I consider myself at least somewhat of an EM fan from my very limited experience with them, but I hate Spirit of 76. Now, my only experience with it is in the great/famous(?) Microsoft Pinball Arcade game of several years ago, but in that game, I found So76 to be incredibly boring, and by far my least favorite of the seven tables.A good argument can be made that Spirit of 76 should come before either Fast Draw or Abra Cadabra. It had a huge production run, and more importantly, great flow and shots. Of course, Sorcerer should sell well with or without another, but Spirit of 76 and Kings and Queens would be an iconic pack for all EM fans.
I put it on my list because it has a roto-target in the center which was a very popular device in the 1960s. Earlier tables were Buckaroo (1965) or Sittin Pretty (1958).King of Diamonds from 1967 is another classic Gottlieb. http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1372&picno=1306
I put it on my list because it has a roto-target in the center which was a very popular device in the 1960s. Earlier tables were Buckaroo (1965) or Sittin Pretty (1958).
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=393 - Buckaroo
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2164 - Sittin Pretty
@Kolchak: do you own a Fireball now?
1975 was sure one heck of a year for Gottlieb:
El Dorado, Atlantis, Fast Draw, 300/Top Score, Abracadabra, Spirit of 76.
I think opinions may vary too much for the 60's games. I originally had a list of 11 games from the 60's, and cutting that down to a minimum (Slick Chick, Majorettes, Kings and Queens, Buckaroo, King of Diamonds, Melody) covers the epitome of various styles (Bumper based, add-a-ball, roll-over, roto-target, etc.) If an early table gets done, it might come down to Farsight's preference or what they have access to. In the end, maybe Ace High will have to stand in for the early tables. Maybe that's OK as there are so many good tables in the 70's.
In addition to the games from 1975 listed above, 1976 gives you Royal Flush, Buccaneer/Ship Ahoy, and Surf Champ, with Centigrade 37 following in 1977.
So Ace High/C37 still seems like a logical pack, and after that maybe just concentrate on the 70's games above.
I always think of Joker Poker as early SS since that's pretty much the only version I ever saw. 9280 of the solid state version compared to 820 or so of the EM version. Not sure if there are any differences (like I'm not sure if there are any differences between the SS and EM versions of Royal Flush, other than score inflation). I sort of had a hope that maybe they'd do some early Gottlieb SS like these, and leave some room for more EM's!
Just for fun, here's a list of some Gottlieb games that came out on both the EM and SS setup. I have a soft spot for a lot of them. And let's face it, a lot of us would like the latest, most advanced EM's
No point in doing these on EM, really. Since there is an option to have them emulated from the SS version, instead of scripted for EM. Unfortunately, that also means that we will probably not see any of them, since there are far more popular SS games out there
1. Sinbad/Eye of the Tiger
2. Close Encounters of the Thrid Kind
3. Charlie's Angles
4. Joker Poker
5. Space Walk/Countdown
6. Solar Ride
7. Dragon
8. Cleopatra/Pyramid
Gottlieb was a late starter when it came to switching to SS (some might also say it was the sole reason for their decline in popularity)
Their First production SS game was late 77, (Cleopatra, I believe) but Gottlieb continued to produce EM games all through 1978 and also had a few in 1979.
Here are the ones(that I know about) from that time-period(78 - 79) that did not see an SS counterpart:
1. Strange World
2. Hit The Deck
3. Gemini
4. Blue Note
5. T.K.O.