Early Ciani - Xenon 1979 - 1980

Suzanne spent some research time at an arcade to come up with an approach that would make Bally’s new game unique. She couldn’t help noticing the reactions of players while playing the pinball machines. She presented to Bally the idea of making the new pinball game react back to the player. Her voice and music (that she composed especially for the game) were first recorded at the Ciani/Musica studio. Next, her music and sound data were encoded into a special computer voice chip and a music chip.

Bally released Xenon in December 1980. They produced 11,000 of the futuristic pinball machines. Greg Kmiec designed the game and Paul Faris created the artwork. During the production stages of Xenon, a film crew made a documentary of Suzanne’s sound design project. It was first shown in the United States on a TV show called Omni Magazine, then later distributed worldwide.

XENON was not only Bally's first speaking pinball machine, but it was also the first game with a female voice, that of Suzanne Ciani. Her voice and music technology helped begin a new chapter of the arcade coin-operated game industry.