John Osborne is a person mentioned in 1 episode(s).
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John Osborne began at Gottlieb in the fall of '72, and the Texas Ranger prototype game was already built and abandoned in the engineering department.
The fold-down light box was an innovative feature for shipping and home setup, requiring no plug connections—this was the only game with a fold-down head at that time, though it's now standard in modern games.
Cost-cutting measures like removing star rollovers, ball back gate, and extra score units did not meaningfully reduce production cost because the underlying hand labor and component complexity remained similar to commercial machines.
The machine exhibited non-standard wiring and engineering practices that violated Gottlieb's own manufacturing standards, including loose 120V wiring and hardwired connections between subassemblies.
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Gottlieb never attempted to develop a home pinball machine again after this prototype—there was no follow-up effort or iteration.
Bally didn't introduce home pinball models until 1977, five years after Gottlieb's prototype experiment, and Bally's versions were solid-state machines.
Michael Gottlieb remembered seeing this game as a child visiting the factory, though he had no information about who developed it or what happened to it.
The machine probably had fewer than 100 games played on it across its entire existence, and no play meter was installed because no money was being audited through it.
John Osborne was hired by Gottlieb in 1972 at $10,400/year, with the company paying for his airfare, hotel, and transportation
John Osborne designed Haunted House at Gottlieb
Osborne built a full-size pinball machine as his Fresno State senior project
Hit the Deck was Osborne's first solo-designed game at Gottlieb
Osborne added relay logic to the two-player Pro Football to prevent unfair scoring from motor interference
Osborne still owns his college senior project machine (SouthPaw) and his childhood Chicago Coin Sally from 1948