firepower

Firepower was the first solid state multiball pinball. It is also a very difficult multiball to achieve.

Combining unmistakably cool early 80's Williams sound effects and voice with great gameplay, its not surprising that this machine had a production run of 17410 units (the average pinball machine run taking all combined games into consideration seems to be 5-7k).

Firepower at first glance seems alive with excitement but surprisingly simple. It's more complicated than it looks.

In the late 70s through the mid 80s, Williams used a common table of sounds for both its pinball and video games. However, they never got boring. With different applications in every new game, coupled with slight variations, most games of this era with the big W on them are best played LOUD!

Steve Ritchie designed Firepower and went on to create such Williams tables as Black Knight, High Speed, T2, and Star Trek TNG. Then after Williams closed its door, went to work for Stern pinball.

The Internet Pinball Database entry for Firepower

This legendary game spawned a sequel, Firepower 2 in 1983. It incorporated a ramp shot into a similar playfield layout to the original. It did not sell as well as the original. I am thinking that people were expecting it to talk as well.

Firepower also had a clone copy made in Brazil called Fire Action with nearly the same playfield and slightly different artwork, but with a completely different palatte of sound effects.

Firepower had other firsts besides multiball. It was the first game to offer a lane change feature using a flipper button. It also has the first animated display.

Pinball is part of our popular culture. Firepower has been seen in TV shows and movies. Most recently it was in an episode of 'Desperate housewives'. It was also see in both parts of a Star Trek Voyager two parter, and somewhat modified in another earlier episode. Someone in the show's ranks must have been a pinball fan, because machines were seen in 4 seperate episodes throughout the series. This is interesting because the show takes place mostly in the distant future.

Williams copywrited the use of the word, 'multi-ball'. Other game makers soon followed suit with thier own versions of having more than one ball in play at a time, but they would have to pay to use the word. Subsequently, some other early multi-balls from other companies used the term 'M-ball' instead.