The 1982 Williams Varkon was a strange concept of a pinball machine, made to look like a video game. Though it does have its own custom cabinet, it most closely ressembles a Williams Robotron cabinet. Inside is a pinball machines with dual playfield. The lower playfield, which has its own ball (a ball do not pass between the two playfields, like say Haunted House or Black Hole), and is played through a window in the upper playfield. The game does not have flipper buttons; instead there are dual vertical movement (only) video game paddles to activate the flippers. The playfields are actually angled away from the player, but due to a mirror, it gives the illusion that the playfields are vertical! The "mirror" is really plastic and not fully silvered, so the score displays and "lightning" flash lamps shine through the mirror. Overall it's a nice look and rather spooky. Note the playfield is wood, but it has a plexiglass cover (which has the actual screened artwork), so there generally isn't any artwork wear on these games. Nudging on this game has the opposite effect because the playfield is actually angeled away from the player! Most people don't realize this but quickly figure it out. They only made 90 Williams Varkon pinball machines, as the game did not test well on location. Varkon was designed by Tony Kraemer. Artwork was by Constantino Mitchell, and software was by Bill Pfutzenreuter. This particular game was bought from the guy would did the software development for Williams, and the game was only used for test development (and later at his house.)

This is the actual game at the VFW Pinball Museum. Any questions regardling this game, or any games for sale, please email the VFW Pinball Museum at
info@vfwpinball.com

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