There’s a Fire on Ebay

The story behind the game is that I was new to the Pinball world back in 2012 but like most who are bitten by the collecting bug, I began in earnest. Williams “Fire” was my 8^th machine that year alone! Fire was the second game I purchased from the same seller on Ebay. Buying games on Ebay is not for the faint of heart. The process is inherently risky but I didn’t know any better and there were (at least) a ton of pics in the listing – so I bought it.

The game arrived and was a pleasant surprise. No broken buildings, bell worked, no playfield wear. The cabinet was not perfect but very good. Displays were nice and bright. I was told that this was an HUO example taken from a dealer’s basement. Hard to argue with that because it looked great. All in all a great purchase for $1,500.

I played it and enjoyed the gameplay but LOVED the WUG factor (World Under Glass) more than anything. It was not until 2 years later that I began to appreciate the gameplay as well. Fast forward to that time and I was beginning to take an interest in brand new games and needed the funds to make that happen … so Fire went up for sale on Craigslist. After sifting through all the tire kickers, low ballers and scam artists, I got a call from a couple in North Carolina and we closed the deal. They had played a Fire and fell in love with it and wanted to own one. I spent the evening prior to the arranged pick-up date by prepping the machine, pulling it from the line-up and readying it for inspection by the potential new owners. Once it was out of the gameroom, I realized I had not played it in many, many months – maybe even a year? So I hit start and played a game. Wow! What a difference a year makes. I literally noticed it immediately. I was a SIGNIFICANTLY better player than the year I purchased this machine during my freshmen year of Pinball collecting. Somehow, the ability to play better really enhanced the overall game experience. I was hitting ramps better, locking balls better, getting to multiball faster and generally racking up my best scores in the first few games! Ugh … I love it even MORE now and the folks I just struck a deal with are now on their way to see it, pay for it and take it home. I was now keenly aware of “seller’s remorse” and it sucked. Oh well. You listed it, you agreed to a deal – no backing out now.

Once I met them, I was pleased to see it was going to a great home where it would be appreciated. They ran their own dog grooming business and were really nice folks. They played a few games to make certain it worked as advertised and then paid me the amount we agreed upon. I began to prep the game to wheel it out of the basement and into their waiting pickup truck. Only one problem … the backbox lock didn’t work right. Never had worked right. Was one of those “little things” that was not right when I bought it. I just never corrected it. Not a big deal if the game is setup and working. Did you ever try to ship/transport a game where the backbox won’t lock? Disaster. The translight/backglass will fall out, the light backboard can swing open. Loose PCB boards might be dumped out. You really can’t even fold down the head to wrap the machine until the “lock is right”. An hour later I had it pieced together so those poor folks could at least get home. Lesson learned. When I pick up a game nowadays I always bring a spare lock, blue tape, duct tape and tools to replace the lock should I need to.

I missed it right away. The game just looks beautiful. It’s fun, fast and furious. It’s no wonder the buildings on these are always broken because that orbit shot is insanely fast and with ball speed comes the risk of airballs and breaking something. No Pinball game since Fire has had this level of detail. The molded houses, the complex curved plastics and a real working brass fire bell make Fire one of the best (WOZ is better IMO) world-under-glass games ever made. Oh well. She was gone now. Time to move on. Over the next 5 years (and 20 more games) I thought I had put Fire out of my mind.

Late in 2017, I was spending my normal amount (too much) of Pinside time reviewing posts when I happened across the Texas Pinball Festival thread. I asked Tami if she wanted to go – and, she surprised with a “yes”. So plane tickets were secured, we paid for our hotel and I started the process of discovering what exactly happens at TPF (story on that in a later blog post). One of the things I did to prep for the TPF show was to review the Pinball celebrities that would be there and make a list of the ones I wanted to meet and what I might ask them to autograph. So I grabbed my spare slingshot plastics, bought some if I did not have extras and did the same for my translights. Remember, at the time I did NOT own a Fire. So I did not have a translight to sign. And Barry Oursler was going to be there. And I love the game he built called “Fire”. So I bought the translight and I did not even own the game. Barry DID sign my Fire translight on March 17^th – thank you Barry … and on March 29^th, I bought my second “Fire”!

After returning from TPF, I saw a fellow Pinsider liquidating his large collection. He lived in the Nashville area only 2.5 hours from my place. He was listing games below the going rate and they were literally selling in an hour – or less. By the time I could share with my wife the available games, they are all gone EXCEPT the Williams Fire. I told her I would call him (with her blessing) and make an offer even though I was out of space for any games at the time. So I called and shared my love of Fire, explained that I was close and could get him the cash quickly and made my offer. He was kind enough to accept it and suddenly I was again a proud owner of a Williams Fire with a brand newly installed CPR Silver Grade play field! I was stoked

I had to delay the pickup due to rain forecasted for the next 2 days but we both agreed to meet on Sunday where the weather was less threatening. I left the house early because evening weather reports looked like rain. What a glorious ride to Nashville from our home in Knoxville. Chris volunteered to go with me and help load, etc. It was a sunny, breezy – not too hot drive over the Cumberland plateau to the outskirts of Nashville – until … we were ten minutes from the sellers house. From I40 and using google maps, Chris and I could see approximately where the seller lived. North of 40, about 2 miles from the interstate. The sad part was over that EXACT area was a group of black clouds that should we be under them, we would have considered how we might spend our last moments on earth ‘cause it looked like this was the end. It was 10 commandments, biblical kinda black clouds. We came to our exit and it was hard to see the interstate it was raining so hard. We pressed on.

