Examples of some later pins

 
1960 Gottlieb World Beauties. This is a single player Gottlieb woodrail pinball. All woodrails of this era are now considered highly collectible. This machine was designed by Wayne Neyens (Who is still a great pinball player, he beat me badly in a game... ;-) with artwork by the late Roy Parker. The backglass has a animated wheel which spins around stopping at symbols indicating changing bonus points on the playfield.
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  • 1956 Gottlieb Gladiator. This is a example of a two player woodrail pinball. As Gottlieb used to advertise, "It's more fun to compete". Notice the woodrail cabinet design is a bit different from the single player models. Gladiator also offered a very early new feature: Score Matching. It would pick a random number, 0 - 9. If the last digit of your score matches that number, the player gets a free game. This is another Wayne Neyen's design with artwork by Roy Parker.
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  • 1948 United Manhattan. This game was one of the very last pin's built without flippers. In late 1947, Gottlieb's Humpty Dumpty introduced flippers and the public loved them! Manufacturers scrambled to add flippers to all of their new games and produce retrofit kit's for older pre-flipper games. In March, 1948 United decided there was still room in the market for a machine with no flippers, however this was their last. Manhattan has truly awesome artwork! The pop bumpers provide plenty of gameplay and lighting the letters of the word 'Manhattan' through rollovers gives bonus's.
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  • 1951 Williams Hayburners. Designed by Harry Williams (created first electric pinball: Contact, later founded Williams Pinball) and Sam Stern (Later, the founder of Stern Pinball) Hayburners features incredible mechanical animation built into its backbox. A race track with six horses race across the field as the game is played and points are awarded. If the players horse comes in first, free game credits (up to 25!) are awarded. These, of course, could be redeemed for a cash payout and the free game credits reset by a hidden knockoff switch underneath. The mechanical horses use two motors for forward and backwards motion with chain drives similar to that found in a cuckoo clock. Amazing engineering and a fun game to boot.
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  • 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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