Minimalist Gotltieb EM list

[emorse]

I'd love to see Spirit of '76 paired with Sorcerer. I think not only would Sorcerer help it sell, but both tables would please a LOT of people.

 

[BStarfire]

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. C37/Ace High...... K&Q/Spirit of 76.... sign me up! You could mix and match Ace High to wherever or lower priority. C37 and Kings and Queens, then Spirit of 76 and Sorcerer as suggested....

 

[Snorzel]

Dont get me wrong I would like Spirit of 76, Fast Draw and Abracadabra in game, but seeing as we already have 2 70s droptarget games, 1 with an already similar layout, I think we need to look to games that show more variety. Who knows how many more we even get.

Did any Gottlieb EMs have multiball?

 

[invitro]

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 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.

I know So76 was very high production, but 1975 was a big year for Gottlieb (and pinball in general), and Soccer, Fast Draw, and "300" aren't very far behind it. And in 1976, Royal Flush beats it. And So76 appears to be rated somewhere in the middle for this time period, on IPDB.

I've never played Royal Flush, but it looks more interesting to me. Is there a good reason to prefer So76 to it?

 

[BStarfire]

Yeah, that's right... variety is key since we don't know how many we'll get. I think C37 (bagatelle, dual in-lanes/no slings, etc) and Kings and Queens (roll-over style game, four kick-out holes) are both iconic, provide variety to what we have, and representative of their time. After that.... I don't know.

I don't know of any Gottlieb's with multi-ball (as incorporated in the ruleset - not counting multiple manual launches).

 

[invitro]

I'll add that Slick Chick (1963 Gottlieb) was my favorite of the MS Pinball Arcade, and Knock Out (1950 Gottlieb) was probably second. (The other four tables were CBW, HH, Humpty Dumpty, and Baffle Ball.)

Is that blood in the center of Knock Out? That's gotta be a rare thing in pinball art.

 

[BStarfire]

Slick Chick has always been a favorite, and provides variety in that it's a bumper based game, but its appeal might be even more limited to a subset of EM fans. Royal Flush is a decent game, but since we already have Big Shot and El Dorado, thinking we need some variety other than mainly drop target based.

 

[invitro]

Centigrade 37 looks great to me, not as beautiful as Atlantis though, and I'd support it. Kings & Queens looks like an exercise in frustration, and I wouldn't support that one.

 

[BStarfire]

Kings and Queens is challenging, but reasonable. You need four of a kind to get a special lit, and neither the K's or Q's require a drain. Shots into the bumpers can rebound into the top roll-overs, you can make a deflection shot into the top (hard), and you have a shot straight from the flippers to the opposite side jacks (up top). Perhaps the outlanes can be adjusted to be a bit more liberal...

I enjoy this one and Slick Chick.

 

[Kolchak357]

King of Diamonds from 1967 is another classic Gottlieb.

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1372&picno=1306

 

[Zorgwon]

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?

 

[BStarfire]

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.

 

[Kolchak357]

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?

Just the digital version of Fireball. I doubt I could keep a 40+ year old machine running. I can barley change a lightbulb.

 

[Kolchak357]

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 agree with you about the pins from the 1960's. Some good ones for sure, but I don't crave playing them over and over like the 70's Gottliebs. The years you mention sure are the sweet spot. So many good ones.

 

[BStarfire]

Speaking of the sweet spot, when Gottlieb was king, the top four EM tables from the EM poll (after Bally's Wizard) are Spirit of 76 (113), Centigrade 37(111), Royal Flush, and Atlantis (109) each, and then down to scores in the 80's for the next highest GTB EM's (Abracadabra, Surf Champ, Fast Draw). That list is cool in my book. What's interesting is that while these correlate with Pinside and IPDB ratings (over time), the list of most wanted EM's from pinballowners.com matches exactly:

Pinballowners List of Most Wanted EM's:

Centigrade 37
El Dorado
Royal Flush
Fireball
Atlantis
Spirit of 76
Fast Draw

I guess I've been trying to overthink the optimal EM table selection strategy and the info on pinballowners and the previous EM poll seems pretty reasonable. Throw in those plus maybe Ace High somewhere and I'm happy.

 

[Garycope]

Joker poker

 

[BStarfire]

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!

Because of familiar aspects of the layouts, of those top four tables it makes sense to pair them up as C37/Royal Flush and Atlantis/Spirit of 76. However, since Royal Flush (or RF Deluxe) can help carry something later or as SS, hopefully we'll see C37/Ace High, followed up by Atlantis/Spirit of 76.

 

[Spork98765]

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!

I'm inclined to agree with you here. More for the hope that adding more early SS tables will finally get FarSight motivated to emulate the tables that are currently scripted. I want some more EM action, but when given the option between a scripted or emulated table I would prefer the emulated early SS version.

 

[karl]

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.

 

[Snorzel]

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.

Oh yeah, would love to see these early SS games in TPA. Such great art on these late 70s games. Whats the verdict on Dragon? There is one on craigslist right now