A whistle stop tour of whirlwind, also known as Whirlybollock and whilrybird for those that know 
"Feel the powerr of the wind....... Here it coooooooomes"
Hey guys
Had a little issue to sort on whirlybird last night. It's tucked away in the back corner as it's my most reliable game and rarely comes out of its hole, It's a royal pain in the ass to get the glass off.
I have to move the jamma cab over then get the lift out and wheel taxi over to where the jamma cab normally is, then move whilry to taxis spot . What a pita
Of late the top eject under the lift ramp just wouldn't kick the ball out of the scoop. It would just kind of rock the ball but didn't have the ooomph to kick it out.
I stripped all the mech and cleaned it but it still didn't work. So after checking the manual I saw it should have a 23-800 coil and mine had a 26-1500. Now i would say that coil has been there since new. The solder certainly matched the rest and hadn't been melted in a loooooooooooong time.
I'd be interested to hear which coil other owners have installed.
As luck would have it I had the correct coil in stock, so changed it over and all works fine now. The puzzling thing is it worked for years with no issues anyway.
What is it with pinball machines and moving them?? I literally dragged this one about 2 foot and when I turned it on, all the coils fired, a mega loud bark came from the speakers and the kick back coil kept firing.
I turned it off, tuned it back on again and it was fine. So I started a game then the kick back coil started firing again and each time it did, the speakers made an awful barking screeching sound. Then it tripped the house fuse. But strangely it didn't blow any game fuses. Then I turned it on again and now everything is fine??? God knows. It's working now though. ****ing things
So on the rare occasion it's out of its corner with the glass off, I took the opportunity to clean it and take some pics, which leads me on to another pics and rules type thread.
Whilry is a little more common than taxi so I guess most of you have seen and played one. Sorry for the egg sucking
In my opinion it's not quite as pretty as taxi, however I love whirlwind. It's the 3rd one I've owned and the nicest. After taxi this will be the next last to leave the collection. This is one of @ronsplooter shop jobs, probably one of the very first!!!
I traded my minty sttng for this and £500 and that was about 5 years ago!
Released in 1989 with a production run of 7304
This classic was designed by legend Pat Lawlor and art by John Youssi, personally my fave pinball artist. I love his style and they are dream team who often team up on their games.
The translite features a storm chasing news team in their van, outrunning a whirlwind. Leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Maybe someone could educate me here but on all or most Lawlor/Youssi art designs, is featured a "red button". Any idea why? This later became the name of their design team post Bally/Williams.
Notice the van driver has a red button in his hand. Look at other Lawlor/Youssi art packages and see if you can see it. Roadshow, monopoly, funhouse etc...
Another thing to note on the glass is the boy in the baseball cap. Early production games were released with the boy in a Chicago Cubs hat. However the royalties police soon jumped on the bandwagon so a sticker with the Williams logo was placed over the cubs logo. So if yours has a sticker over the logo it's an early run (apparently).
Here's what Youssi had to say on the whole thing
We asked artist John Youssi to tell us about the different ideas found in the translite art. He replies:
I posed for the van driver for which my wife Jenny photographed me. I wasn't trying to make it look like me so it's not an exact likeness. The van is the kind of thing I would draw in geometry class back in high school so it came easy. We've always had English Setters so the dog is a cartoony version of an goofy setter. This was my first game with Pat Lawlor and the first appearance of the 'hand on the button' which became a recurring theme. I think the rough sketches showed the driver giving a thumbs up but Pat dreamed up the 'hand/button' idea as well as the tag line 'any time… any where' on the truck. We were both Chicago Cubs baseball fans so the original painting shows the kid in the truck wearing a Cubs hat and the first run of translites were printed that way. The legal guys frowned on it so a sticker was applied to the first run translites, covering the Cubs 'C' with a William's 'W', until new translites were made with the "W" on the cap.
There are some cool features on this machine and the most obvious is the topper. It's is a fan which interacts with certain modes in the game, blowing cool air on you. It's a neat feature integrated well.
The cabinet on this particular one is very nice indeed. My previous 2 had awful graining and art flaking and peeling.
The playfield is very colourful with some cool art work. Notice the little whirlwinds at the inlanes which made an appearance later on funhouse. Also the Route 66 esque sign on the orbit, also featured on funhouse.
And on funhouse
Standard Lawlor 3 flipper game and soft plunge skill shot.
Also features a lift ramp to reveal a scoop for starting multi ball and claiming quick Multi ball from the cellar.
Physical ball locks at the bottom left corner accessed via a diverter on the right ramp.
