Silverball Museum - Asbury Park, NJ (November 2019)

When my son and I went to the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ last weekend we got to play what many collectors consider to be the Holy Grail of wedgehead pinball machines Gottlieb’s 1979 game “TKO.” This particular game is one of only a handful that exist in the United States. Only a little over 100 units of this pin were produced and many of those were prototypes or were shipped overseas.

It’s surprising that this game never made it into full production, but the timing of it just wasn’t right. It was the last wedgehead and one of the last single player games that Gottlieb ever made.

The art is fantastic and the gameplay is great. I love the two holes on the left side of the playfield. If you hit them softly the ball settles in them. If you hit the ball harder you can blast it right past them through a tunnel.

My son and I were fortunate to get to play this pin... and add it to my Pindigo list, where I now have the second best score on it (ok there’s only 3 scores total but that’s not my fault lol).