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Episode 4 – Spotlight Series – Drop-A-Card and Pop-A-Card

EM Pinball Journeys·podcast_episode·22m 53s·analyzed·Jan 12, 2025
Buzzsprout-16351974
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Deep dive into Gottlieb's Drop-A-Card and Pop-A-Card EMs with restoration documentation and historical analysis.

Summary

David Rick Morgan's inaugural Spotlight Series episode examines Drop-A-Card (1971) and Pop-A-Card (1972), two Gottlieb EM machines with nearly identical designs but fundamentally different scoring mechanics—Drop-A-Card is a replay game while Pop-A-Card is an add-a-ball game. Morgan details his personal restoration journey of a Pop-A-Card acquired in 2022, documenting extensive mechanical and cosmetic work, and provides historical context including a third variant (The Card The King) made for the Italian market. The episode emphasizes the playfield differences, tournament locations, and the regulatory history that drove add-a-ball game creation.

Key Claims

  • Drop-A-Card produced 2,600 units; Pop-A-Card produced 825 units

    high confidence · David Rick Morgan citing manufacturing records at episode opening

  • The Card The King was manufactured in August 1971, before Drop-A-Card (November 1971) and Pop-A-Card (March 1972)

    high confidence · Morgan citing Internet Pinball Database production dates; notes this is earlier than initially expected for the export variant

  • Pop-A-Card is the last Alvin Gottlieb pinball machine with two-inch flippers at the bottom of the playfield

    high confidence · Morgan's assertion based on production timeline and machine specifications

  • Add-a-ball games were created to circumvent local laws prohibiting replay wins, as free balls were considered less valuable than free games

    high confidence · Morgan explaining regulatory history; notes New York was one state with heavy add-a-ball distribution

  • Pop-A-Card has five-digit scoring while Drop-A-Card has four-digit scoring

    high confidence · Morgan documenting technical specifications of both machines

  • There is a mystery around The Card The King flipper length (2-inch vs 3-inch variants exist)

    medium confidence · Morgan observing conflicting documentation on IPDB and YouTube videos; solicits community input

  • Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas is the only location with both Pop-A-Card and Drop-A-Card playable

    high confidence · Morgan citing PinballMap.com data; cross-references six Pop-A-Card and seven Drop-A-Card locations

  • Morgan spent over 150 hours restoring his Pop-A-Card, including cabinet repair, rubber kit replacement, drop target rebuilding, and flipper reconstruction

    high confidence · Morgan's personal restoration narrative spanning October 2022 through 2023

  • Pop-A-Card and Drop-A-Card are ranked 36 and 46 respectively on Pinside EM100 list

Notable Quotes

  • “I wanted a game that I could tinker with.”

    David Rick Morgan @ ~21:30 — Explains motivation for acquiring the heavily damaged Pop-A-Card; establishes mindset for restoration project

  • “The guy said, I'll just throw it on a fire.”

    Antique shop owner (paraphrased from friend's comment) @ ~19:00 — Illustrates stakes of Morgan's acquisition—machine faced destruction without intervention

  • “Even if I don't get this pinball machine up and running, I'll learn a lot along the way by trying.”

    David Rick Morgan @ ~20:00 — Summarizes learning-focused approach to restoration rather than purely investment-driven

  • “Add-a-ball is a bit more fun because winning a free game on a machine that is already set on free play is not as exciting as being rewarded with extra balls.”

    David Rick Morgan @ ~12:30 — Personal preference statement comparing gameplay experience between replay and add-a-ball mechanics

  • “The Flipper Rebuild makes the flippers work like new.”

    David Rick Morgan @ ~38:00 — Confirms effectiveness of flipper rebuild kit in restoring weak flipper performance

Entities

David Rick MorganpersonD. Alvin Gottlieb & CompanycompanyEd KrinskypersonGordon Rob MorrisonpersonDrop-A-CardgamePop-A-CardgameThe Card The KinggameInternet Pinball DatabaseorganizationPinballMap.comorganization

Signals

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Growing emphasis on preserving and playing EM machines in public locations; geographic distribution patterns reflect historical regulatory differences

    high · PinballMap data shows East Coast concentration of Pop-A-Card (New York heavy due to replay law restrictions), West Coast concentration of Drop-A-Card; Pinball Hall of Fame serves as regional hub with both variants

  • ?

    community_signal: Morgan brought restored Pop-A-Card to two major pinball shows (Saratoga July 2023, Pintastic New England September 2023) without requiring repairs, indicating active participation in touring/exhibition culture

    high · Morgan reports attending Saratoga Pinball and Arcade Show in July 2023 and Pintastic New England in September 2023 with his machine; machine operated flawlessly for four days at latter event

