High Speed

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High Speed
Manufacturer Williams
System Williams System 11
Designer Designer: Steve Ritchie
Programmer: Larry DeMar
Artwork: Mark Sprenger, Python Anghelo
Music: Bill Parod, Steve Ritchie
Sounds: Bill Parod, Eugene Jarvis
Release Date January 1986
Production Run 17,080

High Speed is a 1986 pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams Electronics. This game was based on Ritchie's real-life police chase inside a 1979 Porsche 928.[1]

High Speed was one of the games (along with 1986's Pin*Bot and 1984's Space Shuttle) that helped revitalized the stagnant pinball industry which was the result of the video game market.

During its design, High Speed was jokingly called "High Cost" by some rival Williams designers due to its then-high production cost.

Contents

[edit] Notable features

The game was noted for the following firsts:

  • First pinball to play a complete song
  • First Williams pinball game to use alpha-numeric displays
  • First diverter in a pinball
  • First "Kick-Big" (kicker and scoop) in a pinball
  • First use of Auto Percentaging (for replay scores)
  • First "Jackpot" in a pinball, during multi-ball
  • First Jackpot that carried over between games

[edit] Sequel

A sequel to this pinball was released by Ritchie in 1992. Called The Getaway: High Speed II, the game also featured some new pinball innovations.

[edit] NES version

High Speed was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System by Rare and released by Tradewest in 1990. This game runs on the same game engine as Rare's version of Pin*Bot, which was released in 1988.

[edit] Resources

  1. ^ IRC Chat with Steve Ritchie

[edit] External links