Twilight Zone

Sample Game Differences

    Games go through many changes in their development stages, and most of it is nailed down before the first sample games roll off the assembly line. However, while the sample games are out, the designers find little things that may need to be tweaked or changed before the game enters into production. Twilight Zone, being the amazing game that it is, is no exception to this. In fact, it is one of the games that's had the most changes to it between the sample and production run. Here is a list - mostly complete although I'm sure I may have missed a few small odd things here and there - of everything I have documented for Twilight Zone. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to drop me a line. The green markers [xx] match with the labels on this shot of the playfield. Enjoy!

    Game Production Differences:

• Wiring: Existing Wiring for all removed Optos (Bigkick2, Clock Passage, UR Magnet), and Solenoids (UR Magnet, Door Flashers). You can tell if your game still has them easily: if there is a 4-pin .156 connector tie-wired to the wires leading to the Slot Machine Proximity board, then your game has 'em.
• 7-Opto Boards: Because of all the optos that were in the game, two 7-Opto driver boards were used. This was knocked down to one 10-Opto board once the three optoswere removed.
• Playfield Resting Brackets - Sample games had the smaller (used on Addams Family) resting brackets. If your game has these, you have to be careful. You can pull the playfield out farther than the brackets reach, and if you rest the playfield down, you'll end up resting on a wire-tie or the Rocket Kicker solenoid.
• T-Nut Posts: Original design for the small posts (like around the 5-Mil targets in the Pop Bumper area) used T-Nuts. Some Sample playfields still have the routing drilled out for these to be mounted, but in the assembly, the other post-type was used with the lock-nuts.
• Lower Post: Left of the Bottom (Yellow) Pop Bumper was moved inward. I'm not 100% sure about this, but in the manual the center post in the second Flasher area is moved out some. On my game, under the playfield, in the general area where the manual shows it should be, is a hole drilled, but then filled in with some putty. The reason I'm not too sure about this is because the hole doesn't come through the top of the playfield. Possible they painted over it, but I can't tell. [1]
• Pop Bumper Guard: Two holes may appear between the Left and Bottom pop bumper. Two star posts (and T-Nuts) mount here, with a rubber between them. Later they were removed, and if your playfield has the holes, two white plugs were inserted there. [2]
• Mini-Playfield Art: Some sample Mini-Playfields are missing the 'FLIP HERE' in the area around the magnet. [3]
• Mini-Playfield Support: Also, the spring for leveling the Mini-Playfield was added after the sample run. [4]
• Left Sign: Left 'SPIRAL' sign was removed. It matches the original design for the right Spiral sign. Removed because balls would get stuck behind it and the habitrail. [5]
• Gumball Opto: The LED side of the Gumball opto was changed from an IR led to a Red led. Production games have a RED led.
• Left Ramp: The entry area (around 'Multiball', 'Bonus X' and 'Super Skill' lights) has different colors. In the ' arrow' artwork that touches the metal flap of the ramp, sample game have Purple, White, Green (outer to inner). Production games have Purple, Green, White. Reflects the new inserts there. [6]
• Clock Millions: The artwork around the target on a few sample games are missing the mask. I.e. Looks like the hole that the target sticks through was just drilled in after the artwork was printed. That's because it was. See below!
• Lock Light: Sample games have a Green insert, Productions have Orange. Easier visibility. [7]
• Upper Right Magnet: Sample games have all the hardware installed for this magnet. A mask on the playfield and metal post in the mask are simple indications your playfield has the capability of having one mounted there. [8]
• Clock Color: Original artwork matched the picture of the clock on the backglass. Production games use a colored clock.
• Clock Passage Opto: Small passage right below Piano, leading to spiral. Had an opto mounted there in the ball guides. [9]
• Right Spiral: Right 'SPIRAL' light insert had "GUMBALL" on it. However, before games left the factory, it was scraped off. A mylar sticker labeled 'Spiral' was stuck in it. Originally was 'Load Gumball' light, but was switched with the next item: [10]
• Gumball Entry Sign: Originally matched the left sign, yellow and red, saying 'Collect Next Spiral w/ Lit' Sample games have this plastic, except it has a decal over it, matching the production 'Load Gumball' sign. [11]
• UR Flipper Post: The small metal ramp that auto-launched balls enter the spiral with was changed. In the original design, the post right at the start of the metal separator between the skill shot and the metal ramp was matches with one on the other side of the metal ramp. The metal ramp and ball guide under the UR Flipper was changed into one piece, and the post removed. Sample games still have the hole there, as well as a T-nut installed! Around the hole, and most visible is the mask around the hole is the mask in the artwork. [12]
• Rocket Kicker: The resting bracket that the ball hits to slid into the kicker was changed. Probably because the ball would bounce out. [13] bounce out. [13]
• BigKick2 Opto: There were originally two optos in the Autofire area, maybe at one time the auto-fire was used to 'lock balls' too. Sample games still have an autofire bracket with two opto spaces in it.
• Aux-Driver Board: Samples had it in the upper left corner of the backbox, where production games had it moved to the corner.
• Power Driver Board: Early samples had old stock of the Power Driver board installed, which still had the non-Fliptronic circuit stuffed. (Mine is one of these games, and I can still hear the relat click when the flippers are enabled.)
• +50V Interrupt: Late production games had the +50V interrupt switch installed on the coin door - all manuals had the warning page for it, however.
• Translights: Some translights actually had clear 'holes' in it around the logo at the top. I have found nothing to help determine which games got which ones. I have a sample, and it has the holes. I've seen two other samples that didn't; I've seen one production machine with them, and one without. The NOS one that I had ordered from WMS back in '95 does not have them. Note that all my checks were done long before the reproductions started showing up on eBay.
• Playfield Overprint: Some sample games had the black ink too thick, making some of the smaller text (espically on light inserts) hard to read.

