I'm guessing the answer will vary and be somewhat vague, given there are likely many early machines displaying some sort of wizard'ish accomplishment.
My guess would be Pinbot with reaching the sun?
(Topic ID: 11140)
Forest Lake, MN
Well if you're going to count reaching the sun on Pinbot, you could count any number of things back in the EM days too... Say getting to royal flush on Jacks Open or anything else with that playfield. Heck Dodge City kinda has a "wizard" award too with the 100x shot. Probably games earlier than that even.
The first game with "modes" that had a special award after doing all of them was probably Lights Camera Action. The award, though, was just a Mystery Pick that would go on to become somewhat more common later on. The game that really shoved the whole "collect everything for something special at the end" into your face was Whirlwind and its Mega Door bonus, even though you wouldn't really call any of those modes, just mystery awards. BK2K of course has RANSOM, but that's a game-to-game feature that you're building up to. I'd probably call it a wizard mode, but it doesn't quite follow the same path that things nowadays do. The first wizard actual mode that follows completing a bunch of previous things is probably Super Frenzy on Funhouse. TAF is probably the game that really blew it open with its heavily mode-based gameplay (even though not all awards were modes, most of them were) and a specific bigtime award at the end.
There can be other categories too... First "battle" wizard mode was probably WCS, first wizard mode "ladder" was NF, etc.
It's generally accepted to be BK2K from what I have heard. you CAN build ransom in one game. It's tough, but you can.
I think that would be accurate. Addams Family "Tour The Mansion" comes to mind. That was my first and only wizard mode, and I got that last year!
Steve Ritchie claims credit for the first wizard mode with High Speed, though I can't think of a wizard mode in the game.
http://steveritchiepinball.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=38
I know pinbot was a stretch, but I thought of it as it is hard to do, and isn’t really the normal game play, given the lighting the targets, and loading the balls for MB. The payoff for the sun has a bonus point award, and is saved through the entire play of the game, not just per ball.
I knew that as for as actual “mode” based games, FH was the first there, but playing pinbot got me thinking of this, as I couldn’t think of anything this intricate before pinbot having this type of game feature.
The Highspeed post is interesting. I just read SR’s site, and I am confused of this, as that game is all load the balls, and get the MB payoff, and I don’t think anyone would agree that is a “wizard mode” per say.
Before PinBot there was Stern's Galaxy which had that kind of advance-the-planets feature.
High Speed had a wizard mode? I don't think you could lock balls during multiball, so re-locking all three balls during multiball wouldn't be the thing. I will ask around tonight at the Aquarius Pinball Party and the Seattle Pinball League's tournament tomorrow. Third year, first tournament! There are some serious Williams pinheads who would know if anyone else did.
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