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception toward EM pinball machines at community level; both Drop-A-Card and Pop-A-Card have active playable locations and collector interest despite not being considered 'favorite' machines

    high · PinballMap documents 6 Pop-A-Card and 7 Drop-A-Card locations across US; Pinside EM100 ratings show overall positive comments; Morgan notes machines are filled with nostalgia value

  • ?

    historical_signal: Community actively researching and documenting EM pinball variants and production details; some mysteries remain (The Card The King flipper length)

    medium · Morgan identifies dating discrepancy (The Card The King August 1971 predates Drop/Pop variants) and solicits community input on flipper specifications; uses IPDB as reference but notes incomplete documentation

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.069

0:00
This is the EM Journeys Pinball Podcast. Hello and welcome back to the EM Pinball Journeys Podcast. I'm David Morgan. This is the first episode of the Pinball Machine Spotlight Series. Each episode will feature a different pinball machine, or as in today's episode, multiple versions of the same pinball machine. In this series, I'll share statistics, descriptions, and stories. Many Pinball Machine Spotlight episodes will feature a guest. Today I'm going to talk about Drop-A-Card, made in 1971, and Pop-A-Card, made in 1972, which were both manufactured by D. Gottlieb & Company. Designed by Ed Krinsky and art by Gordon Morrison. They made 2600 units of Drop A Card and 825 units of Pop A Card. Units of both games were mainly distributed in the United States, but some were exported to several other countries. I'm starting this series with these pinball machines because Pop A Card was my first pinball machine and I still have it. Pop A Card and Drop A Card at first glance appear to be the same pinball machine. The game design and art are mostly identical with its card theme and open playfield layout.
1:25
Playfield features include two of the smaller flippers, which are two-inch flippers, four-star rollovers, two stand-up targets, 13 drop targets across three banks of drop targets, two banks of four drop targets are on each side in the middle of the playfield, and one bank of five drop targets is toward the top of the playfield. There's also a three-chime unit. Drop a card is known as a replay game, meaning that you have the ability to earn a free game. Pop a card is known as an add a ball, meaning that you have the ability to win additional balls during gameplay instead of replays. Because the scoring systems differ between these two games, the player experience is also slightly different. For example, winning free balls in pop a card can result in longer playing times.
2:12
Add a ball is a feature of some replay games in the EM era. Often a Jones plug adjustment can be made and your replay game now allows you to win a free ball. True add-a-ball games like Pop-a-Card are a bit different because you can win more than one ball during a ball in play. On a replay game with an add-a-ball setting, when you win a free ball, whatever ball you're on stays lit when the ball drains. Most pinball machines, including replay games, count up from ball one, and on a five-ball game, the game is over after ball five. Somewhere on the game, you'll usually see the ball number lit up showing ball in play. On drop a card, the ball in play is found on the apron, which is where the instruction cards are found below the playfield. The numbers are backlit and count up from one to five or to three if your machine is set for a three-ball game. on an add-a-ball game instead of ball in play somewhere on the game you usually see the words balls to play because the number of balls counts down instead of up on pop a card and many gottlieb add-a-ball games the numbers and text indicating balls to play are toward the bottom of the back glass on pop a card you plainly see numbers one through ten if the game is set to a five ball game the stepper unit in the back box counts up to five and lights the number five. When you lose a ball, the stepper unit counts down to four and so on. You can win free balls up to a maximum of 10 balls. If you're on ball 10 and win a free ball, the 10 stays lit. In conclusion, on the add-a-ball game, the stepper can go up and down winning and losing balls, and you can win more than one ball per ball in play. On the replay games, you start at ball one and can only win one free ball per ball in play. Many replay games grant the opportunity to win a replay and a free ball. As far as I can tell, Drop a Card does not grant any free balls, only replays. For me, At a Ball is a bit more fun because winning a free game on a machine that is already set on free play is not as exciting as being rewarded with extra balls. I found the flyers for both games and I'll read them to you. This will give you more of a sense of the difference between the two games. I'll start with Drop a Card. The flyer looks to be a full page flyer. It reads, a fascinating combination, the universal appeal of playing cards, the challenge of Gottlieb's drop targets. All 13 cards contained in three separate banks of targets, hitting targets two through five and 6 through 9 lights pop bumpers and side rollovers for super high score. Hitting targets 10 through ace changes value of bottom rollovers to 500 points. Knocking down all targets lights side rollovers to 500 points. Knocking down all targets lights side rollovers for special score and lights bottom rollovers alternately for a special score. That extra touch of quality and originality, a Gottlieb flipper skill game. The Papa Card Flyer appears to be more of a postcard size flyer, and it reads, A fascinating playing card add a ball. Three sets of drop targets. Hitting 2 3 4 and 5 lights left target for added balls Hitting 6 7 8 and 9 lights right target for added balls 10 jack queen king and ace when knocked down lights four rollovers to score additional balls Additional balls made on high score That extra touch of quality and originality. A Gottlieb flipper skill game. I learned that drop targets on drop a card only reset when the game starts. Pop a card on the other hand will reset individual target banks when you drain the ball if the targets are down in that bank. Also, Drop A Card has four-digit scores with points earned as low as one point. Pop A Card has five-digit scores with points earned as low as 10 points. On Pop A Card and many EMs in the latter part of the era, the zero doesn't move. They are dummy score reels that are always showing zero for the one's digit score. If you lean in, there's typically even a nine above the zero and a one below the zero to make it look authentic. There is a third version of this game called Card King that was made for the Italian market in August of 1971. The internet pinball database ipdb.org lists the production count to be 2,340 units. They also specify that this version is an Adaball and is basically a version of PapaCard made for export to Italy. I was unable to locate any known Card King machines on location anywhere, including in Italy. I recently saw a photo of a Card King on Instagram. It appeared to be in a private collection somewhere in Europe. There is a gameplay video on YouTube of a Card King showing three-inch flippers. There is another video showing a Card King with 2-inch flippers. It's not obvious to me that the model with the 3-inch flippers was a modification. The photo on Internet Pinball Database shows 3-inch flippers as well. The longer flippers still appear to be quite far apart. So this is a mystery. If you have any knowledge that you would care to share about the actual flipper length of Card King machines, please email me at empinballjourneyspodcast at gmail.com. On Pop-A-Card, the ball count is lit up on the back glass. On Card King, the ball count is lit up on the apron, similar to Drop-A-Card. What is interesting to me about Card King is that it was made before Drop-A-Card and Pop-A-Card. If the dates are correct, the Italian market got their version of this game first. In summary for the timeline with these three games, Card King was first in August 1971, and then Drop A Card in November 1971, and lastly Pop A Card in March of 1972.

