Pinball 2000 (PB2K)

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Pinball 2000 is a concept for pinball machines designed by Williams Electronics in 1998 to represent the next generation of pinball machines.

concept

The pinball market came under increasing pressure from arcade machines and home game consoles in the 90s. The aim of Pinball 2000 was to combine video games with pinball machines to create a new gaming experience. For this purpose, a monitor is attached above the upper part of the playing field, which is reflected in the disc above the playing field ( Pepper's ghost ). This creates the effect that the objects displayed on the monitor become visible on the playing field. Through contacts on the playing field, the player with the ball can influence the graphics on the monitor. In Revenge from Mars , spaceships can be destroyed with a ball.

All devices of the Pinball 2000 generation use the same housing and the same hardware. This made it possible to equip a machine with a new game with little effort. For this, the memory chips of the control had to be replaced. Since the playing field has only a few connectors, it can easily be replaced with a new one. The conversion kits for a new game also contain stickers for the housing or other launching devices for the ball.

Since the machines contained a full-fledged computer, they can also be connected to the network in order to play them remotely with a webcam or to display the score externally.

history

Between 1994 and 1999, the number of machines manufactured by Williams continued to decline. This reduced the profitability of the pinball division. Parallel to the development of the regular pinball machines with dot matrix display (DMD for short), a team was formed within the Williams pinball division to develop a concept for the next generation of pinball machines in order to maintain the division.

Even at the beginning of the development of the Pinball 2000 system, it was clear that the DMD would be replaced by a CRT monitor . At the beginning of development, the monitor, like the DMD, was built into the head of the machine upright. This concept was held for six months, but even during this time there was criticism that it was not interactive enough and that there were no real playful innovations to the DMDs.

George Gomez had the idea of ​​making the ball interact with the graphics on the monitor through the reflection of a monitor in the playing field disc. Together with Pat Lawlor, he built a prototype in his garage in 3 weeks. After the presentation, the concept for Pinball 2000 was adopted. At the time of development, Williams continued to build regular pinball machines with DMD. The first Revenge From Mars machine developed for the market was presented at the ATEI trade fair in London in 1999 and received a lot of positive feedback. After the strong sales figures of 6,878 machines sold at the time, Williams was initially confident of being able to maintain the pinball division. The DMD-equipped machines from Williams built in 1998 only achieved low numbers of 1,369 for The Champion Pub , from Cactus Canyon only 903 machines were sold and Monster Bash achieved sales of 3,361. The last pinball machine Star Wars Episode 1 (Pinball 2000) brought out by Williams could not convince the management to keep the pinball division with a number of 3,525 pieces.

In October 1999 Williams decided to close down the pinball division. Only Sega , later under the name Stern, remained the only pinball manufacturer on the market for a long time. The original concept of Pinball 2000 was later adopted by Stern, with the reflection technology being replaced by the latest flat screens, comparable to the Munsters machine .

technology

In contrast to the previous WPC-95 pinball control, the control of the Pinball 2000 machines is based on regular PC hardware. This also resulted in a change in the programming language from 6809 assembler for the Motorola 68000 microcontroller to C ++ . For later updates of the hardware platform, the software was developed very universally and modularly.

Storage

The XINA operating system as well as the sound data, images and the game program are located on the PRISM card. The data is stored on ROMs , but a flash memory is available for installing updates. If the update fails, the original version can be used.

Vending machines

Williams only brought out two machines of the Pinball 2000 generation. However, there are three other prototypes that were not publicly available and were very low in numbers.

Revenge From Mars (RFM)

Revenge From Mars was the first published Pinball 2000 generation machine. Williams brought it out under the Bally brand in January 1999 and was presented at the ATEI in London. It was the last Bally branded machine that Williams made. It was designed by George Gomez with artwork by John Youssi and Greg Freres. Revenge From Mars is the successor to Attack from Mars , which was released in 1995 .

With 6,878 machines sold, Williams was initially confident of being able to maintain the pinball division.

As in the predecessor Attack from Mars , the aim is to repel an attack by aliens and save the earth. Various tasks have to be fulfilled for this, such as shooting down spaceships with a ball.

Star Wars Episode 1 (SWEP1)

Star Wars Episode 1 was the last pinball machine of the Pinball 2000 generation and the Williams company. After the weak sales figures of 3525, the pinball division was closed on October 25, 1999. The machine was designed by John Popadiuk with artwork by Dave Müller, Paul Barker and Kevin O'Connor. A conversion kit for the Revenge From Mars was also available.

The pinball machine is based on the movie Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, similar to the movie, it's about training to become a Jedi, for which the player has to fulfill various tasks in order to achieve the status of Jedi.

Prototypes

In addition, the names of three prototypes are known:

  • Wizard blocks
  • playboy
  • Holopin - first concept machine from Pinball 2000

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Midway 'The Champion Pub'. In: Internet Pinball Machine Database. Accessed May 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Midway 'Cactus Canyon'. In: Internet Pinball Machine Database. Accessed May 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Williams 'Monster Bash'. In: Internet Pinball Machine Database. Accessed May 27, 2019 .
  4. ^ A b Michael Shalhoub: The Pinball Compendium 1982 to Present . Ed .: Schiffer Publishing ltd. 2nd edition. Schiffer Publishing ltd, ISBN 978-0-7643-4107-6 (English).
  5. ↑ Welcome to the Pinball2000 Collectors Page. Accessed May 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Midway 'Revenge From Mars'. In: Internet Pinball Machine Database. Accessed May 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Williams 'Star Wars Episode I'. In: Internet Pinball Machine Database. Accessed May 27, 2019 .