Star Trek: The Next Generation is a widebody pinball game, designed by Steve Ritchie and released in November 1993 by Williams Electronics.

Apart from the regular highscore-list and the buy-in-list, it also features a reminiscence to The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot billionaires club.

According to an interview, Steve Ritchie, a longtime Star Trek fan, stated that getting the license was a challenge, due to Paramount insisting that they don't want to put any violence in the game; however, he told them that he would never violate the Prime Directive.

[2] The game uses the DCS Sound System and includes voice clips recorded by the cast of the television series, with: Whenever a ball is served to the plunger, the player may choose one of five awards and collect it by launching the ball.

Unless otherwise noted, the ball is launched through the spiral ramp and into the lock hole (above the pop bumpers).

Pressing both flippers during this line activates an Easter egg, in which Picard will interrupt Data and say, "Thank you, Mr.

These Artifacts are, in award order, Dilithium Crystals, an Isolinear Chip, a Duranium Sphere, and a Singing Stone.

Failure to hit the Worm Hole ramp before time expires awards a flat 20 million.

A ball is loaded up in one of the cannons and the player must either shoot the Neutral Zone targets/hole or the Start Mission hole.

Sometimes a player can hit the target of the Neutral Zone, get credit, but not actually sink the ball and have to recover from that.

As the ball is being served up to the left flipper, Riker replies, "Q, we don't have time for your games."

If the player drains the ball through the outlanes, or does hit the proper targets, there are several cracks that Q will make: The goal is to rescue 50 Starfleet personnel.

When the player hits the Start Mission target, Riker says, "Five to beam up", and an animated graphic plays showing five personnel being rescued.

The Start Mission shot lights up as a hurry-up value begins to count down from 20 million and the ship enters an asteroid field.

One artifact is awarded for destroying a total of four asteroids, including the one in the initial hurry-up; a second one is given for making every shot before time runs out.

Once Warp Factor 9 mode has been played for the first time, the following changes go into effect: Three targets plus a hole in front of the middle one.

During this mission, a Cardassian ship occasionally fires at the Enterprise, damaging its shields and reducing the jackpot.

Then shoot the right orbit again (or — if either or both are lit — the Delta Quadrant ramp or the Neutral Zone) to lock a ball.

In addition, each cannon shot in the "Start Mission" hole adds 10 million points to the Jackpot.

As the Enterprise is being shot at by the Borg, the "Shields" will drop in strength (from one to three units as with the Cardassian Neutral Zone Mission above).

By hitting the spinner in the left orbit, the shields are rebuilt and the "Start Mission" Jackpot is reactivated.

Should the player score at least one Triple Jackpot during the multiball, at the end of the game during the Match Game, the player will hear this dialogue from Picard: "Captain's Log, supplemental: The crew performed admirably in dispatching the Borg threat."

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the only pinball machine to feature three separate high score lists.