Internet  Pinball Database

Star Wars Episode 1 entry in the IPD

Flyer

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Manual

Schematic

ROM images

Available from Williams Tech Support

WAV files

Available from Williams

Rule sheet

Repair tips

S/I card scans

Repro parts

Star Wars: Episode 1 auctions on eBay

Note: many of these links will take you off this site.  Thanks to all the other pinball enthusiasts who have provided this information for us all to share.  If you have links to fill in any missing information below, please let me know.

Williams changed the future of pinball with the development of the Pinball2000 platform, both with what they started and what they ended.  Pinball2000 started the first credible integration of video game technology into a traditional pinball platform.  Unfortunately, after spending a reported $6 million developing this platform, they decided to call it quits in November of 1999, shortly after releasing the second of the Pinball2000 series - Star Wars: Episode 1.  The company decided to concentrate on the more profitable gambling machine market, and rather than trying to sell the division, they shut it down and disbanded the staff.  Williams still holds the copyrights and patent rights, so this precludes anyone else from taking over where Williams left off, unless Williams should change their mind some time in the future.

The Pinball2000 platform uses a standard color monitor mounted in the top portion of the cabinet with the screen facing downward.  The playfield glass has a gradient tint so that the picture on the monitor appears to overlay the top of the pinball playfield.  Ball contact with the ramps, targets and sensors at the top of the playfield interact with the video scenarios during game play.  The playfield is a few inches shorter than a traditional pinball machine, but it otherwise has the look and feel of a "real" pinball machine.  Some of the playfield hardware, like the spinners at the ramp entrances, are simulated on the video screen.

I won't get too much into the game play, because there are a lot of other sources for that information (including the best way: hands on at the local arcade - or your own gameroom)!   Some players criticize the game, saying that all you need to do is keep shooting up the middle, over and over again.  This is true to some extent, but that's not the best way to get a lot of points, or to advance through the Jedi ranks.  The highest scoring games that I've played used different strategies.  In one game, I kept trying for the kick-out holes.  I won enough extra JEDI letters and other prizes to make it to JEDI Spirit in record time.  On another game, I went for lighting GUNGAN with the around-the-back shot.  It was lit for a JEDI battle multi-ball and I must have gotten an extra 50 million points there alone.  So sure, you could just shoot up the middle all the time, but you don't have to.

I got this particular game from a local collector who had put fewer than 300 plays on it.  So far, with at least than many games on it again, there are no signs of wear.  This machine is by far the most popular with friends and neighbors, and it's easy to see why.  Considering the more cost-conscious machines being developed by Stern Pinball (the only remaining pinball machine manufacturer), it's unlikely that there will every be another pinball machine with the features, depth of play and sheer entertainment value of Star Wars: Episode 1.