Based on The Great Chicago Fire of October 8-10, 1871. The 'Champagne Edition' has an upgraded cabinet and rotating light cylinders which are not found in the regular version of this game. Artist Mark Sprenger describes the upgrades used for this 'Champagne Edition' and talks further about its conception:The playfield was the same in both versions. The wood cabinet was hand-stained and the side rails, lockdown bar, and legs were in brass-plated steel. I added a white plunger knob to represent a porcelain knob to be "period correct". The Fire champagne edition had the rotating flame graphic tubes (2) which projected a rolling fire image against a silver opaque pattern I made in the backglass that caused an upward moire effect (sweeping flames) during multiball. Similar effect in the center of the playfield. At the bottom of the playfield, written clearly for everyone to see, is �Created by Mark Sprenger, Barry Oursler and Dan Lee�. The entire game concept, including the symmetric layout for the playfield, theme and strategy was my idea. Barry was the mechanical engineer and Dan Lee wrote the software. This was a team effort once the fire started. I came up with the �Champagne Edition� as I was reviewing the cabinet graphics for the first time at Churchill Cabinet for pre-approval. They had run a few blank panels while setting up the silk screens and one of the samples was on a bare wood panel. I asked Marion [Production Manager] at the time, what if we hand stained the bare wood cabinet and sprayed clear lacquer after applying the graphics for a �period look�?. Marion was all over the idea and commented the majority of his old school Polish woodworking staff would be thrilled to do something different. The �Champagne Edition� was born as a collectors piece and the natural compliments were the brass plated trim pieces and the �porcelain� look, white plunger knob. Mark Ritchie made several cameo speech appearances in the audio as the classic Irish accent fireman barking out instructions to the crew as the fire raged out of control right down to; �We lost �em� ~ when the player didn�t scale the ladder in time to rescue the woman and child in the burning building. [the woman screaming �save my baby!�]. Little known fun fact- there were several vacuum-formed buildings throughout the playfield decorated with many, many architectural decals. This proved to be a very expensive labor process in-house and we almost lost the feature ~ until I called on a local facility for handicapped individuals and offered the project to them. They were beyond enthusiastic to have the opportunity at a fraction of the typical cost and the results were very likely more accurate and of higher quality than if the work had been done on the production line.Model number 556-SE is printed on the manufacturer sticker found on each game. Production Run Records for Fire! (Champagne Edition): Production Start Date: Oct-8-1987 Production End Date: Jan-18-1988 Production Run Quantity: 273* First ship date: Oct-12-1987 Last ship date: unknown, 1 unit still in inventory when Daily Production Logs ceased referencing this game on May-24-1988. * This number is from Williams Daily Production Logs. The WMS Games Sales History printout dated 20-Dec-94 issued from the Accounting Department shows a total of 7,987 units of 'Fire!' that were produced and for which they were paid. This total would include sample units but not prototype units (unless they, too, were sold and payment received) and was reported in the Company's financial public stock records therefore the accuracy of this quantity is guaranteed. There is no separate listing on this printout for the Champagne Edition so its quantity must have been included in that total. Even so, the sum of the Daily Production Log quantities for both games does not equal the total quantity listed on the Sales History printout.
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