Specifications
Year of manufacture
1987
Manufacturer
Williams
Designer
Barry Oursler
Dimensions
Height: 194 cm
Width: 75 cm
Depth: 145 cm
More info (external)
“You’re looking good!”
Astronaut
NASA
The story behind the Space Station pinball machine
Welcome aboard
Your mission sounds simple: safely dock three Space Shuttles with the space station.
But Space Station isn’t going to make it easy for you. It’s fast, direct and demands quick reflexes. One moment, you’ve got the mission firmly under control. A second later, it’s all hands on deck.
Meanwhile, the rotating space station decides where the ball goes next. Nail a clean shot at the station? Damn that feels good.
Docking complete? Er... no.
So you fire Liberty into its dock. Then Defender. Just one more Shuttle to go…
Docking complete. Mission accomplished. Nice. Time for tea.
“Negative! You must re-dock!” Oh shit. Apparently not. The music intensifies. Lights start flashing.
“Redock now.”
“Condition Green.”
…and in an instant, Space Station completely changes character. The entire playfield is suddenly flooded with intense green light. The three Shuttles you just docked are launched straight back into play.
Three balls at once. Driving music. Flashing lights. Pure chaos.
Now it really is up to you. Can you regain control and save the situation by re-docking the Shuttles? Pull it off and you save the mission, and the jackpot is yours.
The future according to 1987
Space Station is the sequel to Space Shuttle, the huge 1984 Williams hit that helped save the company from going under. The man behind both games was Barry Oursler, designer of pinball classics including Cyclone, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Doctor Who and Jack*Bot*.
For Space Station, real-world spaceflight was mixed with classic 1980s science fiction. NASA’s Space Shuttle was actually flying missions in orbit. The wheel-shaped space station, however, is pure fiction: a nod to Space Station V from Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.
And then there’s the music. Hypnotic ’80s synths that grow more intense as your mission progresses. Composer Brian Schmidt, who would later work on games including Banzai Run, Swords of Fury and Black Knight 2000, makes Space Station sound exactly like people in 1987 thought the future should sound.
Add the colourful artwork, alphanumeric displays and mechanical space station, and you get pure retro tech. Space Station was coded by a young Ed Boon, years before his Mortal Kombat games made him a video-game legend.
Our Space Station goes one step beyond
Space Station already oozes personality by itself. The Ballen van Staal machine got an extra boost during its restoration.
The original lighting was replaced with carefully selected LEDs that make the artwork come alive far more vividly. The space station on the brand-new backglass is animated with dramatic red lighting, while every star post on the playfield has its own LED.
During Condition Green, intense green LEDs completely take over the playfield. And set a high score? Space Station celebrates with a light show that’s hard to miss from the other side of the room.
Space Station also does something rather nice to a room when nobody’s playing. It glows, seduces and draws people towards it.
Into spaceflight, science fiction or glorious ’80s retro tech? You’ll feel right at home. But you certainly don’t need to be a space geek to enjoy this pinball machine. The basics are quick to grasp, the game stays challenging and the theme works for just about anyone, much like a good film or TV series.
That’s why Space Station feels just as at home at a birthday party as it does at a retro party or corporate event.
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