Ask Uncle Willy #15: June 4, 1998
Uncle Willy answers your questions about pinball machines. The questions should be of a general-interest nature, and will be answered via an article archived here.
Asking questions of a proprietary nature ("How many of game X were produced?" "What games do you have in the works for next spring?" "What game is designer Y working on?") will not get you very far, as Uncle Willy is constrained from answering them.
If you have questions about fixing, restoring, or purchasing an older game, Uncle Willy would like to refer you to Ask Uncle Willy #10.
Uncle Willy would like to start off this edition of Ask Uncle Willy with a few housekeeping items. First of all, whatever rumors you may have heard about why it has been so long since the last installment of Ask Uncle Willy are completely false. (Uncle Willy does not now, nor has he ever had an alcohol or drug problem. Uncle Willy did not run off to join the Peace Corps. And she most certainly was too over 18.) Next, Uncle Willy's mailbox is straining under the weight of questions that don't belong there. Either they have been covered already in previous Ask Uncle Willy articles, or they are in the FAQ, or they are beyond the scope of what Uncle Willy can do, or they are not of widespread interest. Uncle Willy cannot tell you how much your old pinball machine is worth and would prefer not to have to tell you how old it is, when there are so many other good resources out there for that sort of thing. Uncle Willy cannot find you parts for your machine, other than to point you, once again, to authorized distributors (for newer machines), and any of the various "other resources" listed on the web site (for older machines.) Uncle Willy cannot fix your broken game, nor can he help you troubleshoot it long distance. Uncle Willy does not know everything, as hard as that is to believe, so not every question can be answered. Also, keep in mind that half the fun of owning a pinball machine is learning to fix it and track down parts to restore it yourself. If you have a question that might fall into one of the above categories, but you still think it might have some larger relevance or interest to others, by all means send it to Uncle Willy but Uncle Willy makes the final decision about what questions to answer. Here are a couple of examples -- Question: I have a Wizard backglass that is in perfect condition, my question is... How much is it worth? And I have a Bally Elektra that's in good working condition, how much is it worth??? Answer: Uncle Willy would dearly love to answer such questions like so: "They are both utterly valueless. Please send them directly to Uncle Willy for proper manufacturer-certified disposal." Uncle Willy resists that urge, as that would be an abuse of the immense power that comes with being such a respected cultural icon. Then there are the questions like these (Uncle Willy swears he is not making this up): Question: I would like to know how to get rid of my very old ballys [sic] pinball game and not come out a looser [sic], also I don't know the name of the game, I know it has a mexican chick and some snakes on it and most of it is red. Answer: Even if Uncle Willy were in the business of appraising old games (which he stresses again, he most certainly is not), he is amazed at someone who cannot even spend the time to go copy down all the alphabetical characters appearing on the backglass in the area usually used for what industry insiders commonly refer to as "the name of the game." And yet Uncle Willy is supposed to go spend hours researching the game's value, and using his psychic abilities to determine the game's condition. Uncle Willy wishes he could say this was the only mail he received like that, but they are all too common. Uncle Willy couldn't resist giving snappy answers to a few other inappropriate questions, and they are sprinkled throughout the rest of this article. See if you can spot them. Question: I have a question regarding some mystery switches which appear on the switch matrix for Bally's Corvette, but aren't anywhere on the game. The switch matrix lists switches for "1st gear (optional)", "2nd gear (optional)", etc. There is also a mystery switch for "Skid Route Exit". Was there actually going to be some kind of gearshift option for the game? What was the other switch for and why was it removed? Answer: Uncle Willy had a little chat with George Gomez and found the answers to these questions...and some other tidbits as well. In fact, Uncle Willy had to excuse himself from George's office when George started launching into conspiracy theories about why pinballs are exactly 1 1/16" in diameter. (Sometimes when you get George going, it's hard to shut him up...) For instance, Uncle Willy learned that two of the cars in the artwork have license plates to match those on Corvettes owned by George Gomez and Pat Lawlor. But on to your original question... When Corvette was nearing production, an error was discovered in the cost calculations for the