Gottlieb’s “300”, released in 1975, bowls a strike with a theme built around the perfect game, and it backs that up with one of the era’s most charming flourishes: a mechanical backbox animation that adds bowling balls as you play. With design by Ed Krynski and art by Gordon Morison, this wedge-head classic delivers exactly the kind of tactile, satisfying experience that keeps electromechanical enthusiasts coming back.
The scoring zeroes in on the spinner and the pair of saucers tucked into the top-left, with two parallel lanes of serial rollovers feeding the action. Smart play is all about lighting and ripping the spinner, then working those saucers for repeatable points. The end-of-ball bonus maxes out at 10,000 — shown right there on the backbox bowling balls — so the veteran move is to collect once you’ve topped it out, then build again. There’s even a “Mystery Bonus Advance” worth one to three steps, and players learn to watch for that third advance, which sends the ball back into play.
True to its mechanical nature, “300” has the lovable habit of occasionally miscounting the bonus in the player’s favor — a reminder of the relays and steppers whirring beneath the playfield. Atmospheric, fun, and full of vintage character, it’s a delightful sports-themed classic for any fan of golden-age Gottlieb.