Space Jam

Space Jam, designed by Joe Balcer and Joe Kaminkow for Sega Pinball, was released in December 1996, capitalizing on the popularity of the live-action/animated hybrid film starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters. It was one of several licensed titles Sega Pinball produced during the mid-1990s, following earlier licensed games such as Baywatch, Batman Forever, and Independence Day, rather than being an early or first example of the trend.

The machine's audio was handled by Brian Schmidt, and its artwork combined contributions from Morgan Weistling, Jeff Busch, and Marc Raneses: Weistling's art was used for the backglass, Busch created the playfield art, and Raneses handled cabinet artwork and screen-print production elements. Interestingly, some of the game's dot-matrix display art was reportedly reused years later on Stern's 2009 title 'NBA.'

Specific details of Space Jam's gameplay rules and playfield toys are not well documented, so claims about particular mechanisms should be treated with caution. As a licensed basketball-and-movie themed machine from Sega's solid-state era, running on the Sega/Stern Whitestar platform, it remains a recognizable piece of 1990s pinball for collectors interested in film-licensed titles.