Ask Uncle Willy #8: November 21, 1995
Here are the latest bits of info from Uncle Willy.
Please keep in mind that some questions take a bit of research, so that
answers to some questions may not show up right away. Also, with all the
questions in his mailbox, Uncle Willy can only answer the questions of general
interest to the readers of rec.games.pinball.
Send all questions and comments to:
uncle_willy@wms.com
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Question: On the Firepower pinball, it when switches were hit faster
than it could score them with a sound effect, it would
queue up the scores and sounds. Sometimes, the queue could
get fairly long and the game would spend some time in
"catching up" to a bunch of switch hits. What happens if
the ball drains while the catching up is occurring? Do all
of the pending points get scored?
Answer: Uncle Willy checked with Steve Ritchie and Eugene Jarvis,
the designer and software programmer, respectively, for
Firepower, to find out the answer to this question.
Since Firepower was one of the earlier solid-state pinballs,
electromechanical pinballs were still much in everyone's
memories. One of the complaints of electromechanical games
was that they would not rack up every switch closure while
the games were busy scoring. This was simply a limitation
of the mechanical means of scoring.
The Firepower design team wanted to emphasize that EVERY
switch closure was logged and scored on their game. The
result was that the points were queued up and scored
sequentially. Steve Ritchie notes that the design team
even considered putting the text "Every Point is Scored" on
the bottom arch of Firepower.
According to both Steve and Eugene, the queue is emptied
when the ball drains, and the player is credited for each
point scored. Eugene notes that tilting clears the queue,
and those points in the queue are forfeited.
Question: In the Addams Family pinball, the quotes "Dirty Pool, Old
Man. I like it." and "It has to warm up...so it can KILL
YOU." appear in test mode. I have never heard them in
game play. Do they, and where?
Answer: The first quote happens when you happen to get the ball into
the Vault with the Bookcase closed. You will be credited
for the lock, and the Bookcase will open.
The second quote happens at the start of the second multiball
before the familiar "It's SHOWTIME!" quote, if the multiball
is started by shooting the ball into the Electric Chair.
Question: I have a great idea for a pinball game. Where do I send it?
Answer: Williams Electronics Games, Inc., does not accept game ideas
from outside sources. The legalities and potential problems
are just too great to make it worthwhile to deal with game
ideas submitted by others.
Note that just coming up with a good idea is only a small
part of being a good game designer. The idea must still be
developed; devices must be designed; all the thousands of
little details must be attended to. For more information
on the game design process, see Uncle Willy's September 1st,
1995, article.
Question: Did Black Knight 2000 have a billboard plastic on top of the
backbox?
Answer: Yes it did. The sign read: "_ Balls for 2 Coins". The
blank area was cut out, and small plastics with the numbers
"3" and "5" were provided to be affixed behind the sign.
A sign was shipped with every game.
Question: In the Twilight Zone pinball clock, why were the diodes
replaced with zero-ohm jumpers? The diodes are indicated on
the silkscreen on the circuit board and in the schematics
for the clock. It seems to me that the diodes help to keep
the bulbs from getting too hot and affecting the clock
circuitry.
Answer: Originally, the lamps in the Twilight Zone clock were
*controlled* lamps, not General Illumination. You will note
that there are four power leads coming out of the clock for
lamp voltages. Two are all that are necessary for a GI
circuit, but the four leads allows the lamps to be controlled
as a 2x2 matrix.
As usually happens in the course of game design, the Twilight
Zone team ran out of controlled lamps. The lamps in the
clock were switched to GI as a consequence. The diodes,
which are necessary when the lamps are part of the controlled
lamp matrix, were replaced with zero-ohm jumpers simply to
make the clock as bright as possible. Since the information
in the manual was produced early, and since it did not make
sense to spend the money changing the silk screen on the lamp
circuit board, that information is out-of-date with the clock
lamps as produced.
Heat buildup within the clock was not noticed (and not
anticipated) during the development and prototype stages of
Twilight Zone.
Question: I have a chance to buy Hot Tip and Lucky Seven pinball games.
Who designed these games, and how collectible are they?
Answer: Hot Tip (Williams, 1977) was designed by Tony Kramer. Lucky
Seven (Williams, 1978) was designed by Chris Otis. These
games are notable because they were the first solid state
games made by Williams Electronics Games, Inc. Hot Tip was
made in both electromechanical and solid state versions; the
latter was equipped with a scoring wheel inside the cabinet
to provide the scoring sound that players were familiar with
at the time.
Uncle Willy is no expert on the collectibility of games, so
you will have to ask elsewhere for information on that.
Having a Lucky Seven, with its slot machine reels in the
playfield, next to a Whodunnit? pinball, which also has slot
reels, would be an interesting contrast, however!
Question: On the Whitewater pinball, is the ball supposed to hit the
glass when it is coming from the Insanity Falls shot?
Also, why wasn't a small pin placed by the kickback, like
on Black Knight 2000, to keep the ball from sometimes
hanging up there?
Answer: Insanity Falls was not designed to allow the ball to hit the
glass. In fact, most of the initial development of a game is
performed with the glass off; the only concern is clearance for
mechanisms and the ball. After the Whitewater ramps were
finalized and games were actually being played with playfield
glass installed, it was noticed that the ball sometimes hit
the glass. Since this not detrimental to the game, the
behavior was not modified.
While the small pin, or nail, on Black Knight 2000 was
intended to prevent a ball from hanging up on the kickback,
Uncle Willy decided to do some field research of his own on
the matter. After several hours of getting sidetracked
playing both of the above-mentioned games, Uncle Willy has
come to the following conclusions:
The small pin present by the kickback on Black Knight 2000
is not placed in a way as to prevent the ball from sitting
on the kickback. In fact, Uncle Willy cannot see that the
pin does anything useful at all (other than provide the "pin"
in "pinball"). The ball will still hang up on the kickback
on a Black Knight 2000, and does not come close to the pin
while doing so.
Admittedly, the ball hangs up more easily and solidly on the
kickback on Whitewater. The difference appears to be the
placement of the kickback in relation to the bottom arch.
On Whitewater it is set farther toward the front of the
playfield, providing the ball a deeper "hole" to sit in.
As to why the placement of the kickback is different on those
two games, Uncle Willy is at a loss for an explanation.
All text and images © 1995 Williams Electronics Games, Inc.
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