Explore the bustling quarter — Gottlieb’s Chinatown is an electromechanical single-player wrapped in an American-places theme celebrating the vibrant city district, and it comes from the legendary team of designer Wayne Neyens and artist Roy Parker, one of the most beloved creative partnerships of pinball’s golden woodrail age. With light-based scoring and a confirmed run of 1,500, it’s a handsome and characterful early Gottlieb.
The layout has a distinctive, hole-heavy character: two flippers, two pop bumpers, three passive bumpers, a pair of slingshots, a remarkable nine trap holes, two rollunders, and a rollover button. That extraordinary complement of nine trap holes is the machine’s defining feature, giving the playfield an enormous field of captured-ball awards to chase, while the combination of pop and passive bumpers promises a lively, bouncy ball and the two rollunders add variety to the shot selection. It’s a genuinely unusual, trap-hole-rich design that rewards a player who works the whole playfield to find and feed all those holes, all in service of the colorful Chinatown theme.
Chinatown is a lovely showcase of the celebrated Neyens-and-Parker team’s craft, pairing a vibrant urban theme with a distinctive, hole-heavy playfield and Parker’s warm artwork. That array of nine trap holes makes it a genuinely unusual play, and the Chinatown motif gave Parker’s illustration a colorful, atmospheric canvas. For the collector who loves the golden age of EM pinball and its greatest creative teams, it’s a rewarding find. Work all nine trap holes, ride the bumpers, and explore the bustling quarter. Some machines stand out for a genuinely unusual layout, and this Gottlieb city classic is one of them. Take in the sights and drop a coin.