 | TEST OPERATOR |
 Gottlieb, like any self-respecting, quality-oriented company, carried out research to assess new games brought onto the market. Like other pinball manufacturers, this meant putting sample games (which Gottlieb denoted with an "S" prefix/suffix in the serial number) into locations where they could be played (and tested) in real arcade conditions by real, discerning players. Discerning because they were paying to play the game and not being paid to test it! Gottlieb stalwart Wayne Neyens recalled that in the early 40's about 40 samples per game were made and as the years went by and business improved, that number increased, until the late 70's when there we were around 130 samples per game. He stated that the reason for the increase was that the demand for games increased, the number of distributors increased and the increased business overseas. Samople games were sent to each distributor, a number commensurate with the amount of games they would normally buy. They would pay the full price and were expected to put the game on location and send in reports on a regular basis. The distributors were only to happy to do this as they would then have a good feel as to the earning appeal and thus order accordingly. The distributors, that were not operators, were expected to sell or lend the sample to one of their better operators who in turn would send in the reports on a weekly basis. Gottlieb used a 6-week test period and used the feedback they received to know how the game performed technically, how it fared against other pins and video-games, and to help determine the production run. The weak link in this process was Gottlieb's reliance on the operators to provide the feedback. In order to facilitate and stardardise the process, Gottlieb produced a reporting package shipped with these sample games, explaining to the test operators why this reporting was of mutual benefit. The between-the-lines content of the documents suggests that Gottlieb considered the test operators to be a bunch of lazy, stupid and greedy folk who were prone to spill their coffee! Obviously neither the examples provided of how to fill out the reporting forms nor the incentive of a special gift offered by Gottlieb were always enough to ensure the feedback that Gottlieb wanted, as is illustrated by this "Test Operator Package" that was still in its original folder 20 years after the game's release.
 Recommended Test Operator Procedures
Last updated: 07.January 2005 |
