Flash Playfield
$849.00 USD
Williams FLASH
Short-Run Reproduction Playfields from CPR
First time available in the hobby EVER !! New release for June 2021. Another reproduction candidate from the old CPR ‘Boutique Zone’ finally makes it to production. After years of fuzzy reception in our polling, ongoing small-run production finally allows for titles like this to be seriously considered. As usual, this small batch will be available until they are gone. If the demand continues, we will always be technically able to make more someday, but it may take some time before we get back around to them, so…. Consider these “get them while they’re available!”
In stock
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| Manufacturer: | Williams Electronics, Incorporated (1967-1985) [Trade Name: Williams] | |||||
| Date Of Manufacture: | October 27, 1978 | |||||
| Model Number: | 486 | |||||
| MPU: | Williams System 4 | |||||
| Type: | Solid State Electronic (SS) | |||||
| Production: | 19,505 units (confirmed) | |||||
| Theme: | Fantasy | |||||
| Notable Features: | Flippers (3), Pop bumpers (3), Slingshots (2), 5-bank drop targets (1), 3-bank drop targets (1), Standup targets (2), Spinning target (1), Kick-out hole (1), Star rollovers (5). Ball shot into play crosses the playfield to get to the top. Flash Lamps under playfield.
Maximum displayed point score is 999,990 points per player. |
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| Design by: | Steve Ritchie | |||||
| Art by: | Constantino Mitchell, Jeanine Mitchell | |||||
| Mechanics by: | John Jung | |||||
| Sound by: | Randy Pfeiffer | |||||
| Software by: | Randy Pfeiffer | |||||
| Notes: | ‘Flash’ was the first game from any manufacturer to have a dynamic background sound during gameplay. It is also the first game from any manufacturer to use Flash Lamps, which provide a temporary burst of flashing light intended primarily for the sake of its visual effect, in contrast to the usual playfield lamps that either provide constant general illumination or turn on and off only as indicators of specific playfield objectives or their point values. Designer Steve Ritchie comments:I “invented” background sound at Atari, but management wouldn’t have it, so I asked Randy Pfeiffer to create a continuously cycling complex sound that increased in pitch and speed of cycling, and he did both. That changing background added a tension and excitement that was never present in earlier games. That sound also broadcasted how well the player was doing. If you heard the only game that made a background sound in an arcade at high pitch and a fast cycle, all eyes were on you, sometimes gathering a small crowd in those days.
The production run of this game was far higher than previous Williams games. Steve Ritchie comments:Towards the end of the run of Flash, I asked Jack Mittel, then-VP of sales, why we wouldn’t try to push past the 20,000 unit mark. He replied, “We want to leave the market wanting.” Steve also tells us about the prototype backglass shown in this listing:We printed two backglasses in a blue background because management was scared that the black background wouldn’t be accepted. We also printed two red ones. I owned them all, but both reds and one blue disintegrated as I unwrapped them after being in storage for 34 years. The ink was in a pile at the bottom of the package! No games were sent out with any color other than black background, which was widely accepted and dramatic when lit “back in the day.” Reportedly, later production units had System 6 CPU boards. Steve tells us that a subsequent game “Super Flash” was contemplated in 1986 as a ‘sequel’ but never made it as far as the drawing board. *Info Courtesy of IPDB |
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