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Williams-Bally-Midway Arcade & Pinball History Book

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Get ready to dive into the thrilling world of arcade and pinball games with Ken Horowitz’s latest tome! Get your coins ready, because the arcade awaits!

In his brand-new book, “From Pinballs to Pixels: An Arcade History of Williams-Bally-Midway,” Ken Horowitz takes us on an epic adventure through the captivating history of this legendary gaming manufacturer.

This new book takes a trip down memory lane as it explores the incredible journey of gaming publisher Williams. From the early days of pinball classics like Contact to the groundbreaking marvels like High Speed, Williams captivated arcade enthusiasts with their diverse range of quality games.

The advent of video games marked a turning point for Williams, propelling them into legendary status with unforgettable hits like Defender and Joust. The company quickly rose to prominence and, by the end of the 1980s, became the largest coin-op publisher in North America. Their influence and innovation were felt throughout the industry.

Williams’ acquisition of Bally/Midway ushered in a golden era, characterised by a string of hits that included iconic titles such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam. Notably, they also produced The Addams Family, a pinball machine that went on to become the best-selling of all time. Williams’ success story is a testament to their ability to take risks, innovate, and create games that captured the hearts of players worldwide.

In this book, you’ll discover the fascinating history of Williams spanning nearly six decades. The author takes you behind the scenes, providing interviews with over 40 former designers and executives from Williams/Bally/Midway. Their firsthand accounts offer unique insights into the company’s inner workings and the creative processes that led to the creation of some of gaming’s greatest classics.

Drawing from a vast array of contemporaneous news reports and documents, this book presents a comprehensive and never-before-seen chronology of Williams’ rise to coin-op juggernaut status. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of how a small company transformed into an industry powerhouse, leaving an indelible mark on the world of pinball and arcade video games.

This book is a celebration of one of gaming’s greatest publishing houses, showcasing their incredible impact on the industry and the enduring legacy of their games.

Details:

  • Title: From Pinballs to Pixels: An Arcade History of Williams-Bally-Midway
  • Author: Ken Horowitz
  • Price:
    • Amazon Australia: AU$35.98 (Kindle) / AU$95.59 (Paperback)
    • Amazon US: US$22.49 (Kindle) / US$42.03 (Paperback)



JAWS Pinball – You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat!

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There is one theme that has been asked for by pinheads ever since we can remember – a JAWS-themed pinball machine!

We stumbled upon this post on Facebook that Jake Danzig shared from the Pintastic New England event) on the Strictly Custom Pinball Machines! group which totally blew our mind! The pinball homebrew scene has been growing at a rapid rate these past 5 or so years, with amazing creations either from scratch or rethemes of old machines. There are a lot of highly skilled pinball homebrew builders out there. This amazing homebrew JAWS pinball machine looks like a Dino Gaspari (shipmypinball.com / pinballdepot.ca) creation, but we’ll need to confirm this!


source: No Quarters Arcade

This JAWS pinball (retheme of an old machine – anyone recognise the donor machine?) is simply stunning with its meticulous and eye catching cabinet, playfield, lockdown bar, legs and backboard artwork – we just can’t stop staring at it! By listening to the sound in the above video, it would seem the theme’s immersion is complete! If we do stumble upon a video of the machine being played, rest assured we’ll update this post.

The JAWS licence may be difficult to obtain, but if a pinball manufacturer can miraculously pull it off, they will definitely make bank!

image source: Jake Danzig via Facebook



Haggis Pinball Unleashes Fathom Revisited

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It is a proud day for us Australians when our very own pinball manufacturer, Haggis Pinball, takes on the might from the US with their brand new pinball release!

Hot on the heels of their maiden Celts pinball machine (Ed: which is ace!) is the newly announced Fathom Revisited, which comes in two trim levels; Classic and Mermaid Editions. The company is giving their Clan Haggis members first crack at these machines (till midnight April 28), and then the order banks will be thrown wide open.

With competitive pricing (Classic Edition $9,500 / Mermaid Edition $11,500), bulletproof build quality and revised game code, Haggis Pinball has just captured the imagination and attention of all pinball lovers around the world, us included!

What makes this new announcement even more intriguing is the fact that Haggis Pinball were successful in obtaining the licensing rights (from Planetary Pinball Supply) to (re)make 5 classic Bally pinball machines from the early 1980s, starting with Fathom. Since this business model of remakes has been proven successful by Chicago Gaming Company (CGC), Haggis Pinball has definitely scored a major coup.

