Random Thoughts & Pictures
I acquired this game on Friday, September 16, 2022. It's Fire! the "Champagne Edition". According to IPDB, only about 273 Champagne Editions were produced. That makes it the rarest game I've owned by far. That said, around 7,700 regular Fire! games were produced. And I don't think many people would go too far out of their way to acquire the Champagne Edition over a regular game. As system 11 games go, Fire! is a middle-of-the-road game having had a middle-of-the-road production run with middle-of-the-road desirability. However, these games are sometimes sought by non-pinball people who collect firefighting memorabilia.
Game overview.
A friend of mine found this game and fixed it up. I wasn't actively pursuing the title. But I'm a system 11 guy so when the game became available, I bought it. As an aside, I admire my friend's tenacity. He responded to a moving sale ad including a "pin ball" and was told it was a "firehouse" by an ill-informed, indecisive seller. After another week and some perseverance he came away with this Champagne Edition. I probably would not have been willing to put up with all that.
Game overview.
The cabinet is in okay shape. There are a few dings and scratches. Some corner chunks are missing from the left side of the backbox and the joints aren't great. I imagine it would be difficult to repair the backbox and get the repairs to blend with the existing wood grain and finish.
Game overview.
This particular game has no side art. I've read two related stories. One is that a few Champagne Edition games were made available without side art. The other is that the decals didn't adhere well. The cabinet does have a distinct wood grain texture to it. So I could see how decals might not easily stick. That said, if this cabinet ever had decals, some previous person did a flawless job of removing all the evidence. I don't believe this game received much attention before the previous owner found it. So I'm thinking it never had decals.
There's a stamped metal tag nailed to the rear of the body. I imagine it's some sort of operator ID tag.
Mystery metal tag.
The game's previous owner painted the bell bracket red.
I wish the brass trim was in better shape. The legs are okay. The side rails are worn. The game was missing its original lockdown bar. I believe the current lockdown bar is from an Addams Family Gold, which hasn't aged to quite the same patina. Re-plating these parts can be an expensive challenge. Others have attempted to paint or powder coat the parts to a brass-like finish. But I find those results unsatisfying. The parts end up looking absurdly perfect with no realistic sense of age. At least my old worn parts reflect the character of a 40 year old game.
The playfield is pretty decent with factory Mylar. The stationary target flame inserts are all raised. The lower six that are under the Mylar aren't bad. The upper six are worn, but they're far from view and I'm not worried about it. All the buildings are in good shape. There are some cracks and chips, but nothing obvious without close study. Both drop holes above the ball locks have been reinforced with those support brackets that were fabricated by Pinsider toyotaboy. The brackets were installed by the game's previous owner.
The boards, connectors and wiring are all clean with no hacks and no battery corrosion issues. All the boards are matched except for the CPU board, which is from a regular Fire! and the display which was an LED Wolffpac replacement (eventually I replaced the Wolfpac display with an original plasma display). The game's previous owner added a remote battery pack and 8 amp slow-blow fuses between the transformer and the lamp and solenoid rectifiers. This modification is generally recommended for system 11 and system 11A games prior to the advent of the auxiliary power driver board found in system 11B and later games. The fuse modification potentially protects the game from shorted rectifiers.
Lamp and solenoid rectifier fuses.
ARE YOU FAST ENOUGH TO PUT OUT ALL FIRES?
There are four main characteristics that differentiate a Champagne Edition from a regular Fire!:
- oak cabinet;
- brass trim;
- playfield color; and
- backbox animation.
I always assumed that the Champagne Edition had some sort of full vinyl wrap or full decal that just looked like oak. But it's actually a real wood veneer. It's still plywood, of course. But it's the sort of plywood you might use to build furniture or cabinetry with exposed wood grain. Neat! The visible edges of the backbox are edge-banded to match the veneer, which is a nice detail.
Champagne Edition games appear to have had playfields with a full black background. Regular games have a brown background around the flipper and outlane areas. The brown is dark so the difference is subtle. And I haven't seen enough games to confirm the consistency of this brown versus black detail. Apparently there were a lot of extra black playfields floating around back in the day. Perhaps Williams had plans to produce many more Champagne Editions.
The niftiest differentiating feature is the backbox animation. All versions of Fire! have a revolving flame tube under the playfield that lights up and produces an animated flame effect in the middle of the playfield. The Champagne Edition has two additional flame tube units on the insert board behind the upper area of the translite. The effect on the playfield is neat. The effect on the translite is stunning.
As far as I know, there's no technical documentation specifically for the Champagne Edition. There's just the standard manual for the regular Fire! And there's no specific mention of the Champagne Edition in the Williams Parts Catalog. For example, there's no mention of the Champagne Edition's unique insert board or brass components.
But the only real technical differences are the addition of the flame tube units in the backbox and the deletion of one of the three insert board flash lamp circuits. The top pair of flashers between the flame tube units corresponds to Sol. No. 07C on the solenoid table. The pair below the left flame tube corresponds to 06C. Sol. No. 14 "Flame Flashers (B'box)" is unused on the Champagne Edition. I believe there are no software differences; it's just that the Sol. No. 14 circuit was not implemented.
Update: In 2023 I retrofitted the Sol. 14 flash lamp circuit. Implementation details are on my Repair page under 2023.
Fire! insert board (top) compared to the Champagne Edition.
The two flame tube units on the insert board are identical to the one under the playfield. The two flame tube units are driven from an inset board relay just like the relay under the playfield. Note that the insert board's flame tube units fuse label has been changed from 4 to 5. I've seen this same scribbling on a different Champagne Edition so I assume it was done at the factory. The playfield flame tube unit is fused by a 3.0 AMP SLO-BLO. Both flame tube relays are driven from the same CPU output.
