Valkyrie

The Valkyrie is one of the more mysterious artifacts in Gottlieb's history: a signed and dated 1978 prototype backglass (bearing a 1979 copyright) marked with the D. Gottlieb & Company / Columbia Pictures Industries box logo. The artwork, by artist Gordon Morison, depicts a Norse valkyrie warrior wielding a sword, and the glass carries the printed number E17931433.

According to Morison, the backglass may have been created for a game intended for an Australian company or individual. Reportedly several color variations of the backglass were made as prototype samples, but all except this one were destroyed; Morison recalled saving it from a dumpster at Ad Posters, the company he worked for at the time. As far as he could remember, he never designed anything further for the game beyond this single backglass.

Because no playfield, cabinet, or other components are known to survive - and it is unclear whether Valkyrie was ever built as a complete machine - very little can be said about its intended gameplay or mechanics beyond its classification as a solid state electronic (SS) design. It remains an intriguing curiosity for Gottlieb collectors and pinball historians, illustrating how many game concepts from the era never made it past the concept-art stage.