Episode 1 - Lightning Flippers

Wedgehead co-hosts explore lightning flipper history, design intent, and modern applicability in pinball.

Synopsis

Alan and Alex from Wedgehead Pinball Bar in Portland discuss the history, design impact, and community perception of lightning flippers: shorter flipper bats that were introduced in early 1990s Williams pinball machines to accommodate European market preferences. They explore how games like Fishtails and Bram Stoker's Dracula were designed with these shorter flippers, argue they improve game balance for shallow rule sets, and debate whether modern Stern machines would benefit from similar modifications.

Highlights

• Lightning flippers were 1/16 inch shorter than standard 3-inch flippers, creating 1/8 inch wider combined gap
• A French distributor touring Williams factory in early 1990s complained that Fishtails played too long for the European market, which represented approximately 60% of the pinball market
• Bram Stoker's Dracula, Fishtails, Popeye, and Doctor Who shipped from factory with lightning flippers; Black Rose only shipped to Europe with them
• Games like Fishtails and Bram Stoker's Dracula have shallow rule sets without wizard modes that become boring when played on standard flippers
• Wedgehead maintains factory settings with lightning flippers on qualifying games but receives community pushback despite using factory configurations
• Tournament directors at venues like Linz in California use lightning flippers on games to shorten play time and prevent marathon game sessions
• Whitewater shipped with lightning flippers in goodie bag but uninstalled
• Games with wider flipper gaps like Ghostbusters create similar difficulty effect to lightning flippers
• Modern Stern games are coded for long-playing, player-friendly difficulty on average
• Black Knight (Rage) punishes missed shots more than many modern Sterns despite having easy individual shots

Entities

• Williams Electronics· company
• Adam's Family· game
• Attack from Mars· game
• Black Knight Rage· game
• Black Rose· game
• Bram Stoker's Dracula· game
• Deadpool· game
• Doctor Who· game
• Firepower· game
• Fishtails· game
• Ghostbusters· game
• Grand Prix· game
• Lord of the Rings· game
• Monster Bash· game
• Monsters of Rock· game
• Popeye· game
• Ultra Man· game
• Whitewater· game
• Linz· organization
• Wedgehead· organization
• Alan· person
• Alex· person
• George Gomez· person
• Steve Richie· person