Canada Dry

Canada Dry, manufactured by Gottlieb in December 1976, is a curious footnote in pinball history: this four-player electro-mechanical game was produced specifically for a contest in France to promote the Canada Dry soda brand, and was made only for that market. Despite its promotional origins, it saw a substantial confirmed production run of 2,994 units, a figure that includes 109 sample games documented from Gottlieb's own records.

Designed by Ed Krynski with artwork by Gordon Morison — the duo behind many of Gottlieb's classic 1970s games — Canada Dry offers a demanding target-shooting layout: four flippers, two pop bumpers, two slingshots, two standup targets, and a wealth of drop targets in a 5-bank and a 10-bank. Knocking down those big banks of drop targets is the heart of the game.

Pinball fans may recognize this playfield, because Gottlieb reused the design extensively. The same layout appeared as the single-player replay game 'El Dorado,' the add-a-ball 'Gold Strike,' the Italian add-a-ball 'Lucky Strike,' the four-player 'Target Alpha,' and the two-player 'Solar City' — and it was revived again as Premier's 1984 'El Dorado City of Gold.' That lineage makes Canada Dry the rare French-market branded variant of one of Gottlieb's most enduring EM designs.