Earlier "Space Shuttle" game by Sega

[cubemoss]

Hi all, I wasn't sure where to post this, so hopefully this is a good place. I was reading about the Williams Space Shuttle table that's coming to the Pinball Arcade, and it reminded me of a pinball of the same name by Sega that I saw last summer at the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in Seattle. That one looked several years older than the Williams one. I'm not sure if I can see the copyright date on it with the two pictures I snapped on my (poor) phone camera, but I would guess it might have come out when the Space Shuttle itself was still in prototype stage.

I'm aware that Sega distributed Williams tables in Japan in the '70s, but this is definitely a completely different table. Has anyone else seen it? It's just a matter of curiosity I suppose, but still neat to look into. There's a pretty good resource online at segaretro.org but unfortunately they don't have any info on this one.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Sega's Space Shuttle is from 1977; the Williams table is from late 1984. So far as I know they are completely unrelated other than their name and theme.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

This one?
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=space+shuttle&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#5542

 

[Robert Hunt]

This is nothing less than a breach of national security. What started with Japan helping themselves to the intellectual property of our space program and pinball industry has led to a situation where the rogue nation of North Korea is threatening us with ballistic nukes! Data East was a Trojan Horse!

 

[smbhax]

Man those slingshots look like they could be pretty brutal.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

There just rubber rings not powerd like modern slingshots.

 

[smbhax]

Ohhh. I do like the look of the upper part of the table.

 

[The loafer]

Pretty cool when we consider there is another space shuttle pin from Zaccaria


http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=space+shuttle&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#3263

 

[smbhax]

Pretty cool when we consider there is another space shuttle pin from Zaccaria


http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=space+shuttle&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#3263

That one looks a heck of a lot like Firepower. Came out just seven months later, too!

 

[cubemoss]

This one?
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=space+shuttle&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#5542

Yep, that's the one I saw! But I didn't get to play it... It was on display but not working, along with some really old machines from the 1930s I think. But just as an aside, if any of y'all can get up to that NW Pinball and Arcade show, it's well worth it. It was way cool having hundreds of games, like the biggest arcade I'd ever seen, and seeing people across all generations enjoying them together.

 

[cubemoss]

Pretty cool when we consider there is another space shuttle pin from Zaccaria
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=space+shuttle&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#3263

Woah, never seen that one... the plot thickens! I reckon the space shuttle wasn't trademarked so it was fair game for a popular theme.