The Chutes

The Chutes (also known during development as "The Winter Games") was a whitewood prototype designed by John Trudeau for Premier Technology (marketed under the Gottlieb trade name), built around an Olympic Sports theme, but it was never placed into production and the playfield no longer exists. Trudeau has recalled that it didn't play as well as he'd hoped -- the layout felt choppy, with most shots feeding to the right flipper and only the left flipper having a return lane, leaving the game unbalanced.

As a four-player solid-state machine, The Chutes featured two flippers, two pop bumpers, two slingshots, a 4-bank drop target, a 3-bank drop target, five standup targets, two rollunder spinners, a left-side upkicker scoop, and a ball return gate.

Because it was never produced, no exact release year or finished artwork exists for The Chutes. It remains documented today as one of the many prototypes from Trudeau's prolific design career at Gottlieb/Premier Technology.