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.

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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.

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