Rat Race

Rat Race was a whitewood prototype designed by John Trudeau for Mylstar Electronics (marketed under the Gottlieb trade name) in the early 1980s, but it was never placed into production and the playfield no longer exists. Trudeau has described it as something of a riff on Q*bert's Quest, built around a declining-bonus mechanic in which rats steal cheeses -- a simple game born, in his words, out of frustration with more expensive layouts that weren't working out.

As a solid-state machine for up to four players, Rat Race featured two flippers, three pop bumpers, two slingshots, three standup targets, and a captive ball -- a modest, straightforward feature set in keeping with Trudeau's stated goal of keeping the design simple.

Because it never reached production, Rat Race survives today only as one of the many unproduced prototypes documented from Trudeau's work during this period, offering a glimpse into the trial-and-error process behind Gottlieb-era pinball design.