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The Classic Pinball Podcast
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#73 Steve Ritchie F-Troop Flash+Firepower - The Classic Pinball Podcast

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago1 hr 8 min listenBy George
From the creator

Gotcha! This episode is not about Sargent Agarn or Captain Parmenter, it’s the two games early in Steves career beginning with the letter F: Flash and Firepower. Double feature. Enjoy!

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Highlights

  • Firepower was made in February 1980 with 17,400 units produced by Williams using System 6 hardware
  • Steve Ritchie designed Firepower with sound and software by Eugene Jarvis (nicknamed Cookie Jarvis)
  • Firepower was one of the first games to feature lane change as a trademarked mechanic
  • About 100-200 early Firepower units had drop targets but they were removed due to durability issues
  • Williams drop targets are inferior to Bally targets, which Dave calls 'bricks' and harder to sweep
  • The restored Firepower cost approximately 80 hours of labor and roughly $1,000+ in new boards alone
  • Flash was made in 1978 with 19,000 units produced and featured triple sound option capability
  • Flash came before Gorgar in the voice technology timeline and did not have voice capability

Notable quotes

“This is the nicest firepower I've done to date it plays really well”
Dave
“I spent more time restoring these than playing them”
Dave
“If I had this game I would put between five and ten games on this every night”
George
“It has that flow going... It's one of my favorite classic Williams games”
Dave
“They made 17,000 of them, so. It was a hit. Still is a hit.”
Dave
“Ball, Saver, Shield, Exclusive, Lane Change. They trademarked that.”
Dave
“I took all that out and put in wpc mechs in from the 90s with really bold nice solid hit”
Dave
“Everybody who played Pinball back in the day has seen or played a Flash. They've seen or played a Firepower.”
George

Entities

  • CPR Plastics· company
  • Flying Squirrel Brewery· company
  • Planetary Pinball· company
  • Weebly· company
  • Williams· company
  • Firepower· game
  • Flash· game
  • Gorgar· game
  • The Classic Pinball Podcast· organization
  • Constantino Mitchell· person
  • Dave· person
  • Eugene Jarvis· person
  • George· person
  • Janine Mitchell· person
  • Kuz· person
  • PJ· person
  • Randy Pfeiffer· person
  • Steve Ritchie· person

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