Falstaff

Falstaff, released by Gottlieb in November 1957, is a four-player electro-mechanical game designed by Wayne Neyens with artwork by Roy Parker, with a confirmed production run of 850 units. Its title character is Sir John Falstaff, the roguish knight from Shakespeare's 'King Henry IV' and 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'.

The standout gameplay feature is the roto-target, whose multiplier value changes each time it is hit and scored, cycling from 1x to 10x to 100x and back - meaning the roto-target and lit gobble holes can be worth up to 500 points, a substantial sum on a game whose maximum displayed score is 1,999 points per player. The playfield also offers two flippers, three pop bumpers, six passive bumpers, two slingshots, four rollunders, and two gobble holes, plus earned playfield lights under the card holders that alternate with the slingshot 10-point lights. Score matching at game's end awards a replay, with a double match worth 10 replays.

Roy Parker's backglass carries Gottlieb's famous slogan 'Amusement Pinballs, as American as Baseball and Hot Dogs!' along with a line adapted from Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poem 'Solitude': 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone.' Falstaff is a fine example of Gottlieb's late-1950s craftsmanship at the height of the woodrail era.