Stern Electronics

Orbitor 1

Pinside Rating

This game received 83 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 6.529 _/10

6.529

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #284 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 6.318

Artwork: 7.354

Sounds/Music: 5.222

Other Aspects: 6.536

Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 3 of us have rated this game.

6.58

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Found 53 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 53 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
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6.295/10

27 days ago

WIL

gopernoper

Pinside apprentice

Salem, WI

<1y 15,500 1 3 8

Orbitor 1 is such an oustandingly unique machine that you just have to play to understand. The thermoformed playfield and spinning bumpers result in what seems like physics-defying ball motion for the first few plays.
The main draw for this game is that playfield. It looks incredibly cool but the undulating surface leads to some of the most baffling ball motion on any game. Combining this wavy surface with the spinning rubber bumpers makes gameplay unpredictable. This is a truly unique game to experience and it stands out amongst a larger lineup.
The biggest issue with Orbitor 1 is the lack of things to shoot for. There are a few banks of drops, a spinner, the two spinning bumpers, a scoop for multiball, and some fake slingshots. That said, realistically the only thing to shoot for is the rear drop target bank. Anything else that's hit on the playfield is usually just a result of returning shots from the rear of the machine. Getting multiball by hitting all of the drops isn't the most creative set of rules ever but it's still interesting enough to drive more than a few plays.
The saving grace here is the ball motion around the flippers. Due to the curved playfield balls can actually loop around the flippers, giving shielding the outhole a totally new play aspect. A ball can loop around a flipper directly into shooting position, which is absolutely wild and defies all expectations. Cradling a ball is also surprisingly possible on this thing, and it's really odd to see a ball resting on a flipper with nothing behind it. It's such a cool way to play and creates absolutely awesome shot opportunities.
Overall it's an interesting machine the works great in a huge lineup but would be an awful only machine. Whenever I see one I always have to play it. Definitely check one out!

4.963/10

8 months ago

ABF

Sheev_Palpatine

Pinside+ Frequent

4y 104K 662 69

Looks so cool and then you try and play it!

3.099/10

10 months ago

???

cyberbear

Pinside apprentice

Glasgow

5y 18,750 43

Totally pointless. Bored after one shot. Not a looker.

6.835/10

12 months ago

DIA

mrossman5

Pinside+ Frequent

Warren, PA

6y 197K 3,179 7 253

Difficult game to rate, although it does get some points for pure uniqueness. One of those machines you can play once or twice and not have the urge to ever again.

7.859/10

1 year ago

FIN

FinnThelonious

Pinside member

Gambrills, MD

2y 48,150 39 16 102

Cmon, this game is just awesome

FinnThelonious edited previous rating on March 01, 2024.
FinnThelonious currently owns this game.

7.996/10

1 year ago

CAK

cindik

Inactive member

Eureka, CA

1y 27,650 7 1 9

Like cue, this is a game of gimmicks. The warped plastic playfield and the spinning "bumpers" signficantly change how the game is played. It still has a lot of the hallmarks of a pinball game, but I never felt that it played like a pinball game. It's like saying hockey is soccer, except played on ice with skates and sticks and with a puck instead of a ball.

I felt frustrated that I couldn't take a straight shot at anything, I felt more like I was fighting the playfield than playing the game.

Huge points for innovation. But I didn't really enjoy playing it.

3.826/10

2 years ago

MTM

Rollbar45

Pinside member

New Richmond, WI

3y 21,900 4 2 8

This game is awful. Neat idea, but it's awful, just awful.

1.939/10

2 years ago

???

TomMac

Inactive member

Yeovil

2y 19,500 1 6 6

Bought one for the novelty value, but turned out to be a jinxed machine for all sorts of reasons. I found it best to try and play it after about 10 pints, by which time it just seemed hilariously bad! Unfortunately it met its end when moving house one day and it was on a pintruck .. on the back of a tail lift lorry .. and rolled off due to a powerful gust of wind .. and fell 5ft onto my foot .. leaving me with 13 fractures and a pile of smashed parts which, if glued together again, would roughly resemble an Orbitor 1 ! Amazingly, someone from Germany bought the pile of bits for spares, and it cost more to crate and ship it than the sum agreed for the pile of bits. One other memory was from when I imported it to the UK from a collector in California, albeit 20 yrs ago. Basically customs investigated it due to a distinct odour coming out the crate and found to be emanating from under the playfield. After a thorough search, they decided that there was no longer any weed or coke or other mysterious recreational chemicals hidden in it, and allowed to continue its journey. Final oddity was that on arrival the pinball shooter had been replaced with some sort of handgun device to fire the balls. Weird ehh ?!?

