Firepower

Firepower, designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams in February 1980, marked a significant milestone in pinball history. It was the first pinball machine to feature electronic multiball, the first with animated displays, and the first with the Lane Change feature — a remarkable list of innovations for a single game. With a confirmed production run of 17,410 units, it was also a massive commercial success, and it featured sound and software by Eugene Jarvis, later famous for the video games Defender and Robotron.

One of Firepower's most influential features is Lane Change, activated by pressing the right flipper button, which lets the player shift the lit rollover lane light under an incoming ball. Steve Ritchie has confirmed Firepower was the first game with this feature, born when he asked Jarvis one night whether the code could "move an unlit light under a ball coming down the lane with the right flipper switch." The 3-ball multiball, speech, and animated displays further enhanced the experience, and the playfield offers four pop bumpers, ten standup targets, three kick-out holes, star rollovers, a spinning target, and a left outlane kickback. Early prototypes used two 3-bank drop target sets, but reliability problems led Williams to replace them with standup targets for production.

The Firepower's outer space theme is carried through artwork by Constantino and Jeanine Mitchell. As the game that introduced electronic multiball and Lane Change to pinball, Firepower remains a landmark machine and a favorite among collectors interested in the evolution of pinball design and gameplay.