Spectra IV

The Spectra IV, manufactured by The Valley Company in April 1978, is a solid-state electronic (SS) pinball machine best known for an unusual format: it's a cocktail table game, with the playfield manually rotated beneath a stationary glass top so players on either side can view it right-side up.

Gameplay includes two flippers, three pop bumpers, two slingshots, five standup targets, two kick-out holes, a spinning target, a captive ball, and a star rollover, all contributing to a busy, feature-rich four-player layout. A standout mechanism is the right outlane gate, which can be activated to convert the outlane into an inlane, returning the ball to the flipper - a feature pioneered a decade earlier on Chicago Coin's 'Astronaut' and 'Moon Shot.' The Spectra IV is one of only two solid-state machines with a rotating playfield, a distinction it shares with Midway's 1978 'Rotation VIII.'

While specific design or art details are not readily documented, the manual-rotation cocktail format made Spectra IV a distinctive entry in the late-1970s SS pinball landscape. No designer or theme information is currently known, but its innovative table format secures its place as a notable curiosity in pinball history.