Stern Electronics’ Magic, released in 1979 and designed by Mike Kubin, conjures a fantasy-illusion theme on a clean, fast solid-state playfield. With twin spinners, a three-bank of drop targets, and a quartet of star rollovers, it’s a compact, skill-focused machine built around the kind of spinner-driven scoring that makes classic Stern tables so satisfying to learn.
The strategy is all about the spinners. The drop targets advance your bonus multiplier while the “magic” letters advance the spinner value, so the winning loop is to build those up and then rip the spinners for points — and the right spinner usefully sends the ball back to the top of the playfield to keep the rally going. The top center lane alternates which spinner carries the 1,000-point light, so on a quick-draining game, a single well-aimed plunge and one big spin can be a genuine punch of points.
Brisk, elegant, and rewarding to a player who masters its rhythm, Magic is an enjoyable and unassuming entry from Stern’s prolific late-70s run. For collectors who love a great spinner game and the uncluttered design of the early solid-state age, it’s a likeable little classic with a touch of stage-magic charm.