Twilight Zone (pinball)
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| Twilight Zone | |
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| Manufacturer | Midway |
| System | Midway WPC (Fliptronics II) |
| Designer | Designers: Pat Lawlor, Larry DeMar, Ted Estes Programmers: Larry DeMar, Ted Estes Artwork: John Youssi Mechanics: John Krutsch Music: Chris Granner Sounds: Chris Granner, Rich Karstens |
| Release Date | April 1993 |
| Production Run | 15,235 |
Twilight Zone (often abbreviated TZ) is a 1993 widebody pinball game, designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Midway (under the Bally label). It is based on the classic TV series. This game is part of WMS' SuperPin line of widebody games (see also Star Trek: The Next Generation and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure).
Following the huge success of The Addams Family pinball game, Midway gave Lawlor full creative control over the design of his next game, and the result is what many pinball enthusiasts consider to be "the most complex pinball game ever designed". Among its noted features include a working Gumball machine (which deposits balls), a working analog clock (used as a timer for various modes), the Powerfield (a small separate playfield where the ball is propelled by magnets rather than flippers), and the "Powerball", a white ceramic ball which is lighter than a regular steel ball and is non-magnetic.
In addition to adapting the theme music from the original TV show, the game's main background music is a remix of the 1982 hit "Twilight Zone", by Golden Earring.
This game was originally supposed to be the first game to use Williams / Midway's DCS Sound System, but because the DCS board was still in development when the game was released, it instead used the Yamaha YM2151 / Harris CVSD sound board.
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[edit] Single-Ball Modes
Twilight Zone features fifteen single-ball "modes", most of which can be stacked (one mode can be started while any number of other modes are in progress). Fourteen of these modes are presented as door panels in the center of the playfield. The ultimate goal of the game is to light all of the door panels and start "Lost in the Zone", the game's wizard multiball mode which comprises the doorknob.
The game provides several ways to light door panels: Shoot the Slot Machine when lit, shoot the Player Piano when lit, or defeat the Power in the mini-playfield. Shooting the Slot Machine starts a random unlit door panel mode, while the other two methods start the door panel that is currently flashing.
The door panels are as follows:
- 10 Million Points — Awards 10 million points.
- Lite Gumball — Lights the Gumball machine. Player must shoot the right orbit to load the current ball in play into the Gumball machine. (This is the main method for getting the Powerball onto the playfield. The other methods are: If it was drained, it will be kicked-out to the plunger—or auto-plunger—in turn; or, if it was shot into the lock, while the lock was lit, it will be released when any multiball mode is started, or when 1-2 more balls are shot into the lock, while it is not lit.)
- Town Square Madness — Timed mode. All targets accumulate a set point value, while the pop bumpers in Town Square increase the value for each target and cause townspeople to panic.
- Fast Lock — An AM radio plays clips from Pat Lawlor's previous pinball games, counting down a jackpot value as its "frequency". Shooting the Lock awards the jackpot and starts a three-ball multiball mode, where shooting the Lock awards the jackpot again. The background music played during this multiball is the main multiball music from the game whose clip was most recently played in single-ball mode. The games referenced are, in order, The Addams Family, FunHouse, Whirlwind, Earthshaker!, and Banzai Run.
- Super Skill Shot — Lights the Super Skill Shot. Shooting the left ramp causes the ball to return to the plunger, where the player must then make a skill shot to score special bonuses: Red lights "Battle the Power", Orange lights the outlanes, and Yellow lights "Extra Ball". If the ball is shot past Yellow, into the hole, the player gets a consolation award of 10 million points… Pretty good for a consolation award! :)
- Super Slot — Timed mode. Shooting the Slot Machine awards random bonus points.
- Lite Extra Ball — Lights "Extra Ball". Shooting the Lock awards the extra ball.
- The Camera — Lights the Camera. Shooting the Camera (just underneath the top-left flipper) yields a rotating award. Awards are "20 Million Points", "Lite Outlanes", "Clock 10 Millions", "Collect Bonus", "3X Town Square", and "10 Hitchhikers".
- The Spiral — Timed mode. Shooting the orbits causes the ball to stop on the Spiral magnets for the first three shots (awarding points), then awards "Breakthrough" points for each subsequent shot.
- Clock Millions — Timed mode. Shooting the clock target (between the two ramps) awards 1 million points times the position of the hour hand on the clock. (A similar mode, "Clock 10 Millions", is started via the Camera and awards 10 million points per hit, regardless of the hour hand's position.)
