Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd, designed by John Trudeau and released by Midway (under the Bally trade name) in September 1993, brought the comic-book character from '2000 AD' (not the 1995 film) to the pinball world. As part of Williams/Midway's widebody "SuperPin" line, 6,990 units were produced, and it stands as a technically ambitious solid-state machine for its era.

Judge Dredd's gameplay is marked by four flippers and two slingshots, allowing for intricate ball control. The machine features a six-ball multiball mode, inline captive balls, a rotating planet-and-rings feature, and a magnetic robotic arm that lifts the locked ball off the ring. Nine modes plus the "Ultimate Challenge" wizard mode, along with a separate "SuperGame" feature offering four additional modes for an extra credit, give the game exceptional depth — SuperGame was unique to Judge Dredd among the SuperPin titles and kept its own high-score records on the dot matrix display.

The machine's design is equally striking, with a diamond-plate playfield and an eagle topper on the backbox, and it notably has no pop bumpers. The planet-ring mechanism was reworked between prototype and production games after concerns from a European distributor about potential ball jams, trading the more elaborate prototype version for a simpler, more reliable virtual-lock system. Judge Dredd remains a standout of Williams/Midway's early-DCS era and a favorite among collectors today.