WILLIAMS STAR LIGHT

Design: Barry Oursler Playfield Art: Larry M. Blazek *   Backglass Art by: Tom Schmelzer **  Sound Board/ROM: Eugene Jarvis *** Programming: (researching)    Notes: An interview with the game designer Barry Oursler * Playfield and plastics by Larry Blazek, who worked for Advertising Posters Inc. They were a supplier of pinball art to Williams and other game manufacturers in Chicago. Larry worked with Tom Schmelzer at Advertising Posters and was there until Feb '85. Another example of a notable pinball artist who worked there from around '79 would be Doug Watson. ** Tom Schmelzer often has his name misspelled, it is now correct on the ipdb.org Star Light entry, here's a close-up of his signature Tom Schmelzer '84 from my backglass showing the correct spelling. Apologies for the flash in the image. *** Eugene Jarvis did the sound and programming on Firepower. Star Light uses exactly the same sound board and ROM (without speech), so he is credited with sound. Eugene is still in the arcade industry and runs Raw Thrills.

Game: Williams Star Light
Game date: June 1984
Model: # 530 my s/n: 530I18049
(I = International, X = Prototype)

Back

Star Light INFORMATION

Facts about this unique and (IMHO) ground breaking game
• Sadly only a run of 100 were made, according to ipdb.org so it was never a 'full production' game
• Star Light was the last Williams System 7 game
• Has a 2 Ball Multiball ^(tm).
• Does not use normal Blue Flipper ROMs as on other Sys 7 games
• Has a separate Lane Change button on the right side.
  This avoids the problem of the Switch Matrix being shorted into the 50v flipper coils.
  It also lets you lane change without flipping and vice-versa.
• Appears to be the first System 9 implementation, as a prototype according to ipdb.
• First design for optos used as switches (but they were never implemented for this game)
• Microswitches used in the ball trough (switches #10 and #11)

Here's a closeup of the constellation "diamond" just above the flippers.
Open it in another window (or tab) for a better view, clearly showing L.M. Blazek's signature for the artwork.
You can see wear and paint loss, this is normal for a 25+ year old game without restoration and sealing.

Game play
• Making L-I-G-H-T lights spinner for 1,000 and then for 2,000 when flashing.
• Roving light (ADV "X") advances bonus multiplier: 2x 3x 5x 10x.
  Bonus = multiplier x (Constellations + Stars).
• Making 10 stars lights next constellation, each constellation adds 10,000 to constellation value.
• Rollover stars 1-10 light stars, Lane Change* is available on upper lanes to light missing stars.
• Pisces lit : right lane lights for extra ball.
• Gemini lit : alternating special lights on outlanes.
• S-T-A-R collects current constellation value and lights right lock.
• Locking Ball scores 3K for each lit star, starts a 2-ball Multi-Ball ™ where scores are doubled.
• L-I-G-H-T and S-T-A-R light right lane for bonus holdover to next ball.
• Lighting bonus holdover on last ball awards timed bonus ball with unlimited ball saver. ‡
• If replay function is set, one replay awarded for each score you beat in the displays. (Four highest scores to date are saved)
  * Extra Button on right hand side of Cabinet operates Lane Change function.
  ‡ This is similar to a ‘Last Chance’ feature on Black Knight '80, except the BK bonus ball length is fixed in the defaults. Typically 30sec.
  Star Light awards 10 seconds for each constellation lit and 1 second for each star.
  A maximum of (6 x 10) +9 = 69 seconds. If the player lights (and earns) an Extra Ball during extended time,
  the EB (if enabled) will be awarded after the timed bonus ball
  
  

KEY MODIFICATIONS: Different Spinner, New Pop Bumper Cap Design, Sound ROM #4 Used and LEDs added for accents.

My playfield and spinner are the ones shown here on ipdb.
Please Note: I did not modify the spinner or the Sound ROMs, they came on my game when purchased and I have left it that way.
Factory original Williams games (according to other owners I have contacted) had both the spinner and Sound ROM #3 from Firepower.

Spinner Here are some ideas from the spinner on my game and a couple I drew in a PDF which you can download.
First there is a fairly quickly sketched idea below the hand painted one, and to the right some vector drawn examples:

If it looks familiar, the drawings are modified from a Gold Ball (or Silverball Mania) spinner, which the one on my game reminded me of.

The two on the right are drawn to animate as the front and back of the same spinner. I'll post up a flash animation of it spinning, once I get around to it.

A PDF download of the above file is here.

Star Light MODIFIED POP BUMPER CAPS

I did two version of custom Star Light caps.
Standard "WMS logo" caps and more recently "Star logo" caps.

