Nosferatu

Nosferatu, built by Achille and Chalvignac of Paris, France in October 1985, is a completely original solid-state pinball machine — not a conversion — with a horror theme centered on vampire mythology. Extremely rare, only ten production units were made (serial numbers 0001 through 0010, engraved on the cabinet sides) plus a single prototype.

The game's standout feature is its ability to let a player join a game already in progress: for example, if two players are partway through their second of five balls, a third player can join and start on Ball 1, with play alternating among all three until each finishes their allotted balls. Other notable features include 2 flippers, 2 pop bumpers, 2 slingshots, a 4-bank and a 3-bank of drop targets, three kick-out holes, a vari-target, and a spinning target — plus adjustable ball counts from 1 to 29 per game and a maximum displayed score of 9,999,990 points per player.

Conceived by Michel Achille and Philippe Chalvignac, who also handled programming and playfield layout, Nosferatu ran on a dual-Z80 MPU system (one processor for sound, one for gameplay) with a Texas Instruments TMS-5220 speech chip for its all-electronic sound. The original artwork was drawn by Jean-Philippe Roussilhe, with production art completed by Mike Martinelli of Baldacci's Pinball Shop. As a hand-built, extremely limited-run French machine, Nosferatu is a fascinating curiosity for collectors of obscure 1980s pinball.