Classic of the Month - Pin•Bot

Manufacturer:	Williams
Genre:	Pinball
Board:	Williams System 11A
Year:	1986

Whether you played many pinball machines or not, they were once an integral, if niche, part of the arcade scene. I talked about White Water for April's Classic of the Month, so I decided it was time I did another. Enter Pin•Bot by Williams, as iconic a machine as you can get -- in every sense of the word.

The idea is that the table itself is a planet-destroying, living pinball table called Pin•Bot, the Ultimate Machine, and you are battling against it as it travels from Pluto to the Sun. Rather than simply having the creature on the artwork, a la Gorgar or Centaur, here the table's ramps, lanes and bumpers all form parts of the PinPin•Bot's anatomy. For example, the skill shot vortex is his left shoulder. The feature this table is most famous for is Pin•Bot's visor, which will open up if you can hit the targets to activate the multicoloured grid below it. Once the visor opens the player has to give the Pin•Bot its "eyes" by shooting the ball into the sockets hidden underneath. If you succeed Pin•Bot announces, "Now I see you", which is quite eerie even today. Giving Pin•Bot his eyes also triggers the 2-ball multi-ball mode and activates the ramp on the left, which leads to a jackpot and the chance to move on to the next planet.

Is that Joseph and the Technicolour Samurai? No, it's Pin•Bot

Here's a brief gameplay video of a Pin•Bot machine at Funspot, complete with some handy commentry that makes reference to opening the visor and giving the Pin*Bot its "eyes".

Pin•Bot is also one of the few pinball machines I can think of to get a home conversion. Rare (of Goldeneye fame) brought it to the Nintendo NES) in 1988 and it isn't too bad to be honest. I always liked that Rare kept your flippers in view, which is a problem on a lot of video pinball games.

MTW