I know this is a rather long shot, but when I was quite little, my parents had a pinball machine. I loved it. I wasn't older than 4 or 5 when they finally got rid of it as it was starting to need repairs more frequently and my uncle who had previously done the repairs no longer lived nearby. I've asked my parents, but they can't remember. Nor can my older brother or uncle who used to repair it.

Sadly, other than remembering all the fun I had playing it, I cannot remember what machine it was. I believe I remember the cabinet was primarily blue, but I have no idea how accurate this memory is. Being so young when they got rid of the table, combined with decades of playing many other pinball machines and some time in college killing brain cells, a lot of tables have blended together. I've forgotten about many tables until I get in front of one and suddenly can remember it. Judging by the fact I know my parents wouldn't have gotten it new, and probably got it from a local arcade when they were looking to get rid of it, I would guess early to mid 70's. My mom says it might have even been late '60s. I've tried looking for somewhere that has pictures of pinball machines of these times to try and spark my memory, but I've not been successful.

My sister did give me a hint about checking old photo albums for pictures that have the table in them, which would definitely identify the table, and I hope to get a chance to go through my mom's old photos soon, but in the meantime, I'm hoping someone here might know where I can find some pictures of tables from the era that might get me to an answer sooner.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

I want to say it was a 2 player machine, but the memories of a 4 year old, 30 years after the fact are rather vague. I'm fairly certain it was a multiplayer though. But it might have been that we just took turns playing too.

As for being wedge shaped, I can't be certain, but I want to say it wasn't.

Got some more information from my mother today. She's going to see if she can at least dig out the photo albums for the time period for me to look through if she doesn't get to it first. Apparently we got it around 1976, so it will definitely pre-date that. It was donated to the Jaycees from a local arcade for an auction which is how my parents ended up with it. She thinks it was an older table, most likely from the '60s. So I'm going to try narrowing my search down to '65-69 and see if I can't spark a memory. Or find a picture of the old table.

Thank you all for your help so far.

OK, I got the chance to talk to my brother who is currently teaching overseas and picked his brain about it as well as getting what my mom could remember about it.

My mom said they got it from a Jaycees auction in either '75 or '76 and thought it was already an old game, probably from the '60s. She believes it was donated by Kline's Amusements, an old local arcade in town, or possibly the other that I'd never heard of until today and already forgot the name of. They got it for either $35 or $50 and when they eventually sold it in the '80s when I was little, they got $75 for it. I'm not sure if those prices would help any with identifying which table, but figured I'd put them out there. I can't remember exactly when they sold it, but I don't think I was more than 4 or 5 which would be around '86-87, though my mom thought we had it for about 15 years which would put it in the '90s which seems too late. It all is mostly blurred together, so I can't say for certain when they got rid of it.

My brother believes it was a two player game, though there's a chance it might have been a 4 player. Each player had 3 dials for their score and when you hit 1000, the one would light up and the dials would reset to 0. It was a nickel to play and he thinks 5 balls per play. Free game was at 700 points and he thinks an extra free game every 100 points after that. It would light a random number at the end of your game and if you matched, you got a free game. He says it made a popping noise when you got a free game, but I'm assuming it was more of the standard knock, but I can't remember.

Armed with this, I'm going to check some of the suggestions here that I haven't checked yet and then try narrowing down some searches on IPDB.

Thank you all so much.

Haha, they never would have carved them. My brother maybe, but not my parents. Not sure if either of them ever actually played it. I'm assuming my dad must have a bit when we first got it as my brother would only have been about 5, though he's probably the one that's played it the most. If they would have kept it so I'd have had more years to play it, I easily would have gotten more time on the table.

Oh wow you guys. I didn't think I'd be getting this much help/interest in trying to figure this out.

I know it's something all games do, but I was able to say that a couple of games weren't it just because they would be at 800 or 1000 and not 700. I'm not sure if it was every 100 points after, and he wasn't certain on that point either, but was fairly sure it was at 700. I am drawing a complete blank on manufacturer, even though I'm sure it was plastered all over the place. The thing that I didn't know about was the popping sound he was talking about. I don't remember ever hearing something other than a standard "knock" but if there were a few tables that did something different, I thought it could narrow it down dramatically.

