This article is about the pinball and arcade game manufacturer. For other uses, see Gottlieb (name).
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade gamecorporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is best known for creating a vast line of pinball machines and arcade games (including Q*bert) throughout much of the 20th century.
Gottlieb's main office and plant was at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s, when a new modern plant and office were opened at 165 W. Lake Street in Northlake, IL. A subassembly plant was also built in Fargo, ND.[1]
The company was established by David Gottlieb in 1927, and initially produced only pinball machines. It later expanded into various other games, including pitch-and-bats, bowling games, and eventually video arcade games (notably Reactor, Q*bert and M*A*C*H*3.)[citation needed]
Like other manufacturers, Gottlieb first made mechanical pinball machines, including the first successful coin-operated pinball machine Baffle Ball in 1931.[2]Electromechanical machines were produced starting in 1935. The 1947 development of player-actuated, solenoid-driven 2-inch bats called "flippers" revolutionized the industry, giving players the ability to shoot the ball back up into the playfield for more points. Flippers first appeared on a Gottlieb game called Humpty Dumpty, designed by Harry Mabs. By this time, the games also became noted for their artwork by Roy Parker.
In the late 1950s, Gottlieb made more widespread use of numerical score reels, making multiple player games more practical than the traditional scoring expressed by cluttered series of lights in the back box. Score reels eventually appeared on single-player games, now known as "wedgeheads" because of their distinctive tapered back box shape. By the 1970s, artwork on Gottlieb games was almost always by Gordon Morison, and the company had begun designing their games with longer 3-inch flippers, now the industry standard.
The company made the move into solid state machines starting in the late 1970s. The first few of these were remakes of electromechanical machines such as Joker Poker and Charlie's Angels. By that time, multiple player machines were more the mode and wedgeheads were no longer being produced. The last wedgehead was T.K.O. (1979) and the last single player machine was Asteroid Annie and The Aliens (1980).[3]
Gottlieb was bought by Columbia Pictures in 1976.[4] Gottlieb released Q*bert in 1982, which would become immensely successful and is an icon of the golden age of arcade games. In 1983, after the Coca-Cola Company had acquired Columbia, Gottlieb was renamed Mylstar Electronics,[4] but this proved to be short-lived. By 1984 the video game industry in North America was in the middle of a shakeout and Columbia closed down Mylstar at the end of September 1984.[2] 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. As a result of this a number of prototype Mylstar arcade games, which were not purchased by the investors, were never released. Premier did go on to produce one last arcade game, 1989's Exterminator. Premier Technology, which returned to selling pinball machines under the name Gottlieb after the purchase, continued in operation until the summer of 1996.
Gottlieb's most popular pinball machine was Baffle Ball (released mid-1931), and their final machine was Barb Wire (early 1996).
The 1965 machine Gottlieb's Kings & Queens is the one played by the title character in the 1975 rock opera movie Tommy about a psychosomatically blind, deaf, and mute pinball wizard.[5] Today, Gottlieb's pinball machines (along with those distributed under the Mylstar and Premier names), as well as the "Gottlieb" and "D. Gottlieb & Co." trademarks (USPTO registration nos. 1403592, 2292766, and 3288024, and other numbers in countries around the world), are owned by Gottlieb Development LLCofPelham Manor, New York. Most of Gottlieb and Mylstar's video games are currently owned by Columbia Pictures.
Street Fighter II #735 (1993) – based on the Street Fighter II video game by Capcom; in 1995–1996, pinball machines were produced under the name Capcom, originally were made in the Gottlieb factory
Brooks N' Dunn #749 – This game was entering production just as Gottlieb shut down and ceased operations. Two prototype machines supposedly exist, although some claim the design never proceeded past the whitewood stage. Playfield components, such as plastics, ramps, mechanisms and Translites were produced for the games about to enter production; enough for about 10 games to exist. Only buggy prototype software exists and was never completed.
Gottlieb was last to introduce a solid-state system, and last to cease manufacture of electromechanical games. The first version of Gottlieb's solid statepinball hardware was called System 1, and had many undocumented features. Designed and developed by Rockwell International's Microelectronics Group of Newport Beach, CA with circuit board manufacturing and final assembly in El Paso, Texas. Likely it was rushed to compete with the new solid-state games from other manufacturers, particularly Bally. [citation needed] An entirely new platform was produced in 1980, System 80, which was refined in System 80A and System 80B. Following the System 80 platform, a new platform named System 3 was first released in 1989 and was used until the company's closure.
