Lights...Camera...Action!

Lights...Camera...Action! is a movie-making-themed pinball machine released in December 1989 by Premier Technology under the Gottlieb name, designed by Jon Norris with software by John Buras and sound by Dave Zabriskie. It's a solid-state, four-player game (model 720) built on the Gottlieb System 3 platform, with 1,708 confirmed units produced.

Gameplay is built around three flippers, three pop bumpers, a spinning target, a 6-bank drop target, and a 3-bank drop target, along with 2- or 3-ball multiball and a left outlane kickback. The upper-left playfield features a rotating mini-playfield that alternates between a ramp to the top hole and a loop to the upper-left flipper, adding an unusual layout twist. When the ball drops into the top hole, the machine calls out "Ready...Set...Draw!" and the player presses the right flipper to beat the villain to the draw for a random award.

The game's Wild West/showbiz artwork was largely the work of freelance illustrator Brian R. Johnson, who painted the animated gunfighting characters and the top layer of the backglass, while art director Constantino Mitchell handled the San Francisco skyline and playfield figures. Combined with its mechanical backbox animation of dueling gunslingers and light-up playing cards on the backglass, Lights...Camera...Action! stands out as one of Gottlieb's more theatrically staged games of the late 1980s.