Whack-a-doodle-doo

Wack-A-Doodle-Doo is a arcade redemption game released by Sega Pinball in 1998. It is a version of the classic arcade game whack-a-mole, featuring five animatronic chickens (Clucky, Plucky, Lucky, Ducky, and Crispy) standing above yellow “egg yolk” buttons that players are to hit with a mallet when lit. When a yolk is hit, the respective chicken’s head pops up, and the player is awarded tickets.

According to former Sega Pinball employee Duffy Toler, Wack-A-Doodle-Doo was created as a way to use spare chicken props that had originally been created for Udderly Tickets, Sega Pinball’s earlier redemption project. Early releases of Udderly Tickets featured an animated chicken atop a hay bale, but Sega soon realized that the chickens’ low, unprotected location made it easy for children to destroy them. Future production models of Udderly Tickets omitted the chicken, leaving Sega Pinball with several thousand leftover animatronics.

Wack-A-Doodle-Doo was created as a simple way to put the chicken models to good use — this time with a plexiglass “coop” to protect them from damage. Test versions of Wack-A-Doodle-Doo included feathers that would fly around when the player hit the yolks, but this feature was removed due to technical issues[1].