TomMac has owned this game in the past.

5.078/10

2 years ago

RAD

DumbRecords

Pinside member

Springfield, IL

6y 49,400 14 8 29

I only owned this because i operatate a public arcade and i was sure everyone would get a kick out of it. "Oic it has magnets!" Its a very intriguing game but only fun a time or 2 as there is nothing here to keep people coming back to it. I love the retro scifi nature of it. If i had a large arcade i would keep it around but I knew when i got it, it wouldnt be around for a long time. One thing i would mention is they could have made this better with more intriguing speech vocabulary. The speech sounds cool but the actual words fall flat

DumbRecords has owned this game in the past.

9.373/10

2 years ago

LXL

Isochronic_Frost

Saratoga Silverball

7y 221K 9,402 108 1 1

A ridiculously underrated game by people who don’t know nor understand how to play it.
It requires a completely different set of skills to play and it’s almost as if relearning how to play pinball

7.140/10

3 years ago

PGR

VALIS666

Pinside+ Frequent

4y 116K 1,129 245 1

I've always wanted to own this oddball since it's difficult to find to play out in the wild, and I did for a year or two. It's one of the strangest, most creative pinballs ever made, featuring a 3D playfield of hills and valleys, and motorized spinning bumpers that fling the ball away when it gets near them. The theremin-like electronic whistles, digitized voice, and 3D backboard bring it to the next level of weird. There's really nothing else like Orbitor 1 out there in pinball history, and it's not even close.

But is it fun to play? Well, depends on what you're looking for. A few games in a pinball museum are certainly well worth it, just to see what this is all about. But having had it at home for a good while, it doesn't get flipped on very often. The rules are on the shallow side, which is not as detrimental compared to how random Orbitor plays. You can kind of aim the ball, but those hills and valleys are going to pull you off your target. It feels like throwing darts after 10 beers. Traditional flipper skills aren't very useful, but Orbitor has its own tricks to learn, like raising the flippers when the ball is circling behind them, giving it a chance to come back through. You can also bat the ball backward in hopes of bringing it up around the outside of the flippers, but that one is tricky to pull off.

Also as an owner, I really suggest other owners/operators give this game a very flat pitch. This may go against your traditional pinball instincts as sometimes there won't be enough speed for the ball to come back to the flippers from the top, but this is what the spinning bumpers are for. The ball should orbit (ah!) those bumpers often, and then get spun out by them. If the ball is constantly speeding past those bumpers, it's missing the main point of the game. Also, too tall a pitch and the ball will spend too much time behind the flippers, and it's going to be drain city back there.

VALIS666 edited previous rating on November 09, 2021.

7.182/10

3 years ago

B16

Billy16

Pinside member

11y 94,300 3,701 58

Wow, wow, wow! The craziest pinball machine you will ever play. Only game that you have to be ready for the ball to shoot around behind the outhole and back out onto a flipper. I have give credit to Stern for bringing this one to market--Orbitor 1 is way, way out there! Fun to play for awhile, much cooler just to look at--our better yet to watch someone else play and be totally baffled by it. If I had a large collection I'd look for one, just because.

8.416/10

3 years ago

T.V

scaryflippers

Pinside member

Belgie

11y 47,100 70 69 27

i love it i dont sell my orbitor1 never its a HUO

scaryflippers currently owns this game.

5.321/10

4 years ago

MSL

SantaEatsCheese

Pinside+ Pro!

Crofton, MD

5y 209K 9,647 6 85 1

I had the opportunity to play this game unexpectedly when picking up a backglass from someone's house. Never having seen or heard of one of these before I saw it, it's cool! In a poorly lit room, the effect of the lunar landscape below the plexiglass field is excellent. The backbox looks 3-d. I couldn't see the clear plastic on the playfield and the effect was really neat. The ball did all sorts of crazy things around the spinning bumpers, and the ball routinely went past the flippers but back up. It was a really neat and fun playing game. However, there just wasn't a lot to do except for go for multiball. If you see one of these, it is absolutely worth putting a few quarters in. However, I wouldn't recommend this machine in a small collection, but it is a real conversation piece at a show or in a larger collection. A fun game that plays differently than any other pin I've ever played and would be loads of fun... for a few hours about once a year.

