Batman

The Batman pinball machine, released by Data East Pinball in July 1991, brought the Caped Crusader to the playfield on the heels of Batman's blockbuster return to pop culture. Designed by Joe Kaminkow and Ed Cebula, with artwork by B. Farris, Todd Farris, and Paul Faris, this four-player solid-state game saw a confirmed production run of 3,500 units between July and October 1991.

The game features two flippers and three-ball multiball, letting players juggle multiple balls on the playfield at once for a suitably chaotic Gotham experience. Its gameplay is straightforward enough for casual players while still rewarding strategic shot-making. Fred Young provided voice characterizations for the game.

Batman also holds a genuine place in pinball history on the audio side: it was the first pinball machine to use the BSMT-2000 (Brian Schmidt Music Technology) sound system, with Brian Schmidt himself handling both music and sound design. That hardware would go on to power Data East, Sega, and Stern pinball audio for many years, giving this machine a legacy that outlasted its production run.