Williams
Gorgar Pinside Rating
This game received 232 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.559 /10
Gorgar
Score breakdown
Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:
Game Design: 7.474
Artwork: 8.051
Sounds/Music: 7.118
Other Aspects: 7.479
Pinside staff rating
This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 5 of us have rated this game.
Found 114 ratings (with comment) on this game
There are 114 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 2 of 5.
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Sydney
Grass Valley, CA
8.674/10
6 years ago
for its time its pretty awesome. earlier open playfield best played slow and level, a little art repetition, but voice sound a magnetic dragon and giant red demon what more can you ask for?
6.451/10
6 years ago
London
me eat you, me Gorgar, you fucked now.
this was the first talking pin so we shouldn't be too harsh now looking back. it's beautiful to look at, especially the backglass, and it plays ok for a game of its era. didn't stay long in my collection though as I prefer a bit more going on.
me Gorgar! oh I already said that
this was the first talking pin so we shouldn't be too harsh now looking back. it's beautiful to look at, especially the backglass, and it plays ok for a game of its era. didn't stay long in my collection though as I prefer a bit more going on.
me Gorgar! oh I already said that
København
5.112/10
7 years ago
Gorgar has some decent fantasy art going for it, but it plays just like an average early SS (like Galaxy or Blackout). I didn't dislike it, but I could easily walk away from the table. It has a fairly normal layout with some fun drops and a spinner, but there are some good shots available - just not much to do after those few shots are mastered. Rules are somewhat shallow, but not bad.
Recommended to pick one up if it's super cheap - otherwise, not much to write home about other than the art package.
Recommended to pick one up if it's super cheap - otherwise, not much to write home about other than the art package.
9.289/10
7 years ago
One of my favorite pins, hands down, NEVER GETS OLD. Even at my nearby arcade when this table is placed alongside terminator two, twilight zone, Addams family ect. I never get off this machine. Classic theme strait out of a AD&D Dungeon Mater's guide, drop targets, kickouts, spinners, well placed bumpers and a manga-lock snake pit? There is nothing I would alter about the playfield, (except removing the generous side drains, but where is the fun in that haha). Sure it is dated compared to the sound of new DMD tables, but who cares, if i wanted to play something like jersey jacks I would just go play slots in Atlantic city. Gorgar plays like a vintage game, and offers unique and challenging shots, making it a game you want to sink quarter after quarter into in order to light that damned snake pit! Gorgar. . . Hurt. .. Damn right y'are bub! oh, and in terms of the art, do you ever wonder why Barbarian blacksmiths take so much time and effort crafting and enchanting exquisite helms, while equipping their damsel saving warriors with nothing else but a loin cloth? So many existential mysteries reside in the fun but blood boiling table. My last comment-- That shadow lich sitting all nonchalant on his cold stone throne on the back glass, seems like an excellent villain for a second edition table, am I right?? ;]
8.483/10
7 years ago
This is my first pin. Was looking for a Gorgar for awhile and finally found a good condition machine somewhat local. What can you say this is a piece of pinball history being the first talking pinball machine. I personally like the demonic/D&D theme. Gameplay is good. Ball play is slower than the newer machines and this game is a drain whore... But I like jumping on and playing as it is challenging to get a good score and keep the ball away from the drain. I'm also in the process of upgrading worn out parts and adding LED lighting so it is fun working on it as well.
If you can find one in good condition for a reasonable price jump on it!
If you can find one in good condition for a reasonable price jump on it!
9.408/10
7 years ago
Gorgar is a holy grail pin. Just love it to death, the whole theme is so 70's retro hard rock it's hard not to smile. The heartbeat speeding up really adds to the game aesthetics and can't get enough of the playfield and backglass art, just wonderful in a 70's metal inspired LSD flashback kind of way. But the real star here is the playability. At first I was kind of bored, seemed like there wasn't much to do. Start hitting the goals and racking up multipliers though and it gets hectic fast. This can be setup to play fast if you want and is very satisfying that way. For those of us that like it a little more fast paced than the EM fare but not as sensory overload as the DMD stuff, this early solid state is pitch perfect.
7.702/10
8 years ago
Game Design: Very good layout, especially when compared to other offerings from other games from the same time. Depth of rules is good: upper drop targets advance pit value, lower ones advance pop bumpers; when combined, they advance the eject hole for progressive rewards. 1-2-3-4 targets and "D" "E" rollovers advance stars for playfield special and light the pit for maximum value for one hit. Aiming is critical, but not always possible. The magnet and flashlamps used with the pit make it a fun and rewarding shot to make. The game's biggest flaw are the voracious outlanes. This turns the lower playfield into more of a game of luck than anything else, which is unfortunate considering the rest of the game is brilliant.
Sounds, Music and Artwork: Artwork is busy. Very busy. Not in a "Captain Fantastic" busy, where there is plenty to look at and discover, but in a confusing, hard to follow sort of way. The benefit to this, however, is that there is plenty of detail. While the game doesn't have "music," the heartbeat that progressively increases in speed is probably one of the most brilliant uses of a continuous background sound. Whereas other games at the time used a stagnant sound that would simply increase in pitch or speed, Gorgar's heartbeat is truly immersive, especially for a game released in 1979. While the vocabulary only consists of 7 words, William's used this to it's advantage, working within the hardware limitations at the time by making it believable to the player that a barbaric monster would only be capable of producing 7 words.
Overall Impressions: For me, this is one of the first games from the era that really worked hard to make a pinball machine really cohesive. Game design, artwork, and most importantly, sound quality all work well together to create a game that is truly immersive. At a time where all games sounded like a spaceship shooter, this one easily forged trails to give designers the ability to produce better games in the future. I highly recommend this title.
Sounds, Music and Artwork: Artwork is busy. Very busy. Not in a "Captain Fantastic" busy, where there is plenty to look at and discover, but in a confusing, hard to follow sort of way. The benefit to this, however, is that there is plenty of detail. While the game doesn't have "music," the heartbeat that progressively increases in speed is probably one of the most brilliant uses of a continuous background sound. Whereas other games at the time used a stagnant sound that would simply increase in pitch or speed, Gorgar's heartbeat is truly immersive, especially for a game released in 1979. While the vocabulary only consists of 7 words, William's used this to it's advantage, working within the hardware limitations at the time by making it believable to the player that a barbaric monster would only be capable of producing 7 words.
Overall Impressions: For me, this is one of the first games from the era that really worked hard to make a pinball machine really cohesive. Game design, artwork, and most importantly, sound quality all work well together to create a game that is truly immersive. At a time where all games sounded like a spaceship shooter, this one easily forged trails to give designers the ability to produce better games in the future. I highly recommend this title.
7.121/10
8 years ago
This is a table that I originally didn't care for. This is the first talking pinball table, and as such, the sounds quickly become droning, tedious, and just annoying. The table itself looks pretty nice though, and it plays very fast. Gorgar is a simple looking table, but to maximize your score, it's not as simple. What you want to do on this table is light up "GOR" and "GAR" as many times as you can to increase the lock and snake pit scores. It sounds easy, but Gorgar can be another table where losing the ball is something that can happen quite often. Fortunately, once you get on a roll, it becomes one of the more rewarding tables to get a good score on in this first Season Pass. This is another table that, while it doesn't look all that intimidating, it's definitely on the challenging side. Unfortunately, the redundant sounds quickly become a bore, and keep me from playing this table a whole lot. Because of the poor sound, I'll refrain from rating some categories.
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