Quoted from o-din:After we were done playing last night I spent quite a while looking at Frontiersman and I kept saying to myself it doesn't get much better than this, and in reallity it doesn't. The gameplay is as outstanding as the art package which IMO is one of the best of all time.
This game is a true woodrail and all about what they represented and could be.
Excerpt below taken from ipdb.org rating site:
Frontiersman is one of several excellent Gottlieb multi-special, gobble-hole games of the mid-1950's. Its "align" or "advance" strategy is a typically brilliant Neyens' tease. Hitting the A-B-C or D targets or rollovers advance that row of lights toward the center hole. Advancing any letter 4-steps (Purple, Yellow, Green, Red) lights the gobble-hole to score 1 replay. Aligning any 4 spots of the same color (the same number of advances of all 4 letters) lights the gobble hole to score - Purple:3 replays, Yellow:4 replays, Green:5 replays, Red:10 replays!
There's a reason these games developed enormous followings "in the day"! They were challenging, exciting, loaded with "came close, try again" appeal and you got 5 balls for a nickel.
In addition to the above award structure, everytime you aligned all 4 letters to the same color (any of the 4 positions) you lit one "flaming arrow" on the backglass. Every 5 flaming arrows scored light one number along the left edge of the backglass and lighting 5 numbers (25 total flaming arrows) awards 5 replays. This holdover feature is a nice "Crackerjack extra" from the hand of Master Designer Neyens! In addition, replays can be won for score with typical levels set by 50's operators at 5 million, 5-5, 6 million, 6-5 and 7 million.
Satirical artwork by Leroy Parker, brilliant design by Wayne Neyens, a blatant parody of Walt Disney's hugely successful Davy Crockett TV dramas, exciting target-shooting challenges for flipper aficianados and double-digit relay possibilities make Frontiersman one of the finest games from pinball's Golden Age in my opinion.