Stern Electronics’ Seawitch, released in 1980 and designed by Mike Kubin, dives into a nautical fantasy theme on a fast, four-flipper solid-state playfield. With twin four-bank drop targets, a three-bank, star rollovers, and a spinner, it’s a target-rich machine that rewards methodical shooting and a knack for managing its bonus multiplier.

The scoring smarts revolve around the drops and the “Riptide” feature. Each drop spots a light in Riptide, and when you hit a target again, it scores a thousand for every lit light — drop all the banks and each target is worth a juicy 11K. The bonus multiplier follows the lit drop-target bank, so the rule of thumb is to always aim for whichever bank is lit until you max it (stopping at 6X on balls one and two, since it only carries over below 7X). With four flippers in play, a savvy player uses the upper-right flipper to sweep across the center drops and knock several down at once, and holds the upper flippers to let the ball fall safely to the lowers.

Brisk, deep, and a touch more complex than many of its peers thanks to that four-flipper layout, Seawitch is an enjoyable and underrated early Stern machine. For collectors who love a good drop-target game with rewarding multiplier strategy, it’s a satisfying solid-state catch.