Totem

An earlier example of asymmetrically-placed flippers is Atari's 1978 'Middle Earth'. Two different paint schemes have been identified on the rear half of the lower cabinet of this game. The two schemes can be easily categorized by referencing one of the differences between them: once style shows two "dots" and one "dash" of paint while the other shows three "dots" and two "dashes". We don't know the reason for this difference or how many games were made with each pattern. Pictured in this listing are playfields that have a black stripe in the shooter lane that extends onto the playfield along the upper arch. On these playfields, there are no areas of unpainted wood. For instance, the shooter lane is fully painted, as are the oval areas around each rollover, and also the flipper area. These factory playfields were made from MDF or hardboard. We do not know how many playfields were made in this way. We have marked these images as Alternate Playfield Composition. We previously showed a date for this game of October 1979. The new date is per Gottlieb documentation.