Cirqus Voltaire Development

Designing a successful pinball game is not something that happens overnight. In fact, although there is no such thing as a typical pinball machine, most pinball machines produced by Williams Electronics, Inc. under the Williams and Bally labels are in some stage of development for a cycle of 12 - 18 months.

A few things to remember when reviewing the timeline below:

• These are only milestone events and represent only about 1% of the work that goes into a Williams pinball machine.
  In addition to those listed below, you will find others referenced in other parts of Behind the Scenes and in Explore the Playfield.

• Many features, rules and concepts are tried and discarded during the process. These are not listed here. Some that DO work are still dropped due to cost, production complexity or for a variety of other reasons.

• After a rule is written it is modified, updated and tweaked many times before production begins

• Rules and/or features removed before production are not listed here.

• Some things I just can't tell you about without Uncle Willy sending cows, trolls and gophers after me.

  (Go ahead - imagine a troll perched atop a cow charging toward you at full speed, dodging gopher holes while looking for croutons and sprouts along the way. Is that something you could explain to your friends and family?)

Fall 1718

Francois Marie Arouet assumes the name "Voltaire" and unknowingly provides the name of a pinball game that will be produced over 270 years later.

Spring 1996

(some folks in Chicago think about an enlightened Frenchman and determine a way to pay tribute to him)

April 1996

16 - Playfield sketching begins

May, June, July 1996

(lots of thinking about the game)

August 1996

19 - Preliminary software start (OK - so it was only the creation of directory 'cirqus' ... !)

20 - First CIRQUS VOLTAIRE dot matrix logo for mock-up and inspiration!

September 1996

03 - Artwork concepts begin

23 - Software development starts (honest)

October 1996

01 - Cabinet and logo design begins

15 - ** Whitewood Number 1 **

18 - Driver for Diverter

19 - Driver for Up/Down jet

20 - Driver for loops detection

21 - Skill Shot

23 - Hit the Ringmaster rule

28 - Ringmaster Frenzie

31 - Highwire Multiball framework

November 1996

10 - Spinning Diamond score sweep

18 - Strike An Arc multiball

22 - Driver for Ringmaster device

December 1996

04 - Side-Show framework

10 - Playfield artwork (including plastics) begin

17 - Highwire Multiball working

20 - Cabinet artwork complete

23 - Amazing Roonie video mode

---

January 1997

03 - ** Whitwood number 2 **

05 - Driver for Juggler saucers

06 - Juggler Multiball

09 - Ringmaster magnet catches/throws ball

14 - Complete VOLT raises the Jet

15 - Added Ring 1, 2 and 3 build-up

22 - Framework for CIRQUS letters

February 1997

01 - Framework for Cirqus Marvels

15 - Playfield artwork complete (make sure to see the Artwork section in "Behind the Scenes")

17 - Ringmaster Razz

21 - Backglass artwork begins

22 - Skill Shot display effect

23 - Popcorn Mania

24 - Acrobats rule

25 - Cannon Balls

26 - Strike An Arc and Highwire Multiballs can now run concurrently

March 1997

03 - Ball Search

20 - ** Whitewood number 3 **

April 1997

03 - Attract mode lamp effect and Cirqus specific displays

05 - User Test for Ringmaster

11 - Judges and bonus count

10 - Announcer speech recorded

21 - Ringmaster Special

29 - Speed control for Ringmaster driver

29 - User Test for Up/Down jet

30 - Balloons rule added to jets

30 - Backglass artwork complete

May 1997

03 - Load Cannon outlane rule

04 - Neon Multiball

05 - ** First prototype built for programmer **

21 - Join The Cirqus step 1

26 - Status Report

June 1997

01 - Ringmaster Hat-Trick

03 - Clown 'MATCH' effect

05 - User Test for diverter

06 - Extra Ball effects (long and short)

09 - Attract mode sounds to coin insert, and START button

10 - Flipper button sounds

12 - Join The Cirqus step 2

23 - Voltaire's Multiple Jackpot

25 - Sneaky Lock

26 - ** First 'pay-to-play' version of the software **

26 - ** First test game put on location **

30 - Cirqus Members high score table

July 1997

18 - Multiball restart grace periods

21 - Join The Cirqus step 3

23 - User Test for the magnets

31 - Cannon Ball Champion

August 1997

23 - New Ringmaster speech recorded

September 1997

01 - Cannon Ball Run mode

02 - Speech recorded for remaining characters

09 - ** Software version 0.1 released for sample games **

16 - Ringmaster Battle

17 - Ringmaster Hide-out

20 - Playfield layout finalized

24 - Ringmaster flasher syncronized with speech

27 - German Text completed

28 - French Text completed

29 - Spanish Text completed

October 1997

02 - Join The Cirqus steps restart next ball

04 - Party Multiball and Party Champion

08 - ** Software version 1.0 released for production games **

November 1997

06 - User Test for Ramp Lockup

14 - ** Software version 1.1 released for production games **

December 1997

    Cirqus Voltaire earnings top the charts and pinball fans everywhere declare the game a major success !

January 1998

09 - Cirqus Voltaire web show opens