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Gorgar

Williams, 1979 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

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Gorgar is a Williams System 6 solid-state game (December 1979, design Barry Oursler, 14,000 made) and the first talking pinball machine — a 7-word vocabulary ("Gorgar speaks", "Me got you", "You beat me") over an accelerating heartbeat. It is a single-ball, lamp-ladder game: there is no multiball, no timed modes, no wizard mode, and no lane change (that arrived with Firepower in 1980). Every feature is a persistent ladder that advances as you complete banks and lanes, and much of the progress is remembered ball to ball. The "mode" and "wizard" goals below are this era's closest analogues — its feature ladders and Special/high-score quests — not modern features grafted on.

Bonus is king

The Snake Pit

The signature toy: an under-playfield magnet grabs the ball at the snake's head, scores 1,000 unlit or the flashing value, then releases it. G-O-R bank completions climb the value 20K → 30K → 50K; completing the 1-2-3-4 targets lights it for 50,000 instantly. Values of 20K+ reset to 1,000 when collected; below that it re-collects freely.

Drop banks and the eject hole

1-2-3-4, Stars, and Specials

Each number is made by hitting its bullseye standup or by completing both D and E inlanes (which spots one number). Full completions light the 50K Pit and climb Star 1 → Star 2 → the 1-4 Special arrows; a lit-arrow target awards SPECIAL. The inlanes (3,000 + bonus advance each) are the legendary cross-shatz lanes — alley-passing them is the tournament farm: safe points, max bonus, and a spotted path to the 50K Pit.

Strategy and dangers

Multiplier first (B-lane plunge + spinner loops to 3X), then G-O-R/Pit collects and inlane shatzing. Never shoot the lower 1-2-3-4 standups on the fly — rebounds feed the outlanes, the game's main drain path. Control the Snake Pit release and the eject kickout. Factory replay ladder: 300K / 430K / 550K; High Score to Date 500,000 — beat it and the demon admits "You beat GORGAR."

How Gorgar plays

Gorgar is Williams' 1979 talking machine, a fast, bonus-driven early solid-state game with no timed modes. Grow your bonus and its multiplier, work the two lettered drop-target banks, and cash the magnet Snake Pit for the biggest shots on the table.

The loop

  1. Soft-plunge into the B lane for triple bonus advances and a letter toward your A-B-C multiplier; how hard you pull is your only lane control, since the game carries no lane change.
  2. Complete the A-B-C top lanes for a second-pass multiplier of two, then three, so every rollover, inlane, and target you strike afterward pays more.
  3. Work the G-O-R drops from the right flipper to walk the Snake Pit magnet value up its ladder and to step the eject hole toward an extra ball; the G-A-R drops light the jets, the five-thousand targets, and an outlane Special.
  4. Cash the lit Snake Pit for up to its fifty-thousand top -- take it high, since a big value falls back after you collect it -- and finish 1-2-3-4 the safe way through the D and E inlanes to jump the Pit straight to that maximum.
  5. Cap your base bonus near its ceiling so the end-of-ball count, once multiplied, outscores any single shot on the playfield.

Reading the lights

  • A-B-C Lanes (lanes) — lit: A lit letter over the three top lanes is one you still need for A-B-C, and partial progress is kept from ball to ball. No flipper cycle steers these -- your plunge strength, and looping the spinner lane, are the only ways into a lane, and the middle B is worth triple the bonus of A or C. · then: Complete A-B-C once for a doubled bonus and a second time for a tripled one that caps the multiplier; lock it in early, because it magnifies every rollover, target, and inlane for the rest of the ball.
  • G-O-R Bank and Snake Pit (ladder) — lit: Green value inserts on the snake's body -- twenty, thirty, then fifty thousand -- light as you clear the upper-left G-O-R bank, and where the ladder sits is remembered between balls. · flashing: The lit Pit value flashes at whatever rung you have reached. · then: Shoot the Snake Pit and its under-playfield magnet grabs the ball, pays the flashing value with a growl, then drops it down the left channel -- be set to steer that release. A collected value above the low rung falls to a token amount, so cash it whenever it sits high and rebuild through G-O-R.
  • G-A-R Bank Ladder (ladder) — lit: Each time you clear the center G-A-R bank you climb its own list of awards: first the jet bumpers light to a thousand a hit, then the G-A-R targets themselves pay five thousand, then a Special lights out in the alleys. · then: Keep completing G-A-R to work down that list; three lit jets turn the nest into real points, and the lit Special hops between the two outlanes as drain insurance rather than a shot to chase.
  • Eject Hole (ladder) — lit: The kicker's value lamps climb ten, then fifteen thousand, then Extra Ball as your G-O-R and G-A-R completions add up; two full GORGAR spellings park it at fifteen thousand, and that value does not fall when you collect below the Extra Ball rung. · then: Shoot the lit hole and catch its gentle kickout to farm the fifteen-thousand award on a loop; many hold at exactly two GORGAR spellings so the value never flips, because a third spelling trades it for the Extra Ball -- and you can only bank one of those a ball.
  • 1-2-3-4 Targets, Stars and Special (status) — lit: The four bullseye standups make up the 1-2-3-4 set, and you spot a number either by hitting a standup or, far more safely, by completing the D and E return lanes together. The lower standups kick back hard, so lean on the inlane pairs and save the 4 for a clean closing shot. · then: Complete the set and the Snake Pit lights at its fifty-thousand top, while each sweep also climbs a longer quest -- Star one, Star two, then red arrows on the standups -- until a lit arrow on a target hands you the Special, a free game; that star and arrow progress rides across balls until you finally make it.
  • Spinner Lane (status) — lit: The lone spinner lights only while your bonus climbs through a narrow band, and it pays ten times its dark value on every spin -- a chance that comes and goes just once each ball. · then: Rip it from the left flipper the instant it lights rather than saving it, and let the lane sweep the ball back up to the A-B-C rollovers at the top, so every rip also builds your multiplier.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Open every ball by soft-plunging the B lane and looping the spinner to complete A-B-C for your multiplier, keeping the ball alive out of the jets with a dead bounce or a trap. Steer clear of the lower standups -- they are the drain shots of this game. — B Lane Soft Plunge, Light 2X: Complete A-B-C, Beginner: First 30 Seconds
  • Building — Pound the G-O-R bank, then the G-A-R bank, from a trap to build the Snake Pit value and step the eject hole, cashing the Pit whenever it sits lit and high. Spot 1-2-3-4 through the safe D and E inlane passes to jump the Pit to its top, and loop the fifteen-thousand eject collect while the kickout stays clean. — G-O-R Build-and-Collect, G-A-R Ladder: Jets, 5000s, Special, Cross-Shatz to 50,000, The Eject Loop Line
  • The big one — Gorgar has no wizard mode, so its summit is beating the machine's own high score -- and the road there is the bonus. Lock the tripled multiplier in early, cap your base bonus so the end-of-ball count alone tops any single shot, cash every fifty-thousand Snake Pit, and climb the target quest to the Special; clear the high score and the demon himself concedes. — You Beat Gorgar: The High Score, Max It: 3X and the 29K Bonus, The 1-4 Target Special

Does Gorgar have an action button?

Gorgar is 1979 Williams — two flippers, a plunger, and your hips, with nothing on the cabinet to press but Start. Your one pre-shot decision is the plunge: dropping the ball into the B lane is how you begin building toward the 3X multiplier before you go hunting the Snake Pit.

Goals in Gorgar

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

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