''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is a

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

game designed by

Ed Krynski Edward Paul Krynski (September 12, 1927 – November 15, 2004) was a pinball game designer and innovator who worked for D. Gottlieb & Co between 1965 and 1984. During this time Krynski designed more than 200 games and innovated new pinball standa ...

and released in 1980 by

Gottlieb Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. History The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was lo ...

. It is based on the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

character Spider-Man released by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

Description

The machine, designed by Ed Krynski with art by Gordon Morison, was produced by D. Gottlieb & Co. as part of their ''Star Series 80'' line. The first machine came off the assembly line in May 1980. ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' was the first of Gottlieb's System 80 series of pinball machines and was the second Marvel character licensed by Gottlieb to be represented in a pinball machine (the first being

The Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk'' (May 1962). In his comic book ...

). The pinball machine featured character poses taken directly from Marvel comics and style guides including

Aunt May Maybelle "May" Parker-Jameson (née Reilly), commonly known as Aunt May, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Spider-Man. Making her first full appeara ...

, Kingpin, Lizard,

Scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always en ...

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

, Black Widow,

Kraven the Hunter Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff; Russian: Сергей Кравинов) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Debuting in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' issue #15 (August 1964) as an adversary ...

and the

Green Goblin The Green Goblin is the alias of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first and best-known incarnation Norman Osborn, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, is generally regarded as one of the a ...

Features

The features; * Special 24" (60 cm) wide-bodied cabinet * 4-Player game * 4 6-Digit

Vacuum fluorescent display A vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) is a display device once commonly used on consumer electronics equipment such as video cassette recorders, car radios, and microwave ovens. A VFD operates on the principle of cathodoluminescence, roughly ...

s * 4 Flippers (No Center Post) * 1 Lane (with Spinner) * 4 Exit Lanes * 2 Slingshot Bumpers * 3 Kick-Out Holes * 2 Pop Bumpers * 2 Spot Targets * 2 Drop Target Banks (3 and 5 targets)

Design team

* Game Design:

* Artwork: Gordon Morison

Production

A total of 7,625 machines were produced and are currently sought-after collectors items. It was the first of Gottlieb's System 80 design pinball machines. It also was the first Gottlieb pinball, with an "attract mode" lighting. In which various playfield lights, alternate between off an on, to make the game more attractive to passerbye, thus encouraging play. It was also the first solid state pinball with the speaker in the backbox (head) instead of the bottom cabinet. Stan Lee, the co-creator of "Spider-Man" and public face of

, claimed ownership of one of the first machines off the assembly line and kept it in his Marvel office until he auctioned it as part of his "Stan Lee collection" at Heritage Comics Auctions of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Lee said that "Over the years, I have spent countless frustrating yet perversely enjoyable hours attempting to play on it, as have numerous colleagues, friends and business associates (some quite famous, though a combination of modesty, shame and my legendary bad memory prevents me from divulging their names here) during their unrelenting pilgrimages to my office. In fact, I think many of these scions of arts and industry came over JUST to beat me up at pinball. I hope its new owner will be a better player than I am."

References

External links

*
The Amazing Spider-Man
' at the Internet Pinball Database (IPDb). {{DEFAULTSORT:Amazing Pinball machines based on comics Pinball machines based on television series 1980 pinball machines Gottlieb pinball machines Spider-Man toys