Flash
Flash tech specs
Flash was a pinball machine released by Williams in 1978.
It was their first wildly popular solid-state pinball machine, outselling even their best electromechanical efforts to become their most popular machine to date. Naturally, it became something of a template for several future releases.
Not bad for Steve Ritchie's first game for the company.[2]
Sound
It was one of four tables released that year that introduced Randy Pfeiffer's way of digitally generating sounds, foregoing a purpose-built synthesis chip in favour of simply connecting a 6808 or 6802 CPU's peripheral interface adapter straight to an 8-bit DAC and programming the sound generation entirely in firmware, within the CPU's limited constraints.[3][4] After making simple chirps and bubbly sounds for World Cup, Contact, and Disco Fever, Pfeiffer really kicked it up a notch for Flash, programming more complex sound generation that showed off this method's abilities.
Flash was also the first game to have an optional anxiety-inducing background din that dynamically raised its pitch as you progressed,[1] a concept later used in Gorgar and Firepower.
In short, Ritchie and Pfeiffer had worked out how to play to the solid-state medium's strengths, making a soundscape that would have been unthinkable using electromechanical technology.
Quotes
Flash was really the pinball that ushered in the golden age of solid state pins, with its pioneering audio, light, and flashlamp effects, not to mention kick-ass gameplay. This was the game that inspired me to come to Chicago.
— Eugene Jarvis, 2007[4]
References
- "Flash" The Internet Pinball Database
- The Pinball Compendium 1970-1981 Michael Shalhoub, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7643-2074-3, pp. 149—150
- "Processor controlled sound synthesiser" Randy Pfeiffer, US Patents, 1979
- "Interview With Eugene Jarvis" Phil Butcher, Richard Harvey, Firepower, Mar 2007
External links
Database entries
- "Flash" The Internet Pinball Database
Downloads
Documentation
Patents
- "Processor controlled sound synthesiser" Randy Pfeiffer, US Patents, 1979
Solid-state pinball machines: Firepower | Flash
Williams: Firepower | Flash
