Just had to make a post about how impressed I am with this machine's gameplay!

This is a great multi-player machine, where a 4 player game takes only about 10 minutes and nobody is out of the game until the their 5th ball drains!

Gameplay is simple, yet highly addictive. The big points come from the roto-targets in the middle, and aligning the inserts correctly, which you have some 'control' over. The red/yellow inserts rotate with the respective red/yellow jet hits and red/yellow sling hits. The lit rollovers at the top will Spin the targets, as will the side lanes which are midway up, not to mention the saucer when lit. So, as you can see, getting everything lined up for that perfect 500 point shot is very difficult, and you normally only get one shot at it because the rebound sends roto to spinning and inserts a scrolling.

And the point swings continue into the outlanes! A/B/C/D in the outlanes correspond to the value of the roto-target at that position. Crazy!

We had a game where on ball 5 everyone was way behind the leader at 1400 points, and player 3's final shot was a 500 point roto shot which rebounded into a 500 point outlane drain, BOOM with 1,000 in under a second, and just like that we have a winner.

The point swings are just huge! Unfortunately the highest displayed score is 1,999.... so you do have to watch it when you get those big shots lined up and rebounding just right, because it'll blow right by it.

The importance of lining up the inserts is illustrated in the playfield picture below. You can see a 200 point shot is lined up. If just the red OR yellow insert is lit, it's a 20 point shot. If none, it's a 2 point shot. If both, it's 200. That's the game in a nutshell. Very simple, yet incredibly addictive, and a heckuva multiplayer machine!

Just a PSA for the guys looking for new fun machines for their collection which won't break the bank, especially for those who enjoy quick competitive games with friends which don't take half the evening!

dl.jpg

dl-988.jpg

Not from eBay. A friend of mine found this in a warehouse last year and I got it from him.

They are hard to find, but in this day and age of Stern and JJP LE pricing, it's still not going to break the bank, relatively speaking. But you're right in that it'll cost you more than the average 60's Gottlieb, and backbox animation Gottlieb's always up the price a little more as well.

I really don't know. I got this from a friend out of a warehouse, so my price paid is not anything to go by. I did a search and hadn't seen one really sell in years. I'd guess anywhere from $700-1500, depending on condition. Just guessing, though.

It's got the same bottom. But the projection roto scores differently. I figured it out while playing the one at PAPA but I've forgotten how it scores... Something to do with the order you've lit those projection inserts. I'd love to grab a Dodge City one day, what a great animated back box!

Yeah, I think most EM's of the era are hit/miss. I just dig the point swings and control you have in order to set up the big shots. I think the fact that DL is a multi-player is a benefit to the machine!

A friend came over last week while I was unwrapping another game, so I coined up DL for him and let him play while I was unwrapping. He played a couple games and then switched over to Metallica: "I'm not crazy about the older machines...."

Well the same friend visited a few days later, and I was playing DL head's up with another friend, and he immediately changed his tune when he saw us all worked up, trying to setup the big shots and big drains.... We explained the rules to him quickly and the three of us ended up playing 3-player games on DL for the next hour.

All the EM's can be perceived as boring if you're just flipping around. But if the player really understands the objectives, it's a lot more fun. One of the reasons why I made this thread...