The 1947 development of player-actuated, solenoid-driven 2-inch bats called "flippers" revolutionized the industry, giving players the ability to shoot the ball back up into the playfield for more points.
Score reels eventually appeared on single-player games, now known as "wedgeheads" because of their distinctive tapered back box shape.
In 1983, the year after the Coca-Cola Company had acquired Columbia, Gottlieb was renamed Mylstar Electronics,[4] but this proved to be short-lived.
By 1984 the video game industry in North America was in the middle of a shakeout and Columbia closed down Mylstar at the end of September 1984.
Premier Technology, which returned to selling pinball machines under the name Gottlieb after the purchase, continued in operation until the summer of 1996.
The 1965 machine Gottlieb's Kings & Queens is the one played by the title character in the 1975 rock opera movie Tommy about a psychosomatically blind, deaf, and mute pinball wizard.
Designed and developed by Rockwell International's Microelectronics Group of Newport Beach, CA with circuit board manufacturing and final assembly in El Paso, Texas.