Descend into the crypt — Stern Electronics’ Catacomb is a solid-state four-player with a spooky dungeon theme, designed by Joe Joos Jr. with art by Larry Day, and it features a genuinely clever backbox “bagatelle” mini-game that extends play after your ball ends. With an alphanumeric display and a multiball, it’s an inventive early-’80s Stern with real strategic depth.
The strategy is a satisfying puzzle. There are two ball locks, and completing all the numbers of a color releases all the balls for multiball. Lighting four of the same-color numbers on the grid advances your bonus multiplier, and the smart approach is to choose the color you have the least of, since starting with a color you have none of gives you the best odds of completing it. To spot a number, time your drop-target completion with the number being lit. The real showpiece is the backbox bagatelle: once your ball ends, tap the right flipper to fire it up, then use the left flipper to cycle through the four colors and going through lanes to spot numbers on each letter’s bank — wise, fast control here can build huge bonuses. The three top lanes each do something different, and a boosted spinner can be a lucrative strategy.
Catacomb is a smartly designed, genuinely inventive Stern that packs a clever color-grid multiball and that unique backbox bagatelle into its dungeon package. That post-ball bonus-building mini-game gives a skilled player a rewarding extra layer few machines offer. For the collector who loves early-’80s solid-state design with real depth, it’s a worthy find. Complete your color grids for multiball, choose the color you’re shortest on, and master that backbox bagatelle. Some machines reward learning a clever system, and this Stern dungeon crawl is one of them. Enter the catacomb and drop a coin.