Pipeline

Pipeline is a solid-state electronic (SS) whitewood prototype designed by John Trudeau for D. Gottlieb & Company in the late 1970s. Like many of Trudeau's prototypes from this period, it never reached production, and the playfield was later stripped and no longer exists.

The machine featured a single-level widebody layout with three flippers, five pop bumpers, two slingshots, a 3-bank drop target, five stand-up targets, two kick-out holes, a kicking target, and a right-side ball return. By Trudeau's own recollection, the layout was fairly straightforward, and despite the game's name, he believed the intended theme was about industrial pipes rather than surfing.

Little else is documented about Pipeline's design or art, and no overhead photo of the playfield survives. It remains one of the more obscure entries among Gottlieb's unproduced late-1970s prototypes, valued today mainly as a record of Trudeau's prolific design output during this period.