Atari 1979 Full-Size Wide-Body Pinball Machine – Superman – Original Light Pkg. Machine is in very good condition, previously professionally serviced. Should be serviced again once moved. Metal legs can be removed for transport, but note, machine is very heavy and takes two very strong people to lift and move it. Note – Photos for this product include promotional brochure, flyer, etc. However, these items are not part of the sale, they are strictly for informational purposes only. SupermanPinball machine released in 1979. Type: Atari Pinball Machine Title: Superman Produced by: Atari Inc. Date: March 1979 Description: 1 to 4 player action. New Space Age sounds. Replay or add-a-ball, 3 or 5 ball. Superman was released by Atari inMarch of 1979 and designed by Steve Ritchie. Part of the “Golden Age”of pinball. The plunger sends the ball to the top rollover lanes, getting 1, 2 & 3doubles bonus, adding lane 4 triples bonus. Each rollover adds to the bonusitself. Three pop bumpers are directly below the rollover lanes. Bumpers score100 or 1000 when lit. Only one or two are lit at the same time. Below the popbumpers there are 5 drop targets. Hitting the one that is lit awards morepoints. Shots off the drop targets can easily bounce into the right out lane, you have to be very careful. The right side has a lane called “Luthor’s Lair” with a”Luthor” spinner at the bottom. The right side has a similar lanecalled the “Fortress of Solitude” with a “Superman” spinnerand a little loop at the top before it feeds the in lanes. Between the”Fortress of Solitude” and the pop bumpers there is a small lane thatleads to a kick-out. It awards points, an extra ball or special depending onhow many sets of drop targets are completed. Below the “Fortress of Solitude” is a pop bumper over the left outlane. White stand up targets and the return lanes near the flippers spellSUPERMAN for 30,000 points. You have several objectives. Get the in lanes to double and triple the bonus. Get the drop targets to up the value of the kick out. Hit targets and lanes to spell SUPERMAN. Reach score targets or awards for extra ball. A great game by Steve Ritchie. It is one of his first pinball designs. Steve actually had backgroundsound wired up to play in Superman but Atari management were notinterested. When Steve when to work at Williams he put that feature intoFlash which was his first pinball game at the company. Although Atari pinball machines havescore displays in the back all of the electronics were in the bottom on thecabinet. It has great artwork job whichis something that Atari was known for in their arcade line. The playfield layout is a good for a firstattempt. The side artwork features aflying Superman. The start button was also used on many Atari arcadegames. Eugene Jarvis and I will consult onthe quantity of Atari’s Superman Pinballs that were produced. I think it was3,000, but Eugene might remember a different quantity. It might have as high as5,000…… Eugene wrote all the sounds for Superman and one of his amazing programs thatcreated some sounds by introducing bugs to the program. He later createdG-wave, an incredible breakthrough at the time. Recording music and sound onsilicon was not an option in 1977. Eugene and I worked together on Superman for what seemed like years. It mighthave been 13 months or so. I stumbled through many whitewoods, but ultimately, it played nice for it’s time. I brought my Echoplex (a guitar player’s tape loop mechanical echo chamber onthe cheap) to work, and connected it to our Superman. The continuous backgroundsound that emanated intrigued us. Atari management refused to let us apply this fun discovery, which made theplayer feel more a part of the pinball game, and added progressive adrenalineto any pinball as the game progressed. Why didn’t management feel what we felt? I left Atari to make pinball machines at Williams before Superman wasmanufactured, and applied the background sound concept to Flash, which was alsothe first game to use Flash Lamps, (that’s how they got their name) and a3rd-flipper-repeatable loop shot. I was also a lot happier working at Williams, happiness being an important ingredient that enables a. Tocreate to his/her potential. The item “Atari 1979 Full-Size Wide-Body Pinball Machine Superman Original Light Pkg” is in sale since Tuesday, August 25, 2020. This item is in the category “Collectibles\Arcade, Jukeboxes & Pinball\Pinball\Machines”. The seller is “lady_desdemona” and is located in Apopka, Florida. This item can’t be shipped, the buyer must pick up the item.
- Brand: Atari
- Year: 1979
- Modified Item: No
- Original/Reproduction: Original