The cellar: 2 scoops beneath the lower jets fed into each other by a small subway
The right scoop is the entry and the left is the eject. Shoot the lit one to claim the award (left restart cellar multiball and right to claim lit cellar award on speaker panel)
Some awesome speech ques when entering the cellar. "No storm here, now get out"
2 sets of 3 pops aptly named high and low pressure.
It has a cool left orbit shot through the low pressure jets
A right orbit shot through the spinner
And 2 shots from the upper flipper. The left ramp (a reet tricky bastard shot to get consistently.) and the inner loop.
And the elephant in the room of course the 3 spinning discs in the centre of the playfield. These have a grippy decal on them which alter the balls direction during certain modes in gameplay. When these are spinning as to is the fan on the topper.
So that's the cab, translite and playfield art and layout.
CPR did run a repro playfield a couple of years ago, together with a mirrored back glass. My playfield is absolutely fine so I decided to leave it. I would have quite liked the glass but it worked out too expensive with shipping so I forewent it.
My particular game has a plastic protector set on which sits a couple of mm proud of the plastic to absorb an airball and save the plastic. I think all my plastics are intact. I'm
Not sure if it had a new ramp or not when ronsplooter shopped it. Maybe he could let us know.
Basic Rules.
I'm not going in to depths like an ipdb rule sheet. Just basics. Mainly because I don't really know them! So all I'd do is read it and copy it here!
Skill shot. As with all Lawlor skill shots, it relies on a soft plunge. In this case try and follow the path of the scrolling lit arrows to knock down the 300 and 200 point drop targets at the same time to snag half a million.
The danger with the skill shot is a dead bounce stdm. No ball save here (unless you don't score a single point before draining)
There is a last chance saloon by way of a centre post between the flippers:
Whirlwind is brutally hard. It kicks my ass most of the time.
So, I normally opt to forgo the skill shot. A correctly set up whilry should see a strong
Plunge round the inner loop to feed the upper right flipper. This allows a nice volley up the left ramp to claim a lit target. Occasionally mine falls short or hangs up and drops in to the upper jets.
Compass targets:
The centre point of the play field is a large compass with lit arrows as follows. North East, South East, South West, North West.
At the start of the ball 2 targets will be flashing: hit the corresponding target or loop to light the shot. Once you have completed the lit shots the lock will be lit on the right ramp. Shoot this to activate the diverter and lock a ball at the bottom left corner. On some machines, mine included, you can back hand the right ramp from the right flipper. This is essential to good rinse and repeat scoring during multi ball
The next plunge will spot a target and the cycle continues above.
Once you've locked 2 balls the ramp lifts on the right hand side. Lock the 3rd ball there to start a 3 ball multiball or shoot the left ramp to release the locked balls and snag a million plus the jackpot. The jackpot starts at 1 million? Or maybe 2 can't remember and for each subsequent jackpot a further million is added.
Should no jackpot be claimed before draining 2 balls, you can restart a 2 ball multiball at the cellar funny enough this is called cellar multiball.
Yeah so, hit the flashy targets to light locks and then get muiltball and get jackpots.
The other objective is to complete all the cellar door awards.
You are awarded these when the cellar is lit and claim which ever award is lit at the time. You can change what is lit by hitting the spinner. The cellar is lit by the right in lane for a few seconds and at the start of each ball I think.
Once you've collected them all, shoot the lit cellar again to get the mega door cellar bonus, which awards everything at once.
Similar to the funhouse mirror. That's a kind of the wizard mode of the game
Another cool feature is the drop target here
The awards are advanced by shooting the right ramp. See something you like lit? Shoot the drop target to claim it.
3 shot combo. Hit the left orbit followed by the inner loop followed by the left ramp to claim the 3 shot combo and get a cool siren sound. Very satisfying to get. It whips round that inner loop so damn quick that trying to catch it for the left ramp on its way past is a real art.
Shoot the right ramp to claim tolls. These are totted up and indicated here and add to your bonus at the end of the ball.
That's whirlwind in a nutshell. Slightly more involved than Taxi and some strategy around scoring using the cellar door.
Classic Lawlor traits. Soft plunge skill shot, multiball restart if no jackpot claimed, awards to collect at scoop as per roadshow, monopoly, Grand Prix, funhouse etc...
It's basically the same game as Earthshaker but pips it to the post thanks to being able to claim multiple jackpots. If it wasn't for that then ES would be my game of choice
The music and callouts are awesome. The art is awesome, this game is frickin awesome. Don't delay, buy one today!!
Feel Free to add your own tricks tips and rules I've got wrong and missed.
