1982 · Gottlieb
Caveman
Known for Video maze, Semi-hidden saucers, Left vari-target and Right vari-target. Black night sky with blue lightning bolts and scattered stars, prehistoric shoreline with blue water, grey boulders, reeds and orange starfish and cluster of orange palm trees at right.
- Year
- 1982
- Maker
- Gottlieb
- Type
- Solid state
- Display
- Alphanumeric
- Players
- 4
Known for
- video game
Video maze
- saucers
Semi-hidden saucers
- Target
Left vari-target
- Target
Right vari-target
- Drop target
Drop-target banks
On the playfield
- yellow
- blue
- black
- orange
- 2 flippers
- 4 pop bumpers
- 2 spinners
- 2 slingshots
Hole 1
- Semi-hidden saucers saucers
Drop target 1
- Drop-target banks
Targets 3
- Left vari-target
- Right vari-target
- CAVE targets
Lane 1
- In/out lanes
Display 1
- Video maze video game
On the backglass
Who and what
- man Cartoon caveman, adult male, shaggy dark-brown hair and beard, bare legs and feet, ragged brown fur tunic, right arm raised holding a wooden club, mid-swing, standing in front of the title letters
- creature Green pterodactyl with yellow eye, long pointed beak and swept-back crest, wings spread, flying in from the left edge
- creature Large green long-necked dinosaur with a yellow eye and white teeth, standing at right in profile facing left, holding a small orange fish in its jaws
- creature Orange dinosaur head with white teeth and a red eye rising from behind the title letters near the centre
- animal Small orange crab and orange starfish on the rocks along the bottom waterline
Setting
- Black night sky with blue lightning bolts and scattered stars
- Prehistoric shoreline with blue water, grey boulders, reeds and orange starfish
- Cluster of orange palm trees at right
Text on it
- Gottlieb
- CAVEMAN
- HIGH GAME TO DATE
- MATCH
- TIME
- GAME OVER
- CREDITS
- BALL IN PLAY
- SHOOT AGAIN
- 0,000
- 00
Made by
- Design
- John Buras
- Art
- Richard Tracy
- Art
- David Moore
- Art
- Terry Doerzaph
The cast
- Caveman
- Brontosaurus
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus
- Pterodactyl
- Alcove
Reference
Linked terms
- Video maze also called Video game
- Left vari-target also called Left maze vari-target
- Right vari-target also called Right maze vari-target
- Drop-target banks also called Two four-target banks
- CAVE targets also called CAVE letters also called Cave
- Tyrannosaurus also called Tyrannosauruses
- Alcove also called Door
Playfield vision analysis
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Playfield
- yellow
- blue
- black
- orange
Fingerprint: Curved yellow BONUS CAVE title arched over open cave mouth surrounded by ring of round glowing lamps each carrying small number 1 through 10 family of four red-orange cave-men painted directly below cave opening, raised four-bumper diamond platform whose bumpers have star-shaped caps mounted on huge yellow starburst, two rows of white scalloped ripple lines across middle representing cave water cluster of flat brightly colored cartoon dinosaurs red-orange-green lining upper playfield edges, prehistoric-cave-dinosaurs-bowling arcade black instruction card natural wood cabinet
The centrepiece is a curved yellow BONUS CAVE title arched over an open cave mouth, surrounded by a ring of round glowing lamps each carrying a small number (1 through 10), with a family of four red-orange cave-men painted directly below the cave opening. Immediately above it sits a raised four-bumper diamond platform whose bumpers have star-shaped caps, mounted on a huge yellow starburst painted on the playfield. Two rows of white scalloped ripple lines across the middle of the field represent cave water, and a cluster of flat, brightly coloured cartoon dinosaurs in red, orange and green lines the upper playfield edges. The top of the playfield is dominated by a black card of multi-line white and yellow instruction text with coloured arrow bullets, over a very wide run of chunky yellow block title lettering.
