Dirty Harry (pinball)

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'Dirty Harry'
Dirty Harry pinball flyer.jpg
Dirty Harry flyer
Manufacturer Williams
Release dateMarch 1995
System Williams WPC Security (WPC-S)
DesignBarry Oursler
ProgrammingCraig Sylla and Dwight Sullivan
ArtworkKevin O'Connor, Pat McMahon
MusicVince Pontarelli
SoundVince Pontarelli
Voices Clint Eastwood
AnimationScott Slomiany
Production run4,248

Dirty Harry is a Williams pinball machine released in March 1995. It is based on the fictional character of the same name.

Contents

Design

The game features custom speech by Clint Eastwood. Initially Clint Eastwood had been unavailable so the callouts in the game were recorded by a sound-alike. [1] Late in the development of the game Clint Eastwood was available and recorded worse callouts than the sound-alike, but the design team was compelled to use this worse version. [2]

The game includes a .44 Magnum gun-plunger mechanism to launch the ball, similar to that used in 1993's Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure .

The backglass shows Clint Eastwood in-character as Harry Callahan, in front of the Golden Gate bridge.

Layout

The game has 3 flippers; above the upper flipper on the right is a magnet which can briefly hold the ball so a shot can be attempted to the left ramp from this flipper. There is another ramp which leads to the left flipper. The gun located on the lower right of the machine can rotate and fire the ball. There are two buildings, the safehouse and the warehouse.

Gameplay

At the start of the game there is a selectable choice of three skillshots. After hitting 5 specific shots multiball can be started; this begins with a shot from the rotating gun where jackpots and super jackpots can be scored. As the orbits are hit a sequence of timed modes are played by hitting a sinkhole; if all six of these are completed then a 6-ball multiball starts. [3]

There is also a Midnight madness multiball mode, which starts at midnight (based on the internal clock of the machine) if a game is being played.

Reception

Reception was generally negative, Play Meter found the game fun to play but wondered about the popularity as there were no recent Dirty Harry films. [4] In the March 1995 issue of Cash Box, they were mystified how it was awarded "pinball of the show" at IMA in Germany; themselves calling it merely "OK" and preferring several other games. [5] The Flipside found the upper flipper too weak for the ramp shot, the artwork to be poor, and despite the film having good music this didn't transfer to the game. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Shalhoub, Michael (2012). The Pinball Compendium, 1982 to present (2nd revised ed.). Atglen, Pa: Schiffer Pub. p. 201. ISBN   978-0-7643-4107-6.
  2. ↑ "DIRTY HARRY". Pinside. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  3. ↑ Dirty Harry operations manual (PDF). Chicago: Williams Electronic Games. January 1995.
  4. ↑ Reeves, Greg (August 1995). "Player's Perspective". Play Meter. Vol. 21, no. 9. p. 117.
  5. ↑ "various". Cash Box. March 1995. pp. 18, 34, 46–47, 90.
  6. ↑ Schwartz, Steven (1995). "Playing the field - Dirty Harry" (PDF). The Flipside. Vol. 4, no. 3. pp. 4–7.
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