"Asteroid Annie and the Aliens," released by Gottlieb in December 1980, is a rare solid-state pinball machine with only 211 units produced. The game features two flippers, no ramps, and no multiball, focusing instead on skill shots and classic pinball mechanics. The machine is set in a sci-fi theme, with artwork by Gordon Morison and a design by John Buras.
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Quickie Version:
Shoot the spinner to get any lanes you don’t collect on the plunge, then drop targets all day. Shoot the spinner when lit.
Go-to Flipper:
Left when you want to shoot the spinner, otherwise balanced
Risk Index:
High
Skillshot(s):
Get the lit top lane for 15,000; the others will be worth 5K.
Full Rules:
Single player, rare in a solid state; they only made 211 of these. Nice artwork, too. It’s all about cards here, with a twist. The top lanes determine which suits your shots to the drop targets earn. Suits are activated in pairs: either outer lane activates hearts and spades; either inner lane activates clubs and diamonds. If you’ve plunged hearts / spades, shots to the left drop targets will score that rank of the spade suit (black ace, queen or ten) and hearts (red king or jack). Shots to the right drop targets will score A, Q or 10 of hearts (red) and K or J of spades (black). If you plunged an inner lane, the black drop targets will score in clubs, the red ones in diamonds. Later in the ball, you may shoot the ball up top and collect one or more other top lanes to activate the other suits. This gives you a chance to collect cards in the remaining suits by hitting the drop targets; if you already have one of the red queens, for example, if you have both diamonds and hearts activated, hitting the red queen again will give you whichever one you lack. The drop targets are always worth 3,000 each. They don’t reset until you score all 5 on a side, so if you still need one of them to collect a card but it’s already down, you have to complete the bank to raise it back where you can shoot at it. The saucer is worth 5000 plus 5000 per suit where you’ve scored all five cards, so a maximum of 25K. Return lanes are 5K, outlanes 10K. Finishing the left drops lights the lane behind them for 15,000. Finishing the right drops lights the spinner for 1,000 per spin (vs. 100). Completing both sets of drop targets lights the extra ball standup target in the upper left and the special saucer at the lower right. There is NO end of ball bonus on Asteroid Annie, also unusual for a game of this era. Key feed: balls coming down the 15K chute at the left. If they come down full speed, they tend to bump into the top of the left slingshot mount and deflect into the left outlane. Slower balls tend to go into the return lane. If the ball goes in there fast, nudge!
via Bobs Guide