Thanks for reading
"Feel the powerr of the wind....... Here it coooooooomes"
Hey guys
Had a little issue to sort on whirlybird last night. It's tucked away in the back corner as it's my most reliable game and rarely comes out of its hole, It's a royal pain in the ass to get the glass off.
I have to move the jamma cab over then get the lift out and wheel taxi over to where the jamma cab normally is, then move whilry to taxis spot . What a pita
Of late the top eject under the lift ramp just wouldn't kick the ball out of the scoop. It would just kind of rock the ball but didn't have the ooomph to kick it out.
I stripped all the mech and cleaned it but it still didn't work. So after checking the manual I saw it should have a 23-800 coil and mine had a 26-1500. Now i would say that coil has been there since new. The solder certainly matched the rest and hadn't been melted in a loooooooooooong time.
I'd be interested to hear which coil other owners have installed.
As luck would have it I had the correct coil in stock, so changed it over and all works fine now. The puzzling thing is it worked for years with no issues anyway.
What is it with pinball machines and moving them?? I literally dragged this one about 2 foot and when I turned it on, all the coils fired, a mega loud bark came from the speakers and the kick back coil kept firing.
I turned it off, tuned it back on again and it was fine. So I started a game then the kick back coil started firing again and each time it did, the speakers made an awful barking screeching sound. Then it tripped the house fuse. But strangely it didn't blow any game fuses. Then I turned it on again and now everything is fine??? God knows. It's working now though. ****ing things
So on the rare occasion it's out of its corner with the glass off, I took the opportunity to clean it and take some pics, which leads me on to another pics and rules type thread.
Whilry is a little more common than taxi so I guess most of you have seen and played one. Sorry for the egg sucking
In my opinion it's not quite as pretty as taxi, however I love whirlwind. It's the 3rd one I've owned and the nicest. After taxi this will be the next last to leave the collection. This is one of @ronsplooter shop jobs, probably one of the very first!!!
I traded my minty sttng for this and £500 and that was about 5 years ago!
Released in 1989 with a production run of 7304
This classic was designed by legend Pat Lawlor and art by John Youssi, personally my fave pinball artist. I love his style and they are dream team who often team up on their games.
The translite features a storm chasing news team in their van, outrunning a whirlwind. Leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Maybe someone could educate me here but on all or most Lawlor/Youssi art designs, is featured a "red button". Any idea why? This later became the name of their design team post Bally/Williams.
Notice the van driver has a red button in his hand. Look at other Lawlor/Youssi art packages and see if you can see it. Roadshow, monopoly, funhouse etc...
Another thing to note on the glass is the boy in the baseball cap. Early production games were released with the boy in a Chicago Cubs hat. However the royalties police soon jumped on the bandwagon so a sticker with the Williams logo was placed over the cubs logo. So if yours has a sticker over the logo it's an early run (apparently).
Here's what Youssi had to say on the whole thing
We asked artist John Youssi to tell us about the different ideas found in the translite art. He replies:
I posed for the van driver for which my wife Jenny photographed me. I wasn't trying to make it look like me so it's not an exact likeness. The van is the kind of thing I would draw in geometry class back in high school so it came easy. We've always had English Setters so the dog is a cartoony version of an goofy setter. This was my first game with Pat Lawlor and the first appearance of the 'hand on the button' which became a recurring theme. I think the rough sketches showed the driver giving a thumbs up but Pat dreamed up the 'hand/button' idea as well as the tag line 'any time… any where' on the truck. We were both Chicago Cubs baseball fans so the original painting shows the kid in the truck wearing a Cubs hat and the first run of translites were printed that way. The legal guys frowned on it so a sticker was applied to the first run translites, covering the Cubs 'C' with a William's 'W', until new translites were made with the "W" on the cap.
There are some cool features on this machine and the most obvious is the topper. It's is a fan which interacts with certain modes in the game, blowing cool air on you. It's a neat feature integrated well.
The cabinet on this particular one is very nice indeed. My previous 2 had awful graining and art flaking and peeling.
The playfield is very colourful with some cool art work. Notice the little whirlwinds at the inlanes which made an appearance later on funhouse. Also the Route 66 esque sign on the orbit, also featured on funhouse.
And on funhouse
Standard Lawlor 3 flipper game and soft plunge skill shot.
Also features a lift ramp to reveal a scoop for starting multi ball and claiming quick Multi ball from the cellar.
Physical ball locks at the bottom left corner accessed via a diverter on the right ramp.
