Checkpoint (pinball)

Checkpoint
Manufacturer	Data East
Release date	February 1991
System	DataEast/Sega Version 3
Design	Designers: Joe Kaminkow, Ed Cebula Programmers: Rehman Merchant Artwork: Paul Faris Music: Brian Schmidt Sounds: Brian Schmidt
Production Run	?

Checkpoint is a 1991 pinball machine released by Data East. The game had the first dot matrix display (DMD) ever used on a pinball game. It used a "half-height" DMD as compared to the standard DMD used by Williams.

Gameplay

The machine's gameplay centered around a ramp that "clocked" the ball's speed, by measuring the timing between the ball's hitting of two switches, and translating it into a speed analagous to the speed of a racing car; so the lowest possible speed was 80MPH, and the player could achieve speeds of upwards of 250MPH. In addition to the normal high score list, Checkpoint also let the player record their initials if they set the machine's speed record. Various objectives were lit or scored by achieving certain shot speeds.

There are four single-ball modes in the game:

• Fast
• Blue Light Special
• 1 million ramp/10 million ramp
• Hot Nitro Round

The game also features two multiball modes:

• 2 ball multiball: Increase RPM to 6000 and shoot the Checkpoint, or increase RPM to 7000 and shoot either the Checkpoint or the Pit Stop to start 2 ball multi-ball.
• 3 ball multiball: Increase the RPM to 8000 to start 3 ball multi-ball (Red Line).

At the beginning of the first ball, the player can also select which style of music should be played during the game (the first game to offer such a feature). Choices include:

• Country
• Rock
• Jazz
• Rap
• Classical
• Soul

External links

• Internet Pinball Database entry
• Pinball Archive rule sheet
• Recent auction results
• Internet Pinball Serial Number Database entry