|
Dialed In! (pinball)
''Dialed In!'' is a 2017 pinball machine manufactured by Jersey Jack Pinball. It was the third machine released, after ''The Wizard of Oz (pinball), The Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Hobbit (pinball), The Hobbit''. Unlike its predecessors it is not based on a third-party license, and is in a standard size cabinet. It innovatively blends special effects using an illusion, and a smartphone screen to create a disaster-themed pinball table with links to many of Pat Lawlor's previous tables. Overview Designed nearly 10 years after Pat Lawlor's previous machine, ''Shrek'' (for Stern (game company), Stern) this is his first design for Jersey Jack pinball. It was initially unveiled at the 32nd annual pinball expo in Chicago. Jack Guarnieri, the founder of the company, stated at the time "This machine embodies our company-wide mission to bring premium, no-compromise games to our fans, with features that have never been seen before in a pinball game." Before full release a prototype was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jersey Jack Pinball
Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. is an American pinball machine manufacturing company that was established in 2011. The first table released by the company, ''The Wizard of Oz'', appeared in 2013. History Jersey Jack Pinball was founded in January 2011 by industry veteran Jack Guarnieri. Starting in 1975, he serviced electromechanical pinball tables for a living, and he created the website PinballSales.com in 1999. Guarnieri hired designer Joe Balcer and programmer Keith Johnson to work on the first machines. In 2013, the company released its first pinball machine, ''The Wizard of Oz''. They spent $2 million in startup and development and sold the machines for $7,000 each. Guarnieri's goal was to produce a high-quality pinball machine regardless of cost, and attract a larger female pinball audience than other manufacturers. ''The Wizard of Ozs release caught the attention of Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, who reached out to the company about collaborating on a pinball machine. Jersey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FunHouse (pinball)
''FunHouse'' is a pinball machine designed by Pat Lawlor and released in November 1990 by Williams Electronics. Starring a talking ventriloquist dummy named Rudy, the game is themed after the concept of an amusement park funhouse. ''FunHouse'' is one of the last Williams games to use an alphanumeric display; the company switched to dot matrix the following year. Description ''FunHouses primary feature is the talking head of a ventriloquist dummy, named Rudy, located in the top right corner of the playfield. Rudy responds to events in the game, including informing the player of special bonuses, taunting and heckling the player, and appearing to follow the ball with its eyes when certain targets are hit. Rudy is voiced by Ed Boon, and the technology behind Rudy's facial movements was dubbed "Pin-Mation" by Williams. The theme and artwork were heavily inspired by Riverview Park, an amusement park near the manufacturer's headquarters. For example, the park's Riverview Carou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safe Cracker (pinball)
''Safe Cracker'' is a pinball machine with a safecracking theme, designed by Pat Lawlor, and distributed by Midway (under the '' Bally'' label). It was created in 1996. About 1148 were manufactured. Description ''Safe Cracker'' differs from a standard pinball game in that the player is playing against the clock, as opposed to having a certain number of balls available. If the player loses a ball, as long as there is time left on the clock they can continue playing. The machine is smaller in size than a standard pinball machine. The main objective of the game is to break into the bank's safe. The game can be broken into 3 areas of play: * The pinball playfield has numerous targets, the completion of which will allow entry into the bank via the rooftop, the cellar, or the front door. * Once the player has entered the bank, the game changes to a boardgame that takes place on the backglass. Using the flipper buttons to make choices, the player spins a dial that is numbered 1 thro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twilight Zone (pinball)
''Twilight Zone'' is a widebody pinball machine, designed by Pat Lawlor and based on the TV series of the same name. It was first released in 1993 by Midway (under the Bally label). This game is part of WMS' '' SuperPin'' line of widebody games alongside '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and '' Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure''. Description Following the huge success of '' The Addams Family'' pinball game, Midway gave Lawlor full creative control over the design of his next game, and the result is an unusually complex machine. Among its special features are the following: * A working gumball machine holds three balls and can dispense them or receive others during play. * A working, 12-hour analog clock can display the current time and function as a timer during certain rounds. * The Powerball is a white ceramic ball lighter than the other steel balls in the machine and unaffected by magnets. It can enter play by being served to the plunger, ejected from the Lock, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Addams Family (pinball)
''The Addams Family'' is a pinball machine released in March 1992. It was designed by Pat Lawlor and Larry DeMar and released by Midway (under the '' Bally'' label). It was based on the 1991 film of the same name, and features custom speech (mostly derived from the motion picture) by the stars of the film, Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia. It is the best-selling solid state pinball machine of all time with 20,270 units sold. Overview The machine's game card describes the game objective as being to "Explore the strange world of the Addams Family". With that in mind there is no single player goal, though there are two central objectives: * Tour the Mansion: The Addams Family mansion is located in the center of the playfield and has 12 rooms, each of which offers a different award. Once every award is collected, a "wizard mode" called Tour the Mansion becomes available (see below). * Vault Multiball: In the top-right section of the playfield is a blue bookcase, representing th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red & Ted's Road Show