game. Turns out the cost of materials was way over budget and George was forced to delete things left and right to try to bring the cost down. Cost reduction is a normal part of the design process, but it's not usually done all at once and in a hurry like that. All kinds of subtle things were removed: rebound switches, flashers, general illumination lamps, etc. There were also a couple of redundant switches removed, such as the one at the end of the Skid Pad/Route 66 wireform ramp. It would have been nice for the software to have another data point about where the ball was, but it wasn't crucial to the game. There was also going to be a 4-speed shifter mounted to the right side of the cabinet. During drag strip mode, you could give the car gas with the left flipper, and shift up through the gears with the right flipper or with the gearshift. The code for these 4 switches is still in the game, and if you somehow attached your own shifter unit there it would work. About 15 games are believed to exist with this shifter unit installed from the factory, and they are largely in the hands of the game's design team. Believe it or not, the left side standup targets were originally going to be drop targets. The art for the stickers had "Feel The Power" and "B2K" written across the 3 targets. (The latter is a reference to the factory option code used for Calloway Corvettes.) The latest ROM revision for Corvette (Version 2.1, available from the Williams web site) actually has the code to handle either the standups or the drop targets, much like the Firepower drop target retrofit discussed a few years ago. Only one game with drop targets is currently believed to exist, and it is in the hands of one of the design team members. If Uncle Willy can come up with the technical details of retrofitting drop targets to a Corvette, he will post that in a separate article to rec.games.pinball. While we are on the subject of George Gomez. . . Question: You mention that George Gomez was a designer on the original arcade Spy Hunter. Do you know who else worked on it? I have always loved that game. Answer: Uncle Willy often hums the Peter Gunn tune to himself, while searching for the oil-drum button on his steering wheel. If only commuting were like Spy Hunter, it might be more bearable. (DISCLAIMER: any implied endorsement of "road rage" driving techniques is not intended!) Uncle Willy managed to find a few names of the original design team: Tom Leon was the programmer and co-designer with George Gomez. Bob Libby created the algorithmic jazz riffs that segue between the Peter Gunn excerpts. Lots of folks contributed that great video art, including Steve Ulstad, Sharon Barr, Brian Colin, and Kevin O'Conner. Doug Watson and Tony Ramunni did the art for the cabinet. Uncle Willy does not own a Playstation, but he hears that there is a "Midway Arcade Classics" game available for that platform which includes the definitive listing of credits, and interviews with some of the designers. While we are on the subject of video games... Question: I see that you have a ROM Library but it apparently only has Pinball ROMs. I have a Robotron with a bad ROM 1 chip. Can I get ROM images for my Robotron from you? Answer: Uncle Willy feels your pain. Robotron is one of the way-coolest video games of all time. Unfortunately, there is no move afoot to add video game ROMs to our web site. The ROM archives have slowly been created through the spare-time effort of employees in the pinball engineering group, and Uncle Willy hasn't heard of any of them working on compiling the video ROM information. While Uncle Willy can't provide you with the ROMs, he does know that you might be able to repair your game by asking your question on the rec.games.video.arcade.collecting newsgroup. Surely some kind soul there will be able to help you. (I know, and "stop calling you Shirley" right?) While we are on the subject of Eugene Jarvis games... Question: I am from Germany, and in a recent interview here a well-known software programmer with the initials DPH [ed: name omitted to avoid embarrassment] claimed that when he was 12 years old he programmed the game "Defender" for Williams Electronics. Is this true? Answer: Uncle Willy couldn't find anyone here who had ever heard of a "DPH." If he helped write the Williams coin-op version of Defender then he did it via supernatural mind control, since the people who did write it don't remember him! Perhaps he meant that he wrote a Defender-like game for his Amiga or something? Or perhaps you made the whole thing up just to see your question in an Ask Uncle Willy article! (Oops, Uncle Willy spent too much time talking to George and is developing conspiracy theories of his own.) Question: I recently bought a Williams '4 Star' pinball machine and I am interested in getting a rough idea of its age. Are there some general rules of thumb that can be used to date old machines? (Scoring techniques? Glass art? Type of wood used in its construction?) Answer: For dating pinball machines, Uncle