Devil's Dare is a widebody pinball machine released by Gottlieb in 1982. It was designed by Tom Sczfransky and originally illustrated by longtime Williams pinball artist Doug Watson.
As pinball games go, Devil's Dare is a straightforward design of the era — hit the drop target banks to enable the Capture Cave and the Capture Pit, then lock two balls for three-ball multiball play. If you score well during multiball, you'll be rewarded with "Multi-mode", an extra multiball round after multiball ends.
Devil's Dare is notable among pinball historians for being Gottlieb's first game not illustrated by Gordon Morison, Gottlieb's exclusive game artist for a decade. Morrison's Comic Book-style pin-up girls meshed well with Gottlieb's family-friendly image, and Doug Watson's imposing devil artwork (originally accomplied by naked green bat-winged succubi) caused management to balk. While Watson worked on other projects, artist Dave Moore created a minor variation to showcase a four-color glass-printing process. The attention Moore received for the art prompted Gottlieb to reconsider, and they greenlit the project with the modified backglass.
Approximately 3,800 tables were produced, and the majority of them were shipped to Europe without speech support. As such, it's considered something of a rarity in the United States. Fun fact: The pinball table seen in Willy's Wonderland is a retrofitted version of this table.
Has nothing to do with a 2014 Retraux Beat 'em Up of the same name.
The Devil's Dare pinball demonstrates the following tropes:
- Big Red Devil: The Devil, who's large, red, evil-looking, and commands a legion of minor demons.
- Demihuman: The Devil's assorted demons, who have green skin, large dragon wings, pointed tails, and three-toed talon feet (on the males).
- Evil Eyebrows: The Devil has a pair of evil brow ridges.
- Femme Fatalons: The Devil has wickedly curved fingernails.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: The entire playfield is awash in flames.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: The green-skinned demons all sport large dragon wings.
- Hellish Pupils: The Devil has green pupils with reptilian slits.
- Horned Humanoid: The Devil himself and his attending army of green-skinned followers all have small horns on their heads.
- Hot as Hell: Doug Watson's original backglass art
included naked green bat-winged devil girls lounging on the score displays. - Humanoid Female Animal: A mild case; the male green demons have visibly wrinkled wings, bald heads, and three-toed talon feet, while the female demons (on the original backglass art) are beautiful green babes with smooth wings.
- The Legions of Hell: The various green demons.
- Nonhumans Lack Attributes: The green demons lack any sort of genitalia or nipples despite being completely naked.
- Take My Hand!: The Devil has this pose on the backglass.
