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The Arcade
Real Pinball
First Pinball machine with missions/stages
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<blockquote data-quote="Sean DonCarlos" data-source="post: 277065" data-attributes="member: 152"><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sean DonCarlos, post: 277065, member: 152"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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First Pinball machine with missions/stages
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