Elvira and the Party Monsters
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 | |
| Manufacturer | Midway |
|---|---|
| Release date | October 1989 |
| System | Williams System 11B |
| Design | Dennis Nordman, Jim Patla |
| Programming | Mark Penacho |
| Artwork | Greg Freres |
| Music | Chris Granner |
| Sound | Chris Granner |
| Voices | Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) |
| Production run | approximately 4000 |
Elvira and the Party Monsters is a 1989 pinball machine designed by Dennis Nordman and Jim Patla and released by Midway (under the Bally label). It features horrorshow-hostess Elvira. It was followed in 1996 by Scared Stiff and in 2019 by Elvira's House of Horrors, both also designed by Nordman with art by Greg Freres.
Backglass design
Most of the game was designed by Dennis Nordman, but after a motorcycle accident near the end of the design stage, Jim Patla completed it.[1]
The game is a combination of three game ideas:
- Monster Mash, with dancing Boogie men was conceived of by Dennis Nordman when he observed finger puppets with dancing arms at Halloween in 1984.
- Greg Freres conceived of Party Monster as a follow-up to Party Animal which had released in 1987.
- Roger Sharpe, working as Williams marketing director, thought of using Elvira as a theme[2][3]
The marketing slogan "Elvira is No Cheap Date!" referring to the new .50/.75/1.00 pricing scheme.[4] Elvira and the Party Monsters was manufactured shortly after the merger of Williams and Bally. Although the game uses a vaguely Bally-style cabinet and flippers, all the rest of the game hardware are completely made up of Williams parts. The machine uses a System 11B CPU and associated board setup.[5] It includes rubber bogeyman characters and coffins that open during play.[6]
The games designers are shown on the backglass, with Dennis Nordman as the werewolf, and Jim Patla as Dracula.[1]
The arms of the creature from Creature from the Black Lagoon are shown on the backglass, three years before the Creature from the Black Lagoon pinball machine.[7]
Reception
At the AMOA 1989 awards, Elvira and the Party Monsters won the best in show award.[8]
