4-IN-1 (Willy At The Bat)

The 4-IN-1 (Willy At The Bat) pinball machine, designed by Barry Oursler with art by Pam Erickson, was manufactured by Williams Electronics Games in December 1985. It is a fascinating piece of pinball history: a solid-state, two-player table-top/counter game that shipped with four interchangeable playfield overlays -- Baseball ('Willy At The Bat'), Poker, Football ('Pigskin'), and Soccer ('Willy's Cup') -- letting an operator swap the overlay and instruction card to turn it into a different game in the same cabinet. Only 100 units were produced, and Williams also tried, with limited success, to sell the machine to the home market through catalogs like Sharper Image and Hammacher-Schlemmer.

In its baseball configuration, 4-IN-1 challenges players to play three innings per player, with just one credit per player, so every shot counts as players attempt to rack up points. The Williams System 10 hardware, with software by John Morgan, drives the electronic scoring and effects.

For pinball enthusiasts, 4-IN-1 represents a rare opportunity to experience a piece of gaming history firsthand: an unusual multi-theme, interchangeable-playfield concept from Williams' System 10 era that never appeared under the "4-IN-1" name on the machine itself, despite that being its official designation in company records.