1990 · Data East
Back to the Future
Night sky in dark blue and black, jagged white lightning bolts, hovering dark aircraft shape at top edge and glowing cyan light around the car.
- Year
- 1990
- Maker
- Data East
- Type
- Solid state
- Display
- Alphanumeric
- Players
- 4
Made by
- Design
- Ed Cebula
- Design
- Joe Kaminkow
- Art
- Paul Faris
- Software
- Rehman Merchant
- Sound & Music
- Brian Schmidt
Vision analysis
On the playfield
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Playfield
- red
- blue
- yellow
- black
Fingerprint: Cartoon couple locked arm-in-arm at exact center (grinning dark-haired man in red jacket, blonde woman in yellow dress), fanned row of multiplier panels 2X through 5X below them, two HILL VALLEY roadside arch signs bracketing upper field
The cartoon couple locked arm-in-arm at the exact centre of the playfield - a grinning dark-haired young man in a red jacket and blue jeans holding hands with a blonde young woman in a yellow dress, drawn in bold black ink and backed by radiating speed lines. Just below them, a fanned row of four lit teal-green bonus multiplier panels reading 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X and a row of round cream buttons 5M, 7M, 10M, 12M. Two matching HILL VALLEY arch signs bracket the upper playfield left and right, and a chrome wireform ramp loops in a large arc across the upper right. A white-bordered black car nose with an orange starburst sits between the two flippers at bottom centre, and both aprons carry a big blue lightning bolt.
Setting
- A small-town american main street with brick bankhouse and storefronts
- A night sky with a stylised lightning bolt across the top
- A brick wall banner across the top of the playfield
Symbols
- Lightning bolts
- Jagged starburst
- Radiating speed lines
- Car grille motif
- Star-shaped spinner gate
- Arrow inserts
Notable shapes
- A big curved chrome wireform ramp looping around the upper right playfield
- Two arched hill valley roadside signs bracketing the upper playfield
- A fanned row of four illuminated rectangular bonus multiplier panels
- A fan of four round cream advance-value buttons above the flippers
- A wide chrome ball guide snaking across the upper centre
- A cut-out arch at the top of the playfield under the brick banner
Art motifs
- Bold black ink outlines
- Flat saturated comic colouring
- Stone and brick textures
- Glowing translucent plastic inserts
Themes
- Small-town america
- 1950s retro americana
- Comic book
- Electricity and lightning
- Arcade
- Night-time main street
Text on it
- HILL VALLEY
- HILL VALLEY 88
- BONUS MULTIPLIER
- 2X
- 3X
- 4X
- 5X
- SELF DESTRUCT
- 5M
- 7M
- 10M
- 12M
- EXTRA BALL
- SKYWAY
- VALUE
- 25K ADV
- SUPER VALUE
- FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY - Maximum Credits - 30
- HOLD EITHER FLIPPER FOR INSTANT MDC. START BUTTON ENTERS INITIALS FOR HIGH SCORE
- FREE PLAY
- DATA EAST
- BALL TILT
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Man | Young dark-haired man, grinning broadly, in a red jacket over a shirt, blue jeans, white socks and dark shoes; standing centre-left of the playfield, arm-in-arm with the woman, one arm raised |
| Woman | Young blonde woman, smiling, in a flowing yellow-gold dress; standing centre-right of the playfield holding the man's arm, drawn with heavy black outline |
| Other | Small illustrated head-and-shoulders portraits of faces on both left and right side panels near the slingshots, in comic ink style |
| Vehicle | A black-and-white sports car nose and grille between the flippers at bottom centre, front end lit with an orange radiating starburst |
A comic-book painted pinball playfield themed on a small-town American main street at night. The layout is strongly vertical and roughly symmetrical. Across the very top runs a stone-and-brick wall banner with large chunky block letters in white with dark red outlines, reading a partially obscured word ending '...lgian...' above a stylised lightning bolt. Below, two roadside arch signs on the left and right both read HILL VALLEY, each flanked by small rectangular score panels with red, blue and yellow insert lettering. The upper playfield holds two large glowing red dome pop bumpers with translucent pink-red plastic caps, a chrome wireform ramp and habitrail that arcs in a big loop around the upper right, a spinner with a silver star-shaped gate near the top centre, and a brick bankhouse with a peaked roof at upper right. The centre of the playfield is dominated by a hand-drawn cartoon couple: a grinning young man in a red jacket, blue jeans, white socks and dark shoes, arm-in-arm with a smiling blonde young woman in a flowing yellow-gold dress, both outlined in heavy black ink against radiating yellow and red speed lines. Below them sits a fanned row of illuminated rectangular bonus panels reading 2X, 3X, 4X and 5X under the caption BONUS MULTIPLIER, beside a red SELF DESTRUCT panel, and a lower row of round cream-coloured buttons marked 5M, 7M, 10M and 12M with an orange EXTRA BALL insert. Two white-bordered red flippers sit either side of a chrome-and-black car nose with a radiating orange starburst at bottom centre. The aprons carry blue lightning graphics and dense cream instruction text on black. Dominant colours are red, blue, yellow, black and cream.
