Gottlieb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the CIA Agent, see Sidney Gottlieb. See also Gottlieb (disambiguation)
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an arcade game corporation, which was established by David Gottlieb in the 1930s and first produced pinball games, but also produced various other games including pitch-and-bats, bowling games, and eventually video arcade games as well.
Like other manufacturers, Gottlieb first made mechanical pinball games, then electromechanical starting in 1935, and solid state tables starting in the late 1970s.
Gottlieb was bought by Columbia Pictures in 1977. In 1983, after the Coca Cola Company had acquired Columbia, Gottlieb's pinball assets were transferred to a new Coca Cola subsidiary, Mylstar Electronics. In 1984, Coca Cola sought to divest itself of Mylstar, which also made video games. A management group, led by Gilbert G. Pollock, purchased Mylstar's pinball assets in October 1984 and continued the manufacture of pinball machines under a new company, Premier Technology. Premier Technology continued in operation until the summer of 1996, when the slackening demand for pinball forced the company to cease business. Premier did not file for bankruptcy, but sold off all its assets for the benefit of its creditors.
Today, Gottlieb's pinball games (along with those distributed under the Mylstar and Premier names), as well as the trademark on the Gottlieb name are owned by a holding group, Gottlieb Development LLC
Gottlieb's most popular pinball game was Baffle Ball (Mid-1931), and their last released game was Barb Wire (Early 1996).
During the 90's Alvin Gottlieb produced again pinballs after leaving the business due to its sale around the 80's. As the son of David Gottlieb he couldn't produce pins under the name Gottlieb because Premier had the rights and didn't want Alvin to use the name. That's why instead of D. Gottlieb & co, Alvin G. & co is the brand he made. Everyone would know were the G stood for. Bad Luck for Alvin because he couldn't keep his company long running. That was due to the fact that Williams enforced their position by threatening. Who bought Alvin, lost the rights on buying Williams. Though good pins were made, he couldn't survive for long...
Contents |
[edit] Gottlieb Pinball Games
[edit] Electromechanical Pinball Games
- Baffle Ball (1931)
- Bank-A-Ball (1950)
- Wishing Well (1955)
- Happy Clown (1964)
- Spirit of 76 (1975)
- Fast Draw (1975)
- Pyramid (1978)
[edit] Gottlieb System 1 Pinball Games
- Cleopatra #409
- Sinbad #412
- Joker Poker #417
- Dragon #419
- Solar Ride #421
- Count Down #422
- Charlie's Angles #425
- Pinball Pool #427
- Totem #429
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind #430
- Incredible Hulk
- Genie
- Buck Rogers
- Torch
- Roller Disco
- Asteroid Annie
[edit] System 80 Pinball Games
- Panthera #652
- The Amazing Spider-Man #653 (1980)
- Circuis #654
- Counterforce #655
- Star Race #657
- James Bond #658
- Time Line #659
- Force II #661
- Pink Panther #664
- Mars God of War #666
- Volcano #667
- Black Hole #668 (1981)
- Haunted House #669 (1982)
- Devil's Dare #670
- Rocky #672
- Spirit #673
- Striker #675
- Q*Bert's Quest #677
- Super Orbit #680
[edit] System 80B Pinball Games
- Chicago Cubs Triple Play #969 (1985)
- Hollywood Heat (1986)
- Spring Break #706 (1987)
- Arena #709 (1987)
- Diamond Lady #711 (1988)
[edit] System 3 Pinball Games
- Bone Busters #347 (1989)
- Vegas (1990)
- Operation Thunder -Last Gottlieb game to use an alpha-numeric display
- Super Mario Bros. #733 (1992) -First Gottlieb game to use a DotMatrix Display(DMD)
- Cue Ball Wizard
- Street Fighter II(based upon the video-game from capcom) Later on in 1995-1996 Pinballs were produced under the name capcom who originally were made in the Gottlieb factory
- Tee'd Off
- Wipe Out
- Gladiators
- World Challenge Soccer
- Rescue 911
- Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Shaq Attaq
- Stargate (1995)
- Big Hurt
- Waterworld
- Mario Andretti
- Barb Wire
Gottlieb was the first manufacturer of the real pinball, the were at the start of the business. Gottlieb was last to introduce a solid-state system, and last to cease manufacture of electromechanical games. The first version of Gottlieb's solid state pinball hardware was called System 1, and had many design flaws. Likely it was rushed to compete with the new solid-state games from other manufacturers, particularly Bally. An entirely new platform was produced in 1980, System 80, which was refined in System 80A and System 80B. The final revision was System 3, first made in 1988.
