Victory is an arcade pinball game designed by John Trudeau with art by Constantino Mitchell. It was released by Gottlieb (under the "Premier" label) in 1987.
The game is, quite simply, a fictionalized auto race in pinball form. Shoot the various ramps and chutes up, around, and under the playfield to reach the seven checkpoints along the track, then cross the finish line and win the race. Faster track times lead to higher scores, though savvy racers will be sure to make a pit stop in the upper playfield for extra balls, and spell FINISH to boost the multiplier.
Victory is considered to be a solid but generic design with a strong emphasis on good aim; the stop-and-go flow and linear gameplay tends to turn off casual players, although experts can leverage the multiplier and checkpoint countdowns for higher scores. It was originally designed to have a third, lower-level playfield, but it was removed due to cost.
Victory was also one of the few Gottlieb games to use a "Vitrigraph" mylar overlay on its playfield; unfortunately, it had a tendency to come loose over time, making the game unplayable. Gottlieb responded by offering replacements using conventional wood silkscreening with a mylar cover.
Digital versions of this game are available for Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection and The Pinball Arcade.
Victory demonstrates the following tropes:
- The Big Race: As if the big IndyCar on the backbox didn't make it obvious.
- Blood Sport: Subverted; marketing materials indirectly suggest that Victory is set in a Vehicular Combat arena, and the artwork shows cars loaded with assorted spikes and weapons. However, the actual game rules make no reference to any of this, and it's easy to treat the game as a conventional, non-violent auto race.
- Cool Car: All of the cars are Indy racers loaded with spikes and weapons.
- New Game Plus: After the first Victory, all Checkpoint values start at 800,000. Further victories light a Special at either of the outlanes.
- Score Multiplier: Spelling FINISH raises the playfield multiplier for all shots (except checkpoints) for the rest of the game, as long as the Checkpoint timer doesn't expire. Doubles as a permanent multiplier for the End of Ball Bonus.
- Spelling Bonus: F-I-N-I-S-H raises the Score Multiplier up to 8x, while F-U-E-L (which must be spelled in order) gives various rewards, up to an Extra Ball.
- Spiked Wheels: The cars have wickedly long spikes protruding from the rims.
- Spikes of Villainy: Everything is covered with spikes of some sort.
- Timed Mission: Each checkpoint starts with a countdown bonus of 100,000 points times the checkpoint number, which is collected when the player shoots it. The timer starts at 800,000 points after the first race, and some sequences allow players to collect nearly the full amount with good aim.
- Vehicular Combat: Suggested in the playfield art and advertisements, but nowhere to be found in the game.
- Weaponized Car: Mounted machine guns are standard on all of the vehicles.
