WMS Industries, Inc. (NYSE: WMS) is a long-standing American electronic gaming and amusement company based in Waukegan, Illinois. The New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE) is a Stock exchange based in New York City. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Waukegan ( IPA: /wɔˈkigən/ is a city in Lake County, Illinois. WMS traces its roots far back as 1943 as the Williams Manufacturing Company founded by Harry E. Williams. However, the company known today as WMS Industries was formally founded in 1974 as Williams Electronics Inc. .
Williams initially was a manufacturer of pinball tables. Pinball is a type of coin-operated Arcade game where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more Metal balls on a playfield inside a Glass In 1964 Williams was acquired by jukebox manufacturer Seeburg Corp. and reorganized as Williams Electronics Manufacturing Division. [1] In 1973, they branched out into the coin-operated arcade video game market with their Pong clone Paddle Ball[2]. A video arcade (also known as an amusement arcade in the United Kingdom in Japan or as an "arcade" is a venue where people play arcade video games A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Pong is a first generation Video game released originally as a Coin -operated Arcade game by Atari Inc In 1974, William Electronics Inc was incorporated in Delaware as a wholly-owned subsdiairy of Seeburg and replaced the previous entity. In 1987, Williams changed its parent name to WMS Industries, Inc. when it made its public offering. WMS is a shortening of Williams, which it also selected for its NYSE ticker symbol. In 1988, it acquired competitor Bally/Midway. Midway Games ( (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American Video game publisher.
WMS entered the reel-spinning slot machine market in 1994, and in 1996, it introduced its first hit casino slot machine, Reel ‘em In, a "multi-line, multi-coin secondary bonus" video slot machine. It followed this with a number of similar games like Jackpot Party, Boom and Filthy Rich. By 2001, it introduced its Monopoly-themed series of "participation" slots. Monopoly is a Board game published by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro. WMS Gaming holds licenses to manufacture gaming machines using the following brands, among others: Men in Black, Match Game, Hollywood Squares, Clint Eastwood, Powerball, and Green Acres. Men in Black is a 1997 science fiction comedy Action film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tommy Lee Jones Match Game also called The Match Game was an American Television Game show that celebrities and contestants answering The Hollywood Squares was an American Television comedy and Game show in which two contestants play Tic-tac-toe to win money Clinton "Clint" Eastwood Jr (born May 31 1930 is a four-time Academy Award winning American Actor and Filmmaker. Powerball is an American Lottery game sold through US lotteries as a shared Jackpot pool game Green Acres is an American Television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City
The company's sole operating business today is WMS Gaming formed in 1991. Fiscal year 2007 revenues were $540 million. [3] The corporate office is in Waukegan, Illinois, and the primary development campus is in Chicago, Illinois. Waukegan ( IPA: /wɔˈkigən/ is a city in Lake County, Illinois. The State of Illinois ( roughly ill-i-NOY is a state of the United States of America, the 21st to be admitted to the Union. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The State of Illinois ( roughly ill-i-NOY is a state of the United States of America, the 21st to be admitted to the Union. There are other development, sales and field services offices across the United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The international development offices are in Uxbridge, England and Australia, and international sales are based in Barcelona, Spain. Uxbridge is a university town in the London Borough of Hillingdon in West London, England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Barcelona ( Catalan bəɾsəˈlonə Spanish baɾθeˈlona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
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Early history
In 1943, Harry Williams founded Williams Manufacturing Company at 161 West Huron Street in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The first five products were a fortune-telling machine called Superscope, another electro-mechanical game called Periscope, a novelty called Zingo, and two pinball conversions, Flat-Top and Laura. These pinball machines were made by purchasing older pinballs made by other companies and changing artwork and other elements on the playfield. The lack of raw materials during World War II made the manufacture of new machines difficult and expensive. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including
A Stanford engineering graduate, Williams devised the “tilt” mechanism for pinball machines. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in The first known original amusement device made by Williams was an early-era pinball machine called Suspense in 1946. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Williams continued to make pinball machines and the occasional bat-and-ball game. In 1950, Williams produced Lucky Inning, their first pinball table to have its bottom flippers facing inward in the modern manner. In late 1958, Williams Manufacturing became known as Williams Electronic Manufacturing Company. In 1960, company founder Harry Williams designed his last pinball table as a full-time designer, the horse racing-themed Nags. This article is about the sport For other uses see Horserace (drinking game or Horse race (politics.
In 1962, 3 Coin became the first Williams table to sell over 1,000 units (1,100, specifically). One year later, Skill Pool sold 2,250 units. In 1964 Williams was purchased by the Seeburg Corporation. Seeburg manufactured Jukeboxes under the JP Seeburg and company name for most of its early years The 1966 pinball table A-Go-Go, with its avant-garde 60s theme, sold a staggering 5,100 units. Early Williams pinball tables often included innovative features and pinball firsts, such as mechanical reel scoring and the "add-a-ball" feature for locations that didn't allow game replays. By 1967, pinball was in the middle of its so-called "golden age", and the number of pinball units that sold began to increase dramatically. Popular Williams pinballs included Shangri-La (1967), Apollo (1967), Smart Set (1969), Gold Rush (1971), and Space Mission (1976).
In 1974, Williams Electronics, Inc. was formed to acquire the company. In 1980, Seeburg (which had since been renamed XCOR International) sold Williams to Louis Nicastro, who, with his son Neil, would take the company public and run it for over two decades.
