Journey to a distant galaxy — Game Plan’s 1985 Andromeda is a fantasy four-player designed by Ed Cebula and Mike Kubin with art by the great Paul Faris, and it’s a genuine rarity, with a confirmed run of just 500 making it one of the scarcer machines a collector can chase. The layout pairs a six-bank of drop targets, a solitary drop, four pops, and a spinner into a clean, satisfying mid-’80s package from the underdog Game Plan stable.
The strategy is tidy and rewarding. Completing the drop targets increases your spinner to a healthy three thousand per spin, making that spinner the points engine of a strong game. For multiball, knock down the drop target on the left, shoot the ball into the scoop to lock it, then release via the target to the left of the left orbit — and the resulting multiball scores at two-times, a meaningful boost worth setting up. There’s a handy defensive trick, too: hold up the left flipper when the ball is in the lower-left pop bumper area to prevent drains out of the pops. And mind your opponents in multiplayer games, because if you lock a ball, a rival might hit the release target before the orbit and steal your multiball right out from under you.
Andromeda is a scarce, well-designed Game Plan deep cut that rewards a player who completes the drops to juice the spinner and carefully sets up that two-times multiball. Faris’s cosmic art gives it real appeal, and the lock-stealing wrinkle adds tension to group play. Complete the drops, ride that three-thousand spinner, lock your ball, and launch the multiball — just guard it from thieving rivals. For the collector who values rarity, this distant-galaxy gem is well worth the voyage.