top 7 gottlieb games

[busa32927]

hi all

I had never really been a fan of gottlieb games.  I played a Freddy and it was better than expected.  This spawned my curiosity of the top 7 gottlieb games. 

Thanks for the info

[pinballcorpse]

I think the era is an important consideration. 

I feel their heyday was the EM and early SS era.  At that point, there are WAY more than 7 great Gottlieb games. 

[busa32927]

true.  let me clarify it a little.  No EM titles.  Looking for games in around Freddys production and later.  Played haunted house and black hole. 

[beepnutz]

Out of the ones I've owned, these I liked:
Stargate
Teed Off
Vegas
Cactus Jacks
Cue Ball Wizard (yeah, I liked it K7)
TX Sector

These not as much:
Title Fight
Genesis
Rock
Excalibur
Operation Thunder


Just my opinion, Bob

glwts

[Ron Donohue]

As a technical note, Gottlieb/Premier only made a small subset of their games around Freddy's time (1994) or later.  They are as follows.

World Challenge Soccer #741 (1994)
Stargate #742 (1995)
Shaq Attaq #743 (1995)
Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street #744 (1994)
Big Hurt #745 (1995)
Waterworld #746 (1995)
Mario Andretti #747 (1995)
Strikes 'n' Spares (1995) - not a traditional pin
Barb Wire #748 (1996)

They also had Brooks N' Dunn in prototype when they shut down.  Gottlieb made many great games in its various incarnations.   Of those on the list above, I suspect that for many,  the cream of the crop is Stargate. 

To me, your date range excludes many of the best titles, , including classics like Joker Poker, Haunted House, Genie...  Also excludes some of the best pins ever made in the EM world.

Ron

[Rich Jax]

With a handful of exceptions, Gottlieb SS/DMD games are pretty much crap.  IMHO.

They were known as the "Cadillac" of pins back in the EM era, but just didn't handle the transition to the electronic era well. 

There are a TON of phenomenal Gottlieb EM wedge-heads out there!!!  Go getcha one, you won't be sorry!

[k7]

as the others said, EM was a different era. my list is mostly EM titles, where gottlieb killed the other manufacturers on every title I've ever played.

but just concentrating on these:

World Challenge Soccer #741 (1994) - never played.
Stargate #742 (1995) - the time I had on 1, did nothing for me. game was in poor playing condition.
Shaq Attaq #743 (1995) - owned, and secretly love this title. don't tell anybody. would own again.
                                       have to turn the sound off, announcer will drive you nuts.
Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street #744 (1994) - owned and liked it, would own again.
Big Hurt #745 (1995) - didn't enjoy.
Waterworld #746 (1995) - never played.
Mario Andretti #747 (1995) - never played.
Strikes 'n' Spares (1995) - actually fun, but low replay value for any home gameroom.
Barb Wire #748 (1996) - decent.
Rescue 911 - never played.
Cue ball wizard - owned, and I threw a hammer into the speaker to shut the voices up. pardnuh.
                         in all fairness, it was the sound package that destroyed what was a decently fun game.
Street Fighter II - meh.
Super Mario Bros - entertaining.



devils dare gets a mention - this one had to grow on me, never liked it until I had 1 in the gameroom. want to get to play more of the system 80 and 80As that are in the wild.

class of 1812. probably the most successful post EM gottlieb. that or Bell Ringer.

[TimothyC]

World Cup Soccer will hopefully be the first pin at my place later this year.  I love playing it in spite of the theme, but my wife and her family love soccer so much that I know it would be a huge hit.  Sadly other people have figured out it's a great pin and the price has exploded in recent years. 

Shaq Attaq #743 (1995) - owned, and secretly love this title. don't tell anybody. would own again.

I don't think I've played one at the shows, but I used to stop by the Fun Machine in Longwood on the way home from work to play Shaq Attaq and SWEP1 and always enjoyed it.

Cactus Jacks is also a lot o fun .

[getyourselfahotdog]

#1 Operation Thunder, only game I know of that after the wizard mode the game is over. Owned this for about 3 years and only completed it 5 times. Great underrated title you don't see much!

#2 Cueball Wizard, "surprise tenderfoot" the call outs make this title, very fun and difficult to complete 9 ball for the wizard mode.

#3 Teed off, fun game, can be played on the pinball arcade.

#4 world challenge Soccer, good flow, not as fun as WCS but was a tourney game at southern fried with lightning flippers on it and still was a blast to play.

#5 Rescue 911 if everything is working, helicopter is always not working when I come across one.

#6 Stargate, deep rule set, the more you know the dinner the game is.

#7Shaq , I've only played this one a few times but it was fun.

Surfin Safari is a game I see keep popping up at PAPA finals and all the tournament players know how to play this and the rule set. I would love to see this game at the Asylum but I haven't seen one for sale in the area. I would love to have access to this title! I do remember seeing one at one of the Florida shows a couple years back.

[Redfox]

From the era you're asking about IMO:

1. Stargate
2. Waterworld
3. Teed Off (I need to take a moment and mention that Teed Off has possibly the most mind numbing callout in pinball history.....ready..........here it is):

GUNTHER THE GOPHER: "He addresses the ball..........." :
Golfer/Player: "HELLO BALL!"   

(I was ready to kill myself after hearing that the first time, UGH!.....)

4. Shaq Attack

Rest I wasn't very fond of, including Freddy and Big Hurt and Mario Andretti and Barb Wire and others...

I never played World Challenge Soccer or Rescue 911, would love to try them someday.

[FUNWIZ]

Can't believe that 10 posts in, and no one has mentioned the number one or even second all time Gottlieb SS games! 

Haunted House will always be number one in my book, won't never change.
Black Hole just falls in line under HH.
Volcano got moved up after adding new boards to mine.  Fastest ball moving game they ever made.

Then I'm partial to the Premier Gottlieb.

Stargate.

After that the rest fall together as a tie with the lead going to

Class of 1812
Shaq Attack
Mario Andretti
Waterworld
Freddy

[pinballcorpse]

Ron D. covered the issue on post 5

[FUNWIZ]

Ron D. covered the issue on post 5

Just that it deserved to be in the front line, not the end of the posting of Ron's.  lol

[number six]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ynY1Y40OE

Gottleibs are a mixed bag. Most are kinda.. ehh.. its a gottleib. But there are a few that stand out.

I really liked Bonebusters for whatever reason and would love to pick one up someday.

[Marcel G]

Most here are talking about the Premier era, and I have a soft heart for those gottlieb games of the mid to late 80s. I played them in the arcade but at times they were used as filler for when waiting on system 11 games to be vacant. Later stuff started to get more interesting. I played Lights.Camera.Action in the arcade, it was pretty fun. The floodlights kicked in during multiball. You actually felt heat !
Class of 1812 the sounds and the animated heart in the back is what made the game. Bonebusters with the Pirate skull topper was awesome. Had one at APE back in 2013 I think , loved it. It sounded *a lot* like Curly. I wouldn't mind owning one of them someday.