On the backglass
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Backglass
- blue
- black
- yellow
- orange
Fingerprint: BACK TO THE FUTURE in yellow-orange capitals, silver wedge sports car DMC FUSION with gull-wing door on left, young man in sunglasses and maroon shirt punching, older white-haired man in tan coat behind, dark night with lightning bolts, cropped vignettes along bottom edge.
A silver wedge-shaped car with a raised gull-wing door dominating the left half, its nose plate reading FUSION and its bonnet badge DMC. Beside it, two full-height male figures in mid-motion - a sunglasses-wearing young man in a maroon shirt and blue jeans punching forward while an older white-haired man in a long tan coat hangs onto him from behind. A yellow twin-jackpot panel dated 1995 and 2015 sits under two blank rectangular display windows. Odd cropped vignettes line the very bottom edge, including a cowboy-hatted man at far left and a pale screaming face at far right.
Setting
- Night sky in dark blue and black
- Jagged white lightning bolts
- Hovering dark aircraft shape at top edge
- Glowing cyan light around the car
Symbols
- Yellow right-pointing arrow behind the title
- Three yellow speed stripes
- Car gull-wing door
- Lightning bolts
- Flame bursts on the ground at bottom right
Lettering
- Large italicised block capitals in a yellow-to-orange gradient with a heavy red outline and black drop shadow, stacked over three lines; small white sans-serif maker logo; yellow banner strip with red-outlined text for the sub-title; black condensed sans-serif on the yellow jackpot panel
Themes
- Time travel
- Car
- Lightning
- Action film characters
- Jackpot panel
Title on it
- Back to the future
Text on it
- DATA EAST
- BACK
- TO THE
- FUTURE
- THE PINBALL
- DMC
- FUSION
- 1995
- TWIN JACKPOTS
- 2015
- ALL JACKPOTS IN MILLIONS FOR MILLION POINT PARKING BONUS
- 500K
- 750K
- ONE MILLION
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Man | Young adult, dark hair, black sunglasses, maroon short-sleeve shirt, blue jeans, white trainers, both fists raised, striding forward |
| Man | Older adult, white swept-back hair, long tan/amber coat over dark clothes, one arm raised, the other gripping the younger man's shoulder, mouth open shouting |
| Man | Far bottom left, wide-brimmed brown hat, weathered face, painted as a cropped vignette |
| Robot | Beside the hat-wearing man, a dark mechanical figure with red glowing details |
| Man | Bottom right, short blond hair, head and shoulders only |
| Woman | Bottom right, large curly frizzy red hair, sparkly patterned dress, grinning |
| Monster | Bottom right, pale pink screaming face with open mouth and dark eyes, cropped by the right edge |
| Creature | Bottom right, a dark clawed shape crouching on reddish ground |
Painted pinball backglass on a black ground. Upper left carries a small DATA EAST logo above a large BACK TO THE FUTURE title in yellow-to-orange block capitals with a red outline and a black drop shadow, with a yellow arrow banner reading THE PINBALL beneath the word FUTURE. A silver wedge sports car with its gull-wing door raised sits left of centre, its nose showing DMC on the bonnet and a white number plate reading FUSION. Right of centre stand two men: a young dark-haired man in sunglasses, a maroon shirt, blue jeans and white trainers with both fists up, and behind him an older white-haired man in a long tan coat gripping his arms. The backdrop is a blue-black night with jagged white lightning bolts and a hovering dark craft at the top. Two blank black rectangular display windows sit in the lower middle. Below them a yellow panel reads 1995 TWIN JACKPOTS 2015, then a rule, then a row of jackpot values. Small painted vignettes of faces and creatures line the bottom left and bottom right edges.