Millionaire
About This Machine
The Millionaire, produced by Sega Enterprises in 1977, is a notable early solid-state electronic pinball machine featuring an elaborate playfield mechanism. Its revolving turntable of three pop bumpers builds on an idea seen decades earlier on Williams' 1960 'Nags,' but Millionaire's implementation is considerably more sophisticated, with the turntable's rotation triggered by a top rollover and its direction sometimes changing automatically during play.
At its core, the game is built around a straightforward yet engaging theme: affluence, happiness, and recreation. Players navigate the pinball through an intricate layout featuring flippers, pop bumpers, a single slingshot kicker, standup targets, and solitary drop targets. Three lit arrow inserts direct players to shoot from the left flipper into the slingshot kicker, sending the ball across the playfield toward a 2-way kick-out hole that starts a bonus feature awarding 5,000 to 20,000 points and briefly opens the Free Ball Gate - the only time it opens. Just before this kick-out, the turntable rotates just long enough to clear the pop bumpers from the ball's path.
Millionaire's design and artwork reflect the opulent atmosphere of its theme, with vibrant colors and stylized graphics. The miniature post screws behind each solitary drop target not only protect the targets from ball damage but also serve to deflect shots when the targets are down - a small but clever detail that speaks to the game's intricate engineering.
Images (3)
Technical Details
- Theme:
- Affluence - Happiness - Recreation
- Notable Features:
- Flippers (2), Pop bumpers (4), Slingshot (1), Standup targets (2), Solitary drop targets (2), 5-bank drop targets (1), 2-way kick-out hole (1), Upper right free ball gate. Bounce-back outlanes allow the player to nudge a draining ball back into play. Has Your Number match feature. Each solitary drop target has a mini-post screw behind it, most likely there to protect the target backside from ball damage but they also serve to deflect balls shot from the flippers when these targets are down. Three pop bumpers are on a revolving turntable. The turntable starts its rotation when the ball pas ses through a top rollover and stops rotation when the ball leaves the turntable (probably determined by switch closures in other areas of the playfield). Sometimes the turntable automatically changes its direction of rotation. The rebound rubbers adjacent to the flippers are not slingshots. This game has only one slingshot kicker strategically placed in the middle right side of the playfield. Three lit (or always flashing?) yellow arrow inserts direct the player to shoot the ball from the left flipper to this slingshot to be kicked across the playfield to the 2-way kick-out hole in a left lane above the drop target bank. This starts the bonus kick-out feature to award 5000 to 20000 bonus points and opens the Free Ball Gate, the only time this gate opens. Normally, the ball is kicked upward from this hole to the top of the playfield but in the bonus mode the ball is kicked across the playfield towards the top entrance of the long right-side lane where the Free Ball Gate delivers it back to the shooter lane. Before the ball is kicked-out, however, the turntable is activated just long enough to move the pop bumpers out of the ball's anticipated path across the playfield. See also the annotated flyer close-up image that accompanies this description.