Charge the cannons and light up the night — Data East’s 1987 Laser War is a landmark machine, widely celebrated as the first pinball game with a stereo sound system, and you can hear that ambition in every digitized note and spoken line. Designed by Joe Kaminkow with a David Thiel soundtrack, this confirmed run of 2,569 sports a laser-gun turret above the ramp with an internal light show, and its early-DMD-adjacent presentation (with seven-digit alphanumeric player displays) made it a standout on the late-’80s floor.
The combat is built around colored target banks and a satisfying lock progression. Shoot three targets from a single color bank to light that color’s lock and earn the two-ball multiball, then lock both balls to escalate to a three-ball multiball and drive the ramp for the jackpot. The center spinner is a key tool — shooting it gets you to the yellow base, which on factory settings spots a yellow target while conveniently returning the ball to the top for another go. There’s even a handy bit of ball-saving craft the veterans use: to avoid a drain off the center ramp, hold up the right flipper and shake upward to regain control of a wayward ball.
Laser War is a machine that matters historically, the opening shot in pinball’s stereo-sound revolution, and it backs up that significance with a fun, aggressive color-bank multiball game. For the collector who loves a “first,” it’s an essential, and for the player who just wants to light some locks and chase a jackpot, it delivers. Work the color banks, ride the spinner, and turn that turret loose. Pinball was about to get a whole lot louder, and this is where it started.