The Addams Family (pinball)

The Addams Family
Manufacturer Midway
Release date March 1992
System Midway WPC (Fliptronics I)
Design Pat Lawlor, Larry DeMar
Programming Larry DeMar, Mike Boon
Artwork John Youssi
Mechanics John Krutsch
Music Chris Granner
Sound Chris Granner
Voices Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston
Production run 20,270

The Addams Family, released in March 1992, is the best selling pinball machine of all time. Designed by Pat Lawlor and Larry DeMar and manufactured by Midway (under the Bally name), it is a solid state electronic pinball arcade game. 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, Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston. More than 20,000 units have been sold thus far.[1]

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:

Other lesser objectives include:

Rules summary

Mansion

Mansion rooms are awarded from the lit electric chair shot in the center of the playing field. Once a mansion room is awarded, the electric chair light goes out until it is relit by a Bear Kick (some other switches will relight it temporarily). A player can have more than one mansion room scoring mode activated simultaneously, something which is often considered good strategy. The rooms/modes are:

If the player starts all of the above scoring modes (regardless of whether or not they complete them), the attic room marked with a "?" awards the game's "wizard mode":

Vault Multiball

The player can add letters to the word "GREED" by hitting the bookcase in front of the vault. Spelling "GREED" opens the bookcase, revealing a shot into the vault that can be used to "lock" (hold) balls for multiball; for the first multiball, the swamp can also be used to lock balls. The Power turns on for the player's attempt to lock the third and final ball. Multiball can be started from the vault or, for the first multiball, the electric chair.

Once multiball begins the Train Wreck shot lights up for a Jackpot, and the Staircase Ramp for a Double Jackpot or, from the 2nd multiball onward, Triple Jackpot. The Jackpot starts out at 10 million, and increases by one million for every Bear Kicks shot or shot to a closed vault during the multiball. Upon receiving either, the vault re-opens, and a successful shot to it re-lights only the Staircase Ramp. The player may continue to do this as long as there are two balls on the playing field.

If a player does not get any jackpot, a last-chance "Thing Multiball" lights up for 20 seconds. If the player shoots it in time, he gets to launch a second ball and continue the multiball per the rules above, except with no more last chances given.

Scoring

Scores on The Addams Family tend to have an average in the low 8-digit range. Among machines found in public locations, the score necessary to obtain a replay is usually between 35 million and 80 million, with high scores dispersed mostly among the full 9-digit spectrum. The world's best players will occasionally score in the billions.

Without tilting, the lowest possible score is theoretically 300,000, by shooting each ball through the graveyard without hitting anything and letting it drain (the ball will roll over a trigger that gives no points but disables the replay that is normally given when a ball hits no trigger). Then each ball is given a bonus of 100,000 for the starting one bear kick. However, getting that score may be difficult to do, as it is difficult to shoot the ball through the graveyard without hitting any of the graveyard bumpers. A score of 750,000 is easily attainable by launching each ball weakly so that it drops directly into the swamp and then drops down the center drain, gaining 150,000 points plus 100,000 bonus points each.

Special Collector's Edition

In October 1994, Bally produced a "Special Collectors Edition", often referred to as The Addams Family Gold. In the original run of The Addams Family a few machines had been produced with golden features to celebrate the machine's sales record. The Collector's Edition similarly featured specially designed accents such as golden side rails, a golden lock bar, golden legs and a slightly enhanced software program.

The game also included a number of gameplay enhancements. New scoring rules were added, most notably to the Mansion. Some rooms randomly awarded players items from Cousin Itt, such as a hair dryer or brush, with an accompanying number of points. Wednesday and Pugsley also made their first in-game appearance in the form of a "trap door", that would sometimes let a player move from one room to another, awarding them both. Numerous new quotes and dot-matrix effects were also added.

Only one thousand Collector's Edition units were produced.

Hidden game codes

The Addams Family pinball contains two known Easter eggs—plus a third egg in the Special Collector's Edition—each of which can be accessed using a flipper and Start button code sequence specific to each egg. The results produced are cosmetic in nature only; they do not modify actual game play in any way.

The codes work only under the following conditions: The machine must be in its Attract or "game over" mode (no game currently in progress). There must also be no credits on the machine. (The Start button cannot be flashing to begin a new game; consequently, the codes will never work if the machine is set for free play.)

The codes may also temporarily stop working if they are done too many times in a row. Allowing the Attract mode display screens to cycle all the way through (at least 1 or 2 minutes) before trying a code again should rectify this.

The available Easter eggs and how to activate them:

  • "When Cows Fight": This is a humorous dot-matrix still that appears on the display for about three seconds. To see it, press the left flipper button 7 times, followed by the Start button once, then the right flipper button 14 times, Start button once, left button 20 times and finally the Start button once.
  • "When Cows Dig for Gold" (collector's edition only): Another humorous still. Press the left button 12 times, then the Start button once, right button 5 times, Start once, left 4 times and Start once.
  • Design credits: A flashy (and very noisy!) nod to the game's designers at Bally. Left button 13 times, Start button once, right once, Start once, left 2 times and Start once.

Aftermarket modifications

Some aftermarket modifications may be found in some machines:

Digital versions

A version of this table was in development for the PC and was also going to be released on the Nintendo 64 and would be developed by Digital Eclipse and published by GT Interactive, but was cancelled. The game is also supported by Visual Pinball, which can also be made by some people to play through a home made pinball cabinet, like the original but digitally emulated.

On July 11, 2014 FarSight Studios released The Pinball Arcade Newsletter 29 indicating they "agreed upon terms with all of the major licenses and clearances" needed to digitally recreate this table.[2][3] A Kickstarter to raise the $97,640 needed for licensing was initiated on September 12, 2014 and successfully funded $115,276 on its closing date of October 12, 2014.

On February 21, 2015 Farsight Studios released their digitized version of the table as part of the Season Four package of The Pinball Arcade on iOS, Android, Amazon, Steam (PC & Mac) and OUYA.[4] The "Special Collectors Gold Edition" was one of the rewards for those who pledged over $100 during the Kickstarter campaign.[5] The image of Christopher Lloyd was removed in this version due to licensing issue.[6]

References

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