Wasn't Lights...Camera...Action the first real mode-based game? I remember reading an interview somewhere with Jon Norris where he describes putting a test game on location and excitedly waiting for someone to come up and discover mode-based pinball.

Here it is. http://www.papinball.com/Jon_Norris_Interview.html

PAPB:
How did you come up with the concept of modes and timed modes? Also, please describe what a mode is.

JN:
The idea came from a TV game show concept - Final Jeopardy. A mode or round is a timed event, where the player must either complete a given task, or collect high scores before time expires. The player may have the opportunity to add to their elapsed time, or slow down the clock during the round.

Regarding the history of this feature, there are several electro-mechanical games and early solid state games that had "one shot" or "hurry-up" features. These features would qualify a target, shot, or bank completion for an increased value or award for either a short timed period or next shot. One good example of a one shot was used on Gottlieb's 300 / Top Score (1975). A SPECIAL would light, but hitting anything, any switch closure, other than the lit target, immediately eliminated the feature. A good example of a hurry-up was seen on Bally's Viking (1979). On this game, the upper left target would begin flashing for an award of 50,000. This would continue for three or four seconds, then go away. This feature caused the player to suddenly change priorities. A replay equaled 600,000, so making / hitting this target was worth 8% of the replay score. During the hurry-up, a unique sound is heard, alerting the player to the feature.

I wanted to offer the player a bonus round for completing an objective. With John Trudeau's layout and my rule set, Excalibur was the first game to incorporate this feature. The concept was a lot of fun, and had the potential to be used again. The next logical step was to design a mode based game around this concept, where the main game play would be built around these "rounds". Red Alert was going to be a mode based game, but I had to wait for Lights Camera Action (1989) to unleash a full blown mode based game. I put the large timer on the playfield to help players learn the timed mode concept. The highly visible timer counts down, and the music changes during these timed events. Most regular players take modes for granted today, but that was a lot different back in 1989. We also had to turn off all playfield features except for the active features to clearly define the currently active feature to the player. Later on Shaq Attaq, I added a feature where if the player was successful in completing the task at hand during the mode, then a completion light was turned-on, and the ultimate goal was to be successful in completing all modes. This solved the catch the ball and wait for the mode to expire before continuing game play problem. A low risk way to receive an award/feature for completing all modes.