Creature from the Black Lagoon

The Creature from the Black Lagoon pinball machine, designed by John Trudeau with art by Kevin O'Connor and released by Midway (under the Bally trade name) in December 1992, is a standout title from the WPC era. Rather than simply retelling the 1954 monster movie, the game wraps its licensed theme in a nostalgic drive-in movie experience, with the film playing as the feature at the drive-in. It ran on the Williams WPC (Fliptronics 2) platform, and 7,841 units were produced.

In terms of gameplay, Creature offers a blend of action and strategy: two flippers, three pop bumpers, two ramps, two vertical up-kickers, and two kick-out holes feed a 2-ball multiball, a distinctive whirlpool ball funnel, and a video mode on the dot-matrix display. The signature toy is a hologram of the Creature that appears below the playfield and lights up at key moments, one of the more memorable effects of its generation.

The game also carries some great production lore. Because the license did not include the actors' likenesses, Trudeau gave artist Kevin O'Connor a photo of his teenage son, whose aged-up face was worked onto the man in the pith helmet on the backglass. Sound engineer Paul Heitsch composed the music and sound, with the female speech calls voiced by marketing employee Allison Quant and other lines supplied by Williams staffers, including Matt Booty as the guy angling for a K-I-S-S. Dot-matrix animations were by Scott Slomiany, software by Jeff Johnson, and mechanics by Ernie Pizarro.