(68) 1972: Gottlieb Italian versions of that year were "Texas Ranger" (01/1972), (69) a plain conversion of (68A) "Sheriff" and its two-player variant "Lawman", (70) "Space Orbit" with the first use in an italian pinball of the Vari-Target and (73B) "Play Pool" (09/72), which is adapted from the (73A) Hot Shot, Big Shot, and Pro Pool American games. (70C)
Space Orbit has the artwork of the American four-player Orbit and two-player Outer Space, but the playfield is actually an adaptation of (70A) the 1970 design for the four-player Polo and two-player Mini-Cycle. (70B) What a shame that they didn't use the layout of Orbit, a true classic. (Don't lose all hope, though.) A prototype game I've never seen was "All Stars", Italian version #331 of "Jump Shot".
(72) 1973: "Jungle Life" (01/73), (74) "Top Hand" (05/73) and (75) "Ten Up" (08/73). Italian manufacturers were busy selling perfect copies of these games. Zaccaria introduces its first kit, a "Ten Up" playfield and backglass that can be fitted inside any existing Williams cabinet.
"Jungle Life" was the only Gottlieb Italian version featuring something similar to Bally's kickback: it was made with a gate and a slingshot kicker. The gate in the left outlane has appeared again recently on Gottlieb's Stargate. Note that while Bally's kickback coudn't be installed on the right outlane, due to space restrictions with the presence of the outhole mechanisms, the Gottlieb mechanism used much less space and it could fit the right outlane as well. But they never made this. As a side note, the only pinball I know with a kickback also on the right outlane is the Mr.Game "World Cup '90", designed by Tony Ramunni. Mr. Game was the new name of the Zaccaria factory, which closed for good after that pinball, produced in only a few samples.
(76) 1974: Of a total of 12 pinballs produced, Gottlieb only made two of them especially for Italy: "Sky Dive" (02/1974) (77) and "Royal Pair" (10/74). (77B) We are far from years like 1967, when of 13 pinballs manufactured, 6 were for Italy...
Corresponding to the drop in Gottlieb's production, there was news from (100) Williams, who gave a license to a Spanish manufacturer, Segasa, to build some special 1-player, add-a-ball versions of their most successful games of those years, perfectly adapted to be sold in the Italian market. (102) These games were very popular in Italy, and were produced under the Williams logo, with somewhere in tiny letters the writing "copyright USA - Williams Electronics Inc., by Segasa under license". (101) One of these was "Star-Flite", but there were a lot of Williams pinballs of those years converted, like for example "Big Ben" and others. Often they had the same name as the normal credit version.
This licensing to Segasa continued until a few years ago: one of the last pinballs to be manufactured in Spain under license was "Big Guns", by the way with a more conventional cabinet than the original game which (as you recall) had a special head with a mini-pachinko game inside.
There is something interesting from Williams USA, too: (22V) "Star Action". This and other games were built to be operated differently in the USA or Italy. (21v) In their manual, there are several references to two different adjustments, "USA and Italian". If you choose Italian, extra-balls are indicated on the backglass by some stars, instead of having them added to the current number of balls to be played. (26v) As usual, there was also a special circuit to have two plays with one coin even without the presence of a dedicated credit unit; also, there were (19v) some changes to internal circuits, to have a bell ring at the topping of a certain high score, and the coin meter to register that, instead of the total play. Why?
Because it was common for bartenders to give a little prize, usually a drink or a snack, to the person who topped that score. As the cost of the prize was divided with the operator, the total play meter gave a sure way for the operator to check how many prizes the bartender gave away.
Obviously this was a forbidden practice, but as I told you before, in certain zones of Italy it was no problem. Here you can see a part of the schematic (which curiously is a blue print) and (25v) the score cards, mentioning the fact that the bells ring at a certain score. What this means was left to the player's imagination.
1975: While Bally was busy selling their "Wizard!", (78) Gottlieb built only two Italian versions: "Tiger"(08/75) (79) and "Lucky Strike"(11/75). The last was especially successful, inspiring a lot of copies. (78B) Tiger has artwork not shared with any American game, but the playfield is the long-awaited Italianized version of the classic Orbit layout!
At this point, replay machines are starting to be used even in Italy, in places were they were forbidden: the presence of a credit drum was no longer an indication of a prohibited game. Several 4-player pinballs, like Bally "Wizard!" and "Flip Flop", could be adjusted to award just an extra ball at a certain high-score. Those convertible games could only store a single extra ball, because they used a relay rather than a stepper unit.
(80) 1976-1977: Italian versions are going to disappear. Again, only two Italian versions per year: "Spot Pool" (03/1976) (81) and "High Seas" (11/76); then (82) "Kicker" (02/77) and "Lucky Card" (83) (07/77). Kicker uses the playfield layout of the American Abra-ca-dabra and the artwork of the American add-a-ball Team One. Often, the manufacturers of Italian copies were amongst the best customers of Gottlieb: they bought some of each game Gottlieb built, just for disassembling it to be able to copy the art and design of the backglass, the playfield and the cabinet. (66) And often these games were the first prototypes: for example, I found my Gottlieb's "Wizard" in the warehouse of one of these clone manufacturers, where it stood without ever being operated. It was just taken out of its package, examined, photographed and put in storage.
1978 - 1979: "Rock Star" was sold in Italy with the usual bottom metal arch reading "Buttons on side of cabinet". But the schematic mentioned the 'flipper buttons' and the 'flipper coils': I believe it wasn't a special version only for Italy, just an add-a-ball game where that metal part had been substituted. The last real Italian version was one of the last electromechanical pinballs built by Gottlieb: it was "Poseidon", with those score reels with digital numbers painted over. Bally and Williams had already started their electronic production, a couple of years before Gottlieb.
The complete pictorial coverage of these games will appear in book form. If you know of any omissions or corrections, please tell us.
THE END
Illustrations mentioned in this chapter:
- "Tiger" flyer
- "Lucky Strike" flyer