Spirit of 76

'Spirit of 76' introduced a larger (taller) Gottlieb coin door than games that preceded it, thus the cabinet was deeper as well, making the front legs shorter. The 2-player version of this game is Gottlieb's 1976 'Pioneer'. A special 2-player Add-a-ball version, Gottlieb's 1976 'New York', was made in celebration of the 1976 lifting of the laws that had banned pinball in New York. Wayne Neyens told the story at Expo 2005 of back when 'Spirit of 76' was being produced, he and a few colleagues were enjoying after-dinner conversation with Judd Weinberg, the president of D. Gottlieb and Company. While Wayne's colleagues predicted a production run of 2,500 games, or 3,000 games, and other numbers in this range, Wayne remained silent. Judd noticed this and asked Wayne to give his prediction of how long the run would last. When Wayne confidently stated the number would be 10,000 games, an amused Judd promised that if it went that high, he personally would deliver one of the games to Wayne's door. Wayne says that the serial numbering of 'Spirit of 76' began at 3001, and it was serial number 13000 that was stamped on the machine that Judd delivered to Wayne in recognition of the 10,000th game produced. It was the only game that Wayne owned but is now with the Pacific Pinball Museum. According to Gottlieb production run data identified by Wayne Neyens as handwritten by Bob Malvasio, Gottlieb made 268 Sample games in 1975, then made 10,300 Production games in 1975-76, and 1 game in 1977, for a total of 10,569 games of 'Spirit of 76'. This would account for the known Sample games all having serial numbers that precede 3001, the acknowledged starting number of Production games.