The first ones I made are a copy of the normal caps with the words "Star Light" added in red or black:


Here I am drawing them on my computer, and making them with the Robo Cutter. The cap top left is a Williams original one,
the three on the bottom are mine. Not easy, but the mylar cutter has a driver for Adobe Illustrator, which helps.


This is what they look like on the game - the black "Star Light" lettering still needs to be added at this point.
I was eager to see them lit up on the game, and was searching for a better font to use at this point.


Here's what they should look like when completed.
I needed to learn how to "type on a curve" in Adobe Illustrator for this part. Thanks for the pointers and the text example on the left, Phil!
I did the lettering on the right. When I added the star logo, I changed the typeface and spent a lot of time spacing it out so it will look good on the game.
I think they already look sharp. I tend to use adhesive mylar, but sometimes I make stencils with thick stencil material and use enamels or spray paint.
The same cutter can also make any shape clear mylar playfield protectors (pop bumper, kicker D's). It can cut out any shape that you can figure out how to draw.

As usual, here are the PDF files to download in case you want to make your own bumper caps.

Pop bumper caps with a Normal WMS logo as a PDF.

Pop bumper caps with a Star logo as a PDF.

SOME HIDDEN Star Light HISTORY
OK. So you got this far, and I'll tell you what I know. When I started searching for information on Star Light, I was amazed at the lack of detail. Well maybe not that amazed, when you consider they made only 100. It was really only a 'boutique' game run in Williams' terms. This was a pivotal moment for Williams, so what actually happened?

I really like the game and personally think it could have been a success, but I suspect marketing and management decisions got in the way. Clearly, this game didn't break even, and I've even heard they made it only because they didn't want to attend the '84 AMOA Amusement Expo with just a single game - Space Shuttle. They were a big manufacturer, and it was an important time for pinball to "sink or swim". One thing to note is having Star Light there showed off Space Shuttle to the best advantage, as it had ramps and some other neat features (Flashers, Drop Targets, Single Target blocking a ramp and the "heat shield" Up-Post between the flippers)

Star Light looks to be one of those rare times that Williams just "pulled the plug" on a game. I speculate that they intended to do no further work on it, concentrating their efforts instead into ramping up production of Space Shuttle which (of course) had been a big hit at the AMOA show. In the end they sold 7,000+ Space Shuttle units, which was a big success for Williams from a business point of view. That was the start of System 9 and the single board designs (with the MPU, Driver and Sound Boards combined). Only the "speech daughter board" was retained from System 7 for Space Shuttle and a few games after that... "not with a bang, but with a whimper" ...the end of System 7 games.

Star Light INSTRUCTION BOOKLET and RUBBER RING KIT
So the "Star Light Service Manual" provided by Williams was one for a prototype game or a preliminary manual. It is missing lots of information, and includes no parts list, schematics, rubber ring list or placement diagram. I have now produced an Instruction Booklet which is available to download as a PDF. Also here is my current rubber ring list documenting what I'm using on my game. This is in the hope that someone else with the game can agree with my list, or perhaps email me amendments.

Star Light CUSTOM APRON CARDS
More Custom Cards coming soon, I hope.
Here are the apron card rules for Star Light on a PDF instruction card.
There is also a Custom Card, Pricing Cards and an Instruction Card for Star Light here, in MS Word format.
I have made some minor changes to reflect spelling mistakes, so the above cards are more up to date than on ipdb.
As you can see in the documents, they are courtesy of Peter Koch of www.inkochnito.nl - many more apron (and other cards) are on his site.
Some of his stuff is also hosted at PinballRebel.com - another great apron card resource.

ANOTHER Star Light GAME
Finally, I did find one more interesting thing when searching out information for this page;
another game called "Star-Light", also very beautiful. A bagatelle from the late 30's (I think that date is right).

This is the information I have on it so far:

• Star-Light 'Pinball Game'.
• Dates from the 1930's (or early 40's).
• Early forerunner to the pinball arcade games.
• Manufactured by the Durable Toy & Nov Co. of NY, NY.
• Measures 23" high x 14" wide.
• Made of metal, with a cardboard back.
• The playing surface of the game is brightly colored litho (maybe enamel?) on metal.
• The shooter mechanism works to launch the marbles / small metal pinballs.
• A 'looping' bagatelle meaning the ball loops the entire playfield before dropping. An early Nascar?
• Nails or 'pins' guide the marbles / balls.
• Score according to the numbers on the playing surface, you count them up yourself.
• There is a bar attached to the back top which swivels down to prop up the game for play.

This is the best image I have of the game.

The image seems to allow resizing, so click here to see it zoomed in to double the size.
Would you believe me if I told you there's a Virtual Pinball table of this bagatelle? Try it!

Enjoy playing pinball, whatever type it is.

Back