The Addams Family (pinball)


The Addams Family, released in March 1992, is the best selling pinball machine of all time. Designed by Pat Lawlor and Larry DeMar and manufactured by Midway, it is a solid state electronic pinball arcade game. It was based on the 1991 film of the same name, and features custom speech by the stars of the film, Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston. More than 20,000 units have been sold thus far.

Overview

The machine's game card describes the game objective as being to "Explore the strange world of the Addams Family." With that in mind there is no single player goal, though there are two central objectives:
Other lesser objectives include:
An electric chair is positioned above a sinkhole at the center of the playfield. At the beginning of each ball, it is lit and will award the currently flashing mansion room if hit. The player must then shoot either ramp to relight the chair. The Swamp kickout hole will also award the flashing room if it is shot while the chair is lit.
Mounted beneath the central portion of the playfield is "The Power," a set of spinning magnets that can alter the path of the ball. Flashing lights in this area indicate when the Power is active.

Game quotes

Mansion

Mansion rooms are awarded by shooting the electric chair when lit, shooting the Swamp kickout hole while the chair is lit, or by reaching set threshold numbers of bear kicks. Once a mansion room is awarded, the electric chair light goes out until it is relit by a shot to either ramp. A player can have more than one mansion room scoring mode activated simultaneously, something which is often considered good strategy. The rooms/modes are:
Once the player has collected all 12 Mansion Rooms, the game's "wizard mode" becomes available and will start on the next shot to the electric chair:
The player can add letters to the word "GREED" by hitting the bookcase in front of the vault. Spelling "GREED" opens the bookcase, revealing a shot into the vault that can be used to "lock" balls for multiball; for the first multiball, the swamp can also be used to lock balls. The Power turns on for the player's attempt to lock the third and final ball. Multiball can be started from the vault or, for the first multiball, the electric chair.
Once multiball begins, the Power remains active and the Train Wreck shot lights up for a Jackpot. The Staircase Ramp lights up for a Super Jackpot. The Jackpot starts out at 10 million, and increases by one million for every Bear Kicks shot or shot to a closed vault during the multiball. After either jackpot is scored, the vault re-opens, and a successful shot to it re-lights only the Staircase Ramp. The player may continue to do this as long as there are two balls on the playing field.
If two balls drain without any jackpot being scored, the player is given 20 seconds to shoot Thing's scoop and restart multiball, but with two balls instead of three. The jackpot resumes its previous value, and another restart chance is not given if the player fails to score a jackpot before one ball drains.

Scoring

Scores on The Addams Family tend to have an average in the low 8-digit range. Among machines found in public locations, the score necessary to obtain a replay is usually between 30 million and 80 million, with high scores dispersed mostly among the full 9-digit spectrum. The world's best players will occasionally score in the billions.
Without tilting, the lowest possible score is theoretically 300,000, by shooting each ball through the graveyard without hitting anything and letting it drain. Then each ball is given a bonus of 100,000 for the starting one bear kick. However, getting that score may be difficult to do, as it is difficult to shoot the ball through the graveyard without hitting any of the graveyard bumpers. A score of 750,000 is easily attainable by launching each ball weakly so that it drops directly into the swamp and then drops down the center drain, gaining 150,000 points plus 100,000 bonus points each.

Special Collectors Edition

In October 1994, Bally produced a so called "Special Collectors Edition", often referred to as The Addams Family Gold. Towards the end of the original production run of The Addams Family some machines had been produced with golden features to celebrate the machine's sales record. The "Special Collectors Edition" similarly featured specially designed gold accents on the playfield/cabinet and an updated software program.
The game also included some play enhancements, as noted below
Only one thousand machines of the Special Collectors Edition were ever produced, each carrying the number on a plaque below the coin door. A certificate with the corresponding number and the signatures of production and development team members was also unique for this edition.

Hidden game codes

The Addams Family pinball contains two known Easter eggs—plus a third egg in the Special Collectors Edition—each of which can be accessed using a flipper and Start button code sequence specific to each egg. The results produced are cosmetic in nature only; they do not modify actual game play in any way.
The codes work only under the following conditions: The machine must be in its Attract or "game over" mode. There must also be no credits on the machine.
The codes may also temporarily stop working if they are done too many times in a row. Allowing the Attract mode display screens to cycle all the way through before trying a code again should rectify this.
The available Easter eggs and how to activate them:

Aftermarket modifications

Some aftermarket modifications may be found in some machines:
A version of this table was in development for the PC and was also going to be released on the Nintendo 64 and would be developed by Digital Eclipse and published by GT Interactive, but was cancelled.
The game is also supported by Visual Pinball, which can also be made by some people to play through a home made pinball cabinet, like the original but digitally emulated.
On July 11, 2014 FarSight Studios released The Pinball Arcade Newsletter 29 indicating they "agreed upon terms with all of the major licenses and clearances" needed to digitally recreate this table. A Kickstarter to raise the $97,640 needed for licensing was initiated on September 12, 2014 and successfully funded $115,276 on its closing date of October 12, 2014.
On February 21, 2015 Farsight Studios released their digitized version of the table as part of the Season Four package of The Pinball Arcade on iOS, Android, Amazon, Steam and OUYA. The image of Christopher Lloyd was removed in this version due to licensing issues. The "Special Collectors Gold Edition" was one of the rewards for those who pledged over
$100 during the Kickstarter campaign. By June 30, 2018, the table is no longer available, due to losing the license of WMS.