Gottlieb

United States · Founded 1927 · Pinball & Arcade Manufacturer

The Chicago pinball company that introduced the flipper in 1947 and, in the video game boom, made Q*bert.

David Gottlieb founded D. Gottlieb & Co. in Chicago with his brother Sol in 1927. Its Baffle Ball (1931) was the first successful coin-operated pinball machine, and in 1947 the company introduced solenoid-driven flippers on Humpty Dumpty, designed by Harry Mabs. Columbia Pictures bought Gottlieb for $47 million in 1976, and when Coca-Cola acquired Columbia in 1982 Gottlieb came with it. During the arcade boom the company made a handful of video games: Reactor (1982), Mad Planets and Krull (1983), and its one major hit, Q*bert (1982). Renamed Mylstar Electronics in 1983, it was closed by Columbia at the end of September 1984. A management group bought the pinball business and continued under the Gottlieb name as Premier Technology until 1996, when it made its last machine, Barb Wire.