Setting
- Prehistoric cave interior with stalactites
- Blue cave pool water with white scalloped ripple lines
- Rocky cave walls and cave-man dwelling
- Dark black upper instruction panel
- Wooden side rails and silver metal apron
- Blue printed cabinet side panels
Symbols
- Playing-card suits in the corner score insets
- Five-pointed stars on the pop bumper caps and on the yellow starburst platform
- Green and red arrow bullets beside each instruction line
- Small yellow cave-man handprints and footprint trails printed on the upper apron area
- Round numbered lamps ringing the cave mouth
- X2, x3, x4, x5 multiplier discs in a vertical column
Notable shapes
- Raised yellow starburst platform carrying the four-bumper diamond
- Arched cave mouth with a ring of numbered round lamps
- Open cave mouth tunnels at lower left and lower right
- Metal ball-guide channels down both outlanes
- Wood side rails with chrome trim
Art motifs
- Cartoon dinosaurs in flat primary colours with heavy black outlines
- Cave water drawn as rows of white scalloped arcs
- Stalactite and rock strata
- Spears, rocks and ferns
- Handprint and footprint trails
Themes
- Prehistoric cave
- Dinosaurs
- Cave-men
- Bowling
- Arcade bonus ladders
Text on it
- LIGHT (FLASHING) SHINES 2
- MORE ARROWS AT TOP OF EACH BOWLING LANE.
- TRICERATOPS, SABE AS ABOVE.
- TYRANNOSAURUS, NO POINTS.
- EATS CAVE-MAN.
- PTERODACTYL. CRUSHING
- COLLECTS 5 BONUS.
- AWARDS EXTRA BALL
- WHEN RUN OVER
- BONUS
- BONUS CAVE
- BOWLING
- 440
- 420
- 1x
- 2x
- 3x
- 4x
- 5x
- 1 REPLAY FOR EACH SCORE OF 95,000 POINTS.
- 1 REPLAY FOR EACH SCORE OF 1,400,000 POINTS.
- 3
- 40879
- 1 PLAYER
- 2
- 183989
- Gottlieb
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Animal | Large flat cartoon triceratops head in red and orange at upper left, with yellow frill and three horns, mouth open |
| Animal | Bright green cartoon dinosaur head with yellow eye and open grinning mouth at upper right |
| Animal | Tall red-orange long-necked dinosaur standing centre-right on dark rock, small head, long tail |
| Animal | Green long-necked dinosaur neck and head rising at centre-right beside the red one |
| Animal | Red squat dinosaur at mid-left, blunt snout, dark outlines |
| Animal | Small orange-brown dinosaur at lower left holding a spear |
| Animal | Yellow-green dinosaur sprawled at mid-left near the lower flipper lane |
| Animal | Small orange dinosaur at lower right in a cave opening |
| Animal | Orange long-necked dinosaur at bottom right edge |
| Other | Family group of four red-orange fur-clad cave-men at bottom centre under the cave mouth: one adult male with dark hair and beard raising an arm, one smaller figure with a raised arm, a smaller child-like figure with a round face, and a crawling infant at their feet |
| Creature | Small red and orange flying pterodactyl painted on the black upper instruction panel beside its own line of text |
A full-length single-level playfield in a natural wood-railed cabinet, photographed from above with the whole machine in frame, including the silver metal apron with a single red ball-launcher knob, blue cabinet side panels printed with yellow and orange lizard/dinosaur silhouettes, and a two-player red LED score panel below showing 3 and 40879 / 183989. The topmost area is a black instruction card printed with six lines of white and yellow block lettering, each preceded by a small coloured arrow icon (green arrows, one red arrow, one white ball), describing targets: flashing light, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Pterodactyl, and an extra ball. Beneath it a large yellow block-letter title runs across the top, partly obscured by reflections, with a small yellow artist signature underneath. Four round yellow pop bumpers with star-shaped caps sit in a tight diamond on a raised yellow starburst platform. The middle of the field is a dark blue cave pool with white scalloped ripple outlines, ringed by painted red, orange and green cartoon dinosaurs and a red-orange cave-man family group at the bottom centre, over which curved yellow letters spell BONUS CAVE inside an arched cave mouth lamp display. Two striped spinner lanes sit mid-field either side of a vertical bonus ladder marked 5x, 4x, 3x, 2x, 1x. Two white-rimmed red-tipped flippers point inward at the base.