Arcade videogaming and solid-state pinball
In 1973, Williams decided to enter the fledgling coin-operated arcade videogame industry. Its first arcade videogame was Paddle-Ball. Williams was moderately successful in this new arena but their big breakthrough was the release of 1980's Defender, whose space alien theme and scrolling feature made it an instant classic. Williams' other notable arcade hits were 1982's Joust and Robotron: 2084. Joust is an Arcade game produced by Williams Electronics in 1982 Robotron 2084 (often called simply Robotron) is an Arcade game created in 1982 by the company Vid Kidz ( Eugene Jarvis
At the same time, Williams would enter the era of solid-state electronic pinball and come to dominate the entire pinball industry. Williams' first solid-state machine was Hot Tip (1976), which had originally been released with electromechanical reel scoring. The updated machine outsold its predecessor by nearly four to one. As the 1970s became the 1980s, Williams would release numerous innovative pinball games, such as Firepower (1980), Black Knight (1980), Space Shuttle (1984), Comet (1985), Pin*Bot (1986), F-14 Tomcat (1987), and Cyclone (1988). Firepower (also known as Multi-Ball Firepower) is a 1980 Pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams. Black Knight is a 1980 Pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams Electronics. Pin*Bot is a Pinball game released by Williams in October 1988 designed by Barry Oursler and Python Anghelo.
By 1983, the entire arcade amusement industry went into a major decline. In spite of this, Williams managed to weather the poor economic conditions better than most. In 1985, Williams once again changed its name, this time to Williams Electronics Games, Inc. Williams became a public traded company in 1987, and the parent company's name became WMS Industries, Inc.
In 1988, WMS acquired Bally Midway Manufacturing Company, which was the result of a 1981 merger between Bally's pinball division and video game company Midway. This article is about the Bally company a manufacturer of slot machines and pinball machines Midway Games ( (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American Video game publisher. For over a decade, the company was known to the industry collectively as Williams-Bally-Midway. Williams would continue to manufacture pinball machines, while Midway would concentrate on video games (thus ending the Williams brand in video games) and pinball machines (under the Bally brand name). WMS also created a new division in 1991, Williams Gaming (now WMS Gaming), to enter the gaming and state video lottery markets, developing its first video lottery terminals for the Oregon market in 1992. Oregon ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
In 1992, the company produced the licensed Addams Family table (based on the movie of that era). The Addams Family is the best selling Pinball machine of all time having sold 20270 units Addams Family sold a record 20,270 units, which still stands to this day. In 1993, Midway produced Twilight Zone, which sold an impressive 15,235 units as well. Twilight Zone (often abbreviated TZ) is a 1993 widebody Pinball game designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Midway (under the But the writing was on the wall. After 1993, Williams never came close to matching the sales numbers of Addams Family or Twilight Zone. In 1999, Williams made one last attempt to revitalize pinball sales with its Pinball 2000 machines that integrated pinball with computer graphics on embedded raster-scan displays. Pinball 2000 is the last Pinball hardware and software platform developed by major pinball manufacturer Williams, and was used in the machines Revenge From Mars Computer graphics are Graphics created by Computers and more generally the Representation and Manipulation of Pictorial Data The innovation didn't pay off, and that same year, WMS left the pinball industry to focus on slot machine development. The Williams brand has since disappeared. In late March of 2005, Pinball News.com reported that WMS had exclusively licensed the intellectual properties and the rights to re-manufacture former Bally/Williams games in the field of mechanical pinball (including traditional pinball and Pinball 2000 style machines) to Wayne Gillard - Mr. Pinball Australia.
Williams was one of the major forces in arcade amusement history. During the "Golden Age" of pinball, Williams was one of the three major manufacturers (Bally and Gottlieb being the other two). This article is about the Bally company a manufacturer of slot machines and pinball machines Gottlieb (formerly D Gottlieb & Co) was an Arcade game Corporation, which was established by David Gottlieb in 1927 and first produced Pinball For much of the later history of pinball, Williams simply dominated the industry even as pinball began to decline in popularity.
Rise of the gaming machine industry
As the pinball industry declined, WMS invested in the hotel industry, successfully taking public and then spinning off its hotel subsidiary, WHG Resorts, in 1996 (which was later taken private and acquired by Wyndham International). Wyndham Hotels and Resorts is a concatenation of chains of Hotels and Resorts located mainly in the United States and Canada, but also in Its video game subsidiary, Midway Games' fortunes rose and fell as the arcade video game business began to decline while, at the same time, the home video game industry was on the rise. Midway Games ( (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American Video game publisher. By 1996, WMS had transferred all of the copyrights and trademarks in its video game library to Midway Games, including Defender, Stargate, Robotron: 2084, Joust, and Smash TV, as it took Midway public and finally spun it off in 1998. Stargate is an Arcade game released in 1981 by Williams Electronics. Robotron 2084 (often called simply Robotron) is an Arcade game created in 1982 by the company Vid Kidz ( Eugene Jarvis Joust is an Arcade game produced by Williams Electronics in 1982 Smash TV is a 1990 Arcade game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams. A spin-off (or spinoff) is a new Organization or Entity formed by a split from a larger one such as a Television series based on a pre-existing
WMS entered the reel-spinning slot machine market in 1994, but the company’s video gaming roots ultimately would prove to be its strength when, in 1996, it introduced its first hit casino slot machine, Reel ‘em In, a "multi-line, multi-coin secondary bonus" video slot machine. WMS followed this with a number of similar games like Jackpot Party, Boom and Filthy Rich. By 2001, it introduced its Monopoly-themed series of "participation" slots, which includes slot machines based on licensed themes such as "Clint Eastwood", "Powerball", "Green Acres" and "Dukes of Hazzard". WMS continues to produce video slots and, to a smaller extent, reel-spinning slots, for sale and for lease to casinos and state lotteries. [3]
References
External links
- WMS Gaming website
- The Pinball Factory; current licensors to the Williams/Bally pinball games
- Lottery Insider corporate profile
- Slotshero corporate profile
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