Williams’ Road Kings, released in 1986, holds a special place in pinball history as the very first machine designed by Mark Ritchie, who would go on to create beloved classics like Taxi, Fish Tales, and Indiana Jones. Wrapped in a gritty, post-apocalyptic motorcycle-gang theme, it’s a fast solid-state table whose clever ramp mechanics already hinted at the design instincts Ritchie would carry into his later masterpieces — in fact, many of its ideas resurfaced in those famous games.
The standout feature is its inventive center ramp, blocked by a drop target until you knock it down, after which the ball loops up a track to a redirect mechanism that routes it alternately to the center-left or center-right outlet. The upper ramp lowers to grant access to a kick-out hole, then elevates when a ball is locked there, letting the next ball roll underneath toward the “mega-score” switch series. The scoring rewards a player who learns these flows: spelling ROAD KINGS lights the locks, while completing the 1-2-3-4 lanes advances your bonus multiplier and lights the Bonus Holdover.
The deep play lives in multiball, where you relock both balls for the “time lock” jackpot, then shoot the right loop all the way around for 300,000 a pop until multiball ends. Passing through a lit 1-2-3-4 lane even raises the drop target, looping you back into the action. Historic, fast, and mechanically clever, Road Kings is a fascinating debut from a future legend — an essential stop for collectors tracing Mark Ritchie’s brilliant career, and a genuinely fun ride in its own right. Rule the road.