Flipper amazing, fast fun, undoubtedly the best product made by Gottlieb in terms of gameplay, the design is wonderful and the surprise inside the pyramid is brilliant; display Dot Matrix and multiball 4, in short, there is everything, nothing to envy to the best Bally-Williams

Easy but fun machine to play. Shoot the pyramid! OK, might get old after a while but I enjoy playing this machine. Especially considering the price it beats out many higher priced pinballs.
Good handling with the 3rd flipper and satisfying to take it volley into the pyramid.

Love the show and TV series. Great game, multi ball galore. Decent ruleset that keeps you trying. Some people get annoyed by the Shoot the Pyramid, but it doesn't bother me. Definitely a keeper in the collection.

Probably the best system 3. Only downside is the shoot the pyramid callout constantly, which i think can be turned off

Stargate is my first pin, and while I was a bit warry purchasing it since I had never played it myself, I decided to go for it since it receives so much praise. I'll start by saying this is definitely a great game!

The playfield design is very good, with plenty to shoot for. At first glance, the two guards and the rollover drop-target blocking shots may seem a bit overkill (That's three shots that can be blocked), but in reality it really helps give the playfield more variety, and keeps the ball moving rather than going into a hole whenever these shots are made. The two ramp shots are really nice too. The right ramp is tough to hit, but super satisfying when hit right, and the left ramp is really fun because, if the shot is failed, the ball often rolls back down in such a way that it comes back to the upper right flipper and you can try to make the shot again. Sometimes this happens three or four times in a row before finally making it up! Similarly, the left-center kicker target, used to cycle through transporter awards, often kicks the ball back to the upper flipper, allowing you to make multiple shots at it until you have the award you want ready. Honestly, this game might have one of the most used upper flippers in pinball! The pyramid shot up the center is very satisfying, and can actually be made from all the flippers, but since it's so small it's easy to miss, and weak shots often go SDTM, so it's a good, challenging shot.

The rules in this game are really good! You could simply go for the pyramid rounds, but there's a slew of other ways to score and awards to earn. Transporter awards can be collected by shooting the left guard then making the shot after it lifts up. A five way combo can be started at the left ramp. A hurry up activates on the sarcophagus shot after 10 bumper hits. And, one of the coolest rules, is Quartz. Throughout the game there a different ways you can collect quartz, and at any moment you can make the shot past the right guard to trade it your quartz for different rewards. You have to be careful though, because if you get too much quartz you may surpass the reward you want (For example, light extra ball is available when you have 7-9 quartz, but if you accidentally get to 10, you'll have to trade your quartz, get back to zero, and recollect enough to reach the extra ball again), so collecting and managing your quartz is something you'll need to pay close attention to if you want to get the best rewards. It's a really cool feature as it really makes you think about what you're doing. Probably my main complaint is how easy it is to reach both of the wizard modes. Eye of Ra is reached after completing all six rounds, and Stargate Multiball is reached after completing the seven different objectives in the center of the playfield. Oftentimes, however, Stargate multiball can be reached almost by accident during a good game, and Eye of Ra could also be easily reached by starting a mode, waiting for it to end, and then repeating this until all modes are completed. I think it would have been good if the pyramid shot had to be relit somehow, rather than just always being available to start a mode. Thankfully, however, the game is programmed so these wizard modes won't score super well if you just get to them. They both rely on super jackpots, which can be raised various ways throughout the game. Raising the super jackpot on your way to the wizard modes is extremely important to getting an amazing score, rather than just a good one. On top of that, Eye of Ra itself is actually very challenging, so just because you get to it doesn't guarantee any big points! Probably my only other complaint is just how common multiball is. The game's main multiball can actually be started from the skillshot! Four of the six rounds are multiball, rather than timed (although this works out pretty well, I think), and of course, the wizard modes are all multiball as well. I really prefer when multiball is an exciting mode that you really feel like you earn, but I got used to the common multiball in Stargate pretty quick, so it's certainly not a deal breaker.

The presentation in this game is pretty good. The callouts don't bother me at all, although there really isn't much variety. Most are just callouts directing the player to different shots, with a few praising the player for doing well, but there aren't any quotes from the movie or anything, which is s shame. The music is really good in my opinion though, and the different tracks fit the different modes really well. The main play theme is a bit tense, which worried me at first as I thought it might become annoying, but it really isn't a problem. The music for Glidercraft is really good in particular, and the music in the last stage of Eye of Ra really makes things exciting and tense! The artwork on this game is amazing! It's kept fairly simple, but that's a good thing. Specifically the translite, which simply has the Stargate on it and the walkway into it, yet it's really detailed and has the awesome mirrored rope light, which makes it look as if there's actually a portal through the backbox! The lighting on the playfield is good enough, but there aren't really any light shows. The main shots on the game can strobe to indicate it needs to be shot, and there are times when the lights all blink on and off, but that's about it as far as the light shows go. There is a nice strobing effect with the flasher bulbs on the playfield though, which looks pretty cool. The DMD animations are also just decent, There are some really nice ones, but there are also some pretty blurry and rushed looking ones. It's better than most Gottliebs, that's for sure! And finally, you can't have a review without mentioning the game's main toy, the Glidercratf! It's definitely a cool toy, although it sadly doesn't interact with the ball in any way. I love how it stays hidden behind the pyramid until the glidercraft mode starts, as it really takes people who don't know about it by surprise. (And you can also tape weird pictures to it and people won't see them until it comes out! :P)

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the game, and you can't really go wrong buying it. It's especially nice that it's a Gottlieb because System 3 is built extremely well (Or so I've heard), and prices are kept down. The rules are very deep with plenty of strategy involved, and it looks beautiful. I definitely plan on keeping this game for a long time!

