UK Machine Record
Blackout
Williams · 1980 · at 3 UK venues.
Blackout is an early solid-state Williams machine designed by Claude Fernandez and built around a dark science-fiction theme. It was the first Williams game to cut its own general illumination for effect, which is where the name comes from, and its objectives are simple enough to put the emphasis firmly on making shots.
The game revolves around completing the various numbered targets and building towards multiball, with the player gradually opening up more valuable opportunities.
Compared with modern machines, Blackout is refreshingly direct. There is no enormous rulesheet to memorise; the challenge is making the shots consistently. Learn the target sequence and concentrate on keeping the ball alive.
Written by Silverball
Played Blackout enough to have an opinion? Write it up.
No guide to Blackout yet
Guides here are compiled against the machine’s published rules, credited to what they were built from, and dated. That makes them slow: the machines standing on the most UK floors get one first — but anyone who plays this machine can write their own.

Strategy tips written by players on PinTips , not by Silverball. Best-voted first.
1,2,3 rollover give 2x,3x etc and carry’s over
- General
Complete target groups (Red and Yellow drops, Green standups) to light points at saucer. Completing all colors will light Blackout, which doubles the value of the saucer, but resets target progress.
- General
Targets are dangerous but advance spinners, and spinners are good points.
- General
Keep the multiplers 4x for balls 1 and 2 as 5x will not carry over. Apparently.
Tips belong to the players who wrote them. Read them all, vote, or add your own on PinTips, a Match Play project.
No tutorials for this machine
We only list videos from a short list of channels we rate, and we never run a search to fill the gap — so most machines have none here rather than a page of whatever YouTube would have returned.
Nobody we follow has reviewed this one
Same short list of channels as the tutorials. A machine with no review here has not been passed over — it simply hasn’t been covered by anyone we list.
Where a machine sits is Pinball Map’s work, not ours, find Blackout near you on their map. Ratings, tips and tournament results here are ours.
