Pinball 2000 is the last pinball hardware and software platform developed by major pinball manufacturer Williams, and was used in the machines Revenge From Mars (under the brand name Bally) and Star Wars Episode I (under the brand name Williams) before Williams exited the pinball business on October 25th, 1999. It's the successor to the Williams Pinball Controller platform. Unlike previous pinball machines, Pinball 2000 machines feature a computer monitor to display animations, scores, and other information directly onto the playfield by using a mirrored playfield glass (through a technique called "Pepper's Ghost") that reflects the output displayed from the monitor hanging in the head of the machine. This construction was inspired by the Asteroids Deluxe arcade machine which used a one way mirror to add a static background graphic to the animated vector graphics of the game. This allows to display virtual game targets in the upper third of the playfield that can be physically hit by the regular steel ball of the machine. To detect the impact of the ball the released games used various targets in the middle of the field, or by recognizing successful shots up the left and right ramps and orbits/loops. Another novelty is the fast swapping of playfields and software, so operators can convert an existing game into a completely new one in (theoretically) 5 to 10 minutes. A conversion kit for Revenge from Mars was released so it could be converted into a Star Wars Episode I. The kit included a new playfield, ROMs, cabinet decals and a manual plunger. Although the success of the first machine Revenge from Mars (6,878 units) was promising, the management of Williams decided to close down the pinball section after Star Wars Episode I (which suffered from the rushed and top-secret production cycle) only sold roughly half of the units (3,525). (via Wikipedia)
Category: (Video Games)
11 new, starting at $0.70
7 used, starting at $0.01
Category: (Sports)
1 new, starting at $24.87
Category: (Digital Music Track)
1 new, starting at $0.89
Top 7 Weirdest Pinball-Machine Designs
15 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT | Popular Mechanics
Pinball 2000
1 Oct 2009 18:41:07 GMT | Wikipedia
George Gomez
10 Oct 2009 14:44:31 GMT | Wikipedia
Signup on Pinball 2000