Spellbinder

Spellbinder was designed by Barry Oursler for Williams Electronics as a solid-state, two-player 'Not A Pinball' flipperless machine built around a fantasy-and-myth theme. According to IPDB, Spellbinder was never put into production — reportedly because Williams' 1981 'Hyperball' hadn't sold well enough to justify the investment — so no units exist for collectors to seek out.

As a flipperless design, Spellbinder would have used a fundamentally different control scheme than traditional pinball, in the vein of Williams' 'Hyperball.' The artwork, by Constantino and Jeanine Mitchell, depicted a dragon backglass — though the artist has noted that surviving images may not reflect the final intended version, which featured a reddish-purple dragon against a stormy sky rather than the yellow sky seen in circulated images.

Because it never reached production, Spellbinder exists today only as design artifacts and artwork — an intriguing unrealized project from Williams' early-1980s fantasy-themed lineup.