The cellar: 2 scoops beneath the lower jets fed into each other by a small subway
The right scoop is the entry and the left is the eject. Shoot the lit one to claim the award (left restart cellar multiball and right to claim lit cellar award on speaker panel)
Some awesome speech ques when entering the cellar. "No storm here, now get out"
2 sets of 3 pops aptly named high and low pressure.
It has a cool left orbit shot through the low pressure jets
A right orbit shot through the spinner
And 2 shots from the upper flipper. The left ramp (a reet tricky bastard shot to get consistently.) and the inner loop.
And the elephant in the room of course the 3 spinning discs in the centre of the playfield. These have a grippy decal on them which alter the balls direction during certain modes in gameplay. When these are spinning as to is the fan on the topper.
So that's the cab, translite and playfield art and layout.
CPR did run a repro playfield a couple of years ago, together with a mirrored back glass. My playfield is absolutely fine so I decided to leave it. I would have quite liked the glass but it worked out too expensive with shipping so I forewent it.
My particular game has a plastic protector set on which sits a couple of mm proud of the plastic to absorb an airball and save the plastic. I think all my plastics are intact. I'm
Not sure if it had a new ramp or not when ronsplooter shopped it. Maybe he could let us know.
Basic Rules.
I'm not going in to depths like an ipdb rule sheet. Just basics. Mainly because I don't really know them! So all I'd do is read it and copy it here!
Skill shot. As with all Lawlor skill shots, it relies on a soft plunge. In this case try and follow the path of the scrolling lit arrows to knock down the 300 and 200 point drop targets at the same time to snag half a million.
The danger with the skill shot is a dead bounce stdm. No ball save here (unless you don't score a single point before draining)
There is a last chance saloon by way of a centre post between the flippers:
Whirlwind is brutally hard. It kicks my ass most of the time.
So, I normally opt to forgo the skill shot. A correctly set up whilry should see a strong
Plunge round the inner loop to feed the upper right flipper. This allows a nice volley up the left ramp to claim a lit target. Occasionally mine falls short or hangs up and drops in to the upper jets.
Compass targets:
The centre point of the play field is a large compass with lit arrows as follows. North East, South East, South West, North West.
At the start of the ball 2 targets will be flashing: hit the corresponding target or loop to light the shot. Once you have completed the lit shots the lock will be lit on the right ramp. Shoot this to activate the diverter and lock a ball at the bottom left corner. On some machines, mine included, you can back hand the right ramp from the right flipper. This is essential to good rinse and repeat scoring during multi ball
The next plunge will spot a target and the cycle continues above.
Once you've locked 2 balls the ramp lifts on the right hand side. Lock the 3rd ball there to start a 3 ball multiball or shoot the left ramp to release the locked balls and snag a million plus the jackpot. The jackpot starts at 1 million? Or maybe 2 can't remember and for each subsequent jackpot a further million is added.
Should no jackpot be claimed before draining 2 balls, you can restart a 2 ball multiball at the cellar funny enough this is called cellar multiball.
Yeah so, hit the flashy targets to light locks and then get muiltball and get jackpots.
The other objective is to complete all the cellar door awards.
You are awarded these when the cellar is lit and claim which ever award is lit at the time. You can change what is lit by hitting the spinner. The cellar is lit by the right in lane for a few seconds and at the start of each ball I think.
Once you've collected them all, shoot the lit cellar again to get the mega door cellar bonus, which awards everything at once.
Similar to the funhouse mirror. That's a kind of the wizard mode of the game
Another cool feature is the drop target here
The awards are advanced by shooting the right ramp. See something you like lit? Shoot the drop target to claim it.
3 shot combo. Hit the left orbit followed by the inner loop followed by the left ramp to claim the 3 shot combo and get a cool siren sound. Very satisfying to get. It whips round that inner loop so damn quick that trying to catch it for the left ramp on its way past is a real art.
Shoot the right ramp to claim tolls. These are totted up and indicated here and add to your bonus at the end of the ball.
That's whirlwind in a nutshell. Slightly more involved than Taxi and some strategy around scoring using the cellar door.
Classic Lawlor traits. Soft plunge skill shot, multiball restart if no jackpot claimed, awards to collect at scoop as per roadshow, monopoly, Grand Prix, funhouse etc...
It's basically the same game as Earthshaker but pips it to the post thanks to being able to claim multiple jackpots. If it wasn't for that then ES would be my game of choice
The music and callouts are awesome. The art is awesome, this game is frickin awesome. Don't delay, buy one today!!
Feel Free to add your own tricks tips and rules I've got wrong and missed.
Thanks for reading