    Flyer Notes:
     If you notice on the flyer, you'll notice many more major differences, such as a 'Player Piano' door panel, a Camera 'Jackpot' lamp insert, and a red 'Dead End' insert. I can't do a better job than Uncle Willy himself on describing these, quoted from his article #12 from WMS's old site:

Question:

In The Twilight Zone pinball flyer, it shows some door panels differing from the production games (Player Piano, Quick Multiball, etc).  Is there anyway I can get software that has the rules associated with these door panels, and if I do, will it work in a production Twilight Zone machine?

Answer:

As anyone with a Twilight Zone flyer and access to a Twilight Zone game knows, there are many labels on the light inserts which changed from the game pictured in the flyer.  (As best as Uncle Willy can recall, there were only 2 or 3 Twilight Zone games assembled with the playfield as pictured in the flyer.)      Some of the lamps that changed labels are:  "Clock Millions" -> "Power Payoff"; "Jackpot" -> "Camera"; "Quick Multiball" -> "Camera"; "Player Piano" -> "Super Slot"; "5 Million" -> "Lite Gumball"; "Gumball" -> "Bonus X"      Several other small changes were also made.  Most of these changes have been noted in discussions on rec.games.pinball.      Getting back to the question of "early rules" in Twilight Zone, Uncle Willy suspects you would be severely disappointed if you were to install an early ROM into your game, assuming that you could find one.  Many of the rules for the labels on the old door panel lamps were never implemented.  For example, there never was a "Player Piano" rule, and "Fast Lock" was never implemented as it was envisioned.  (What *was* "Quick Multiball" was renamed as "Fast Lock".)  The lamp labels as shown in the TZ flyer are the result of the design team sitting around on the last day before the artwork screen for the black portions of the playfield had to be finalized.  The "Hitch Hiker" and "Player Piano" labels were created with the expectation that an appropriate feature would be attached to them later.      Much of the rules from the finished Twilight Zone game were missing at the time of the photo shoot for the flyer.  As one would guess, many of the effects -- sounds, lamps, and display -- were also missing.  It was after many of the rules had been implemented, and the design team started to balance the scoring, that it was decided that a "5 Million" award on the door panel was not very exciting.  (Thus, the "Lite Gumball" label in that position.)      Another interesting piece of trivia is the initial rule set for MultiBall on Twilight Zone.  Originally, the MultiBall had a roving jackpot shot.  The jackpots were lit in order as:  Piano, Camera, Dead End.  (This explains why the Camera has a "Jackpot" label in the flyer.)  The Lock shot would relight jackpot after the third one was collected on the Dead End.  The consensus of the design team, and others at Williams who played that version of the rules, was that jackpots were awfully difficult to make, and that MultiBall was pretty frustrating as a result.      As you can see from this brief discussion, the task of creating rules for a pinball machine is not simple.  As much as the design team carefully thinks out features and rules for a game, there is no substitute for actually playing a given rule set.  Rules and features get modified, enhanced, and scrapped many times over during the course of pinball game development.

     And, quoting Ted Estes on why the "Clock Millions" targe in the flyer has no artwork on it:

    Images:

• Playfield: With Markers for the list above. (JPEG; 304kb)
• Playfield: Clean shot. (JPEG; 424kb)
• Backglass: Production, Final version. (JPEG; 141kb)
• Backglass: Preliminary version. Thanks to Jim Hicks for the scan! (JPEG; 137kb)