high confidence · Morgan citing current Pinside rankings with caveat about small sample size of raters

Pinball Hall of Fame
organization
Greg Grilloperson
Arcade 80sorganization
Pinside EM100organization
Saratoga Pinball and Arcade Showevent
Pintastic New Englandevent
Jimperson

community_signal: Morgan leveraging podcast platform and social media to document and share EM restoration knowledge with broader hobby community

high · Morgan credits YouTube channels like 'The Goat Shed Pinball' for restoration guidance; shares detailed progress on Adirondack Pinball Facebook page; encourages audience feedback via email and social media

8:28
Pop A Card has a place in pinball history as the last Gottlieb pinball machine with the two-inch flippers at the bottom of the playfield. Many other games after Pop A Card have two-inch flippers, but they are only in the upper playfield. Both Pop A Card and Drop A Card are considered Wedgeheads, which is a nickname for single-player Gottlieb machines from the 60s and 70s due to the wedge-shaped heads that are slightly wider at the top of the head. I'm quite fond of the Wedgehead games. I have a few others, and I'll talk about them in future episodes. In October 2022, I went to an event called the World's Largest Garage Sale in Warrensburg, New York. It's a unique event that, in addition to garage sales, it attracts many different kinds of vendors and it stretches for miles. I joked to my wife and our friends Maureen and Jen, if you spot a pinball machine let me know. Soon after we walked by a garage. Jen peeked inside and spotted a pinball machine. There sat a pinball machine without legs up on a sawhorse. It was a 1972 Gottlieb Papa card. It was dirty and as I looked closely I could see that there was a big hole in the bottom of the cabinet. There was no power switch. I noticed that even though the playfield was dirty the paint was not worn. The back glass had some flaked paint. The cabinet had some patina and the coin door was a bit rusty. It was marked down almost half of its original asking price and I said out loud, it's perfect. I wanted a game that I could tinker with. The price tag said to see the owner of the antique shop next door. I spoke with the woman inside who was one of the owners and let her know that I wanted to buy the pinball machine. She said, my husband is going to be very happy to talk with you. He said that the pinball machine had not been working for many years, which was apparent to me. They'd been trying to sell it for a friend and they were about to sell the antique store because they were moving away from the area. The husband had recently spoke with a friend and asked him what he would do with the pinball machine if they couldn't sell it before they closed up and moved away. The guy said, I'll just throw it on a fire. The husband told me that he was so glad that I came along and saved this pinball machine. He had the legs for the pinball machine, but the leg bolts were missing. Our friends Maureen and Jen were so helpful with loading the pinball machine into our car. My thoughts at the time were, even if I don't get this pinball machine up and running, I'll learn a lot along the way by trying. I brought it home and vacuumed the mouse droppings out of it before I brought it in the house. I ordered a new rubber kit to replace all of the decayed rubber rings on the playfield. The kit included a rubber tip for the plunger as well. I also ordered a new ball, new bolt legs, and a schematic. The bottom board on the cabinet clearly needed to be replaced. The hole was almost a foot wide. My best guess is that someone was trying to get into the coin box Who knows I replaced it with some thin birch plywood and cut a hole with a hole saw so that I could replace the power switch The power switch was completely ripped out and missing. In order to replace the bottom board, I had to take most of the components out of the cabinet, which took a lot of time and patience. I used thin square dowels to help glue the bottom board to the cabinet frame. I cleaned up the legs and coinedore with quadruple zero steel wool which is very fine it does not scratch like other steel wool it is not ideal to use quadruple steel wool if you use it on metal that already has a chrome or shiny metal surface the legs were quite rusty just the steel wool made the metal look so much better but there were still areas that were pitted it is not recommended to use steel wool inside a pinball machine as the shavings are flammable Steel wool can actually be used as a fire starter. I later learned about evaporust, wet sandpaper techniques, and buffing compounds for metal parts. For the metal parts, I placed them in evaporust