Description: World Champ, 8/57, 2300 produced, 1 gobble hole, produced with both a wooden or metal coin door, can win up to 10 credits. World Champ has a game-over relay (two ball trough switches sense the fifth ball) and the backglass is screened with a "game over" graphic, but there is no light bulb wired in the backglass wood insert panel to show the "game over" backglass icon. Woodrail pinball, artwork by Roy Parker. The playfield plastics are almost always warped and curled and shrunk. If you would like to make your own plastics you can download the graphics for the plastics (4 meg ZIP file with Photoshop and JPG graphics).

Winning replays on Gottlieb World Champ is pretty easy. Perhaps that's why this was such a popular game in its day, and why it's hard to find a Gottlieb World Champ with a nice playfield. Bascially the game starts with Round 1 lit, and the player must get 3 knockdowns to light that Round for Special, and move to the next lit Round. The knockdown count is kept by light inserts near the flippers. To get a knockdown, either hit one of the white standup targets, or roll the ball over one of the lit lower side rollovers (alternates), or hitting one of the lit red rollover button (alternates). The trick is to move the lit Round insert to a corresponding unlit Special insert, and then score three knockdowns. This will light the Special insert associated with that Round insert. If you score knockouts on a Round that already has its Special lit, there is no additional benefit (other than points). The Round light moves by hitting the yellow rollover buttons or the purple standup targets. When a Round is advanced, it will clear out any residual knockdowns. This fact is frustrating because you could have 2 knockdowns for a round (one more to light that Round's Special), but mistakenly you advance the Round, clearing all the knockdowns.

If all 10 Specials inserts are lit, putting the ball in the gobble hole will award up to 10 replays (awards the number of lit Specials). If no Special inserts are lit, the gobble hole awards 50,000 points (draining the ball between the flippers also awards 50,000 points.) There is also an "A" and "B" rollover at to the top sides of the playfield. Hitting one will turn on their corresponding slingshot for 100,000 points (which alternates from side-to-side based on the 10,000 point playfield switches). Hitting both A & B gets both slingshots awarding 100k. Gottlieb World Champ also has a match feature - match the last number in the score to the lighted backglass star (that appears when the game is over) awards a replay. Additional replays can also be won by reaching 16 or more knockouts or by score (operator adjustable). So there are a bunch of different ways to win A LOT of replays on this game! And this is the last Gottlieb woodrail to have this mass-replay win strategy.

If you have this game for sale please contact me at cfh@provide.net