Airborne Avenger

The Airborne Avenger, designed by Steve Ritchie and manufactured by Atari in September 1977, is a solid-state electronic widebody pinball machine with an adventure-combat theme. Running on Atari's first-generation System 1 electronics with software by Eugene Jarvis and artwork by George Opperman, it brought together an early pairing of talents who would each go on to legendary careers — Ritchie in pinball design and Jarvis in video games.

The Airborne Avenger boasts a solid array of features, including two flippers, three pop bumpers, two slingshots, four standup targets, two kick-out holes, two star rollovers, a spinning target, and a captive ball. The left side of the playfield is particularly busy, with a kickback lane, dual outlanes, and an outlane detour gate, while the right side offers a free ball return lane.

Production is approximately 3,420 units — a figure designer Steve Ritchie says came from an Atari marketing source and likely reflects the sales total rather than the exact quantity built (an earlier reported figure of 350 could never be traced to a source). As one of Atari's short-lived line of widebody pinball machines from the late 1970s, the Airborne Avenger is a distinctive collectible from a fascinating detour in the company's history.