Willy frequently uses the Internet Pinball Database. (For dating women, Uncle Willy uses his little black book, but we won't delve into that right now.) The IPD can be accessed at http://lysator.liu.se/pinball/IPD. Uncle Willy just happens to know that "4 Star" was made in 1958. There are several good books on the history of pinball, and Uncle Willy can't hope to explain things as well as they have, but here is a very rough chart of some major components of pinball that have changed over time, from oldest to newest: -- Field of pins, no electricity -- Electricity, lit-number scoring, and bumpers -- Flippers! -- Score reels instead of lit numbers -- Metal side rails and legs instead of wood -- Automatic ball serving instead of manual ball lifter -- Longer flippers -- Solid-state electronics instead of electromechanical relays -- Alphanumeric displays instead of basic seven-segment displays -- Dot-matrix displays with animated graphics -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX with XXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXX to XXXXXXXXX. (Uncle Willy hopes that last one, a peek into the future of pinball, makes it past the corporate lawyers. They like to X stuff out if it's too exciting...) Question: How does one become a distributor? Answer: Very carefully. Question: I'm just wondering if there will be any more wide-body machines from Bally/Williams. I'm also curious if you are considering any other types of display technology in the future. Answer: As he has mentioned before, Uncle Willy can't talk about future technologies or designs that might be under development at Williams. Even if Uncle Willy were to admit that a designer was currently building a machine with an actual full-sized 2-door Yugo in the backbox, that game might not ever be produced, or the Yugo might be removed (but not for cost reasons!) before the game goes into production...and you would be upset with Uncle Willy for having misled you. Uncle Willy wants to be your friend, not someone who gets you upset. Question: How do you decide which game is manufactured under the Bally label or which one under the Williams label? Answer: This has been one of the industry's most closely guarded secrets. Unfortunately Pat Lawlor let his guard down at the last Pinball Expo, and revealed the precise formula: "First we make a Williams. Then we make a Bally. Then we make a Williams. Then we make a Bally..." Uncle Willy can't think of any way to explain it better than that! Question: We want to know if there are pinball versions to play on the PC. Answer: Yes. Question: Any reason why the Cirqus Voltaire's at IAAPA didn't have the green trim around the backbox? The trim makes the game look great, and I was surprised that it was removed. Answer: Green trim? There is an optional head trim kit for Cirqus Voltaire that is made of purple plastic, perhaps this is what you are referring to. While the trim was part of the original design of the game, and is the "look" envisioned by the designer (John Popadiuk), it was decided to make it an optional accessory. (Many pinball operators don't like things sticking out from a game, things that will get torn from the game as it is transported through doorways and in and out of trucks. They just take them off anyway.) If you have a Cirqus Voltaire and would like the optional kit, the part number is A-22029. This includes the trim pieces and everything needed to install them. As there is such low demand for this trim kit, Uncle Willy cannot guarantee that you will receive it promptly (or ever) when you order it, unless a very large number of people, slavishly following every command from Uncle Willy, rush to their distributors and order the kit. (If that does happen, Uncle Willy has a few more commands he'll have to try out on you!) Question: Several friends and I play Whirlwind at lunch time at a local shop. We cannot figure out how to increase the multiplier. Answer: To answer this question, Uncle Willy had to dig deep into the arcane-rules filing cabinet here at Williams. Brushing aside some worthless pieces of paper concerning secret modes on Star Trek:The Next Generation, Uncle Willy came upon the answer you seek: Locking a ball increases the multiplier. Question: I'm writing to you because I have to write a final paper of roughly 10 pages for that class and I want to write it on the medium of Pinball. What is the history of Pinball? What are the greatest works in the history of pinball? Who are the greatest pinball designers? [and so on] The last thing I ask is that if you are going to reply could you please do it before the end of the week because the paper is due on Monday. Answer: Uncle Willy needs to consider making some cash on the side ghost- writing term papers for people who wait until the last minute and then want someone else to do the hard part. However, since Uncle Willy wasn't prepared in time for your request, looks like you'll get an F. Sorry. Question: I have a Jokerz Flipper from Williams. I want to set it to 5 