We want to hear what you think!
We've compiled some of the mail you have sent to us at pin2000@wms.com
and made this list of answers to Frequently Asked Questions:
When is Star Wars Episode 1 going to be available, and what is the cost?
Your Williams/Bally Distributor has information regarding price and availability for Star Wars Episode 1. Contact them for more information.
Are you working on
game x for Pinball 2000?
It's the policy of our
company to not comment on unreleased games.
Where can I download Pinball 2000?
Pinball 2000 is our name for our new line of coin-operated pinball machines. It is not available as a video game for any PC or console platform.
How come the Revenge From Mars I played didn't give out any free games (replays)?
Revenge From Mars shipped from the factory with the setting to give extra balls at the score thresholds. We feel this is a setting that maximizes earnings for the operator while still having a worthwhile goal for the player. Revenge can be adjusted (via operator settings, consult the Owner's Manual) to give a credit at the second score threshold if desired.
What CPU (Central
Processing Unit) does Pinball 2000 use?
Currently, Pinball 2000
uses a Cyrix MediaGX
motherboard, in an industry standard "Baby AT" form factor. The CPU case
uses a standard PC power supply.
The PCI expansion card
(called PRISM) holds all game ROMs, Flash memory, battery-backed memory, and the DCS-2
Audio System.
I noticed that the
Pinball 2000 cabinet is shorter than the old pinball cabinet. Why?
To get the optimal
manufacturing yield from our cabinet vendors, the cabinet was made slightly shorter.
This also met a request from our European operators to make the pinball footprint
smaller while delivering the same Williams pinball feel everyone knows.
While the cabinet width has
not changed, the depth has been changed from 51.5" to 47.5", a difference of
four inches. (Flyers that quote a depth of 55" are referring to the crated
game).
This means the playfield
has been shortened as well. By making very small adjustments to the playfield
geometry, our designers have found they can give the same Williams pinball feel, and the
change is not even noticable! The distance from the flippers to the ramps, scoops,
and other shots has not changed at all.
For history buffs, Williams' standard playfield length increased from 42" to 46"
in 1988. With Pinball 2000, the size is changing from 46" to 43". This
makes the Pinball 2000 playfield 1 inch longer than classics such as Firepower,
Black Knight, Comet, High Speed, Pin*Bot, and Cyclone among many others.
See a comparison between the three sizes
Are you still going
to manufacture pinball machines with the old (WPC) system?
No. Everyone here at
Williams/Bally is fully committed to developing games for the Pinball 2000 platform.
I don't like Pinball 2000, this is not pinball, you are wrecking pinball, etc...
"Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress." Mahatma Ghandi
"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." Franklin D Roosevelt
Does the Pinball
2000 backbox fold down?
No, but the head is
designed to be quickly removed (with four bolts and three connectors). We've made
Pinball 2000 easy to exchange playfields and software so that moving cabinets is not a
necessary part of game rotation.
Why did you
eliminate the plunger from Pinball 2000?
The Pinball 2000 cabinet is
modular and can handle a manual plunger or a launch button, and can be swapped easily
depending on the game application.
Revenge from Mars is the
only Pinball 2000 game available for photographing at the moment and uses a launch button
at the decision of the design team. Future games may use a plunger instead.
Why are you
eliminating playfield toys in Pinball 2000?
Playfield toys will be a
part of pinball for years to come, the video imagery does not forbid the use of other
physical devices on the playfield.
It is up to each design
team to decide how to use Pinball 2000 technology to their advantage. Revenge from
Mars, for example, still has bouncing rubber Martians.
What type of
monitor does Pinball 2000 use?
Pinball 2000 uses an
unmodified 19" color monitor at 640x240 resolution (also known as "Lo-Res"
or "CGA").
This is a standard monitor
configuration used by many coin-op video games.
Why didn't you use
a Hi-Res, Med-Res, LCD, HDTV, or Plasma screen instead of a video monitor?
The costs of using such
displays in Pinball 2000 were prohibitive in making Pinball 2000 an affordable product
line.
Play testing confirmed that
the extra resolution given by those display technologies did not justify their extra cost
and maintenance problems.
Does Pinball 2000
use EPROMs?
No. Pinball 2000 uses
ROMs for all game images and sounds, and uses Flash memory for code and sound updates.
Every Pinball 2000 cabinet
has a standard DB-9 serial port connector, by which game software and sounds may be
updated. All updates are stored in the PRISM card's Flash memory.
I hope Pinball 2000
doesn't have a problem with burnt GI connectors!
There is no general
illumination circuit in Pinball 2000. All lamps are 6.3 Volt controlled lamps.
Is Pinball 2000
year-2000 compliant?
Of course! We
couldn't call it Pinball 2000 otherwise, now could we?
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