Play Meter

Profit Power
Pinball
Two games
•
1n one
Rolling Crash , a high-powered
game maneuvered on a race course ,
and
Moon
Base,
a
galactic
destruction mission , are both com-
bined in Nichibutsu's new video , 2 in
1 Rolling Crash.
The unit is wired for single play , in
which the player uses one coin, or
double play, in which two coins are
deposited.
In Rolling Crash, a player must
drive his car , which is yellow , safely
so as not to "crash" into the red one
coming toward him from the front.
Drive is effected by the use of a
handle lever. A "high speed" button
on the right side is pressed to
accelerate.
Each time the target disappears ,
points accumulate.
A pattern of dots , called Bibinba,
appears at the center and points are
awarded when it disappears.
The driving course becomes more
easily navigable when the "other
route" gate opens. And when the
player reaches 5,000 points, the
driver of the yellow car gets another
car.
The game is over when the yellow
cars have crashed.
Moon Base operates from a simple
strategy - either the laser guns are
destroyed by the monsters or the
monsters succeed in occupying the
moon base. Either case concludes a
game.
Monsters are destroyed with the
laser gun by pressing the laser eject
button. Another laser gun is added
when the score reaches 2,000
points.
82
Williams Electronics , Inc. , is caus-
ing ripples within the industry with its
new multi-ball , multi-player pinball
machine Firepower.
Firepower's scoring furor builds as
all the center targets are made.
Spinner lights switch on and flashing
rockets fire up to advance bonus
points and activate randomly two of
the eject holes which ignite the skill-
challenging "multi-ball" feature. As
each missile lands in an activated
eject hole , it is locked out of play-
Firepower kicks out a second
projectile to be launched into play .
When a player locks up all three
balls, then the professional action
begins, as all three missiles are
bombarded onto the playfield at the
same time.
Since Firepower's solid state
boards have memory retention , for
the first time in pinball history as
many as four players can utilize
"Multi-ball" play. Firepower has the
ability to lock in each individual's
playfield position as his ball drains
and returns to that exact position on
his next turn at play. At the end of
the game , all held balls are kicked out
so that the "Multi-ball" feature is
completely equalized , from player to
player , from game to game.
Another feature introduced by
Williams with Firepower is the "lane-
change" factor. Firepower enables
players , by manipulation of the right
flipper, to control and rotate unlit
lights on the "fire lanes" to score
through any lane without concern as
to where the ball is propelled .
The system produces 31 sounds ,
some with up to 147 variations , and
has a vocabulary of 21 speech
phrases. From "FIREPOWER" at the
start of the game , and "FIRE I, II ,
and III " on "Multi-ball" play to any of
twelve different phrases Firepower
articulates randomly at the conclus-
ion of the game , the speech and
background
sounds
encourage
players .
PLAY METER , April , 1980