Williams

Williams Electronics is, by virtually any measure, the most celebrated manufacturer in pinball history. Founded in Chicago in 1943 by Harry Williams — himself a designer of pioneering games for earlier manufacturers — Williams grew into the company responsible for more canonical pinball titles than any other. Twilight Zone. Medieval Madness. The Addams Family. Funhouse. Black Knight. The list of games that defined the hobby’s highest aspirations runs through Williams like a spine.

Williams’ design philosophy prized gameplay above all else: deep rule sets, satisfying physical feedback, and the sense that a player could spend a lifetime learning a table and still find new things to discover. Under designers including Steve Ritchie, Pat Lawlor, and Python Anghelo, Williams produced machine after machine that the pinball community has never stopped celebrating.

In 1988, Williams and Bally merged under the WMS Industries umbrella, with both brands continuing production under their separate names. The combination gave WMS remarkable market breadth and design resources. But even this powerhouse could not survive the catastrophic collapse of the coin-op amusement market in the late 1990s. The failure of Williams Pinball 2000 — an ambitious video-pinball hybrid format launched in 1999 — was the final blow, and WMS shut its pinball division that year. The molds, designs, and rights it left behind have since become the foundation of a licensing industry, as manufacturers like Chicago Gaming and Jersey Jack Pinball have returned those classic titles to production for a new generation of players.