Gold Wings

Gold Wings is a solid-state electronic pinball machine released by Premier Technology (under the Gottlieb trade name) in October 1986, with a confirmed production run of 3,260 units. Designed by John Trudeau with software by John Buras, it runs on the Gottlieb System 80B platform. The artwork was a team effort: Larry Day handled the playfield and cabinet art, while Don Marshall created the photographic translite and the game's brochures and advertisements.

The aviation-themed gameplay gives players plenty to shoot at: four flippers, four pop bumpers, eight standup targets, six rollunders, a spinning target, a ramp, a kick target, and a kick-out hole, plus a 2-ball multiball. The layout's showpiece is a 360-degree vertical loop on the playfield, a dramatic feature that suits the flight theme perfectly. In another unusual design choice, the game has no outlanes.

Gold Wings also makes noise in a memorable way: an air siren mounted in the cabinet sounds off when a player scores 500,000 points in a single shot, earns an extra ball, or wins a replay. With its vertical loop, siren, and photographic translite, Gold Wings is a distinctive entry in Premier's System 80B lineup and an interesting find for fans of 1980s solid-state pinball.