1987 Gottlieb/Premier VICTORY pinball machine

Here we have a 1987 Gottlieb (Premier) Victory pinball machine for your viewing pleasure.

I ran out of #86 bulbs while working on this game so some of the chaser lights aren't working in the video.

In the mid-80's, Gottlieb was doing some very cool things in pinball, in spite of their questionable translites photos. Games like Rock, Bad Girls, TX-Sector and RoboWar were extremely good games with the benefit of amazing sound. Victory fits right within that group of under-rated and under-the-radar games. Of course, in recent years, these games have started to become more popular as a result of their decent game play and relatively low cost. As the price of Williams games made after 1985 launch into the stratosphere, Gottlieb games have lagged behind to some degree. Now that people are catching on, that is not really the case anymore.

Anyway, this game is intended to be played in a sequential manner where the player has to hit checkpoints in order. Hitting checkpoints one through seven lights the upper left spinner shot for the "finish line" and making that shot starts a new race. Meanwhile, the player can shoot the drops on the upper playfield over and over to light the limited time special. Hitting the "FINISH" targets advances the bonus multiplier.

One major downside of Victory is that it doesn't have a multiball feature in spite of having two balls in the game. Getting the ball in the kick-out saucer a number of times lights the saucer for extra ball. Making that shot when extra ball is lit locks the ball in the saucer and launches another ball into the shooter lane. When the new ball leaves the playfield, the locked ball gets launched back into play. It's mildly cool but also a bit disappointing.

One of the greatest features of the System 80b platform is the sound. The soundtracks for most of these games really kicks. Check out TX-Sector and RoboWar to hear the best of the best.

Victory was designed by John Trudeau with artwork by Constantino and Jeanine Mitchell. The art team did work for Williams before moving over to Gottlieb and their work can be seen on legendary pins like Firepower, Blackout and Gorgar as well as video games like Defender and Robotron. Dave Zabriskie was the sound designer for Victory and John Buras did the software.

For more information about Victory, see here: https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2733