From Pinballs to Pixels - Ken Horowitz

From Pinballs to Pixels

An Arcade History of Williams-Bally-Midway

(Autor)

Buch | Softcover
277 Seiten
2024
McFarland & Co Inc (Verlag)
978-1-4766-8937-1 (ISBN)
44,85 inkl. MwSt
From early classics like Contact to marvels like High Speed, gaming publisher Williams dazzled arcade goers with its diverse range of quality pinball games. The age of video games catapulted the company into legend with blockbusters like Defender and Joust, and by the end of the 1980s it was the largest coin-op publisher in North America. Its acquisition of Bally/Midway began a period of hits that included Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam, as well as the best-selling pinball machine of all time, The Addams Family.

The history of Williams spans nearly six decades and is filled with great games, huge gambles and technical innovations that impacted every aspect of pinball and arcade video games. With interviews from over 40 former designers and executives from Williams/Bally/Midway, as well as information from hundreds of contemporaneous news reports and documents, this book presents a never-before-seen chronology of how the small company became a coin-op juggernaut. Thirty pinball and 26 video game classics are examined in depth with direct input from the people who made them, along with the story of the events that made and shaped one of gaming's greatest publishing houses.

Ken Horowitz is a professor of English and has written about Sega and video games for over a decade for his website, Sega-16, as well as for numerous other websites and magazines. He lives in Puerto Rico.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. More Than Just Marbles and Pins
2. The Edison of Pinball
3. When Harry Met Sammy
4. Winds of Change Blow Through Chicago
Gorgar (December 1979)
5. A Solid State of Affairs
Firepower (February 1980)
Black Knight (November 1980)
6. Welcome to the Video Age
Defender (March 1981)
Stargate (October 1981)
7. Heroes of the Golden Age
Make Trax (November 1981)
Hyperball (December 1981)
Conquest (1982: Unreleased)
Robotron 2084 (June 1982)
Joust (July 1982)
Moon Patrol (September 1982)
8. Crashed … But Not Burned
Defender Pinball (December 1982)
Sinistar (February 1983)
Joust Pinball (April 1983)
Blaster (December 1983)
The Bigger They Are…
Star Rider (February 1984)
 9. It's Always Darkest…
Space Shuttle Pinball Adventure (December 1984)
10. A New Dawn
Sorcerer (March 1985)
High Speed (January 1986)
Pin*Bot (October 1986)
Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest (December 1986)
­F-14 Tomcat (March 1987)
11. A Rose by Any Other Name … Still Makes Games
Last Man Standing
Banzai Run (May 1988)
Taxi (August 1988) 174
Narc (December 1988)
Arch Rivals (May 1989)
12. License to Thrill
Elvira and the Party Monsters (September 1989)
13. A New Golden Age
Smash TV (April 1990)
Pigskin 621 A.D. (August 1990)
FunHouse (November 1990)
High Impact Football (December 1990)
The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot (February 1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Pinball (July 1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (November 1991)
Total Carnage (January 1992)
The Addams Family (March 1992)
Fish Tales (October 1992)
Mortal Kombat (October 1992)
14. The Candle That Burns Twice as Bright…
White Water (January 1993)
Twilight Zone (April 1993)
NBA Jam (April 1993)
Revolution X (May 1994)
The Pinball Circus (1994: Unreleased)
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (August 1993)
Star Trek: The Next Generation Pinball (November 1993)
Cruis'n USA (November 1994)
Theatre of Magic (March 1995)
WMS Shoots for the Extra Ball
15. The End Is the Beginning … Is the End
Tales of the Arabian Nights (May 1996)
War Gods (August 1996)
­Power-Up Baseball (1996: Unreleased)
Medieval Madness (June 1997)
Monster Bash (July 1998)
16. A Skill Shot for the New Millennium
Revenge from Mars (March 1999)
Star Wars: Episode 1 Pinball (June 1999)
17. No Credit, No Continue
18. One Last Round at the Arcade
Hydro Thunder (March 1999)
The Grid (August 2000)
19. A Legacy Worth Preserving
Chapter Notes
References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum
Zusatzinfo 79 photos
Verlagsort Jefferson, NC
Sprache englisch
Maße 176 x 251 mm
Gewicht 798 g
Themenwelt Sachbuch/Ratgeber Freizeit / Hobby Spielen / Raten
Informatik Weitere Themen Computerspiele
ISBN-10 1-4766-8937-7 / 1476689377
ISBN-13 978-1-4766-8937-1 / 9781476689371
Zustand Neuware
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