El Dorado City of Gold

El Dorado City of Gold is a solid-state electronic pinball machine released under the Gottlieb trade name in 1984, designed by Ed Krynski with artwork by Larry Day. The game occupies a genuinely notable place in company history: it was the last pin produced by Mylstar, with production continued by Premier Technology, and it is also the last game Ed Krynski designed for Gottlieb/Mylstar. Its playfield revives a proven 1970s Gottlieb layout that had appeared as El Dorado, Gold Strike, Lucky Strike, Target Alpha, Canada Dry, and Solar City.

The machine boasts a target-shooter's dream lineup: four flippers, two pop bumpers, two slingshots, a 5-bank of drop targets, a 10-bank of drop targets, and two standup targets. Unlike its EM predecessors, this solid-state version uses a 3-inch flipper bat for its upper left flipper instead of a 2-inch bat. Running on the Gottlieb System 80A MPU and supporting four players, it wraps the classic layout in an adventure-fantasy theme of explorers seeking the fabled city of gold.

Larry Day's backglass artwork has a fun piece of trivia behind it: the models for the explorers were two Gottlieb employees, Jeri Knighton and video game artist Jeff Lee. With a confirmed production run of just 905 units, El Dorado City of Gold is a relatively scarce find and a fitting swan song for one of pinball's most prolific designers.