Blackout

Released by Williams Electronics, Inc. in June 1980, Blackout is a solid-state pinball machine designed by Claude Fernandez with artwork by Constantino Mitchell and Jeanine Mitchell. Williams produced 7,050 units of this four-player game as model number 495, featuring the Williams System 6 MPU with Paul Dussault handling both software and French speech processing.

The playfield features two flippers, three pop bumpers, two slingshots, six standup targets, two banks of drop targets, three spinning targets, one kick-out hole, and lane change capability. Blackout achieved historic significance as the first Williams pinball game to incorporate computer-controlled playfield lighting through a relay-mounted G.I. relay for the BLACKOUT sequence, predating similar technology in competing machines by several months.

The backglass artwork, featuring an original concept by artist Ed Paschke, references the November 1968 cover of the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic book. The machine utilized a 66 KB ROM and represents Williams innovation in solid-state electronics during the era when the company was establishing new standards for computer-controlled pinball features that would define the industry throughout the 1980s.