Star gate is one of the better Premiere games made. For the price, it's quite a pin! Lots of cool toys, some great geometry, and a lot of fun.

The game itself is gorgeous as it's loaded with wire forms and super cool toys. The pyramid hides a super cool animated alien feature that must be seen.

I love the shots on this game! It's a unique layout that strays far from what was popular and overdone at the time. You can tell that someone invested a lot of time getting those shots just right.

The bad: the callouts are pretty repetitive ("shoot the pyramid"). It's a Gottlieb so the hardware needs to be debugged (grounding issues). It's a Premiere so the flippers feel a little cheap to me compared to B/W. Red DMD looks lame to me.

I like this game and wouldn't mind spending more time on this deck!

Probably the very best of the gottlieb/premiere pins of this era. a surprisingly fun game that is more than worth a few plays if you can find a nice one.

I love playing this pin. So many things to shoot for and the shots feel great. Incredible game.

The more I play it the more I love it.
The biggest complaint people seem to have about Stargate it the call outs. Never seemed to bother me while focusing on a game. The only thing I don't like is how the ball launches down the drain after a quartz trade.

Stargate is a Multiball lovers dream and plays quite fast. The most well designed Gottlieb ever made!

One of the Only GTB I would ever own

well that and Freddy :-)


Enter the Sarcophagus....

SHOOT THE PYRAMID

I only played a handful of games on this, but my first impression was a good one. I would play it again if I got the chance.

This is a very cool game. Pinball game from movie licenses have had some great results over the years, unlike video games. I'm looking forward to spending more time playing it.

Playable but not my top

Great game with fantastic toys, rules, sounds, and art. The glider that comes out of the pyramid is great fun to watch. My favorite toys, however, are the Horus and Anubis targets that lift up off the playfield to reveal a path behind them. Seems simple, but they are very satisfying to hit.

I am a dia hard Sifi and Stargate fan so this one did it for me. The only Gottlieb pin from the nineties that worked out really well.
Shoot the Pyramid centers the game. Still looking to buy a good one.

I love the layout. The rule set is better than average. There are several things unique to this game that make it stand out. IE: the guards, the skill shot to sarcophagus multi ball, 2 pop bumpers, one of the wizard modes is a once per game chance...

I wish the battle mode wasn't weighted so heavily for points. It is not as bad as the billion spinner on JM but it can add HUGE points if you get on a roll.

If this game had Bally/Williams parts and sound, it would almost certainly be a Top 20 pin. It's really good once you start to understand it. The first few times I played my review was "meh". So, naturally, I bought one. Now I like it. A LOT!

Never been a fan of Premier/Gottlieb games. The machines feel clunky, look ugly and Gottlieb flipper mechs of the era are so much worse than WPC ones.

Those being my initial thoughts, I must admit that I've really enjoyed playing Stargate after getting one cleaned and fixed. You really need to have rebuilt flippers to be able to shoot those steep ramps.

With GTB flipper mechs and the habitrails feeding balls directly to the bottom of flippers, basically every shot returning from habitrails can be cradled. This slows down the gameplay, but surprisingly doesn't make the game way too easy.

Is this the 90's game with most multiball modes? Your first plunge gives you multiball (!!!), four of the modes are multiballs, sandstorm and both of the wizard awards are multiballs. Luckily all the multiball modes are somehow different and the biggest points aren't gotten that easily. Being able to first build up your super jackpot value and then to collect it with 3x scoring gives huge scoring opportunities, but the strategy isn't that easy to execute.

It's weird and sad that the game rolls over at ten billion, even on the high score list. The ruleset providing a possibility to build up the super jackpot value to over a billion, combined with the 3x scoring feature makes it possible to score ten billion within one 3x Eye of Ra mode. Reduced scoring adjustment provides only little help for this.

Nice table. Would own.

Fun would own

Good looking Cabinet...esp BG,

Call outs are really annoying "shoot the pyramid", Pyramid toy is laughable. Some good shots but bores quickly........def not a long term machine.

Dodgey sellers in Australia inflate the price on this (and many others) to the extreme. Its a cheap pin and it shows....dont get sucked in to paying overs for it.

Way over rated, surprised to see it in the top 100. So many comment that this was the best DMD game Gottlieb made........if true then no wonder they were a distant last.

A Lot of fun with a lot of toys and fun gimmicks.

an absolute nightmare of a pin, no flow in this whatsoever, i had played this several times to try and get into it- but its just aweful....

Get The Pyramid, then Get the Pyramid, then Get The Pyramid again...Well maybe not that bad But disappointing compared to the Williams games of the same era.
Shame cause great theme From a good movie.
Good fun to play but easily Beaten I found..