Williams’ Demolition Man, released in 1994 and designed by Dennis Nordman, blasts the Stallone-and-Snipes sci-fi action film onto a fast three-flipper playfield with one of the era’s coolest gimmicks: cabinet handles with built-in buttons that you can use instead of the flippers, doubling your combo values for the end-of-ball bonus. A Cryo-Claw crane, three ramps, and five distinct multiball modes round out a machine that rewards aggressive, combo-hungry play.
The scoring is built around the claw and the multiballs. Shooting the center and spelling MTL lights the left inlane, with the ramps lighting and feeding the Cryo-Claw — and the golden rule is to always pick “Lock Freeze” to start or build multiball. There’s a slick three-shot multiball starter (the center scoop off the upper flipper, the left ramp off the right flipper, then the right ramp), and the Demolition Jackpot is cumulative across the entire game, not just your current multiball, so it grows enormous. Clear all five cryo-claw modes and the scoop starts Demolition Time, the multiball wizard mode.
Smart play leans on those handle buttons — hitting both simultaneously scores bonus points during specific awards and grants a free mode shot once per game — and on the top lanes, which build a massive 5X bonus while lighting the next claw award. Combos all day is the mantra. It’s worth learning the handle buttons cold, since the free mode shot and bonus points they grant — once per game — can swing a close match. And because the Demolition Jackpot accumulates across the entire game, a player who patiently builds it through all four cryo-claw multiballs sets up a colossal final payout. Fast, deep, and packed with clever mechanics, Demolition Man is Nordman at his most inventive — a high-octane action machine that rewards a player who masters its claw, its combos, and those one-of-a-kind handle buttons.