Gottlieb’s Count-Down, released in 1979 and designed by Ed Krynski, blasts off with a space-race theme on a clean, four-flipper solid-state playfield. In a design choice Gottlieb favored in this period, it forgoes slingshots entirely, relying instead on four banks of drop targets, a pair of star rollovers, and a single pop bumper to drive a satisfying, multiplier-focused game.
The scoring is elegantly simple and rewarding. Each drop-target bank you complete earns its corresponding color of bonus multiplier — but there’s an order to it, since you must finish 2X before 3X illuminates, and so on up the chain. Progress on the higher-level banks is saved during the same ball, though the multiplier itself must be re-earned each ball, giving every ball a fresh climb. Complete enough banks and an extra ball lights on the upper-left flipper lane. A friendly bit of wisdom from the rules: any drop target counts toward bonus, so there’s no need to fear shooting out of order.
Brisk, focused, and built around a clean multiplier ladder, Count-Down is a likeable and well-balanced late-70s Gottlieb. For collectors who enjoy the elegant, slingshot-free experiments of the era and a pure drop-target-and-bonus game with a fun space theme, it’s an enjoyable and rewarding classic — three, two, one, liftoff.