The Card

The Card is a rare 1977 electro-mechanical, single-player add-a-ball pinball machine from an unknown manufacturer, closely resembling Gottlieb's 1977 export title 'Lucky Card', made for the Italian market. It carries a manufacturer logo bearing only the game's name rather than a maker's name, and details like coil wrappers marked "A.M.I." instead of Gottlieb branding, plus score reel units lacking Gottlieb's usual markings, raise intriguing questions about its true origin. The backglass and playfield were both signed by artist Michele "Mike" Martinelli in 1977.

The backglass carries a curious set of oddities: a silkscreened value apparently misspelled as "10 Milions," and card-suit pips for only three of the four playing-card suits (spade, diamond, heart), missing the club — an omission that the backbox insert design supports rather than contradicts.

On the playfield, The Card features two flippers, three pop bumpers, two slingshots, and a 9-bank drop target unit, though on at least one surviving example the drop target unit has been removed. The maximum displayed score is 19,999,900 points, and sound is provided by a simple speaker, typical for its era. While its true manufacturer remains unconfirmed, The Card's close kinship to a documented Gottlieb export title makes it a fascinating case study in rebadged and unlicensed EM pinball production of the 1970s.