- Battle The Power — Lights the "Battle the Power" shot on the right ramp. Shooting the right ramp when this is lit starts "Battle the Power" mode.
- Greed — Timed mode. All of the 5-million-point targets start lit.
- Hitch-Hiker — Awards 2 million points for each hitchhiker the player has picked up thus far in the game. Each additional hitchhiker picked up during the player's current ball scores another 2 million points.
- Clock Chaos — Timed mode. The clock starts at 6:00 and begins counting down, playing "Pop Goes the Weasel" throughout the mode. Hitting the clock target awards 1 million points times the position of the hour hand, and the clock reverses direction and starts counting faster. The mode ends when the clock reaches 12:00.
The one single-ball mode not accounted for by the door panels is "Battle the Power". The door panel by the same name merely lights the right ramp. To actually play the "Battle the Power" mode, the player must shoot the right ramp when the shot is lit. The ball moves to the raised mini-playfield to the left of the main playfield, and the player must then direct the ball into the top hole within a set time limit. The mini-playfield utilizes two medium-power magnets that act as flippers (dubbed "Magna-Flips"). (Note: Since the Powerball isn't magnetic, when the game "knows" the Powerball is the only active ball, the "Battle the Power" mode becomes unavailable until a regular ball becomes active. However, the "Battle the Power" mode can be lit while the Powerball is active.) If the ball falls through the bottom hole or time runs out, the player is awarded whatever bonus points were accumulated during the mode. If the player succeeds in shooting the ball through the top hole, the award is doubled and the currently highlighted door panel mode is started. (This will start "Lost in the Zone" if all door panels have been started.)
[edit] Multi-ball
In addition to the multitude of single-ball modes, Twilight Zone also offers four multiball modes:
- Standard Multiball (3-ball) — Started when the player locks two balls in the Lock, then either shoots the Lock a third time or (in some cases) shoots the left ramp. Jackpots are awarded for shooting the Player Piano when lit, and are relit by shooting the Camera. The player can increase the jackpot value by hitting the flashing 5-Million targets. When the jackpot is collected using the Powerball, the player is awarded double the current jackpot value, and the DMD display shows "Jackpot doubled by Powerball".
- Powerball Mania (3-ball) — Started when the player successfully loads the Powerball into the Gumball Machine. The player may "Battle the Power" simultaneously while making other shots on the main playfield, and is awarded a 50-million-point jackpot for successfully defeating the Power.
- Fast Lock Multiball (3-ball) — See the description in single-ball modes.
- Lost in the Zone (6-ball) — The game's wizard mode, awarded for successfully lighting all of the door panels. The doorknob (bearing a question mark) becomes lit, and any of the normal mode-starting shots will start this mode. The player has approximately 45 seconds to make an unlimited number of shots to all targets - every playable single-ball mode is active during this period, and balls are immediately put back into play when they are lost. Once time runs out, the flippers are deactivated and all balls are allowed to drain. The total score is tallied while the machine refills the Gumball Machine. Gameplay then returns to normal.
- Tournament Mode (4-ball) 4 Twilight balls, and the initial "Ball Saver of the Apocalypse", which placed a dual one time use bumpers inside the two side slots
Note: In most commercially released machines, the Standard Multiball mode starts with 3 balls being released sequentially from either the Lock or the autoplunger, depending on how many balls are physically contained in the Lock at the time. An alternative start to this mode is available in some versions of the ROM software, and requires that a third magnet be installed in the Spiral orbit (standard machines only have two magnets). This allows the machine to lock all three balls in the Spiral Magnets and then release them simultaneously.
**Tournament High Score for Twilight Zone Pinball** The World Record for highest score ever recorded belongs to Edward Price of Richmond, VA, who reached a score of 1,776,633,737 on June 6th, 2006, breaking the previous record held by Paul Hackard of Moorpark, Ca at 1,620,568,370 in 1998. This was verified by a referee of the Milky Way Gamers Society, and played in "Tournament Mode", the official mode for Twilight Zone Pinball machine World Records.
[edit] Custom Modifications
Customizing pinball machines is a controversial subject — many players disagree on whether customizations enhance the machine's presentation or detract from it. Many also disagree on which kinds of modifications are considered acceptable, based on whether the mods were part of the creator's original design.[citation needed] Because Twilight Zone had a number of features cut before release to reduce manufacturing costs, and it is also such a complex machine, it is widely considered a prime candidate for customization. Some modifications restore features that were part of Pat Lawlor's original design, while others go beyond the original design to add an owner's personal touch to the machine.
