From Pinballs to Pixels

From early classics like Contact to marvels like High Speed, gaming publisher Williams dazzled arcade goers with its diverse range of quality pinball games. The age of video games catapulted the company into legend with blockbusters like Defender and Joust, and by the end of the 1980s it was the largest coin-op publisher in North America. Williams’ acquisition of Bally/Midway began a period of hits that included Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam, as well as the best-selling pinball machine of all time, The Addams Family.
The history of Williams spans nearly six decades and is filled with great games, huge gambles and technical innovations that impacted every aspect of pinball and arcade video games. With interviews of 40+ former designers and executives from Williams/Bally/Midway, as well as information from hundreds of contemporaneous news reports and documents, this book presents a never-before-seen chronology of how the small company became a coin-op juggernaut. Thirty pinball and 26 video game classics are examined in depth with direct input from the people who made them, along with the story of the events that shaped one of gaming’s greatest publishing houses.

Ken Horowitz is a professor of English and has written about Sega and video games for over a decade for his website, Sega-16, as well as for numerous other websites and magazines. He lives in Puerto Rico.

Ken Horowitz
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 442
Bibliographic Info: 79 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2023
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8937-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4796-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments x
Preface 1
1. More Than Just Marbles and Pins 3
2. The Edison of Pinball 8
3. When Harry Met Sammy 18
4. Winds of Change Blow Through Chicago 24
Gorgar (December 1979) 34
5. A Solid State of Affairs 40
Firepower (February 1980) 41
Black Knight (November 1980) 48
6. Welcome to the Video Age 53
Defender (March 1981) 55
Stargate (October 1981) 65
7. Heroes of the Golden Age 71
Make Trax (November 1981) 72
Hyperball (December 1981) 75
Conquest (1982: Unreleased) 79
Robotron 2084 (June 1982) 81
Joust (July 1982) 85
Moon Patrol (September 1982) 95
8. Crashed … But Not Burned 102
Defender Pinball (December 1982) 103
Sinistar (February 1983) 106
Joust Pinball (April 1983) 112
Blaster (December 1983) 115
The Bigger They Are… 118
Star Rider (February 1984) 122
9. It’s Always Darkest… 132
Space Shuttle Pinball Adventure (December 1984) 133
10. A New Dawn 139
Sorcerer (March 1985) 141
High Speed (January 1986) 144
Pin*Bot (October 1986) 148
Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest (December 1986) 154
­F-14 Tomcat (March 1987) 158
11. A Rose by Any Other Name … Still Makes Games 163
Last Man Standing 165
Banzai Run (May 1988) 167
Taxi (August 1988)  174
Narc (December 1988) 177
Arch Rivals (May 1989) 184
12. License to Thrill 190
Elvira and the Party Monsters (September 1989) 192
13. A New Golden Age 197
Smash TV (April 1990) 198
Pigskin 621 A.D. (August 1990) 205
FunHouse (November 1990) 209
High Impact Football (December 1990) 215
The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot (February 1991) 219
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Pinball (July 1991) 223
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (November 1991) 228
Total Carnage (January 1992) 233
The Addams Family (March 1992) 236
Fish Tales (October 1992) 242
Mortal Kombat (October 1992) 246
14. The Candle That Burns Twice as Bright… 255
White Water (January 1993) 258
Twilight Zone (April 1993) 264
NBA Jam (April 1993) 270
Revolution X (May 1994) 280
The Pinball Circus (1994: Unreleased) 283
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (August 1993) 291
Star Trek: The Next Generation Pinball (November 1993) 297
Cruis’n USA (November 1994) 302
Theatre of Magic (March 1995) 309
WMS Shoots for the Extra Ball 315
15. The End Is the Beginning … Is the End 318
Tales of the Arabian Nights (May 1996) 321
War Gods (August 1996) 325
­Power-Up Baseball (1996: Unreleased) 331
Medieval Madness (June 1997) 336
Monster Bash (July 1998) 340
16. A Skill Shot for the New Millennium 345
Revenge from Mars (March 1999) 348
Star Wars: Episode 1 Pinball (June 1999) 355
17. No Credit, No Continue 361
18. One Last Round at the Arcade 366
Hydro Thunder (March 1999) 369
The Grid (August 2000) 375
19. A Legacy Worth Preserving 379
Chapter Notes 383
References 411
Index 429