The Williams Pinball Controller (WPC) is an arcade system board used for several pinball games designed by Williams and Midway (under the Bally name) between 1990 and early-1999. It is the successor to their earlier System 11 hardware (High Speed, Pin*Bot, Black Knight 2000). It was succeeded by Williams/Midway's Pinball 2000 platform, before Williams left the pinball business in October 1999. These games were released under both the Williams and Midway names.
FunHouse (designed by Pat Lawlor) was the first production game to use the WPC System, although there are prototype Dr. Dude machines that use the WPC System.
Some WPC System boards made use of the YM2151 and the YM3012 sound chips respectively. These gave the WPC a sound similar to that of a Sega Genesis, until the DCS system was introduced later.
Variations[ | ]
There are six variations of the WPC hardware. The original version is sometimes referred to as WPC-89. The WPC MPU remained the same through all generation up to the addition of the security chip in WPC-S, and then the subsequent WPC-95 board. The variations are as follows:
- WPC (Alphanumeric)
- Funhouse - September 1990
- Harley-Davidson - February 1991
- The Machine: Bride of Pin·Bot - April 1991
Some Dr. Dude machines were also this WPC generation, most were Williams System 11
- WPC (Dot Matrix)
- Gilligan's Island - May 1991
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day - July 1991
- Hurricane - August 1991
- Party Zone - August 1991
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was designed to have a dot matrix display from the start, but it was released after Gilligan's Island, due to T2 having a longer development time than Gilligan's Island. This generation WPC hardware was also used in some of Williams / Midway's redemption games (SlugFest!, Hot Shot Basketball, Addams Family Values)
- WPC (Fliptronics)
- The Addams Family - March 1992
- The Getaway: High Speed II - April 1992
- Black Rose - July 1992
- Fish Tales - October 1992
- Doctor Who - October 1992
- Creature from the Black Lagoon - December 1992
- White Water - January 1993
- Bram Stoker's Dracula - March 1993
- Twilight Zone - March 1993
- The Addams Family Special Collectors Edition - October 1994
The Addams Family was the only game produced with the Fliptronics I board, which is compatible with Fliptronics II board, which added a bridge rectifier for the flipper voltage.
- WPC (DCS)
- Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure - August 1993
- Judge Dredd - September 1993
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - November 1993
- Popeye Saves the Earth - February 1994
- Demolition Man - February 1994
Twilight Zone was designed to be the first pinball machine to use the new DCS system, but due to delays of the new hardware design it was decided to release it on the old hardware (using downsampled sound effects) instead.
- WPC-S (Security)
- World Cup Soccer - February 1994
- The Flintstones - July 1994
- Corvette - August 1994
- Red & Ted's Road Show - October 1994
- The Shadow - November 1994
- Dirty Harry - March 1995
- Theatre of Magic - March 1995
- No Fear: Dangerous Sports - May 1995
- Indianapolis 500 - June 1995
- Johnny Mnemonic - August 1995
- Jack·Bot - October 1995
- WHO Dunnit - September 1995
Starting with World Cup Soccer, a security programmable integrated circuit {PIC} chip was added to the CPU board in all WPC-S games at location U22. This PIC chip was game specific making it so CPU boards could not be swapped between different models without changing the security PIC chip.
- WPC-95
- Congo - November 1995
- Attack from Mars - December 1995
- Safecracker - March 1996
- Tales of the Arabian Nights - May 1996
- Scared Stiff - September 1996
- Junk Yard - December 1996
- NBA Fastbreak - March 1997
- Medieval Madness - June 1997
- Cirqus Voltaire - October 1997
- No Good Gofers - December 1997
- The Champion Pub - April 1998
- Monster Bash - July 1998
- Cactus Canyon - October 1998
This generation WPC hardware was also used in the Midway redemption games Ticket Tac Toe, March 1996.
External links[ | ]
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