Twilight Zone (pinball)

Last updated
Twilight Zone
TwillightZone pinball.jpg
Manufacturer Midway
Release dateApril 1993
System Midway WPC (Fliptronics II)
Design Pat Lawlor, Larry DeMar, Ted Estes
ProgrammingLarry DeMar, Ted Estes
ArtworkJohn Youssi
MechanicsJohn Krutsch
Music Chris Granner
SoundChris Granner, Rich Karstens
VoicesTim Kitzrow (Rod Serling)
Production run15,235

Twilight Zone is a widebody pinball machine, designed by Pat Lawlor and based on the TV series of the same name. It was first released in 1993 by Midway (under the Bally label). This game is part of WMS' SuperPin line of widebody games alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure . [1]

Contents

Description

Twilight Zone pinball.jpg

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 an unusually complex machine. Among its special features are the following:

In addition to adapting the theme music from the original TV show, the game's main background music is an interpretation of the 1982 song "Twilight Zone", by Golden Earring. Tim Kitzrow provided the voice of Rod Serling. [2]

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 soundboard.

Gameplay

In the center of the Twilight Zone playfield artwork is a door similar to the one shown in one of the TV show's opening sequences. The outside edge consists of 14 panels indicating various awards that are available for the player to collect. Some of the panels start timed modes that can be "stacked" (made to run concurrently), while other panels simply light shots or award points. The ultimate goal of the game is to light all 14 panels and start "Lost in the Zone", the game's "wizard mode", represented by the doorknob. The lights on the central portion of the door indicate the player's progress toward earning locks to start multi-ball play. [3]

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 awards a random unlit panel, while the other two methods award the panel that is currently flashing (rotated by the pop bumpers). The Slot Machine follows two rules in choosing the door panel to be awarded:

  1. The flashing panel will not be given unless it is the only one the player has yet to collect.
  2. "Lite Extra Ball" (see below" will not be given unless it is either the last panel remaining or the one not flashing if the player is two panels away from completing the set.

Shooting the Player Piano when it is unlit awards Odd Change, a random number of points between 10 and 10 million.

Hits to the three pop bumpers add to the Town Square value, which can be collected by shooting through them to the Dead End lane. Shooting the lane when lit scores double points and advances the player toward various awards. Bumper values can be increased by making a Skill Shot or by shooting the Camera when unlit; the latter shot can be accessed by raising the upper left flipper to shoot the ball into a sinkhole behind it.

Door panels in attract mode TZ pinball door panels.jpg
Door panels in attract mode

The door panels are as follows:

Battle the Power

During normal single-ball play, the right ramp can be lit to play "Battle the Power" by the following means:

Shooting the ramp sends the ball onto the Powerfield, a triangular mini-playfield at the left edge of the table with switches set into the walls. Underneath the bottom corners are two medium-power magnets (dubbed "Magna-Flips") that are controlled by the flipper buttons. The goal is to direct the ball into the top hole within a time limit, scoring points for hitting the switches. If the player succeeds, the total for the round is doubled and the currently flashing door panel is awarded. ("Lost in the Zone" can be started in this manner if all door panels have been collected.) If time runs out or if the ball falls through the bottom hole, the player only scores the points accumulated during that round.

Since the Powerball is unaffected by magnets, the game will automatically disable "Battle the Power" whenever it senses that this ball is on the field. If the player either lights "Battle the Power" or already has it lit when the Powerball enters play, that ramp will light or re-light once normal single-ball play resumes. Whenever the mode is not in play, a carriage on the ramp catches balls and drops them in front of the upper left flipper. [4]

Multi-ball

In addition to the multitude of single-ball modes, Twilight Zone also offers four multi-ball modes:

Note: In most commercially released machines, the Standard multi-ball mode starts with three balls being released sequentially from either the Lock or the auto plunger, 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. [5]

Connections to the TV series

Additionally, many more Twilight Zone references appear in the translated artwork, including:

Two of the most prominent features of the game – the gumball machine and "The Power" – do not appear in the TV series at all.

Digital versions

Twilight Zone was available as a licensed table of The Pinball Arcade for several platforms; the publisher no longer has the rights to Bally/Midway titles. The table later became available in Pinball FX (2022) . Unlicensed recreations of the game are available for Visual Pinball and Future Pinball that run on Windows.

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References

  1. "Internet Pinball Machine Database: Midway 'Twilight Zone'".
  2. IGN.com - Breaking into the Industry: Tim Kitzrow. Retrieved on 12 October 2008.
  3. https://www.arcade-museum.com/manuals-pinball/T/Twilight_Zone_OPS.pdf
  4. Internet Pinball Machine Database: Midway 'Twilight Zone'.
  5. "Pinball Terms Glossary | Kineticist". www.kineticist.com. Retrieved 2024-08-28.