Freefall

Freefall, designed by pinball pioneer Harry Williams and manufactured by Stern Electronics in January 1981, is a widebody solid-state machine with a fantasy theme, produced in a confirmed run of 1,300 units between January and March of that year. Remarkably, Williams reused the upper playfield wireform design from a game he had designed nearly three decades earlier — Williams' 1954 'Skyway' — giving Freefall a direct link to pinball's past.

The machine's signature mechanism is its ball tramway: a center playfield kicker routes balls to an elevated tramway that delivers them to a captive ball walker, where they accumulate until released to a right-side kicker that sends them back into play. Around this centerpiece, the playfield offers two flippers, three pop bumpers, two slingshots, eight standup targets, a 5-bank and a 3-bank of drop targets, a spinning target, and dual inlanes.

Artist Bob Timm created both the backglass and playfield art while at Ad Posters — his signature can be found in the lower right corner of the backglass and next to the lady's right foot. With its unusual tramway-and-walker ball mechanism, widebody layout, and Harry Williams pedigree, Freefall is a distinctive entry in Stern Electronics' early-1980s catalog.