for 12 to 24 hours. I was impressed with how nice the parts look afterward. I picked up evaporust at Harbor Freight and keep it in a closed 5-gallon bucket. It is reusable and I keep the lid tight on the evaporus so that it doesn't evaporate. I cleaned up the playfield using a little bit of Novus II at a time on a microfiber cloth. I worked on the back box, cleaning and rebuilding the ball count stepper unit. The stepper unit advances the ball count up and down. Because this is an Adaball game, there are two solenoid coils. One helps move the ball count up and the other helps move the ball count down. On Adaball games, you start at 3 or 5 balls depending on how you adjust the game setting and then the stepper counts down to 0. If you win an extra ball, the other solenoid coil steps the ball count up. A less typical feature of EM games is PapaCard also has an 8-ball setting in addition to the 3 and 5-ball setting.
13:32
I then rebuilt the relays and cleaned the switches in the back box. I more recently learned that you might not want to go bending and adjusting all kinds of switches until you have the game going so that you can adjust something and then see the result before you adjust other switches and potentially create problems that are challenging to backtrack. Luckily I didn't bend things out of whack. Next I moved on to rebuild and clean the score reels.
13:57
Gut leave score reels are a bit tricky. Luckily there are less of them on a single player game like Pop-A-Card. I recommend getting a single-player game as your first EM, in part because of the smaller number of score reels to work on. A quick side note, all of this gave me the confidence to rebuild the carburetor on my snowblower around this time. It was clogged, and it works great now. After finishing up with the back box, I moved on to work on the mechanisms of the playfield. The drop targets clearly were not working as springs were off or stretched out, The drop targets were dirty. After watching a great YouTube video on the Goat Shed Pinball channel, I spent the good part of two days rebuilding and cleaning all three drop target units. I took lots of pictures. Once they were in a bunch of pieces, I was nervous about getting it all back together. They came back together nicely though. Next, I took all of the parts off the playfield except the pop bumpers to give it a thorough cleaning and waxing. I cleaned the parts and reassembled using the new rubber kit. I also changed out a lot of the light bulbs with bayonet style 47 bulbs, which are a little bit cooler than the 44 bulbs that are commonly installed in the EM pinball machines. I replaced the light bulbs under the round playfield inserts with warm white LED bulbs. In early January 2023, I reassembled PapaCard and replaced the power cord with guidance from my good friend Jim, who is a retired electrician. I then turned on the power for the first time since I got the game three months earlier, and it worked. I could start a game and it played. I spent some time fine-tuning it and quickly realized that there was a bit more to be done. The flippers were really weak. The ball did not go all the way up to the top. I bought a Flipper Rebuild Kit, which contains parts that are worth replacing after 50 years.
15:53
Installing the parts from the Flipper Rebuild Kit was challenging as I broke off a screw and had to drill it out and then broke a part called the lever arm, which turns the flipper bat when you flip the flipper. So I had to order that part. Once completed, the Flipper Rebuild makes the flippers work like new. There are several reasons why flippers can be weak. Often the flipper plunger and link assembly gets worn over time and needs to be replaced. This part comes with the flipper rebuild kits. Contrary to what you might think, the flipper bats themselves are not part of a flipper rebuild kit. The flipper bats may not need to be replaced and can be purchased separately if needed. I'm skipping ahead in the timeline here, but I brought PapaCard to two pinball shows in 2023. The first pinball show was the Saratoga Pinball and Arcade Show in July. I was only there for the second day. I met many other people in the pinball hobby and got some great pinball tips. It was a great experience.
16:54
In September, I brought PapaCard to Pintastic New England, and it made it through all four days without need of repair. I brought tools in case it needed some help. Most of the machines from the EM era are in private collections but some are available to play on location Where can these games be found According to PinballMap.com, there are six known locations where you can play Pop A Card. Arcade 80s in Rochester, New York has the only one that I've played among these. Owner Greg Grillo told me that he is a third generation pinball operator, and the Pop A Card game there belonged to his grandfather. The next location is Lake George Escape Campground in Warrensburg, New York. If you recall, Warrensburg, New York is where I bought my PapaCard.
