Crescendo

The Crescendo, designed by Ed Krynski with artwork by Art Stenholm and manufactured by Gottlieb in May 1970, is a fine example of the company's electro-mechanical craft, with 1,175 units produced. Its real claim to fame is historical: Crescendo was the first Gottlieb game to feature drop targets of the modern style, where the entire surface the ball hits drops down, an evolution of the earlier mechanism seen on Gottlieb's 1951 'Minstrel Man' and 'Wild West', and a feature that would become a Gottlieb hallmark for decades.

The two-player game rewards strategic thinking and skillful play with two flippers, five pop bumpers, five of those pioneering drop targets, two standup targets, and a right ball return lane. The maximum displayed score is 9,999 points per player, with a replay wheel maximum of 15.

The theme celebrates music, singing, and dancing, rendered in Stenholm's vibrant late-1960s style, and even the backglass has a quirk: the manufacturer's name and address appear in an artful treatment, an unusual variance from Gottlieb's standard block lettering. The game was also produced as the 4-player 'Groovy' and as a single-player Italian version called 'Psychedelic', both in 1970.