 inside of advertising flyer | |
| Manufacturer | Atari |
|---|---|
| Release date | September 1977 |
| System | Atari Generation/System 1 |
| Design | Steve Ritchie |
| Programming | Eugene Jarvis |
| Artwork | George Opperman |
| Sound | Eugene Jarvis |
| Production run | 3,420 |
Airborne Avenger is a 1977 widebody pinball machine released by Atari, and is the first designed by Steve Ritchie.
While working as a technician at Atari, Steve Ritchie learned from Bob Jonesi who designed Atari's first pinball game, Atarians and began to design a game himself. After a rejection from his supervisor he took his idea to the head of Atari, Nolan Bushnell who gave him a space to work on the game. [1]
The prototype for the game was then built in four weeks. [2] Working as an engineer, Claude Fernandez assisted with the detailed layout and precise location of mechanical components. [3]
Eugene Jarvis worked on the software for the game, including getting the lights to flash in sequence. [4] When the game is not being played it has an attract mode where the lights give a show to attract potential players. [5] The speaker plays different tones when various scores are collected by the player. [5]
The backglass image was designed by George Opperman, [6] who also created the Atari logo. [7] Starlog described this image as a chisel faced man wearing sunglasses against a bald villain. [8]
The score display is on the lower left of the playfield, [9] and the boards controlling the game are contained in the main cabinet. [10]
In common with other early Atari pinball machines, a Motorola 6800 processor was used, and the playfield was larger than other manufacturers. [11]
There are two main objectives for players: to hit various targets to advance the bonus score awarded at the end of a ball, and to spell AIRBORNE AVENGER by hitting various other targets. [5] [12]
In a review for Play Meter Roger Sharpe awarded the game 3/4, finding it an improvement on Atari's two previous games, suggesting it would do better as a 5 ball game rather than a 3 ball game. [12]
RePlay said it offered "target variety for every level of player expertise". [13]
In 2014 the designer described it as his worst game. [14]
Airborne Avenger at the Internet Pinball Database