maybe the ball trough / shooter lane machinery tends to get in the way of where a right-side kickback would go.

You saved me from typing that... thank you sir.

of course, where is it written that you have to have a shooter lane? weren't there some pins that would launch the ball onto the table from a spot between the two flippers?

Where is it written the primary shooter lane must be on the right, secondaries have been on the left. no reason the primary couldn't be left.

Spectrum does a center launch.

Twin Win shoots the ball up from between the flippers

So does Baby PacMan, and I assume Granny and the Gators too.

Big Hit and Pro Football also also use center plunger but they are older EMs.
RBION locks balls in the right side next to shooter lane but is not the right outlane

This seems like an appropriate place to mention how awesome the right outlane is on Starship Troopers! The outlane serves as part of the shooter lane thanks to a one way gate in the bottom arch. It's such a brilliant design, as it makes the playfield feel like a widebody. I'm not sure if there are any other games that use a similar design, but I don't know of any and I wish there were more!

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4341&picno=21889

Careful on the plunge

I really like the way Space Shuttle had the gate on the right side to devert to the inlane once and then you had to lght it again. (Other games also have this). Would be cool to see that comeback too

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2260&picno=15271

that's a good example. that gate performs pretty much the same function as a kickback -- saves you once, until you light it again.

I was watching the PAPA road show (episode 1)the other day and saw them mention a manual kick back that you would control with an extra flipper button on the cabinet....that would also be sweet if revived

i love the manual lane savers on Dungeons & Dragons.

Gottlieb Volcano had this on the left outlane! Very fun and hard to remember.

It's called the 'Italian bottom' style layout, and designers that deviates from it in most modern machines faces criticism for 'gimmicky' layout. Fellows like Nordman and Trudeau have probably been the most adventurous, but few games with weird lower layouts make most peoples top machines. Trudeau did this new Mustang machine - im interested to see if there's anything with his unique touch in the lower layout of the machine.

Players decided a long time ago that two flippers, 2-4 inlanes, and outlanes are the safest bet for a machine. Anything deviating from this is a flash in the pan these days - WoF is probably the most modern machine with a tweak on this layout and it just doesn't stick in most peoples mind as 'better' just different.