Author Topic: Space Mission - Williams 1976  (Read 4850 times)

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Offline Pintrepid

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Space Mission - Williams 1976
« on: November 28, 2013, 02:37:07 AM »
Williams 1976 Space Mission Pinball Machine
by Steve Fury

Williams Space Mission Pinball Machine-A different perspective
by Steve Fury

By the summer of '79, most of the pinball machines I played were of the early SS variety. In the case of Williams, we had Disco Fever, Phoenix and Flash at our local game room.

But I happened to find this EM table standing by itself in the corner by the door while waiting for my pizza at the Hadley Pizza on Route 9.

I was immediately intrigued! It was one of the few times that I'd encountered an EM table that wasn't Gottlieb or Bally.

The design immediately fascinated me, as it was at the time when the demise of the Skylab space station was about to occur. The deeply cosmic backglass commemorated 1975's Apollo Soyuz Test Project where the Americans docked with the Russians in a highly publicized stunt that had something to do with detente. But the image also reminded me both of the first Apollo missions in the late 60s, when I was a very young kid with a vivid imagination. One night, after watching the Apollo missions live on tv, I had a very surreal and intensely vivid dream. I saw a particularly mysterious and eerie image of the Apollo spacecraft I'd seen on tv, but very close up and very intensely detailed. It was very cool to watch .... but I suddenly realized I was floating outside the craft in outter space ... without the benefit of a space suit. What an amazing view of the earth! How extraordinary, how odd ... then I'd awoken with a start!

As for the table, the design seemed very simple, but rather appealing. The plain gothic lettering on the score labels added to the feel of a space theme. The rocket image for the bonus, in the lower playfield, was very appropriate, even down to having space between the scoring lights, which really added to the spacecraft feel.

One very prominent feature was the swinging target in the center. I thought it looked cool! But I soon discovered that it was a lot harder to hit than it looked. A few times. hitting the target was very cool ... only to see the ball deflected off the target and drain down one of the outlanes!

Another interesting feature were the ball kickers on either side of the flippers. Even though these were good things that scored more points, I found it to be annoying. I was still learning some basic techniques in gameplay, such as the benefit of capturing the ball with the flipper. It was fun to hold it there a few seconds, especially if some younger kids were watching me. Kinda felt cool, I thought. Well, here, you could stop the ball, but if you held it too long, it would roll into the ball kicker and then knock it back into the playfield. So much for the thrill of controlling the ball.
-PeterMac