Rock Star

The Rock Star pinball machine, designed by John Osborne and manufactured by Gottlieb in 1978, is a music-and-singing-themed electro-mechanical (EM) Add-A-Ball machine. It has a notable place in Gottlieb's export history: it was the last game the company made for export to Italy, and its replay counterpart is Gottlieb's 1978 "Blue Note."

A standout feature of Rock Star is its asymmetrical flippers and extensive array of targets, including eight standup targets and two spinning targets, along with five pop bumpers and a kick-out hole. The backglass tracks up to five extra balls by illuminating the word "WOW" - unusually, even the USA version of this machine used the Italian-style method of lighting unlabeled art elements to count extra balls, rather than the traditional American approach of numbering 1 to 9 along the bottom of the glass. Designer John Osborne has suggested this was likely done to save the cost of producing two different backglass designs.

With only 268 confirmed units produced, Rock Star is a genuinely rare machine today, and its unusual mix of European and American design conventions makes it an interesting curiosity for Gottlieb collectors.