Back of the insert board showing the two flame tube units, the GI relay (left), the flame tubes relay (middle) and the flame tubes fuse (right).
Insert board's flame tubes relay.
Insert board's flame tubes fuse with modified label.
Paper tag on the insert board wire harness.
Control for the two relays is daisy chained at the CPU connector J12, pin 6 (Brn-Grn wire).
Click image to view a brief YouTube video of the backbox flame tube innards in action.
The Champagne Edition is often accompanied by a story to the effect that Williams was trying to cash in on the popularity of "fern bars" that were seen to be a bit more upscale than the neighborhood corner bar. Maybe a pinball machine that looked like furniture would be a hit. Guess not or they would have made more.
It would appear that the Champagne Edition was the first Williams game to have non-nailed side rails. Previous games including Fire! and Big Guns had nailed side rails. Subsequent games starting with the Champagne Edition and Space Station had non-nailed side rails. Some Champagne Editions appear to have had lockdown bars with three round-head bolts across their top surface. Don't know why. As noted above, I don't have an original lockdown bar.
The are a few adjustment inconsistencies between the game and the game manual. Adjustments 32 and 44 are reversed from the manual. That is, Ad 32 is unused and Ad 44 is the "Light Special" adjustment. According to the manual, Ad 43 is unused. But the game says "Special Auto Adjustment". Not sure why this adjustment would be in the game. Typically it's for games where the ball is held for a mystery award (Cyclone's Mystery Wheel, for example). Regarding Ad 48 in the manual, there is no "Rules display". There is, however, a design team credits display sequence during attract with accompanying sound effects. This is the first system 11 I've seen with the design team credits feature.
Click image to view a brief YouTube video of the design team credits sequence.
In preparation for my SOL. 14 flash lamp project (see my Repair page under 2023), I scoured the Internet looking for detailed pictures showing the backbox wiring arrangement for the regular game. It seems that some regular games included wiring for Champagne Edition components. Some regular games appear to have the BRN-GRN SOL. 13 control wire daisy chained through the CPU connector J12 just like the Champagne Edition. Some regular games appear to have WHT-BLU AC power wires going to the insert board connectors just like the Champagne Edition.
Why would this wiring exist before the Champagne Edition was conceived? Were there plans to produce both versions concurrently thus switching to a universal backbox wire harness? Were there leftover wire harnesses from a prototype implementation? I haven't read anything about the prototype Fire! I often wondered if the Champagne Edition represented a new idea or if it was a reimagined representation of unimplemented prototype ideas.
If you own the regular game and would care to confirm any of this, I'd be interested to hear from you.
BRN-GRN wire daisy chained through CPU connector J12.
BRN-GRN wire daisy chained to the insert board connector.
WHT-BLU AC power wires to the insert board connector.
A fun aspect of Fire! is all the detail that's incorporated into the various vacuum formed buildings that surround the playfield. Many of the businesses are named after members of the design team. Some are obvious. Some I have no idea. There's also lots of roof detail. And there's some obstructed detail that's not entirely easy to appreciate without disassembling aspects of the playfield.
Time and ball hits haven't been kind to these vacuum formed parts. Due to their complexity they may never be reproduced. The buildings on this game are okay. There are chips and cracks, but they are perhaps above average and look good from any normal viewing angle. Unfortunately, the buildings aren't just for looks. The left and right assemblies are responsible for passing balls from the upper ramp flaps to respective lock holes. These areas are sometimes beat beyond use. On this game these areas have been reinforced with aftermarket support brackets that were fabricated by a Pinsider called toyotaboy.
Note the lattice-like black metal part beneath the building's ball platform which is part of the right-side aftermarket support bracket.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
Building detail.
JLS on the playfield clock face.
Shown above is the one-side promotional flyer for Fire! Champagne Edition. Click image for larger picture.
Shown above is the two-side promotional flyer for the regular Fire! Click image for larger picture.
Promotional "trading card". At 2¾" x 4½" it's a bit taller than a typical trading or playing card. Click image for larger picture.
Many years ago I was wondering about the outdoor flea market area at the York pinball show and happened across a framed promotional poster for Fire! At the time I was still in need of Gameroom wall decorations so I bought it. Years later I now have a game to go with it!
Fire! promotional poster.
Below are the fun extras included with the CPR reproduction plastics set. First is a key fob and a pair of hose nozzle "flipper toppers". The nozzles were not included on production games, but appear in the original promotional material. See the flier and poster images above. I think the whole flipper topper fad is pretty dumb so I won't be putting them on my game.
Key fob and hose nozzles.
Next is the 3d desktop display. Typically I turn these into toppers by mounting them on a board and back lighting them with a small spot light. See my Bad Cats and Rollergames, for example. But I may leave this one as just a shelf display. Its size overwhelms the bell (seen at lower left in the picture below).
CPR 3d desktop display.
Update: I used the desktop display and the flipper toppers along with an oak board and brass standoffs to make a 3d wall display.
3d wall display.
3d wall display.
3d wall display.
Fire! appeared in the 1993 film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". Interestingly, the actual Fire! sounds and music are heard as opposed to the usual Hollywood dubbed bells and chimes. That said, I wouldn't recommend the movie just for the 20 seconds worth of pinball clips.
Screenshot from What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
Apparently a Champagne Edition appeared in the 2009 film "Jennifer's Body". I have not watched the film and don't plan to.
Screenshot from Jennifer's Body.