balls per game, but in the menu there is no setting for 5 ball game. How can I do this? Answer: Uncle Willy found some information on this. Apparently you need to be running at least L-4 software (L-6 is on the Williams website in the ROM archives), and you need to cut jumper "W7" on the CPU board. This will expand the menus to include a setting for 5-ball play, and an "install 5 ball" option. From the notes he found, Uncle Willy can't quite tell if upgrading the sound ROMs at the same time is Mandatory or whether it is just A Really Good Idea, but if the ones on the web site are newer than yours, perhaps you should upgrade to the newer ones. Question: I am looking for information on this Williams game called "Diamond Score Pool". I would like to know how to play it or get a copy of the instructions. I would also like to know what year it was made. Answer: Uncle Willy dug deep into the Williams archives and determined that Diamond Score Pool was a coin-operated novelty pool machine made around 1956, one of a seemingly endless series of pool variations manufactured by Williams that year. After a little more digging, Uncle Willy discovered that Diamond Score Pool was the highlight of the bunch! Most of the games were little more than coin-operated bumper pool tables, but Diamond Score Pool was much, much more. Two players each play from behind the foul line on the same side of the table. The spot the ball is placed on for the shot lets the machine know who is shooting (left side for player 1, right side for player 2.) The players take turns using a short pool cue to shoot the cue ball around a single lit bumper and against the back wall of the playfield, trying to land the ball in one of 6 holes, which award varying point values. There are two diamond-shaped rollover buttons on the playfield which double or triple the value of any shot that crosses over them and then lands in a hole. (Uncle Willy determined the above by reading a February, 1956 trade newspaper description of the game, and inferring some things from an old publicity shot of the game. Please don't hold Uncle Willy's feet to the coals over any minor inaccuracies, OK?) Uncle Willy congratulates you on your ownership of an obscure but quite interesting little piece of coin-op history. Anyone else trying to find one of these should also look for a variant called "Senior Diamond Score Pool" which was the same game but with a playfield that was 18 inches longer. Question: In the game "Doctor WHO", the prototypes had a motor to move the Dalek robot at the top of the backglass, but this feature did not make it into production games. Is there, laying around Williams somewhere, a schematic for the motor assembly used in this moving-Dalek feature? Can I get a copy of it? I someday will get a Doctor WHO game, and want to restore the moving Dalek... Answer: Uncle Willy was only able to find out the simplest of details on this. Apparently the support for the moving Dalek head is still in the production software, with an adjustment to enable it. The motor and gear assembly must have had some sort of cam arrangement to turn the single-direction motor movements into reciprocating head movements, but Uncle Willy couldn't find out much more about that (other than to note that the part number was 14-7976). The motor was driven like a flasher, with its voltage coming from J107-5,6 and its drive coming from Q26/J122-1 (Blu-Brn wire, solenoid number 25). There was an optical switch, presumably to detect the "home" position of the head, that was connected as switch 81 (Column8/U20-11/J206-0/Grn-Gry; Row1/U18-11/J208-1/Wht-Brn). A scan of the prototype instruction manual page that shows this whole assembly is available here. Question: Recently I've bought a 'Safe Cracker' pin in my hometown, Madrid, and I found that the messages were translated into Spanish, but very poorly. I wanted to know how I'm supposed to change it back to English (if there's a way to do it). Answer: There is a setting under standard adjustments for translations in English, if that would work better for you. As you might imagine, the pinball engineering staff at Williams is not always fluent in the languages needed for other countries, so this work is generally contracted out. Uncle Willy did a bit of research and discovered that the company that performed the Spanish translations for Safecracker is located in...Madrid, Spain! If their translations aren't correct for their own city, Uncle Willy is not sure what to think! Question: Can you tell me anything about a United Skippy or United Manufacturing (now possibly Williams) shuffleboard bowling alley game. It is a 6 player, coin operated bowling game that uses a puck to knock down the pins on this 12' long table. I have been searching for some information on this such as the year and value. Answer: Shuffle Alleys and Bowling Alleys were a strong suit for United Manufacturing (which became part of Williams Electronics in 1965). Uncle Willy doesn't have much resource material kicking around