Found 3 ratings (with comment) on this game

A true piece of pinball history on several fronts:

- The original version, 'Spirit of '76' was the last of the great run of Wayne Neyens designs, and his most successful machines ever, with over 10,000 made and several thousand of the two-player version 'Pioneer', this machine was just about everywhere in 1975-76 because of the bicentennial theme.

- this version 'New York' was issued in celebration of the famous/infamous Roger Sharpe in-chambers demonstration that pinball was indeed a skill, and pinball finally being made legal in the state was celebrated by slapping the words 'New York' on the machine and modifying it for two-player add-a-ball, making it highly incongruous (what does New York have to do with astronauts, rockets, and pioneers? Not a lot).

The change however makes it a much better home machine, as add-a-ball is a nicer feature for free play than a replay knocker, and you get all the incredible backglass artwork of 'Spirit' with the low-machine run of 'New York'.

For longer gameplay notes, see the reviews for 'Spirit' and 'Pioneer'. It's a shooter's game, subtle in its way, focusing on drop target collection of 1776 / 1976 banks and collection at the saucer, and plays a little slow by modern standards (no slingshots! it's almost a bump and return game hearkening back to Neyens' earliest games), but it requires real tenacity to build a great score, and the add-a-ball feature provides rewards as a result that make it a neat addition to the home stable.

Great backglass, decent playfield art, and can't go wrong with drop targets. A real looker, play it if you can find it.

Based on my Pioneer review:

New York is one of those games that looks so simple, and I guess it is, but the balance of the rules and the difficulty in acheiving the goals of the game make this table a classic.

The Pros: Simple but NEVER easy. That's pretty much how this game sums itself up. The angles on the drop target banks are perfect. I usually don't like symmetrical pf's but this is a great deck. A real skill shot for the "C" rollover at the top.I am always surprised at how often the ball bounces out the lanes on the sides considering there are no slings on this table. Nudging skills are still required considering how little rubber is down by the flippers. Add-a-ball' is always sweet!

The Cons: NEVER easy, and can be mostly frustrating. The center saucer never seems to stick, even with a touch shot. More luck than skill... but you'd better land it for double bonus, extra ball and special.

The Takeaway: A deceptively simple game that is a true player. Based on the Pioneer/Spirit of '76 deck in celebration of NYC lifting its' ban on pinball.