Dr. Dude and His Excellent Ray
1990 pinball machine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dr. Dude and His Excellent Ray is a pinball machine designed by Dennis Nordman and released in 1990 by Midway (under the Bally label).[1] The theme of the game revolves around gaining coolness.
| |
| Manufacturer | Midway Games |
|---|---|
| Release date | August 1990 |
| System | Williams System 11C |
| Design | Dennis Nordman |
| Programming | Bill Pfutzenreuter |
| Artwork | Greg Freres |
| Music | Chris Granner |
| Sound | Jon Hey |
| Production run | 3,983 (approximate) |
Design
Initially conceived before Elvira and the Party Monsters, the character name Dr. Dude was intended as a pun on Dr. Doom.[2]
The first part of the machine to be designed was the mixmaster where "kinetic energy of the ball is used to create new motion".[3]
The backglass art consists of comic book style panels with lenticular decals which shows both a nerd and a hip doctor. The artist was influenced by Mad magazine, and The Nutty Professor, with the storyline loosely based on The Nutty Professor from the perspective of a young person. In an early backglass sketch the game was called "Dr. Dude and His "Hip"notic Ray".[3]
George Petro and Ed Boon recorded the voices for the Gift of Gab rap.[4]
Gameplay
The ultimate goal of the game is to become a cool Super Dude by visiting the kinetic clinic with the excellent ray as a treatment. To achieve this, the player has at first to collect the ingredients of ultimate hipness to increase the Dude-O-Meter: the Heart of Rock 'n' Roll, a Magnetic Personality, and the Gift of gab.
Further gameplay features include the Excellent Ray to start multiball, Big Shot - a bully figure that insults the player, the Molecular Mixmaster - a spinning disc with a rubber post on it, surrounded by targets and a Gazillion point shot with scoring that potentially can reach multiple millions of points.[5]
Reception
Play Meter found the game to have attractive comic book style art and a good sound package, rating it 3/5.[6]
The game was reviewed in Video Games & Computer Entertainment who found it a game for everyone.[7]
In 2007, Pinball Wizard praised the playfield, sound effects, and speech.[8]
Digital versions
Dr. Dude and His Excellent Ray released as a licensed table of season 2 of The Pinball Arcade for several platforms,[9] and was available until June 30, 2018, when all Williams tables were removed for purchase due to licensing issues.[10]
Zen Studios released the table for Pinball FX3 in 2020 with optional additional animations;[11] a remastered version released for Pinball FX on June 30, 2022.