Comet Pinball Machine

The Comet pinball machine is a solid state electronic pinball released by Williams Electronics Games in June of 1985. This pinball has an amusement park theme and was the first in a trilogy of pinballs, later followed by the Hurricane and Cyclone pinball machines.

Players are tasked with navigating the carnival featured on the playfield, with a focus on the central ramp which represents the Comet roller coaster. A trip up that ramp usually awards 10,000 points. Shooting gallery targets featuring rabbits and ducks are in the banks. Hitting all the targets at the shooting gallery opens the player up for an additional bonus.

A stand-out feature of the Comet pinball machine is its Motorcycle Jump ramp. Players launch the ball, aiming at one of three targets. The first target is worth 20,000, the second is worth 50,000 and the third is worth 200,000.

Williams Electronics Games released the Comet pinball machine in June of 1985. Interestingly, the game wasn’t always called ‘Comet’. According to Designer Barry Oursler:

Comet wasn’t the original name. It was going to be ‘Riverview’, named after the amusement park that used to be across the river from Williams. After discussions with management and some of our big distributors, I changed the name and used one of the roller coaster names from that park. Comet was a common name for roller coasters, along with Cyclone and Hurricane. I figured I might as well keep the theme going.