Meteor
First game to use the SB-300 sound board. The artwork on the backglass and flyer was derived from one of the advertising posters made for the 1979 movie 'Meteor'. The original painting for this poster was by noted space artist Robert McCall (1919-2010). Stern programmer Alan McNeil told us that the mini-post screw between the flippers was known as a Kirk Post (for designer Steve Kirk). Some games pictured in this listing have a sticker on the lower apron identifying this game as "selected for tournament play". Designer Steve Kirk was founder and president of the Pinball Association of America, organizing major tournaments since the 1970s. Reportedly, these stickers, his idea, were installed on each apron starting at some point during the long production run. According to an article in Amusement Review (Jan/Feb 1980, page 14), Meteor was the first game for which Stern printed the rubber ring size on the playfield where each ring goes. Duncan Brown told us that Steve Kirk explained to him that he placed his personal design number on the backglass of every one of his games (in the order in which they were designed). Here are the ones we know: Stars has SK-1 on the jet wing. Nine Ball has SK-3 on the wizard�s cap. Meteor has SK-5 on one of the rockets. Pinstar's Gamatron has SK-9 on a launching rocket. The prototype game, Ramp Warrior, has SK-13 on the truck's license plate while the production game, Truck Stop, shows this license plate laying crumpled in the street. We don't know what games belonged to SK-2, -4, -6, -7, -8, -10, -11, and SK-12. This game was also manufactured in Australia under license as LAI's 1979 'Meteor'. Manufacturer data for Meteor: Production Start Date: 9/14/79 Production End Date: 1/28/80 Quantity produced - full games: 7939 Quantity produced - knock-down games: 423 (see LAI's 1979 'Meteor') Total Quantity Produced: 8362 Schematic errors & omissions: 1) Switch Matrix page - Memory Clear Switch; R-Y common to Test Switch, W to A4J3-5 (MPU) 2) Lamp Driver board page - 2X lamp goes to J2-15, not J3-15 In the Files section are the factory-issued ROMs with a bug in it, the factory-corrected ROMs, and an unexcitedly long video of the problem that was corrected. A discussion of this bug has been located online. Also in the Files section is a letter from Gary Stern to the coin machine industry. Although it is undated, it refers to Meteor as their current game. We saw this letter in AUTOMATENMARKT magazine, March 1980, page 67. Certainly, it appeared in many periodicals.
