Supersonic

SUPERSONIC was manufactured in early 1979 and became a great success with more than 10,000 units produced.

It started life in 1976 as a 2-Player called STAR SHIP which was only manufactured as a prototype, with artwork by Christian Marche. Kevin O'Connor did the new artwork for SUPERSONIC but the graphics on the playboard remained almost exactly the same.

The backglass shows a SST (Super Sonic Transport) and hints at the Concord’s international flights between New York and Paris/London. Just look at those sling shot plastics - a person reading a newspaper in a seat, a person holding a child against the window.

The game uses the AS-2818-32 first generation electronic sound board. This sound board was an improvement over the 3-4 mechanical chimes prior. It has 32 tone commands (two of which are silence tones). String clear tones together to get tunes. String tones real fast and shape noises. Most of the sound effects are based on incrementing the +10, +100, and +1000 scores. But there are some tunes for power up, coin up, start game, saucer eject, tilt, and end game.

The factory flyer says that the game contains “four new game theme tunes” never used before. One of these is “Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder” which is used as one of the coin tunes if selected.

The game has 3 pop bumpers, 2 sling shots, 5 drop targets, 4 stationary targets, 1 spinner, 1 saucer, an out-lane ball gate, and no less than 11 roll over switches. The game play centers around gaining bonuses stored at the bottom in lights. Throw in a couple of chances to get 25K points, and you can really cash in.