Yes, my brother is 10 years older than me and he was probably about 5 when they got it and I was anywhere from 4-10 (I think closer to 4 or 5) when my parents sold it, which put him between 14 and 20, so he got to play it for about 10-15 years and does remember it better than I. I'm almost certain it was sold before he had graduated high school. Probably around the time they bought him a Commodore64. I played it a lot, but I can't remember much from being that young. I had sent my brother a link to the pinball database and he was trying to look at tables while his students were busy, but it was a bit overwhelming as I don't think he had tried using the advance search to narrow it down.

I want to say it was metal rails. My mom remembers that it had silver legs, though I'm not sure if that would narrow it down or if they were even original legs. Before we got it, it was from an arcade and from what I understand, upkeep wasn't something arcades did a lot of, so they're probably original?

I had seen some of those backglasses on the database and some of them looked familiar, but there's several that look quite similar and nothing that jumped out at me as an "OMG! That's definitely IT!" unfortunately. I'll have to show my brother those and see if he has better luck with remembering. Some of them had things on the playfield that I didn't think were on ours, but I really can't remember the playfield at all, so I couldn't say for sure.

I dug through all of the albums at my parents house and couldn't find a single picture of the pinball machine. With as much as we played it, I find that really hard to believe. Probably used Polaroids when taking pics with the pinball machine and those didn't usually go into the photo albums. I'll have to ask my sister if she has any photo albums from back then of pictures she took with her camera.

You guys (and possibly girls, I wasn't checking profiles) are great! I'll definitely let you know if any of these tables you've suggested are a match to his memory.

Forwarded the backglass images of the 2 player Gottliebs that match the specs to my brother, he says ours was similar, but wasn't one of those.

I didn't remember any gobble holes and my brother confirmed it didn't have any. I can't recall anything special on the table. I can't even remember if there's a center post between the flippers. I keep forgetting to ask my brother about it.

I don't recall any animation. Considering the age of the machine, I wouldn't expect any either.

I believe the ball ejected automatically since I'm not sure what bar you're talking about pushing. I'll double check with my brother.

I loved the gameplay. Trouble is, despite when my mom thinks we got rid of it, I was about 3 or 4 when they sold it, so I wasn't all that interested in the artwork. I loved playing it, not looking at it. But it's been so long and I was so young and I've played so many machines in between and my memory isn't that great to begin with, that I just can't remember the table. I get brief moments when I can picture it, but it's gone before I can do anything about it.

As for theme, I can't remember.

Zipper-flippers are a no. I just saw a table the other day with them and thought they were pretty cool and had never seen them before.
I asked about the center post and my brother doesn't remember there being one there, but isn't certain.
I don't remember any rotating targets or anything to spell, I'll check with my brother.

That is awesome and gives me hope. Though remembering the backglass does make it easier to find again.

I'll try and pick my brother's brain some more and toss another line to my sister to see if we can't remember some more.

Thank you all.

My brother is certain on the light up scoring, so I'd say that one is accurate. I'll ask about the ball lift.
We never really cared much as to who made it I think, I know I didn't back then.
I figured you didn't mean actual animation, but I figured they didn't start that until the late '60s or early '70s.

Edit>> IPDB says that this was the first Gotllieb to institute automatic ball lift, but it was already in use by Bally, Chicago Coin, and Williams. So might not narrow it down much.
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Edit2>> It also shows the triple coin chute. I'm not sure if ours had 1 or 2, but pretty certain not 3.

Basically instead of the start start button on later machines, you have the second rod... That is vaguely familiar, though not sure from other machines or ours.

My sister says she can't really remember, but there's "some loopy thing" on the side. Your guess is as good as mine... lol

Sorry for the double post, but didn't want to tack this on to the last post as an edit.

I sent my sister the picture of Cross Town and she says that wasn't ours, but it did have the second plunger and that Cross Town looks very similar to ours.