Judge Dredd Playfield

9 modes + “Ultimate Challenge” wizard mode, SuperGame Feature (4 additional modes)

Voice-over artist Tim Kitzrow provided the voice of Judge Dredd.

Based on the character licensed from the comic series ‘2000 AD’, not the 1995 Judge Dredd movie.

The planet “Deadworld” feature located on the upper left playfield was redesigned for all production games from the version that existed on prototype games (test games) like the one shown in the flyer. The test game version would lock balls on a ring that rotated slowly around the planet, until the third ball was locked, and then all three balls would be released by the Space Station Robotic Arm (a magnetic crane) for multi-ball.

In the production games, the locks are virtual and only the third locked ball is actually diverted to the planet, where it goes directly from the loading ramp to the crane and is lifted out immediately. The holes in the ring were cut open so if the crane ever failed, the balls will just fall off the ring as it turns.

It has been suggested that this feature was changed because it failed under test, leaving balls trapped on the ring. We asked designer John Trudeau about it. He clarifies:

The original ring and [software] program were only used on the prototypes and sample games. Nothing ever failed and all the games worked flawlessly, throughout their stays at their test locations. Even the sample games sent to Europe worked well.

The problem was with the German distributor. He said he saw a potential for failure with the ball crane. In other words, he just didn’t like it. I don’t know why. And I never actually heard what he threatened Williams with, but it was enough pressure to have the game changed. I fought the good fight for keeping it the way it was, but I didn’t have big enough clout to outweigh the potential loss of sales. So I swallowed what pride I had left and changed it. It wasn’t as cool as having the balls in orbit, but there was a lot of game still there to have fun with.

The same potential “failure lock-up” point is at ANY ball popper or even the outhole. It just never made any sense to me.

The prototype games were all retrofitted with a new ring and program. The distributors were all sent conversion kits to refit their sample games to the modified play. Whether these kits ever actually found their way onto the sample games was up to the distributors. The incentive for the distributors to do the conversion was the fact that any subsequent software updates would have the “new” ring in mind. The “old” ring would only work with that original software release. I would expect that everyone would eventually do the mod.

Any regular production game having a planet ring that matches the one shown in the flyer has been fitted with an after-factory reproduction of the prototype/sample model, and the game programming should have been adjusted to support this change.

Trudeau also advises us that Judge Dredd was the only “Superpin” to feature “Supergame”, an entirely multiball game that could be had for an additional credit. “Supergame” also had its own High Score To Date records shown in the dot matrix display.

*Info Courtesy of IPDB