Big Indian for sure, way better than Target Alpha.

If it were an El Dorado, it would win. But yes, TA is boring. I would go with Big Indian.

I am a big fan of Big Indian/Brave.

I’ve got a Big Indian in a collection of mainly solid states, and it still gets played quite a bit

El Dorado is better than Big Indian is better than Target Alpha.

My problems with Target Alpha and Solar City are two fold.

They altered the drain lanes a bit to increase ball time. Which is why it is very possible to complete all 15 targets in one ball when it typically takes more than 5 on El Dorado.

Which leads to my second dislike. Once you have all the targets down, there isn't anything left to shoot for (directly) other than to keep sending the ball up right in hopes of EB or special.

If set ultra conservative, it might make for a decent competition game. But I am a man verses Machine type of player.

Big Indian/Brave offer a good mix of things to shoot for. And the Vari Target offers a good risk vs reward with the 5000 and 5 bonus advances which can result in 15,000 for a single shot on last ball (Bonus double). But often results in a fight to save a SDTM ball.

I have both, and I say Big Indian, by far.

Big Indian offers more diversity plain and simple. Go for it!

The first time I ever played ""Target Alpha" on location, I said "it looks like "Gold Strike", but that's all". I was never inspired by it's gameplay. I'd go with "Big Indian" which is not a bad game.

and the winner is...............

will sampson (resized).jpg

Big Injun, Brave or Indian are all good games from a glass artwork and game design. PF artwork IMHO blows, and cabinet is kinda blow too.

TA indeed is absolutely boring, and the artwork IMHO is rather uninteresting as well. Was popular, and big numbers made, but not a keeper when it compares to others of the same PF layout and differing ruleset.

Spin Jet to me is another good game to consider if you are looking for asymmetrically designed games with loads of fun on the PF to hit. Also look at the retheme/mod done to one a few years back to become a one-off Jetsons game (not the one from Spooky), fun and if you are into DIY modding go for it and duplicate the work done by the modder. This one is a huge project, but worth the effort to get it Jetson'ed.

Have fun!

Big Indian.

Nice, funny thing is, i was given one of those r4r3 "Big Injun" version for free just this weekend, sadly the original backglass is broken, and the machine is in parts due to previous owner wnating to do a "total overhaul" but failed/gave up.

Will prob have to do a technical "Help me for God's sake" threads later on when i get it home. LOL

For a rare BG yes, for the game no. Its basic stuff on EMs/GTB.

Well i took it home today, not that bad on the outside, playfield is... is... abit used.

Other then that its complete, all plastics is accounted for etc etc just in parts.

Also found that little note from Gottlieb on the cables.
IMG_20180902_213029 (resized).jpgIMG_20180902_213043 (resized).jpgIMG_20180902_213248 (resized).jpgIMG_20180902_213302 (resized).jpgIMG_20180902_213333 (resized).jpgIMG_20180902_213848 (resized).jpgIMG_20180902_213945 (resized).jpg

Make sure to get with Peter of Pinball Rebel with all paperwork you have, show him
either in photos or send scans to him. He'll do complete reproduction of all the paper, which
if not already in his collection/offerings, will be a big help to others down the road.
Nice find, and good luck with the BG find, they are out there but rare.

Well i dont have much more then the original scorecard (the other small one is a Swedish version which says: "Due to the law of gaming of 1 april 1973 pinballs may only give out a free game per player and game. 1 free play is gained by reaching 65.000 points") and a couple of scanned schematics + some printed pages from pinwiki.

So you didnt get either of those you wanted earlier in this thread? bummer, bro

I like Target Alpha. I own Solar City (two of them), but I feel that TA has the better art. However I also agree that once the targets are down, it instantly turns into a snoozefest. Working on an extra ball you can’t shoot for, and then banging a spot target close the the flippers. That makes El Dorado the right game for this playfield. And as mentioned above, the outlanes in ED are just the wire. Not the extra post with rubber in SC and TA (and CD).

I've owned both - Target Alpha.

Classic layout and cooler artwork.

Cowabunga!! Surf Champ is even better than Big Indian IMO.....now go get it!

Yep - sold my Big Brave and Target Alpha, but kept my Surf Champ. I'm coincidentally looking forward to adding this back into my active lineup soon!