Phantom Haus

Phantom Haus is not actually a pinball machine - it is a haunted-house-themed 'FunGame' built by Williams Electronics Games in 1996, using WPC-95 boards (the same platform used on Williams pinballs of the era), for Europe's Amusement With Prizes (AWP) market. Players earn points that convert into credits or tokens (one token per 100 credits), which are paid out from a storage tube; coins themselves go into the cashbox rather than being paid out directly. Approximately 50 units were made, mostly for testing: an estimated 10 US-market prototypes and 40 for the German market, with most of the German units later destroyed.

Designed by Scott Slomiany and Pete Piotrowski, with art by Linda Deal (aka Doane), mechanics by Armando Zuniga, music and sound by Kevin Quinn, and software by Bill Grupp, Phantom Haus represents an unusual chapter of Williams' history: an attempt to adapt their pinball hardware and design sensibilities to Europe's coin-payout amusement market rather than traditional pinball play.

Specific gameplay rules for Phantom Haus are not well documented, but surviving examples show a German backglass warning players that game tokens must be used for further play and cannot legally be exchanged for money or goods, while US-market backglasses carry a simple 'FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY - A GAME OF SKILL AND STRATEGY' disclaimer. Its rarity and unusual status as a non-pinball Williams product make it a curious footnote for collectors of WPC-95-era machines.