First Pinball machine with missions/stages

[shogun00]

Personally, I like to believe the The Addams Family was the first. Each game mode has its own jewel light and once you start up each mode, you start up the final/wizard mode. That was the first table to me that felt like it had real progression.

 

[shutyertrap]

Personally, I like to believe the The Addams Family was the first. Each game mode has its own jewel light and once you start up each mode, you start up the final/wizard mode. That was the first table to me that felt like it had real progression.

Addams may well have been the next evolution of modes, with the light up jewels, but even Whirlwind had special lights on the backbox that changed certain scoring parameters. An even later evolution to modes would be mode stacking, and now we have branching modes.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

An even later evolution to modes would be mode stacking, and now we have branching modes.

TAF had mode stacking! I'm not sure but I think Jurassic Park did as well. And TZ.

The ultimate in story-based modes integrated into a pin (of that era, at least) would have to be Indiana Jones, I don't think those were stackable though. TNG came close, but Indy did it better.

 

[vikingerik]

Addams definitely isn't the answer, since Funhouse did everything it did two years earlier. Timed modes (that's what Whirlwind lacks) and a bigger award as the last one. Addams just makes the mansion look like the centerpiece of progression with multiball as a sideshow, while Funhouse makes the clock and multiball look like the centerpiece while the mirror is a sideshow. But they're functionally equivalent, the only difference is perspective.

We all know what a true mode is

I don't think we do. Anything that conditionally changes the behavior of a game could be called a mode. Any EM that ever lit up a bumper for more points has at least two modes, bumper on and bumper off.

Is Space Shuttle's stop-and-score a mode? It fits all the criteria that people are trying to define modes by: a timed period of additional scoring, and stackable with other activity (multiball). It doesn't feel like a mode, but if you want it to not count, you need criteria that exclude it.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Is Space Shuttle's stop-and-score a mode? It fits all the criteria that people are trying to define modes by: a timed period of additional scoring, and stackable with other activity (multiball). It doesn't feel like a mode, but if you want it to not count, you need criteria that exclude it.

It is a "mode", but it's the only "mode". I think there needs to be at least two, and there needs to be some tangible reward for starting and/or completing them all.

LCA clearly fits that template (albeit with a lame "Wizard" award that can be achieved in many other, easier, ways).

Space Shuttle doesn't, since Stop-and-Score you either score the points, or you don't, and that's it. In that respect it's exactly the same as the left inlane/mystery score ramp in Black Knight: a timed shot with a random points reward.

 

[suplrist]

Firepower is the correct answer to the OP's question. Unless you want to count the multiball EM's that staged balls.

 

[vikingerik]

It is a "mode", but it's the only "mode". I think there needs to be at least two, and there needs to be some tangible reward for starting and/or completing them all.

So it's a mode, but it doesn't make Space Shuttle a mode-based game. That's a distinction we didn't make before, and makes sense. The thread does say "missions", plural.

Do Firepower's ball locks count? There are at least two (three), and a tangible reward (multiball) for completing them all.

 

[shutyertrap]

Let's not get side tracked on what the initial question was.

Random pinball history question. What was the first Pinball machine with a story progression to it? Can't seem to find it in any Pinball histories.

There's plenty of machines up to the early 80s with various goals for points and specials. And there's plenty in the late 80s with stories that include progressive missions to advance to the next stage.

When did this transition take place and what were the notable tables along the way?

Which is why I came up with these arbitrary rules. If someone wants to propose a different set of standards, please do and we can see how that changes things.

Hmmmm. Using Victory as an example means you could go all the way back to Eight Ball or Big Shot, since the 'story' of sinking all the balls as your goal reflects the theme. I don't think that's what you are after though. Using your examples of RBION and Starship Troopers, there's a clear progression happening that leads to a major event and it carries over across all 3 balls. So let's use that as a baseline folks.

Defenition of Story Progression Table

1. Story must tie into overall theme, beyond just sound matching art (Xenon vs BoP for example)
2. Table must have modes, not simply scoring progressions (a mode start hole as opposed to just knocking down all the drop targets)
3. Progression of modes must carry over ball to ball, minimal reset upon drain
4. Once all mode conditions are met, a final mode is available before the entire table resets to starting table conditions

Firepower is the correct answer to the OP's question. Unless you want to count the multiball EM's that staged balls.

So no, Firepower is absolutely not the correct answer. And multiball is not a 'mode' so much as it is a progression state on these earlier tables. On a table like TAF, multiball is clearly a mode. Again, the question was about 'story progression'. Even I got sidetracked away from that. Which is why I stick with my original answer of Earthshaker.

If however we want to put a cap on that and turn this into a 'mode' discussion, let's once again establish rules we can all agree upon so that random titles don't just start being thrown out. Create 3 or 4 parameters to qualify what a 'mode' is and move from there. For instance, does it only count as a mode if it has a light up jewel insert? Is multiball a mode only if it has a jackpot? Is 2x, 3x, 5x scoring considered a mode?

 

[Xanija]

If Earth Shaker is matching your definition, I'd suggest High Speed.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

^^ Using that definition above, I'm still circling back to LCA, because it definitely fulfills all 4 criteria (never mind the lameness of the final "mode").

Otherwise, Fun House or Whirlwind, with Fun House the favorite because none of the Cellar awards in Whirlwind are timed, and they're all pretty generic awards not tied in to the theme of the table (one could argue about the Quick Multiball - but the others aren't).

 

[Heretic]

Danger will robinson!

What is the “mode”

Its not the mode that changes only yourself....

Am *I* a mode?!

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

If we're going by SYT's strict rules, then I agree that Lights Camera Action was probably the first to meet all four criteria.

If we're allowing a more loose definition, I'd go with Williams' Fire! (1987). The machine itself plays along with this, with the "fire" continuously spreading on both the targets and the house in the center of the table, it calling the locks "fireman trapped", the center shot being "raise ladders", and then the jackpot being "rescue the girl". It's a stretch to call this sequence a "mode", but the designers were clearly trying to tell a story, however limited, with the multiball progression.

I will say that with the exception of Monster Bash (1997), the modern mode-centric style of pinball that we have now didn't really emerge until Stern showed up with the likes of Simpsons' Pinball Party, Ripley's, and Lord of the Rings in the early 2000s, where damn near everything worth doing was tied to some mode or another, with the exception of the main multiballs (which now often have such intricate rules as to qualify as modes themselves, and in the most recent titles the games themselves consider them modes for qualifying various wizard modes). The 90's WMS machines had modes in varying numbers and complexity, but they weren't as front and center as they are in modern pins.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I'd argue that WMS Indiana Jones was heavily mode-centric, and the first step along the way to the Stern pins you mentioned.

ST:TNG might also be viewed the same way (if it weren't for the fact that Borg multiball eclipses all other scoring and is ridiculously easy to start - particularly in TPA, but you can make it so on the real thing as well).

 

[shutyertrap]

I don't get how it's even a question whether Indy Jones or ST:TNG are anything but mode based pinball that serves a story purpose.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I don't get how it's even a question whether Indy Jones or ST:TNG are anything but mode based pinball that serves a story purpose.

I tend to forget about those two because I dislike both of them - IJ for being a cluttered mess to the point where it makes TZ look like it has a clean open playfield, and ST:TNG for having unbalanced scoring and cannons blocking the view of the gaping chasms that are its outlanes. But I suppose they would count.

I still stand by the modern Stern era as when things got really mode-heavy.