17:44
Next is Pastimes Arcade in Girard, Ohio. I've been there, but not since they acquired PapaCard. Next is Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. This is the only PapaCard listed in the western half of the U.S. Next is the Roanoke Pinball Museum in Roanoke, Virginia. I look forward to visiting there, even if the pop-up card is not in the rotation while I'm there. Lastly, Silver Ball Retro Arcade in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I'm very excited to visit here soon. They have a lot of EMs. According to pinballmap.com, there are seven known locations where you can play a drop-up card. I'm now realizing that all of the known locations where you can play either of these games are all in the United States. First up for Drop a Card is Anastasia's Island Arcade Museum in Augustine, Florida. Next is Catalina Brewing Company in Marana, Arizona. Next is Fast Eddie's Moab Meal on Bun in Modesto, California. Next is Highside Brewing Frisco in Frisco, Colorado. Next is Humdinger Pizza in Portland, Oregon. Next is Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. So that makes the Pinball Hall of Fame the only place that has Pop-A-Card and Drop-A-Card. Last up is Pinball Paradise in McLean, Illinois. You may have noticed that Drop-A-Card games are mostly on the West Coast, and Pop-A-Card games are mostly on the East Coast. Adelball games like Pop-A-Card were created to help skirt local laws where winning replay games were prohibited, and winning a free game was considered something of value, but winning a free ball was somehow less so. It's kind of weird, but this allowed the manufacturers to make more games to sell.
19:36
New York was one of the few states where Adaball games were heavily distributed. That may help explain why there are so many Papa Cards in New York, including mine. I'm not aware of Papa Card or Drop a Card being anyone's favorite pinball machines, but they are fun, and for many, a special game filled with nostalgia. If you like drop target games, I guarantee that you will enjoy at least a few plays on these machines. Pinside.com EM100 list currently has Pop-A-Card ranked 36 and Drop-A-Card ranked 46.
20:10
There are not many raiders on the EM games, so this list is interesting to look at as a snapshot of a few opinions more than it is an accurate description of how the masses really feel about these games. The comments on the ratings for both games are overall very positive. The noteworthy few comments on the negative side are that the ball drains easily. I can attest to that. Also, that if not well maintained, the upper targets are difficult to hit. I agree. The flipper rebuild kit was critical for making the flippers strong enough to hit those upper drop targets on my game. I can comfortably say that I put over 150 hours into my PapaCard and gave you only some highlights. If you scroll down to Spring 2023 on my Adirondack Pinball Facebook page, I shared a lot of photos and progress of my efforts with PapaCard. Even though there was blood, sweat, and tears, I'm happy with having learned so much along the way, and now the game plays really well. it still has signs of wear but I feel that's part of the charm of a game that's over 50 years old I have certainly increased the game's value but my efforts were more of a labor of love than an investment and that concludes today's episode I want to thank you for joining me today on the EM Pinball Journeys podcast I hope that you enjoyed this episode please look out for more upcoming pinball spotlight series episodes if you want to contact me I can be reached at empinballjourneyspodcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Facebook or Instagram at Adirondack Pinball. Adirondack is spelled A-D-I-R-O-N-D-A-C-K. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, corrections, or suggestions of future EMPinball topics. I would love to hear about your journey so far. Next time on EMPinball Journeys Podcast, I'll talk about terminology related to EM pinball. This will be the second episode of the beginner series. When I first started learning, not knowing many of the common terms made it somewhat challenging to have a conversation with others who have been in the hobby for some time. I'll talk a little bit about the anatomy of the pinball machine as well. Thanks again for listening. I'll be back again in two weeks.
22:35
Thank you.