![]() It’s a really fun table for fans of what many would consider the series’ peak era, just two years before the fateful Ind圜ar/CART split. Players must run various ramps with labels like “PEDAL TO THE METAL” and “NEVER LIFT” to progress gameplay modes, including Go for the Pole, which scores you 10 million points if you run four ramps in 20 seconds.Īs you progress through modes and scores, your position in a virtual race improves, as you’re regaled all the while by the sound of screaming engines. The Borg-Warner trophy sits front and centre between the flippers, surrounded by countless cars, flags, and other highlights from the track. All three of them provided custom voicework for use in Bally’s 1994 tribute to the race. Likewise, just about every living Indy fan will know the voice of Tom Carnegie, who called races at the track from 1946 to 2006. Williams The Getaway: High Speed II – 1992įor Indy 500 fans of a certain age, the voices of Paul Page and Bobby Unser are synonymous with the great race. Pinball great Pat Lawlor, designer of Bally’s 1992 table The Addams Family (considered by many to be the greatest pinball machine of all time), says that High Speed is also his personal favourite. Not only is the theme fun and engaging, the table itself is a real joy to play, with a fast, flowing design that really encourages you to keep the ball moving. ![]() Most importantly, it ranks as my number one pinball table of all time. It also rates at number 50 on IPDB’s Top 300 pinball machine list, and number 87 on Pinside’s Top 100. To this day it ranks as the number-six best-selling pinball machine of all time. Williams sold 17,080 High Speed tables during its production run. With its flashing dome light and engaging voice samples ( Pull over!), it captivated gamers like no table had done before. Video games were taking over arcades and nobody cared for the dated silverball machines that had been all the rage a few years earlier. In the mid 1980s, pinball was facing extinction. However, Grand Prix sold more than three times as many tables, over 10,000 worldwide.ġ0 years later, Williams had another home run, releasing one of the most significant pinball tables of all time. In fact, it’s almost a carbon copy of another Williams table, Liberty Bell, which shipped just one month prior. ![]() Yes, despite all the myriad problems facing our nation in those times, politicians decided to go after pinball.)Īs far as Grand Prix’s layout goes, it’s pretty unremarkable. (Fun fact: Pinball was illegal in much of the USA from the early ‘40s up until 1976. Released in 1976, Grand Prix was perfectly timed to capitalise on the boom that followed the end of the pinball prohibition. Unrelated to Frank Williams’ eponymous racing team, Williams Electronics also released some of the most iconic video games of the 1980s, including Defender, Joust, and Robotron: 2084.īefore all that there was Grand Prix. Williams Manufacturing Company, which in 1974 became Williams Electronics and later WMS Industries, was one of the leading pinball producers in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. I must begin by clarifying: No, not that Williams. How did I choose? Some of this is based on sales figures, some on player rankings on sites like Pinside and the Internet Pinball Database – and frankly I’d be lying if I said I didn’t inject a bit of personal preference in here, too. Here, I’m going to pick a top five spanning from the 1970s through to today. Major marques and models like Mustang, Corvette, and Harley-Davidson have all had bespoke machines, while NASCAR, Formula 1, and Ind圜ar have each been honoured with at least one table. Looking back over pinball’s 80-year history, some of the most significant tables of all time have had automotive themes. Now, they’re standing front and centre in trendy bars and clubs around the globe. It wasn’t that long ago that unloved pinball tables were relegated to dark corners in bowling alleys or laundromats. While manufacturers like Stern and Chicago Gaming Company are releasing new titles based on major franchises like The Mandalorian or Toy Story, vintage machines are seeing their values go through the roof. Pinball is undergoing a major resurgence right now – a silverball renaissance, if you will.
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