Tic & Toc

The playfield design resembles Gottlieb's 1969 'Mini Pool' except it has drop targets instead of stationary ones. The billiard players on lower playfield appeared earlier on Williams' 1966 '8 Ball' and the two games have similar backglass artwork. Reportedly, this game is one of a few pinball machines to feature Italian language on the backglass as well as on the playfield. For example, "Palle in gioco" (Balls to play) and "Punti" (Score, written under the score drums). Dario Morlacchi of Italy sent us this information about his father's participation in the conception of this game: Coming off of the success of RMG's 1973 'Strike', in 1974 Europlay made a large run of 10,000 units of Sky Star, a copy of Gottlieb's 1974 'Sky Dive'. Only about 2,000 sold, and Mr. Montanari, the company owner, approached operator Luciano Morlacchi for help to sell the remaining 8,000 units. Mr. Morlacchi advised to change the artwork of Gottlieb's 1969 'Bumper Pool' and make a new game, using parts from the 8,000 units of Sky Star. The new game, Tic & Toc, was so successful that an additional 10,000 units were made using brand new parts. One of the games pictured here illustrates that the backglass is not silkscreened in the area of the pool table to allow light to pass through the glass yet there are five light bulb sockets wired from the manufacturer in that area of the backbox insert. However, this area was used to light up the face and helmet of the skydiver in Sky Star, so this is an insert originally designed for that game.