Gourt Home::Gourt :: The Twilight Zone (pinball)
The Twilight Zone 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.
Coming off from his huge success of The Addams Family pinball game, Midway gave Lawlor full creative control over the design of the 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.
For its music, in addition to the main Twilight Zone theme song, it used Golden Earring's 1982 hit song, "Twilight Zone", for its main theme during gameplay.
Modes
The game features 14 stackable "modes". This means more than one mode can be active at a time, and some people credit this as one reason the game is so popular. Starting a mode requires either making the piano shot or the slot machine shot when that target is lit. Starting each mode lights one door panel.
After lighting all 14 panels, a "?" starts flashing in the keyhole of the doorknob. When the player makes the next slot machine or piano shot, he or she has "unlocked the door" and proceeds to get "Lost in the Zone", which is a furious 6-ball multi-ball mode.
- 10 Million Points - Player is awarded 10 million points.
- Lite the Gumball Machine - Gumball machine is lit. Player must shoot right orbit.
- Town Square Madness - Various targets award points as townspeople scream. Pop bumpers increase value of targets.
- Fast Lock - A clock counts down points while awaiting for the player to shoot the lock. Various sounds clips from Pat Lawlor's previous games plays. When the lock is hit, the count down stops, and the jackpot is set to that value.
- Super Skill Shot - Shooting the left ramp causes the ball to be re-routed to the plunger. Player must shoot the ball in either the red, orange, or yellow zone to score.
- Super Slot - Slot machine is activated and awards the player special points each time he shoots it.
- Lite Extra Ball - Extra ball target is lit.
- The Camera - Camera shot lights up. Each time the camera shot is completed, a different award is granted.
- The Spiral - The magnets in the orbit are activated. Hitting each one awards points.
- Clock Millions - The clock begins counting. Hitting the clock target between the left and right ramp awards points and causes the same target's value to increase. All the time, Pop Goes the Weasel is playing.
- Battle The Power - The right-hand ramp lights up, so the next shot allows the player to compete against the "power" using magna-flips on the upper playfield. This is the one mode where the theme is not based on any actual Twilight Zone episode, but was instead thought up by the game's designers.
- Greed - 5 million point targets light up around the playfield.
- Hitch-hiker - Player is awarded based on the number of "hitchhikers" picked up during the game.
- Clock Chaos - Clock target lights up, and the clock starts counting down. Each time the target is hit, the clock reverses direction, granting more time. Striking this target more than six times before the mode is over results in an easter egg: Rudy from Lawlor's previous pinball Funhouse says, "Quit playing with the clock!"
Multi-ball
Five possible multiball modes:- Powerball Mania, 3-ball - Started when the player puts the "powerball" back into the gumball machine. Jackpot shot requires the user to shoot a ball up the right ramp onto the "Powerfield". Making the powerfield shot up the center awards a jackpot. For many players, this is very challenging.
- Fast Lock, 3-ball - Started when player makes the "lock" shot during "Fast Lock" mode. Jackpot is hitting the lock shot again.
- Lost in the Zone, 6-ball wizard mode
- Regular Multiball, 3-ball sequential release, without 3rd magnet installed - Jackpot is making the piano shot. After making the jackpot, the player must complete the camera shot to re-activate the piano jackpot shot.
- Regular Multiball, 3-ball simultaneous release, with 3rd magnet installed
Custom Modifications
Twilight Zone might possibly have the most custom modifications offered. Customizing pinball machines is a controversial subject. Many people definitely have a POV on the subject. Some players believe it is a degradation to the machine while others believe it is an enhancement. Some of the modifications for this game involve installing features that were part of Pat Lawlor's original design, but were cut due to costs. Other modifications came from other people in the pinball community. Some people have different opinions on mods based on criteria of whether or not they were part of the original design.Original design mods
- Third playfield magnet - The game has two magnets in the outer loop, referred to as the Spiral. The original design of the game had three magnets, but to reduce manufacturing costs, the third magnet was removed before production was started. Programming was added in 9.4H (home edition) of the software to support it. This mod involves drilling a hole in the playfield making it probably the most controversially modification. Future owners of a machine must either accept this change or pay for an entirely new playfield and install it, while all the other mods can be undone at little or no cost. Some pinball purchasers may not even give you an offer due to this change.
- 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 at any one time. There is a cavity to the left and to the right of where the pinballs sit, and this space is empty. People have purchased colored balls to put in here to make it look more like a "real" gumball machine. Not sure if this is technically part of the original design.
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 noticable. 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 get more light with less heat.
- 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 much heat that over extended periods, especially if the machine has been on route, damage the clock housing. People often upgrade this component with LED based lights to remove the heat and guarantee extensive life to 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.
- 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.
These are only handful. There are many other mods available.
External links
Midway Games | Pinball games | The Twilight Zone | 1993 arcade games
"The Twilight Zone (pinball)"