We made a few turns after the interstate and each turn brought more rain, harder rain, thicker rain. We arrived at the seller’s home (under that now pitch black cloud) and it was raining harder. We waited a second and it started raining even harder. Pinball guys are not cowed by a rainstorm so out the door we went and ran for the entrance to the garage where the game sat. We were soaked. Not all the way through soaked because the run was just 15 feet or so, but very wet.

The experience INSIDE the gameroom/garage was dryer and better! I soon found out the seller had a complete extra brass bell and mechanism, a complete extra set of (very HTF) buildings and several other parts that he added to the package at a very fair price. We play tested the game. I was super excited because the playfield was stunning and looked brand new. The overall game appeared and played that way. Yay, another Fire coming home!

We talked pinball for a bit and then began to pack the game for transport. I somehow sensed the weather might be a surprise and came prepared with a fresh roll of shrink wrap, 2 tarps, straps and scrap wood to elevate the machine in the truck bed. Did I share that my truck bed is open? No cap, no box, no cover. Wide open. We folded the game and then completely shrink wrapped every inch of it. Then opened the doors to see if the truck was still there and above water. It was raining even harder – I’m not kidding. So rather than wait we grabbed the machine and moved quickly to the truck bed. It’s hard to describe what happened next. Nobody got hurt but it was intense to say the least. Got the game in the truck bed just fine, slid it along on the scrap lumber I brought along. Then it was time to tarp and strap it. I had trouble even seeing where spread and place the tarp. The rain soaked my shirt to my skin within 15 seconds. It was cold. I was taking deep breaths like diving into a cold pool or lake. I couldn’t hold the tarp because it was new and wet and too big. I finally got it over the machine in a semi-organized way.

Next I had to circle the base of the machine with a ratchet strap to keep the tarp on at 70MPH. Sounds easy but the tarp was big enough to cover the entire truck and the extra around the base of the machine was heaped a foot high. Easy fix right, stomp it down then wrap it up. So the first place I put my foot was not on top of a pile of loose tarp but into a “valley” created in the tarps folds. It had about 8” of water in already. Oops – that foot is wet. I repeated the process for the other foot and after 10 full minutes standing under what felt like a waterfall, I had the game secured. I ran back to the garage, grabbed my tools, said my thanks and goodbyes, pulled my drenched shirt off and jumped back in the Ark – uhh truck for the trip home. Despite the great flood, we got home both safely and dry! At least the machine did.

Fire is a cool game based on a real event. Released January 8^th 1987 it numbered around 7,700 total units produced. There were 2 cabinet styles the regular edition (mine) and the Champagne edition. Not too many games can claim 5 “ramps” but Fire has left and right orbit/ramps, left and right target style ramps and a real steep ramp in the middle in the form of a “ladder” simulating your role as a firefighter “saving my baby” as you play the game. It has a built in fireplug between the flippers for the sole purpose of stopping an immediate drain after an orbit shot. The fireplug gives you fighting chance but is also a game feature that must be “mastered” not just noticed. Ignore its nuances or rely on it at the wrong time and your ball will drain anyway. It’s the only game ever made with a working brass bell on top. It’s also the only one that recreates the appearance of actual flames on the playfield. A spinning color wheel below the playfield does an honest job of representing flames when viewed from above. Frequently slammed for having no drop targets, no pop bumpers and no spinners, it yet remains in the top 200 games of all time on the Pinside ranking list. The object of the game is to “put out fires” as they appear around the playfield. These “fires” are in the form of printed flames and lit inserts scattered about the playfield but strategically placed in front of the molded buildings. It’s a simple but clever theme integration. Check out Jason Putnam’s detailed rulesheet at the PAPA website http://pinball.org/rules/fire.html

Fire is based on the great Chicago fire of October 8^th 1871. Urban legend (since proved unsubstantiated) has it that Catherine O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern that in turn started the fire. This has been repeated for so long that most believe it to be true and it is forever bound to the story. So much so that when you press start on this pinball machine, the first sound you hear is a cow. Fire has also made at least one movie appearance. You can see Leonardo DiCaprio play it in the 1993 movie “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”.

Barry Oursler was the game designer, Chris Granner did the music, Brian Schmidt and Rich Karstens did the sound and Mark Sprenger was responsible for the fantastic artwork that perfectly evokes that period. The is also an upgraded version of Fire called the “Champagne” edition. Less than 300 were made and they featured real wood veneer, brass plating and additional “flame” wheels in the back box. Gameplay is identical on both. If you’re looking to pick up this game watch for broken or cracked buildings. They are almost always damaged in some way. The center building can still be found as of this writing but the others are like Bigfoot – I heard about them but have only seen them in grainy YouTube videos. Seriously, they are extremely hard to find and crazy expensive when available. Complete plastic sets are available as are replacement playfields.

Are you looking for one of the most beautiful games ever made? Are you a Firefighter that loves pinball? Does theme integration and “world-under-glass” presentation mean a lot to you? If so, then Williams Fire is the ticket. It’s a beautiful game built in a way that we are not likely to see again.

Nice work Barry O.