Firepower
Pinball Digital
Class of 2021 Inductee
Firepower was released in February of 1980.
It was the second pinball to feature speech (the first being “Gorgar”).
The eleven word ability was beyond Gorgar’s seven word memory.
Firepower has three notable “firsts”:
1) The first pinball with the “lane change” feature in which the right flipper button controlled the lit/unlit status of rollover lanes;
2) The first SS pinball to have a multiball feature. Attaining three balls in play at the same time was an uniquely attractive reward;
3) The first playfield animation. This “countdown to multiball” animation was innovative and amazing in 1980. It was also near the limit of the electronic and computational capacity of the hardware.
It ranks at #5 in the list of the most successful Flipper Games of all time, with 17,410 units.
Wikipedia Link:
Design Team:
Concept: Steve Ritchie
Game Design: Steve Ritchie
Engineering/mechanics: John Jung
Software: Eugene Jarvis
Artwork: Constantino Mitchell Jeanine Mitchell
Sound: Eugene Jarvis
Callouts: Steve Ritchie
Internet Pinball Database:
https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=856
Overall Rating: 7.82 / 10
Art: 7.63 / 10
Audio: 7.77 / 10
Playfield: 7.78 / 10
Game Play: 7.97 / 10
Pinside:
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/firepower
Overall Rating: 7.825
Game Design: 7.93
Artwork: 7.57
Sounds/Music: 7.02
Other Aspects: 8.024
