Indianapolis 500 (pinball)

Indianapolis 500 is a pinball machine designed by Dennis Nordman and produced by Midway released in June 1995. It is based on the sporting event of the same name.

Design

The designer initially had trouble deciding what features to include, but knew he wanted to emphasize speed. The turbo multi-ball and the spinning car evolved as ways to show this.
The game includes a shaker motor.
The game introduced an improved version of jumper bumpers.
The three voices in the game are commentators Paul Page, and three-time Indy 500 winner Bobby Unser, and the announcer Tom Carnegie, who was a legend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 50 years.
Williams vice-president Joe Dillon said the game was "geared for aficionados" rather than the more general player.

Layout and gameplay

This game has no sink-holes and many targets and is one of the first pinball machines to feature light up targets. Such an object is a square plastic target, that is a little larger than one of the RIVER targets in White Water, or the REPAIR targets in Doctor Who and divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant can light up. The targets are completed if they are hit 4 times.

Reception

In a retrospective review of pinball machines released in 1995, Kineticist found it to be the 4th best machine of the year, and possibly Dennis Nordman's best game.

Digital versions

Indianapolis 500 was available as a licensed table of The Pinball Arcade for several platforms from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018.