Drop Targets

Flat rectangular targets mounted on spring-loaded mechanisms that retract below the playfield surface when struck by the ball. Typically arranged in banks of three, four, or five, they present the player with a completion challenge: knock down the entire bank to score a bonus or advance a game objective, then watch them reset for another round. Gottlieb pioneered drop targets in the early 1960s, and they became one of the most versatile and widely used playfield mechanisms in pinball design, appearing in Electromechanical and Solid State machines alike.