Data East's Star Wars 20th Anniversary Edition

Here's another look at a classic Data East Pinball machine, but with a new twist. Data East released Star Wars back in 1992 and it was a huge game for me growing up. My father and I used to play the game religiously at SpacePlex here on Long Island. We'd pretty much get a 20 dollar token deal and hog the machine all night. Growing up as a Star Wars fan it was great to finally have a pinball machine based on it. (There were Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back machines made, just not here in the States.)

Back in December of 2012 Stern Pinball put out a press release about this new ROM update for Star Wars that was officially given their blessing. Chad Hendrickson and other members of the pinball community came up this ROM revision to honor the passing of the game's original programmer, Neil Falconer who had passed away the same year in 2012. This new version of the game is much more challenging and they've added in many new features. Sadly I had an awful three games on it and this was the best one I was able to record.

What I have noticed in this new version of the game makes it MUCH different. First off they have added in a new ball save feature that wasn't present in the original game. You'll get an animation of Han Solo frozen in carbanite and hear Darth Vader yell, "FREEZE!!" Just like Jurassic Park. They also made it that you have to really earn everything. One of the big things to do in the game is to spell out STAR WARS. In the original version the S in Star was automatically lit, now it's not. The biggest change is the main ramp shot. This is what killed the original game for most players. Pretty much you could just combo the shot with the right flipper all day and night to rack up tons of points and awards. Even as I kid I remember hitting the shot over and over again. Now you just get one million points. Everything else has to be earned by shooting the Force Scoop shot. The other thing I noticed is now you REALLY have to earn the Tri-Ball (I think Williams/Bally had Multiball trademarked) In the original version no matter how many time you hit the Death Star the third ball would have the shot automatically open and you just had to sink the shot for the Tri-Ball. Not anymore! Now you have to hit the target to make it go down. (This can be changed in the operator's setting if you wish)

If you'd like to know more about the changes made to the game and for more information on adding this to your machine, hit the link below!

Pinball Code