Medieval Madness

Overview

Medieval Madness is a pinball machine developed and manufactured by Williams Electronics in 1997.

Medieval Madness is notable for a several reasons. In addition to its deep gameplay, its intricately designed playfield continues to draw crowds. Although it was an original theme, the game was heavily influenced by Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

It featured a lot of voice samples, including some from a young Tina Fey as one of the damsels. The catapult also had the player launching items such as cows and cats at the castle, and featured evil lords like the Duke of Burbon (a stammering drunk) and Lord Howard Hurts (a "mafia wiseguy").

Unfortunately, since arcades were already in decline in the late 90s, only about 4000 Medieval Madness machines were produced. Since the machine was relatively successful for the time, Medieval Madness has become a rare commodity in pinball circles, and consistently sells for $5000-$10000 among collectors.

Gameplay

In Medieval Madness, the player's goal is to defeat the King of Payne by completing several different table goals, and winning the Battle for the Kingdom wizard mode. In addition to the two ramps, the table features a destructible castle with a working drawbridge. Players destroy the castle by shooting the drawbridge until it lowers, then shooting the portcullis until it raises, and finally landing a final shot through the gate. The game also features two trolls that pop up from under the table during certain modes.

Modes

• Joust-Shooting the outer orbit enters a joust. Three shots awards a joust victory, and three victories awards the Joust Champion award
• Damsels-Shooting the right ramp twice triggers a diverter to allow you to shoot into the tower. Shooting the right ramp a third time lands a ball in the tower, and rescues a damsel. 3 damsel rescues awards the Defender of Damsels.
• Trolls-The trolls will pop up from the playfield in several modes (Trolls!, Smack a Troll, Troll Madness), and in each case 1-3 hits to a troll target will award a troll kill. Defeat 8 trolls to get the master of trolls award.
• Peasants-Shooting the left ramp 3 times will award a peasant revolt. Three peasant revolts awards Patron of the Peasants.
• Catapult-Hitting the catapult launcher at the left side of the playfield three times will start a catapult minigame, which lets the player launch one of five items at the castle. Launching three items will award the Catapult Ace award.
• Castle Crusher-Destroy the castle by getting a ball inside, which takes an increasing number of shots as the player destroys castles. Destroy all six castles to get the Castle Crasher award.

Once the player achieves al six goals, the final wizard mode is activated, in which the player has to make several different shots to defeat the king of payne.

Limited Edition Remake

At the Pinball Expo 2013 it was announced that a limited run remake of Medieval Madness was going to be produced by Planetary Pinball. The game will play the same as the original version but will contain new hardware and remove the Williams branding.

This remake went up for pre-orders during the expo with a $1,000 deposit being required and the total price coming in at $7,995. There will be a total of 1,000 units produced.