Spirit of '76
Manufacturer: GottliebDate: December 1975
Number Produced: 10,300
Designers: Ed Krynski, Wayne Neyens
Spirit of '76 was a pinball machine released by Gottlieb in 1975. Its theme was the upcoming American Bicentennial, as well as American accomplishments such as the space program (an astronaut is prominently featured on the machine); the machine therefore has a very strong red-white-and-blue motif.
Spirit of '76 was the first microprocessor-based pinball table. The table was based on the technology Dave Nutting Associates created for Bally in 1974. The firm licensed the technology to Mirco Games in 1975 to create the table since Bally was not initially interested in the system. The table had a fairly small production run and was regarded as having an unattractive design by critics.
The primary Spirit of '76 machine was 4-player; the 2-player version of this game is Gottlieb's 1976 Pioneer. A special 2-player Add-a-Ball version, Gottlieb's 1976 New York, was made in celebration of the 1976 lifting of the laws that had banned pinball in that state.