Shopping White Water, Part 3 - Mountains

One of outstanding qualities of White Water, in its attempt to create a tiny world under the glass, are the plastic mountain pieces. They help give the feeling of the rugged terrain one would see when rafting down a rushing river. While the attempt worked wonderfully, durability was not a factor during design. The plastics used to make the mountains are thin and cheap; when combined with the heat of lamps in the bumpers and airballs, they are easily prone to cracking, breaking, or developing holes. This is something you don't see to the same degree with the diorama-like features of other games such as the town & castle in Dracula or the buildings of Bedrock in The Flintstones.

Years ago it was hard to find replacements. Even now, though they are easier to find, they are expensive, forcing many owners to live with the damage.

The mountains in the game are as follows:

 

Left Mountains. The second longest mountain piece, it is found under the Insanity Falls ramp, stretching 3/4 down the length of the playfield to cover the Lost Mine area. There are two flashers in this mountain, plus a waterfall decal. Often it is the long, skinny tips where this mountain breaks thanks to the location of the screw mounts.

Back Mountains. The biggest mountain piece in the game. It extends all the way across the back of the playfield, with some "fingers" that extend out over some of the ramps. There are also two flashers in this mountain. This mountain piece is likely to be intact, since it is held pretty securely and is not subject to receiving ball impacts based on its location far above the playfield.










Bigfoot's Cave. A smaller mountain that sits above the Bigfoot ramp. It is usually intact thanks to its high location.












Right Mountains. Similar to the left mountains, these are found under the wire ramp used for the ball launch. They bulge out a bit to cover the rightmost bumper.












Boulder Garden. This mountain sits above the Bigfoot Hot Foot targets and covers the leftmost bumper. It is almost always damaged...the incandescent light from the bumper underneath makes it fragile and sometimes leads to holes near the peak, and airballs from the flipper can strike the front and crack the mountain at its mounting points.







Extra Ball Boulder. This mountain sits above the Extra Ball target and covers the lowermost bumper. It is also in grave danger of being damaged for the same reasons as the Boulder Garden mountain.








Cliffy makes a Boulder protector set - a sound investment! They sit under the mountains and protrude out a little past the mountain edge, absorbing the blows of airballs launched from the flipper. It does not solve the incandescent bulb heat issue, which can be solved by using LEDs.






There are two extra aftermarket mountains that are done extremely well. One is called "Missing Mountain" and the other is "Skull Mountain" (or if you prefer, "Skull Rock"). Missing Mountain is a must have...placed in the upper crook of the Insanity Falls ramp over the entrance to the Spin Chiller, it helps to hide a couple of switches at the back of the machine that you can see when playing, and is so well-made, it makes you think it should have been part of the game all along. Kelly and I are planning on creating our own "missing mountain" mod that will incorporate some cool features found in the game's artwork.


Skull Mountain doesn't cover up anything unsightly - in fact, it actually blocks part of the sign that says "Insanity Falls Lights Whirlpool". That isn't a big deal, however, because the upper sign above the Insanity Falls entrance basically tells you the same thing. The eyes light up and stay lit throughout the game, which I wasn't sure I liked. A Pinsider suggested tying the light to the No Way Out insert so that the eyes light only when the insert is lit, so I'm going to look into that.



That sums up the mountains that make up the "world under glass" in White Water. Next up I'll share some photos of how terrible the condition of the game was and how poorly it was maintained by the previous owner...