''Red & Ted's Road Show'' (also known as ''Road Show'') is a 1994 widebody pinball game designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Williams. It is part of WMS' '' SuperPin'' line of widebody games. Country singer Carlene Carter provided the voice of Red, and her song " Every Little Thing" is featured in the game. The game is considered an unofficial successor of ''FunHouse'', as both were designed by Pat Lawlor and feature animated talking head(s) along with some similar playfield layout ideas. It is equipped with a shaker motor to make the machine vibrate and has two manual plungers, one on each side of the cabinet. It was the first pinball machine to feature an additional daily high score list. Gameplay The primary goal is to help Red and Ted, a pair of road construction workers, travel through the United States from east to west. Two ventriloquist-dummy heads representing them are mounted on the playfield, with eyes and mouths that move in time with their speech. The player ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earthshaker! (pinball)
''Earthshaker!'' is a pinball game designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Williams Electronics in 1989. The game features an earthquake theme and was advertised with the slogan "It's a Moving Experience!" Some prototypes have a building that when the shaker motor is activated will fall down but the team removed it due to cost savings. ''Earthshaker!'' was the first pinball machine with a shaker motor that causes the table to rumble along with the theme of the game. However, this was not patented by Williams so was available for other manufacturers to use in their designs. Description The player assumes the role of an earthquake researcher and has to visit various zones along the California-Nevada border. During the game the two states split apart and become a rail for the ball. Sample games feature an "Earthquake Institute" building that sinks into the playfield. About 200 of these sample machines were produced before this toy was made stationary due to cost savings. Some ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whirlwind (pinball)
''Whirlwind'' is a pinball machine produced by Williams in 1990 and was one of the last Williams System 11B games. The game is set in Kansas, and involves storm-chasing. It was designed by Pat Lawlor, whose previous game was also a natural disaster-themed table, ''Earthshaker!''. Design The game features three counter-rotating rotating discs. As a cost consideration these are all driven off a single motor, developed by John Krutsch. Ron Baum showed the design team the rubber mat material to cover them with which imparts spin on the ball. It also is the first pinball machine to have a fan topper that blows wind on the player when the discs spin. Because of this, the marketing slogan was "Feel the power of the wind!". The Sega machine ''Twister'' used a similar fan in 1996. There were two versions of the translite. Early versions were produced with a "C" on the cap of the child with the video camera. This was because the designer and artist were both fans of Chicago Cubs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tweet (social Media)
A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around 80% of all tweets are made by 10% of users, averaging 138 tweets per month, with the median user making only two tweets per month. Following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022, and rebranding of the site as "X" in July 2023, all references to the word "tweet" were removed from the service, changed to "post", and "retweet" changed to "repost". The terms "tweet" and "retweet" are still more popular when referring to posts on X. Content The service has experimented with changing how tweets work over the years to attract more users and to keep them on the site. The character limit was originally 140 characters when the service started, had media attachments no longer count in the mid-2010s, and doubled altogether in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SimCity
''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game franchise originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, '' SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and was followed by several sequels and many other spin-off ''Sim'' titles, including 2000's ''The Sims'', which itself became a best-selling computer game and franchise. Maxis developed the series independently until 1997, and continued under the ownership of Electronic Arts until 2003. EA commissioned various spinoffs from other companies during the 2000s, focusing on console and mobile releases. A 2013 EA-Maxis reboot was subject to what has been described as "one of the most disastrous launches in history", which may have triggered the 2015 shutdown of Maxis Emeryville and the end of the franchise. Gameplay ''SimCity'' titles are real-time management and construction simulators. Across most titles, the player (acting as mayor) is given a blank map to begin and must expand the city with the bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Lawlor
Patrick M. Lawlor (born November 30, 1951) is a video game and pinball machine designer. Pat Lawlor had originally been a video game designer and had entered the coin-operated game design industry in 1980, working for Dave Nutting Associates. Lawlor's pinball career began as an engineer for Williams in 1987, when he co-designed a dual-playfield machine called '' Banzai Run'' with Larry DeMar. In 1988, he was assigned his first individual design project, a machine entitled '' Earthshaker!'', which was released in January 1989. Notably, ''Earthshaker!'' was the first pinball machine with a shaker motor. Early games Lawlor's first solo project, ''Earthshaker!'', was noteworthy for its implementation of a relatively obscure theme (earthquakes). The follow-up to ''Earthshaker!'' tackled a different form of natural disaster: tornadoes. The new game, ''Whirlwind'', was released in early 1990 to similar praise. Both games demonstrated components of Lawlor's design methodology. Fore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
