I'm playing for you today this rare 1978 Gottlieb Strange World. There were only 675 of these machines made. By the time this game was made, solid state technology had already managed to establish a firm foothold in the arcades and electromechanical machines were on the way out. By the end of 1979, all manufacturers had ceased production of EM pinball.
This game has some unique aspects to it and is quite fun. Hitting the numbered targets and rollovers light the corresponding numbers in the grid at the centre of the playfield. Completing all the numbers in one row lights the saucer "occasionally" for special. Completing each of the ones, twos, threes or fours lights those numbers for 10x their unlit value.
The green "1" target and the yellow "4" target are challenging to shoot for off the very tips of the flippers and the unusual slingshot and outlane configuration make the lower playfield truly "strange". Keeping the ball under control takes some finesse. There's a third slingshot half-way up the right side of the playfield (which I love) making the game quite unpredictable. There's some awesome pop bumper action and sending the ball to the top through the pops is a fun challenge as well.
Strange World is a neat game with some cool shots and interesting challenges. Definitely one of my favourite wedgeheads. It has outstanding artwork as well.
For the record, two of the pop bumper caps on the machine in the video are the wrong colour.
This machine was designed by John Osborne with artwork by the late/great Gordon Morison.
More Strange World information can be found here:
ipdb.org/machin...
7 авг 2015
