Over the last few weeks, I’ve learned so much about the history of pinball, as well as its rise and fall over the years. However, the part that interested me the most was when we visited the Strong Museum and talked about the historical pinball machines on display. I wanted to learn more about them, in particular, I wanted to learn about the Hercules, Hyperball, and Baby Pacman machines.
The moment I saw the Hercules Pinball machine, it immediately drew my attention. It was said to be the world’s largest pinball machine, which at first glance, pulled me in. After looking at the machine, I noticed the size of the pinball being used, as well as the massive flippers, which pushed me to learn more. I wanted to know how it was made and some of the history behind its development, so I dove deeper. I discovered that Hercules was a pinball machine developed by the company Atari, originally known for its video games. Released in 1979, Hercules was the biggest pinball machine ever to be produced. It stood 3 feet wide, 7 feet tall, and 8 feet deep, which was massive for a pinball machine at the time, even today!
Due to its massive size, Hercules required custom parts to make the game playable. The project manager at the time, Steve Taylor, used his engineering prowess to develop parts for the game. For example, he used washing machine solenoids to power the flippers, slingshots, and thumper bumpers. He even used a cue ball instead of a regular pinball to go with the giant play field.
The games colorful graphics were intended to coincide with places such as amusement parks and circuses. However, only around 500 machines were put on the market because they were too big to fit in the most popular pinball locations. Even as the world’s biggest pinball machine, Hercules did have some notable drawbacks. Unlike a normal fast-paced game of pinball, Hercules, with its large parts, led to a slower paced game, often only played for a short amount of time. Pinball design was a relatively common issue when it came to Atari’s pinball machines. For example, Generation 1 pinball machines included circuit boards under the playfield, making them prone to damage from falling debris. Despite these flaws, Hercules will always be a marvel in the pinball world.
There were many unique pinball machines at the Strong Museum, but none of them really captured my attention as much as the Baby Pacman machine. This machine not only included a pinball playfield, with traditional pinball features, but a video game, adding duel game modes to the mix. Since I didn’t have the chance to play on my first visit, I decided I wanted to learn more about how the game modes interacted with one another, so I did some research on the game.
Baby Pacman was designed and released by the company Bally-Midway in October of 1982. The game itself consists of a video mode and a pinball mode. The video mode consists of a game identical to the original Pacman, where players move through a maze with the objective of eating dots and avoiding ghosts. However, the game starts without energizers, containing tunnels at the bottom of the screen that allow players to swap modes and earn them.
While in the traditional pinball mode, players use the flippers to bounce the ball towards gameplay goals. For this game in particular, these goals include earning energizers, new fruit bonuses, and increasing tunnel speed. The interesting part about this mode is what happens when a player fails to keep the ball in play. Once the ball is lost, the game resumes in video mode, with the bottom tunnels closed. Players no longer have access to the pinball mode until they die again and the tunnels reopen. As a game design major, it’s amazing to see two pieces of technology combined together, especially at the time this game was made. Only selling around 7,000 units, Baby Pacman wasn’t one of the most popular pinball games of its time. Regardless, I still think of it as one of the coolest pinball machines I’ve learned about while in this class.
The last pinball machine that sparked my interest was Hyperball. Hyperball is just as unique as the previous machines I mentioned, not because it’s huge or has two game modes, but because it has an empty playfield! Almost all pinball machines have something on the playfield, so it shocked me that Hyperball broke away from such a traditional trend. After learning such an intriguing fact from the tour, I was fascinated by the machine’s design. I wondered why it was made this way, so I decided to do some more digging on the machine and its unique qualities.
In 1981, Hyperball was released by the company Williams Electronics. The designer, Steve Ritchie, was famously known for his hand in other pinball games such as Terminator 2, Star Trek the Next Generation, and Superman. Despite designing pinball games, Ritchie’s desire for video game development was displayed throughout the Hyperball machine, especially when it comes to its space theme. Resembling Space Invaders, the object of the game was to destroy targets and avoid losing energy centres as lighting bolts make their way towards you. Each completed wave increases the aggression of the lighting bolts, making the game harder to play.
From this information alone, it’s clear that Hyperball has unique gameplay, resembling a video game. But, Hyperball has unique qualities as well. Other than the empty playing field, Hyperball has hand grips that control a turret where the ball drain would be. This turret can shoot up to 250 balls per minute, making the game feel nothing like a pinball machine. The machine also has targets on top of the playing field and holes with letters that can be used to complete level goals. When the lightning bolts get too intense, a button between the hand grips can be pressed, 3 times a game, to destroy them. Overall, this pinball machine interests me because it takes pinball in a completely different direction. Even though it didn’t sell as many units as predicted, only 5,000, I still admire the work that went into making such a unique game.
Although it’s only been a few weeks, I feel as though I’ve learned a lot about pinball. I gained a higher appreciation for the struggles and unique ideas that went into making these games. When I go back to the Strong Museum, I’ll be sure to see what other history I can learn from Pinball Playfields.
Strong Museum Image: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JX6fT8Qktwk/maxresdefault.jpg
Hercules Images: http://www.8-bitcentral.com/images/blog/2014/hercules.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8Q3CMnc5Jp0/hqdefault.jpg https://images.pinside.com/0/1f/01f34fa9a7df909451574d965475d72bc9e03d5e/resized/medium/01f34fa9a7df909451574d965475d72bc9e03d5e.jpg
Hercules Info: https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/chegheads/2013/08/hercules-the-pinball-legend
Baby Pacman Images: https://www.wowincevents.com/productcart/pc/catalog/babypacmancloseupgameplay_1783_detail.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BpjIrmjFyLc/hqdefault.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DsBaoNqW4AAHcX4.jpg
Baby Pacman Info: https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6987
Hyperball Images: https://auctions.potterauctions.com/ItemImages/000011/64_301_2_lg.jpeg https://www.pinballnews.com/shows/vierzon2009/14.jpg http://firebirdpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Hyperball3.jpg
Hyperball Info: https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=3169 http://pinball.org/rules/hyperball.html