Manufactured by D. Gottlieb & Co.

Game # 680, System 80A series

Released: May 1983

Production run: 2'100

Design: Ed Krinski

Artwork: David Moore

Theme: Space travel

IPDB Entry: 2437

What Gottlieb said:

"Blast off on a pinball journey through space. Advance your ship through a ten-step sequence to complete each orbit. Increase your bonus level with every orbit you complete. Six level vari-target also advances your bonus and scores Special when lit.

Gottlieb's Super Orbit offers your players a classic narrow-body playfield enhanced with the power and style of today's best games. Combined with Gottlieb's dependability, this is an entertainment package you'll want at your location. Call your Gottlieb distributor today."

What SNP says:

Super Orbit is witness to a pivotal period in pinball manufacturing history. It's a basic, bare-bones game with none of the frills, innovation or "excesses" of earlier System 80/80A games. Gottlieb dusted off the same playfield blue-prints used more than a decade previously on 2 electro-mechanical games: the 4-player "Orbit" (1971) and 2-player "Outer Space" (1972). Ed Krinski still got the design credit of course but he'd left the company a few years earlier! Gottlieb rehashed old playfield design on several subsequent System 80A games in 1983-84 as they fought desperately for sales and margins.

These narrow-bodied games helped to slash production costs, not only through the use of less cabinet wood, but likely also in tooling up costs. The savings didn't stop there either, Gottlieb may have applied solid-state technology to an old design but they even saved by not installing any of the speech components on the sound board.

Unusually for a Gottlieb game and an Ed Krinski designed one at that, there are no drop-targets to shoot. The action is limited to 3 pop-bumpers, various rollovers and spot-targets, a return gate and a Vari-target - the latter geriatric feature unique to Gottlieb games. There's not even an Extra Ball feature - and that's Super Orbit's only unique point of the 80/80A series. Yes, they don't come much simpler than this but that's not to say it's not fun to play. We leave you to make up your own mind about the artwork though!

PROMOTIONAL FLYER

SUPER ORBIT PAGES

TECH.INFO.

Game Features & Rules

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