[edit] Original design mods
- Third playfield magnet - The official Twilight Zone playfield has two magnets in the outer loop (the Spiral), which are used to instantly stop the ball(s) to assist the player with certain shots. The original design of the game had a third magnet above the right-hand magnet, but to reduce manufacturing costs, this magnet was removed before production. An owner can install this third magnet after drilling a hole in the playfield, and support for this magnet is included in version 9.4H (the "home edition") of the ROM software. However, this mod is quite controversial due to the irrevocable modification of the playfield, and some pinball purchasers will not consider such a modified machine. Future owners of this machine must either accept the change or install an unmodified playfield at their own cost, while all other mods can be easily undone.
- Gumball flashers - Included in the door panel are two inserts indicating when the player has shot the left ramp for "GUM" and the right ramp for "BALL", indicating time to shoot for the Gumball machine. These were designed to have flasher bulbs underneath them, but for some reason were cut from the production run.
- Gumballs - The gumball machine holds three pinballs in a vertical column at any one time, but the cavities to either side of this column are left empty in the official game. A common modification is to fill these vacities with small colored balls, giving the gumball machine a more authentic appearance. It is not known for certain if this was part of Lawlor's original design.
[edit] Independent mods
- Gumball machine flashers - Many people criticize the fact that the gumball machine is dark and since it is located in the far corner of the machine, is not very noticeable. The only light to indicate it is active is the blinking red lamp over the right orbit shot, far away from the machine. One modification is to put a set of lights underneath the gumball cap tied in to the same blinking circuit so that the gumball machine is lit up when active. Some of the newer versions of this mod use LEDs to avoid problems with heat.
- Camera - When you shoot the camera shot, the display shows a camera that takes a picture that has an award for you. People install a little camera on top of the shot that has a blue LED in the center.
- Clock - The clock is an integral part of the game, and thus is well lit up. However, the original manufacture of the machine used four incandescent light bulbs. These bulbs generate heat that, over extended periods and especially if the machine has been on route, can damage the clock housing and PCBs. It is possible to modify the clock to reduce the intensity of the bulbs or replace them altogether with LEDs to reduce the heat and extend the life of the clock.
- Piano - Twilight Zone has an upper left flipper, and its main purpose is to shoot the ball to the right side into a hole called the "piano shot" due to the artwork on the playfield, which is right underneath the clock. People have found small toy pianos and cut them out to fit underneath the clock and give more of a "piano" presence to the shot.
- Slot machine - Just to the left of the right-orbit is a hole called the "slot machine". People have installed a toy slot machine just above it.
- Robot on ramp - Everytime the player shoots the ball up the left ramp, the DMD display shows a picture of a robot. Several people have implemented different mods using toy replicas of Robby the Robot with tiny LEDs mounted on top of the bracket used to mount the detection switch. They have linked these LEDs into different flasher circuits so that the robot reflects some status of the game. In the last version for the robot, Robby is exactly like the playfield!!!
- Rocket ship - Below the right-upper flipper is a slot that causes an animated picture of a rocket ship before launching the ball. Players install a small toy rocket ship.
- Fixing the pop-bumper caps - The pop-bumpers have different colors on each cap: red, orange, and yellow. When the player scores the skill shot in the red, one pop bumper lights up. Scoring orange lights two pop bumpers, and scoring yellow lights up all three. When Midway released Twilight Zone, the flyer that was also sent out shows which pop bumpers had which cap colors, and it turns out the colors didn't perfectly match up to the skill shot levels. Many owners swap the red and the orange caps to make them match up, chalking it up to a mistake in the production run.^
- Pyramid mod - A small pyramid figure on the left of the mini play field that looks exactly like the one on the backboard translite, the mod lights up when defeat the power light bulb on play field turns on and when ball comes in to battle the power zone it passes under the mod.
These are only a handful. There are many other mods available.
[edit] External links
- IPDB listing for: The Twilight Zone
- Pinpedia Database Entry: The Twilight Zone
- Twilight Zone mods
- Twilight Zone promo video
- Twilight Zone Owners Community
- Game Room Magazine: Romancing The Twilight Zone Pinball, by Ted Estes
| Series |
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The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) | The New Twilight Zone | The Twilight Zone (2002 series) |
| Key People |
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Rod Serling | Buck Houghton | Charles Beaumont | Richard Matheson | Jerry Sohl | George Clayton Johnson | Earl Hamner Jr. | Reginald Rose | Ray Bradbury |
| See Also |
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Playhouse 90 | List of The Twilight Zone episodes | List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) guest stars | The Twilight Zone (pinball) | Twilight Zone: The Movie | The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror |
