Gottlieb’s Volley, released in 1976, serves up a tennis theme in a distinctive wedge-head cabinet, and it’s a machine for players who love drop targets — because it’s absolutely loaded with them. In an unusual design choice, Volley dispenses with slingshots entirely and instead packs in three separate five-bank drop target arrays, turning the whole playfield into a satisfying gallery of switches to knock down.
The scoring is a clean, methodical affair built around those banks. Plunging the top lanes lights an associated drop bank for a generous 5,000 points per target, and clearing all the drops resets the banks for another run. The key strategic insight, as veterans note, is to concentrate on the top lanes first — every target you knock down while it’s unlit is a missed chance at the bigger lit value. There’s even a mechanical quirk to respect: hit several drops at the exact same instant and the game may not register them all, so clean, deliberate shooting pays.
Tidy, focused, and built around one very rewarding loop, Volley is a great pick for fans of pure drop-target gameplay. For collectors who appreciate the elegant, slingshot-free experiment of a mid-70s Gottlieb wedge-head, it’s a likeable and surprisingly absorbing table.