Flag-Ship (Extended Play Prototype)

The Flag-Ship (Extended Play Prototype) is a 1957 Gottlieb prototype, an Add-A-Ball variant of the standard replay game 'Flag-Ship', designed by Wayne Neyens with art by Roy Parker. Extended-play (Add-A-Ball) games let operators offer additional balls as a reward rather than a cash payout, a format Gottlieb used to navigate gambling regulations in various markets.

The machine carries a nautical, sailing-themed cabinet and playfield, consistent with the standard 'Flag-Ship' release. Bills of materials examined by researcher Steve Young show this prototype's paperwork dated January 1957, about six weeks after the replay version's BOM, and list a "Delay Unit" as part of its added mechanism — evidence that at least one unit was actually built for the effort involved.

Beyond that documentation, little else about the prototype's specific play mechanics survives, but it stands as one of a small group of Gottlieb Extended Play prototypes from 1957, alongside similar prototypes like 'World Champ (Extended Play Prototype)'.