Ride the rays of a distant sun — Gottlieb’s 1979 Solar Ride is an outer-space four-player from the cherished hand of designer Ed Krynski, and it was a route favorite in its day, with a robust confirmed run of 8,800. The layout is classic late-’70s Gottlieb: three flippers, three pops, two kick-out holes, a five-bank of drop targets, and an upper-right return rollunder, all in service of the era’s elegant, bonus-driven design philosophy.
The strategy is a satisfying study in the art of the bonus build and multiplier preservation. Your bonus tops out at twenty thousand, collected at the top-left saucer — and crucially, your bonus multiplier is retained when you collect there, so the disciplined player builds the multiplier, banks the bonus, and keeps the multiplier working into the next round. Completing the lit lanes up top from left to right and finishing the left drop-target set both feed the system, lighting the collect-bonus saucer. The skill shot rewards paying attention to the plunging instruction to grab a two-times multiplier right from the start of the ball, and the right-side gate returns the ball to the shooter lane for another crack at increasing that multiplier — a clever bit of design that lets a sharp player keep stacking advantage.
Solar Ride is a beautifully balanced classic Gottlieb, the kind of clean, multiplier-focused machine that taught generations the deep pleasure of building and protecting a bonus. It doesn’t need ramps or toys — just your aim and your understanding of when to collect. Build the multiplier, bank it at the saucer, and ride that retained multiplier all game long. The sun’s rays favor the patient, and Solar Ride rewards them handsomely.