With their build quality being top notch, Haggis Pinball is fast becoming the hot pinball manufacturer in the world. With their move to newer and larger premises and with a build capacity of 50 machines per month, they are definitely a force to be reckoned with in the pinball world.

For more information about Fathom Revisited, head to This Week In Pinball or listen to the latest Pinball Profile episode with Jeff Teolis and Damian Hartin (Haggis Pinball CEO).

PS: Read our interview with Haggis Pinball CEO, Damian Hartin from November 2019 right here.

Haggis Pinball CEO, Damian Hartin
image source: Haggis Pinball

 


JUDGE DREDD Pinball Promo Video from 1993

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Judge Dredd PinballWho doesn’t love a 10 minute promo video for a (then) new pinball machine!

Check out Bally-Midway’s promotional video for their 1993 smash hit pinball machine, Judge Dredd. The machine was based on the comic series ‘2000 AD’, not the 1995 movie starring Sylvester Stallone.

With a rotating planet and rings, magnetic robotic arm and diamond plate playfield, this ‘SuperPin’ was darn awesome in its day (and still is)!


source: JoBlo Horror Trailers

 

Pinball 2000: Party Like It’s 1999

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There is no doubt that pinball is currently going through a great resurgence and is the ‘in’ thing right now, but the silverball game was struggling to stay relevant in the 21stcentury and was subsequently killed off in October 1999 before it could showcase the future of pinball with the Pinball 2000 platform. Wow, that was 20 years ago!

To observe the anniversary of pinball’s downfall, let’s turn the clock back two decades. It was the last year of the nineties and the last for the 20th century, so just like Prince sang many moons ago, “I’m gonna party like it’s nineteen ninety-nine”! Ah 1999, we were all panicking about the inevitable doom that the Y2K bug was going to befall on all of us, but at least the year started well for pinball.

The story goes back a few years to 1997, the then President and CEO of Williams (WMS), Neil Nicastro, challenged the pinball division to come up with something new or risk being closed down. Williams’ designers worked hard throughout 1998 to come up with something innovative, a brand new kind of pinball machine, which became Pinball 2000. Pinball 2000 (P2K) fused video with classic pinball gameplay, almost like an early augmented reality (AR), it aimed to preserve what was great about pinball yet opening up new possibilities for a product that was on its last legs.

One of the most successful pinball designers of the decade, George Gomez and Pat Lawlor had shown their new modular creation and future of pinball, with the official unveiling of the Pinball 2000 architecture and the first game on the platform, Revenge From Mars, in January 1999. Even though Pinball 2000 was a success with Revenge From Mars selling 6800+ units, Williams’ President did not see that his pinball division had innovated enough to reinvigorate pinball. Once the last Pinball 2000 machine, John Popadiuk’s Star Wars: Episode 1, was released, Neil Dicastro and his executive team dropped a bombshell by jettisoning pinball in favour of gaming (gambling) slot machines, which was very lucrative for Williams. This meant that the next two Pinball 2000 machines, Wizard Blocks and Playboy, would never see the light of day – which is a darn shame. Closing down the Williams pinball division seemed like, at the time, the death of pinball.

As history would have it, the story of Pinball 2000 came to be, and its inevitable death, at the hands of Williams’ executives, but there was one company that survived and kept the pinball light flickering, Stern Pinball. A lot has transpired in pinball since 1999, with a new golden age that is currently in full swing, so the rest, as they say, is history. Long live PINBALL!

PS: There is a great in-depth documentary on Pinball 2000, TILT: The Battle To Save Pinball, which you can watch on Amazon Prime right now!

 

image sources: pinball2000.de & The Arcade Flyer Archive

 

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Attack From Mars Pinball Promo Video – It’s deliciously cheesy

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You all know how much we love the Attack From Mars pinball machine – we love it so much that we jumped on-board and bought the Attack From Mars Remake back in 2017.

This machine is one of those timeless classics which always comes up in many ‘top pinball machines of all time’ lists. Our interest is always piqued whenever we find information or other content about this game, so when we came across the original promo video, we thought we’d share it with you all. The promo video is just as cheesy as the actual theme, which makes it perfect!


source: Jan van den Munckhof