for pre-Williams United Products, and what he does have makes no mention of a game called "Skippy." (Though there certainly were a large number of other odd names!) Uncle Willy is not sure what to tell you - there is no "Internet Shuffle Alley And Bowler Database" site to do a search on. Perhaps a letter to one of the various game collector magazines could turn up someone with more knowledge of this game. Question: Were there any pins other than Xenon and Space Invaders that had that 'infinity' look with the lights in the backbox? Answer: Uncle Willy remembers that Gottlieb's "Mars, God of War" had a similar lamp arrangement in the backbox, using red bulbs. Uncle Willy isn't sure if there were others, but certainly doesn't know of any other Bally games made like that. Uncle Willy did notice a recent slot machine from WMS Gaming (yay!) called "Winning Streak," that used infinity lights in its top box for quite a stunning effect. Question: How about making a pinball that is related to the history of jukeboxes - which may include some classic soundbites of music related to the date of the box. Answer: Uncle Willy suggests you look for the pins "Jukebox" and "Sound Stage" made by Chicago Coin in the mid 70's. As far as Williams making a new pin with a jukebox theme, consider this: Chicago Coin was out of business within a few years of making a pin with a jukebox theme. Scary, eh? Question: Can you tell me if there is going to be a new Kiss pinball machine??? If so, when??? Answer: Uncle Willy cannot tell you that, ever. Question: It is becoming increasingly difficult to find people to work on the old electro-mechanical machines like my FunFest, Big Top and Pit Stop. The distributors in my area have been somewhat helpful in locating people to fix them, but they are all older folks. I am concerned how an un-mechanical man as myself, will be able to get by when these older repairmen are gone. Also, is there collectors site that talks of machine value trading, etc. Answer: Uncle Willy is picturing Mad Mort, The Last of the EM Repairmen, driving through the Australian desert on his pin dolly, fighting off young thugs who are trying to steal his dwindling reserves of flexstones and contact bending tools... While there is certainly an art and science to the repair of EM pins, Uncle Willy takes comfort in the fact that they are fairly straightforward implementations of basic electronics and mechanics. There will always be someone who can figure it out if they try. Uncle Willy is more concerned about anyone in the year 3006 having the equipment to program something as ancient as an 8 megabit EPROM... As for mingling with others who share your passion for all things pinball, Uncle Willy recommends lurking on the internet newsgroup rec.games.pinball for a while. There are plenty of pin lovers there, and there are always references to web sites that cater to some specific part or another of the pinball collecting hobby. Question: I own two T2 machines. One of these is outfitted with white rubber parts and stainless legs on the cabinet and the other is set up with all black rubber parts and black painted legs. Do you know if these are both factory issue setups and if not, which was the "stock" configuration? Answer: The original scheme for all T2 pins was chrome legs and white rubber rings. Question: What games has Steve Kordek designed? Answer: Oh my. Uncle Willy isn't sure there are enough megabytes on your hard drive to save that list - it's quite extensive! Uncle Willy decided to keep things to a manageable size by limiting the list to just those games Steve Kordek has designed while at Williams (where, by the way, he's still going strong!) If we were to go back to games he designed while at Genco, it would probably double the size of the list. Most of these are pins, some of them are novelty or arcade pieces, some of these he co-designed with others, they are in rough date order, ready, set, here we go: Space Glider, Bobo, Highways, Hollywood, Ten Spot, Double Barrel, Skill Ball, Reserve, Space Ship, Kismet, Metro, Jolly Jokers, 3 Coins, Coquette, Trade Winds, Friendship 7, Valiant, Vagabond, Mardi Gras, 4 Roses, Tom Tom, Big Deal, Jumpin' Jacks, Swing Time, Skill Pool, El Toro, Big Daddy, Merry Widow, Beat The Clock, Oh Boy, San Francisco, Palooka, Heat Wave, Whoopee, Zig Zag, Wing Ding, Pretty Baby, Alpine Club, Ski Club, Pot 'O' Gold, Big Chief, Teacher's Pet, Hot Line, Big Strike, Casanova, Shangri-La, Beat Time, Touchdown, Kickoff, Derby Day, Daffie, Doozie, Student Prince, Hayburners II, Cabaret, Set Up, Seven Up, Gay 90's, 4 Aces, Aces & Kings, Planets, Zodiac, Olympic Hockey, Winner, Honey, Super Star, Big Star, Match Race, Jubilee, Darling, Star Action, Triple Action, Spacelab, Skylab, Star Pool, Big Ben, Triple Strike, Little Chief, Black Gold, Space Mission, Space Odyssey, Grand Prix, Liberty Bell, Big Deal, Contact, Pokerino, Ticket Tac Toe. Whew! Uncle Willy needs to go rest his typing fingers now.
All text and images © 1998 WMS Electronics Games, Inc.