This is Bobby King from FarSight Studios, the makers of the Pinball Arcade for PS3 and PS Vita. We are super excited to announce that today, thanks to our fans, we’ll be releasing our re-creation of one of the greatest pinball tables ever – Twilight Zone!

With the help of the pinball legend Roger Sharpe, who did the original table’s licensing deal for Williams/Bally, we were able to get the CBS-owned rights to the TV show. This deal was too expensive for us to make the numbers work, though. We would have lost money with the number of sales we were projecting. But thanks to our players and pinball fans all around the world who chipped in through Kickstarter.com – we got the extra money that we needed to make the deal for the Twilight Zone IP!

This is such a great table. Personally, it’s my second favorite to play in our game right behind Star Trek: The Next Generation (which we’ll be releasing before the end of next month, but I’m getting ahead of myself).

Twilight Zone is awesome! It’s an unbelievably deep gameplay experience. One of the features that Pinball Arcade is noted for is our comprehensive instruction on how to play each table. The instructions for Twilight Zone are the longest – 710 screens.

Pinball Arcade Producer/Designer Scott Shelton writes these instructions and also happens to be the best pinball player at our studio, so I’m going to hand it off to him to explain what makes the Twilight Zone table so much fun.

“It is the most complex table we have worked on to date.”

“The main reasons Twilight Zone is such a great table is the cool theme and the incredible number of features it has. The Twilight Zone show is just a perfect theme for a pinball table and they did a great job of tying episodes of the show into the various modes.

As far as features, it is, hands down the most complex table we have worked on to date. It’s clear that Pat Lawlor was given free reign when designing Twilight Zone after the commercial success of his previous design, The Addams Family.

When I’m playing the game, I tend to activate most of the features and modes on the table through normal gameplay, which is a testament to how well it is designed. A lot of tables have features that are so obscure that you’re unlikely to ever see them. The flow of Twilight Zone is such that the modes are getting activated left and right, just by making various shots on the table.

“These invisible flippers let you ‘flip’ the ball towards a hole at the end of the Powerfield.”

When I’m playing, I try to focus on earning Door Panels as quickly as possible so that I can play the Lost in the Zone mode. You don’t have to wait for one Door Panel mode to end before activating the next one, and they can be activated from the Player Piano Hole or the Slot Machine. When I’m in a groove, I can get into a pattern where I shoot the Slot Machine to activate a Door Panel and then shoot the Right Ramp to relight the Slot Machine. Shooting the Right Ramp also sets you up for a shot at the Player Piano Hole to activate another Door Panel. Repeating this method over and over gets you through the Door Panels very quickly. Even better, shoot the Right Ramp when it’s lit for Battle the Power to send the ball to the Powerfield. On the Powerfield, you use one of Twilight Zone’s most unique features, the magnetic flippers. These invisible flippers let you “flip” the ball towards a hole at the end of the Powerfield. Successfully making that shot, scores a bunch of points and earns another Door Panel.”

For those that don’t know, Pinball Arcade was one of the first cross-buy games for PS Vita. Purchasing anything for our game entitles you to it for both the PS3 and PS Vita versions!

Thanks for supporting the Pinball Arcade, everyone!