Xenon is a pinball machine from November 1980, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Co. 11,000 units were produced by Bally.

Xenon is the first talking pinball from Bally. Speech was accomplished with a sound board set called the Sounds Plus / Vocalizer. It consisted of two boards linked with a ribbon cable. The speech was sampled and stored in seven ROMs on the Vocalizer side of the board. The ROMs where small and only held nine phrases - “Exit two. Exit one. Try tube shot. Try me again. Enter Xenon. Try Xenon. Welcome to Xenon. Xenon two. Xenon.” It also held some voice sound effects for the pop bumpers and sling shots as well as some specialized sound effects that the AY-3-8910 programmable sound generator could not produce. Electronic music composer Suzanne Ciani composed the special effects and performed all of the voices for Xenon.

Xenon was not the first talking pinball machine. That honor goes to Williams Gorgar which was released a year earlier than Xenon. It was, however, the first pinball machine to feature a female voice.

Xenon is a two-ball multiball machine that contains two flippers, two slingshots, four pop bumpers, four drop targets, 2 standup targets, one spinner, four small rollover buttons, and a ramp that sends the ball through a tube to the potential ball lock. Due to the ramp and tube configuration, the playfield is set deep in the cabinet. The backglass features an infinity mirror which adds to the complexity and weight of the machine’s head.