Backglass vision analysis
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Backglass
- black
- yellow
- blue
- green
Fingerprint: CAVEMAN wordmark in colossal yellow block letters on black night-sky background with blue lightning, fur-clad caveman wielding wooden club overhead in front of title, green pterodactyl with swept-back crest swooping left, orange dinosaur head with white teeth behind title, large green long-necked dinosaur with yellow eye and small fish in jaws at right, blue water and orange starfish
A colossal flat yellow CAVEMAN wordmark in heavy block lettering, over a black caveman-era scene with flying prehistoric reptiles: a green pterodactyl swooping in from the left and a long-necked green dinosaur at the right. A fur-clad caveman mid-swing with a raised club sits directly in front of the title. The two banks of green-glowing numeric reel windows stacked either side of a black panel, flanked by little yellow stencil captions, are unusually tall for the artwork area. Small gold Gothic Gottlieb lettering sits above the centre of the title.
Setting
- Black night sky with blue lightning bolts and scattered stars
- Prehistoric shoreline with blue water, grey boulders, reeds and orange starfish
- Cluster of orange palm trees at right
Symbols
- Yellow star inside a circular centre pedestal beneath the title
- Yellow arrow glyphs beside match and time
- Small orange fish in the dinosaur's jaws
- Orange palm trees
Lettering
- Enormous flat yellow slab-serif block capitals with slightly irregular hand-painted edges; small gold blackletter/gothic maker lettering above
Themes
- Prehistoric
- Cave man
- Dinosaurs
- Flying reptiles
- Jungle
Title on it
- Caveman
Text on it
- Gottlieb
- CAVEMAN
- HIGH GAME TO DATE
- MATCH
- TIME
- GAME OVER
- CREDITS
- BALL IN PLAY
- SHOOT AGAIN
- 0,000
- 00
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Man | Cartoon caveman, adult male, shaggy dark-brown hair and beard, bare legs and feet, ragged brown fur tunic, right arm raised holding a wooden club, mid-swing, standing in front of the title letters |
| Creature | Green pterodactyl with yellow eye, long pointed beak and swept-back crest, wings spread, flying in from the left edge |
| Creature | Large green long-necked dinosaur with a yellow eye and white teeth, standing at right in profile facing left, holding a small orange fish in its jaws |
| Creature | Orange dinosaur head with white teeth and a red eye rising from behind the title letters near the centre |
| Animal | Small orange crab and orange starfish on the rocks along the bottom waterline |
A wide, landscape backglass/backbox assembly in a scuffed blue-painted wooden frame, photographed dark. The upper two-thirds is a black score panel carrying two banks of mechanical reels: a left column with two green-glowing seven-segment-style score windows reading 0,000 and 0,000, and a right column with two shorter windows reading 00 and 00. Between them sit small yellow stencil captions MATCH and TIME with yellow arrow glyphs, CREDITS and BALL IN PLAY, and at the outer edges HIGH GAME TO DATE on the left, GAME OVER and SHOOT AGAIN on the right. The lower third is a brightly lit illustrated panel on a black night-sky background with blue lightning streaks: a huge yellow slab-serif CAVEMAN title, with the word Gottlieb in small gold Gothic lettering tucked above the A. A caveman in a ragged brown fur tunic brandishes a wooden club overhead, a green pterodactyl with a long beak and crest swoops in from the left, an orange dinosaur head with white teeth rises behind the title, and a large green long-necked dinosaur with a yellow eye and a small fish in its jaws stands at the right among orange palm trees. Blue water with grey boulders and orange starfish runs along the bottom edge.