| 1977 Gottlieb Mustang. This is a late
1970's two player Gottlieb Electro Mechanical game. Shortly afterwards,
the pinball manufacturers changed from
EM to solid state, forever altering
pinball design.
Note that this machine has metal rails
surrounding the playfield instead of
wood. In 1960, during the production
of the game Flipper, Gottlieb changed
from wood to metal. Other companies also
changed around the same time. |
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| 1963 Gottlieb Slick Chick. The late/great pinball historian and
author, Dick Bueschel called Slick Chick "One of the finest, if not the
absolute finest flipper skill game ever made". In the early 1960's, Hugh
Hefner's Playboy magazine was very sucessful and Hefner was expanding
the Playboy empire by opening Playboy key clubs nationwide.
Dave Gottlieb assigned Wayne Neyens the task of designing a game in
the Playboy theme without actually using the Playboy name. Neyens
designed a extremely clever game using criss-crossed letters and requiring
skilled shooting to get a good score. The working name for the project was
'Party Girls' with a R in the intersection. However, it was felt that the name could have other meanings and was too risque so a new name needed to be
created. Wayne Neyens has said that while driving to a friends home for dinner
one night, he observed a sign for a newly opened restaurant, 'Slick Chick'. Wayne had found the
perfect name including a "I" at the intersection. The beautiful artwork was
provided by Roy Parker. During the 1999 pinball expo in Chicago, Michael
Gottlieb, Dave's grandson said that Slick Chick was among his personal favorite pinball machines of all the Gottlieb line. Even though over 4,000 were produced, it is considered extremely desirable by collectors today. |
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| 1972 Williams Tropic Fun. Another example of a 1970's electro mechanical
pinball. This machine was designed by
Norm Clark at Williams. Tropic Fun is known as a 'Add A Ball' pinball
machine. Add A Ball's differ from normal pinball play. A
normal pinball machine counts the number of ball's
you have played. In the case of a five ball machine, 1 - 5. Add A Ball
machines start with the number of ball's you are allowed to play and
then count backwards, subtracting one for each ball played 5 - 1.
When you accumulate certain scores or pick up certain bonus's, you
are awarded a free extra ball. A internal coil with a rod and sounding
plate makes a 'thump' sound indicating you receive a free extra ball
and the ball counter is then increased by one. Add A Ball's can be quite
fun and with skill, can be played a extra long time.
Personal anecdote: While playing a early 1970's
Williams EM at the 1999 Pinball Expo,
Norm Clark and Steve Kordek (a very famous Williams Pinball designer) came
up to watch me play. Talk about pressure! It was difficult to concentrate while two legends who design
the games watched my play... |
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