7.410/10

4 years ago

XQZ

douggalecawitz

Pinside member

Naperville, IL

11y 62,900 45 85

Lot of hating goes on on this machine about how it's a mere novelty that wears off quickly. Maybe I'm shuffling to the beat of a different drummer cause I can play this machine all day. Gotta hand it to Stern for thinking THIS far out of the box. It would be nice if a few modern designers would take this many risks. It really is a fun game once you kind of get a handle on the ball movement. Modern collectors have taken to throwing in slow changing LED lights which add to the hallucinatory effect of playing this wack-a-doo creation. What I'd really like to see is someone throw this machine into a quarter finals round of some big pinball competition, you know throw a real wrench into those top players and their well honed strategies.... or better yet a qualifying round could knock out champions while letting relative novices advance. oh what fun!!!!!

douggalecawitz edited previous rating on November 28, 2023.
douggalecawitz has this game on the wishlist.

7.012/10

4 years ago

MDP

life_boy

Pinside member

Tupelo, MS

5y 33,650 15 2 41

Fascinating game to play whenever you find one. Not a lot of fun by itself but very interesting in context of other machines as a novelty. Great art.

8.956/10

4 years ago

???

PinballLoner

Pinside apprentice

Rockville, MD

4y 8,750 1 21

What I love about this game: No exit outlanes. Spinning disc. Kinda of a straight shot to upper drop targets. Cool spinner to earn extra ball. It looks great in a dark room 2 fastball bumpers on open playfield. Simple but clean sound effects. Maybe more luck than skill required. But it is simple repetitive fun. It would probably bore most skilled pinball players.

PinballLoner edited previous rating on August 02, 2021.

6.956/10

5 years ago

CCH

Frostbite

Pinside member

Scottsbluff, NE

5y 42,900 32 11 30

Where's the ball gonna go??? Nobody knows........

Update....The novelty is over...

Frostbite edited previous rating on April 20, 2020.

6.404/10

5 years ago

ASH

Boof-Ed

Pinside member

7y 97,350 1,156 54

I first became aware of this pin after stumbling across it on YouTube. Instantly drawn in by the unique gameplay.
I straight away tried to find one for sale and after coming up blank did some proper research. Reasonably low production number made it pretty obvious I wasn’t going to find one in my neck of the woods and didn’t think anymore about it.
Fast forward around 6 months and one pops up for sale, close enough to buy but too far away to inspect in person. I was interested enough to have gamble on it.
Now after having it for a few months I think I can give it a reasonable rating.
I really enjoy playing it. It’s just so different to a standard playfield pinball. You almost have to forget everything you know about playing and start from scratch. Not a lot to do but the shots needed to hit are very hard. Shots that need to be hit on the right side but your aiming left are a highlight for me. Almost like putting in golf.
I don’t think you could have it as an only pin or even in a smaller collection. Definitely need other pins around to keep it fresh.
Now I have one it won’t be going anywhere in a hurry.

7.324/10

6 years ago

TIM

TimO

Pinside member

San Luis Obispo, CA

6y 41,400 142 5 6

In Banning, during a three day, free play weekend with over 500 machines to choose from, I kept finding myself drawn back to this truly unique pin. The invisible, warped playfield, while initially frustrating, is a challenge begging to be mastered. The spinning bumpers are entirely unpredictable. If you get the chance, play a couple games just to watch how the ball moves; it's the next best thing to playing pinball on acid.

TimO has this game on the wishlist.

7.928/10

6 years ago

JAY

doompin

Pinside member

8y 51,800 155 9 75

Weird machine. I dig weird.

7.223/10

6 years ago

FVA

stricht

Pinside member

10y 35,650 14 4 37

I love this game, so different ...

5.811/10

6 years ago

MNO

MNO2pin

Inactive member

Rotterdam

6y 20,500 4 9

After couple of games I thought I was on LSD...... What a trip to play this unique game!!
Must be a desperate attempt to beat the video games in the 80's. When I see one for a reasonable price maybe .....

6.701/10

6 years ago

MJS

Matesamo

PinballRI

Warwick, RI

7y 117K 1,292 112 1

A very unique piece of pinball history, if you do not know what it is when you start to play it then you will be shocked, lol. Not sure how much fun it was, I played three or four games just because I had never seen it before but it was mainly to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was.

7.298/10

7 years ago

WEB

Chuckwebster

Pinside member

Wakefield, MA

10y 75,300 498 35 75

shallow rules and super short uncontrollable ball times make this game a nice novelty.

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