Big House

Big House, designed by Ray Tanzer and manufactured by Premier Technology (under the Gottlieb trade name) in April 1989, is a solid-state game built around a cops-and-robbers prison-break theme. Its most distinctive mechanism is a drill auger that lifts the ball, paired with a "blow the bridge" feature that creates a ramp for multiball mode - a clever design element that adds strategy and spectacle to the game. Big House supports both 2- and 3-ball multiball, using the three balls installed in the machine.

The playfield, running on Gottlieb's System 80B hardware, features two flippers, three pop bumpers, a kicking target, a 4-bank of drop targets, and a kick-out hole, with software by Bob Wilson and Allen Edwall. The artwork, including a hand-drawn translite, was created by Constantino Mitchell, Pam Erickson, and Jeanine Mitchell, who handled the playfield, plastics, and cabinet color work.

A confirmed 1,977 units were produced. Adding to the game's interest for historians, at least two known early-production examples differ substantially from the regular run, with score displays at the top of the backbox, different playfield and cabinet art, and different music and call-outs, apparently reflecting test games built before the production design was finalized. Big House remains a captivating example of late-1980s Gottlieb innovation.