convicts. Taggart and Devine, both on skid row, reluctantly join new team Kneagle's Eagles, run by Supersport owner Homer T. Kneagle and his henchman Endean. It soon becomes apparent that Kneagle is as dirty as they come, treating the team like slaves. Joe and Yo-Yo are prisoners once again, forced to play spinball by a rich megalomaniac. Unfortunately, the action lacks the drama of the original series, and the violence is missing too, although the odd flourish does escape the censor. Tom Tully carried on as regular scribe into the strip's next evolution.

Massimo Belardinelli provided only a few pages before moving to 2000AD's Dan Dare revamp. This left Costa out of a job, as he had been working on Dare up to that point. Luckily, he returned to Spinball for most of the run, although an unidentified artist filled in for a few weeks. Eventually, the team were free of Kneagle, who died under the ice at the Eagles' final match, but the fat man cursed them from beyond the grave, as the team were found guilty of his murder. Forced to play spinball or die in the radiation chamber, the Black Gladiators became The Spinball Slaves on September 17th 1977, with Ron Turner taking over as artist. This version evolved into The Spinball Wars after the merger with Battle.