Gottlieb's Krull Pinball - 1983

[dtown8532]

Since there's been some crazy requests lately, he's one from me. Krull by Gottlieb from 1983. Designed by John Trudeau and limited to a run of only 10 prototypes, just like Goin' Nuts (but better). Krull is a three level game and the lower level is almost as big as the main one. It uses a magnifying lens to see most of it.

Now I'm sure some think the movie is a pooper, but, as a child of the 80's, I liked it. My dad (and therefore me) were into many of the fantasy films from that era (Conan, etc) so I thought it was pretty cool even though it bombed at the box office. From what I've read, of the ten made at least two were suspected to have been destroyed by Gottlieb when brought back from testing locations. So, maybe only eight exist still. I don't know if Tim Arnold has one and I could find just one video on youtube showing gameplay from an owner named Basil. He's also listed on Pinside as the only owner of this game. Where the other seven or so are, who knows.

On a side note, I listened to a Pinball Expo seminar with the designer of Black Hole. At the end of it Michael Gottlieb was in the audience and made a interesting statement. He said that on the last day just before the company (owned by Columbia) was sold to Coca Cola in 1983 his dad, Alvin, walked through the building one last time and just prior to leaving there were still two Goin' Nuts and one Krull in the back of the place just sitting there.


http://ipdb.org/search.pl?any=krull&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#1397

video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kUhdX8avyY

I really dig the music. Very ominous. Just like Haunted House.

 

[gooche77]

I'm in. Krull was awesome 80s cheese.

 

[LanceBoyle]

I only know of Krull through the arcade game also by Gottlieb, and I loved that one, and a three-level playfield sounds nuts, so count me in too.

...thinking about it... reading that mention of Columbia selling Gottlieb... did they buy it back at one point? Since every version of Q*Bert since 1992 or so has mentioned Columbia instead of Gottlieb or Mylstar. It also makes me wonder if what Columbia owns is the entire videogame division of Gottlieb (as well as Mylstar) or just Q*Bert.

 

[Kolchak357]

I've never seen one of theses but it looks pretty cool. Why did they only make 10 of these?

 

[Nightwing]

I've never seen one of theses but it looks pretty cool. Why did they only make 10 of these?

Because the movie bombed,and I remember reading somewhere that the table was too expensive to put into production.
Honestly,I'd love this in TPA - longshot at best though...

 

[sotie]

Every time I think of Krull my mind immediately goes to The Beastmaster also.

 

[night]

Krull! I beleive it had a game on the Amiga as wel. Cool table, there is something with the look of the lower playfield, it seems to be covered by a de-magnifing glass or something.

 

[canuck]

I'd rather have been playing this table than Goin' Nuts (not that I'm playing Goin' Nuts).

 

[smbhax]

I kind of like the backglass. >_>

 

[Cerberus]

Being a fan of both Black Knight and Cerberus, I'd welcome Krull with open arms. I love basement platforms on games such as Black Hole, Haunted House & Elektra, but Krull brings along with it problems since it was an almost full sized playing field being viewed from a (reverse?) magnified lenticular plexi. They'd need to find either a sweet spot that works out, or incorporate the PS Eye for headtracking on a PS4 release.

I can't say much for the theme, but if this table plays as well as it looks it would be in my top 10.

As you can see, you can't see much of anything on the lower field without the aid of the lenticular plexi.

 

[Espy]

Looks interesting. The lower playfield being viewed through a magnifying glass is a really novel concept. I take it none of the pictures on ipdb show that in action?

Kind of looks like Haunted House and Black Knight rolled into one.

I reckon those remaining machines in the Gottlieb offices are being stored up in crates next to the Ark of the Covenant... one day someone will rediscover Goin' Nuts and unleash its evil.

 

[Crawley]

Would be neat to have a Season of just somewhat rare pinball tables (Krull, King Kong, Big Bang Bar, Algar, Kingpin, Varkon) but doubt that season would sell well and would imagine the costs to obtain those tables would be astronomical.

 

[Clawhammer]

I support this.

 

[Tales from the Crypt !!]

Now this would go great with the Flash Gordon cheese

 

[netizen]

Would be neat to have a Season of just somewhat rare pinball tables (Krull, King Kong, Big Bang Bar, Algar, Kingpin, Varkon) but doubt that season would sell well and would imagine the costs to obtain those tables would be astronomical.

When TPA first began this was sort of what I was hoping for given the "Mission" of preserving pinball and all that guff.

 

[Kratos3]

Every time I think of Krull my mind immediately goes to The Beastmaster also.

Two of my favorite 80s fantasy movies.

 

[WesReviews]

Oh man! I would love to play this! I hope TPA will consider this one. I'm sure they could find a way to make the 3 play fields work.

Has anyone at TPA ever commented on this particular prototype?

 

[dtown8532]

Oh man! I would love to play this! I hope TPA will consider this one. I'm sure they could find a way to make the 3 play fields work.

Has anyone at TPA ever commented on this particular prototype?

No. I never heard a peep from FarSight about Krull. We know that FarSight obtained their photos of Goin' Nuts (another rare prototype) from Tim Arnold at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. I know that Arnold has said he owns one of every Gottlieb ever made however I've never seen his Krull, if he owns one. Perhaps he is referring to every production Gottlieb ever made which would not include Krull. I don't know. Keep in mind that, just because it's not on the game floor at The Pinball Hall of Fame doesn't mean the table isn't in storage. Nonetheless, this pin would need a license from the production company of the film along with permission from anyone that is portrayed on the backglass unless they gave up that right years ago when signing their contracts for the movie. Thus, I don't think we'll ever see it in TPA.

 

[WesReviews]

Well, as far as licenses go, I wouldn't think it would cost near what T2 or Twilight Zone cost. For one thing... it was a box-office failure. Therefore, not exactly a hot, highly in-demand brand. The actors depicted on the back glass are pretty much no-names. So I can't imagine this one would be terribly pricey to put together.

The digital playability of the actual table, may be an other story altogether, but I remain optimistic that FarSight could find a way to make it work, even if it meant having to fudge a little on the realistic detail of the real table.

 

[dtown8532]

FarSight seems to respond to requests on Facebook quite often. Maybe some talk on there might gauge their interest, if they have any at all.