North Star

North Star, designed by Wayne Neyens with artwork attributed to Roy Parker, was manufactured by Gottlieb in October 1964 as a single-player electro-mechanical machine with a World Places theme. With 2,525 confirmed units produced, it was a typical mid-1960s Gottlieb release, playable with either three or five balls per game.

The layout includes two flippers, five pop bumpers, two passive bumpers, two slingshots, and two kick-out holes, offering a lively, bumper-heavy challenge. As with many Gottlieb games of the era, tilting the machine ends the game immediately for that player, so nudging has to be handled carefully. The maximum displayed score is a comparatively modest 1,999 points, reflecting the simpler scoring conventions of the period.

North Star's artist attribution has long been a point of research interest: while Roy Parker is credited, some collectors have noted stylistic similarities to artist Art Stenholm's later work, though Gottlieb designer Wayne Neyens has stated Parker worked exclusively for the company at the time and likely completed the artwork himself, with Stenholm not joining Gottlieb until two years later, in 1966.