1978 Gottlieb STRANGE WORLD pinball machine

I'm playing for you today this rare 1978 Gottlieb Strange World. There were only 675 of these machines made. By the time this game was made, solid state technology had already managed to establish a firm foothold in the arcades and electromechanical machines were on the way out. By the end of 1979, all manufacturers had ceased production of EM pinball.
This game has some unique aspects to it and is quite fun. Hitting the numbered targets and rollovers light the corresponding numbers in the grid at the centre of the playfield. Completing all the numbers in one row lights the saucer "occasionally" for special. Completing each of the ones, twos, threes or fours lights those numbers for 10x their unlit value.
The green "1" target and the yellow "4" target are challenging to shoot for off the very tips of the flippers and the unusual slingshot and outlane configuration make the lower playfield truly "strange". Keeping the ball under control takes some finesse. There's a third slingshot half-way up the right side of the playfield (which I love) making the game quite unpredictable. There's some awesome pop bumper action and sending the ball to the top through the pops is a fun challenge as well.
Strange World is a neat game with some cool shots and interesting challenges. Definitely one of my favourite wedgeheads. It has outstanding artwork as well.
For the record, two of the pop bumper caps on the machine in the video are the wrong colour.
This machine was designed by John Osborne with artwork by the late/great Gordon Morison.
More Strange World information can be found here:
ipdb.org/machin...

[@viccamppinball]

Low production Gottlieb wedgehead and a very sought after machine by EM collectors. For sure a super fun and challenging great player! Thanks for sharing.

[@jayducharme]

That's in remarkable condition. It's a pretty difficult game, and you played it well. That artwork is the stuff of nightmares.

[@FloydMaxwell]

I owed Gottlieb Spinout for a while. Loved that game -- similar vintage to this game.

[@duckkillerclydeclyde]

knocker works. Match at the end. Nice video.

[@KT-vl2rn]

One of my favorite Pins ever! Play this at the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown (Colorado) when available. Easily can score over 200k on this by targeting the numbered pads and getting the center lights all lit! Wish I owned one! :(

[@pinbruh]

Beautiful playing machine. Thanks for sharing, I just picked one up, it needs some work, but this is now my target for 'playability' :). Thanks!

[@dennisbraun5747]

I bet they go through a lot of Visine in the Strange World.

[@VGC-cc4xt]

Its one if not my favorite pinball of all time

[@tdickensheets]

I miss old pinball machines

[@mickthomas6242]

The solid state ones are the most fun. Unfortunately they are also so archaic, with thousands of parts that break down often. If you can fix these, you're ahead of the game.

[@mickjaegerguano4809]

@@mickthomas6242 electromechanical🤘
The spirit of 76 changed them for the better and worse, I prefer all EMs and early SS machines. Nowadays, the data east garbage, with the playing field so crowded with sooooo much you don't even know where the ball is at times, and the overkill audio, it's just they are pretty awful.

[@HaikuAutomation]

In a strange way, a desire to squish the fly at :28 was there for me, yet not so worldly.

[@pavelkucher3194]

3:21 - just wanna press F to you. I felt all your pain at this moment.

[@londonpinball]

It was rough.

[@rizzlerazzleuno4733]

Thanks for making this video. I was sure you were going to hit that upper right #1 target.......next time. John Osborne says in a YT video that this is the one game he designed that he wishes he had. With different artwork this game might have had a larger run, who knows. Now wacky, wonderful, weird and collectable.

[@ThisGuyFrritz]

The creature on the right makes me think "Mike Wazoski!" And that was some years before Pixar was founded.

[@londonpinball]

I love blue hair.

[@honestdonb]

There's now one less of these in the world , went to pick mine up from my mothers where it was in storage , my brother has burnt it in a bonfire 😢 didnt think I wanted it , and my 1976 suzuzi he dumped in a skip 😬was having a clear out for mum , anyway it was old he said !!!

[@brianfergus839]

Sorry you have an idiot brother

[@douro20]

I'd imagine these machines are still more reliable than the System 80 ones. Don't some of these reset when they are tilted?

[@londonpinball]

EM's can be very reliable, but so can System 80 if they're properly updated. Still, from a maintenance perspective, if you know what you're doing, I'd bank on an EM running for much longer than any solid state machine in general. If an EM needs parts, you're talking about a coil or two, perhaps. If a SS machine needs an unobtainable chip, you're looking at a reproduction board which, if available, costs hundreds.

[@Riz2336]

It sounded like you stopped yourself from saying fuck when you tilted the machine.

[@VGC-cc4xt]

Pins from your collection?Or its for sale?

[@londonpinball]

+Renaud Dorval This one is mine, but has an interested buyer already. If you'd like to discuss, feel free to contact me directly at [e-mail].

[@brianfergus839]

Tilt seems over sensitive