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    πŸ‹οΈ Repair log: The Incredible Hulk (Gottlieb, 1979)

    1979 Gottlieb Hulk Repair log
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    πŸ‹οΈ Helping a Hulk learn to smash stuff again. This game wasn't booting up right. Some weird buzzing sounds, lamps turning on, and some garbage on the displays is all we got. There was some minor corrosion on the CPU. Probably not the root cause of the issue, but certainly the first port of call to get repaired. Board was stripped of bad components, neutralised, coated and repopulated.


    The J6 connector was tricky. The pads were almost completely destroyed by the battery puke, and would never make a solid connection with the original connector. In these cases I solder a 0.156" header to what is left of the pads, and lock them down with a good amount of solder. Then simply swap the connector for a typical Molex style connector with Trifurcon pins. 


    Some more groundwork... ground mods installed. Connectors repinned. Voltages all checked out OK (a miracle!). Now we got a little further into the boot process. Displays were showing zeroes now, but the boot wasn't finishing. This seemed like a slam tilt issue, which causes the CPU to hang up during boot. Simply install a jumper on the CPU board to disable the slam tilt switches; they're too finnicky on a System 1 game anyway. Once this was done we had a successful boot up!


    Gameplay was a bit wonky though. Left flipper and pop bumpers would not respond. The high current switches on these mechs were pitted and dirty. They were all filed down and cleaned, after which point they started working again.


    One last issue before I called it a day. The feature (insert) lamps were not working. Bulbs were fine. Fuse was fine. At this point I usually have to replace the rectifier on the transformer panel, but it was fine too. Since Gottlieb was still doing lots of shit with relays at this point, the next component upstream of the rectifier is the tilt relay. The switch for the lamps was WHT-GRY wires. It is an NC switch but was not making good contact. Adjusted it a little, and the lights came back to life.


    Game is working reasonably well now. Not the most exciting game of the System 1 era, but a cool licence nonetheless. 🧟


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    Repair log: Rescue 911 (Gottlieb, 1994)

    1994 Gottlieb Repair log Rescue 911

    ο»ΏRepair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, πŸ“¬ Contact Us to discuss how we can help!

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    This was a relatively clean machine with a couple of niggling issues. The main one was the beacon topper wasn't working anymore. The motor that turns the reflector was jamming. Gottlieb used a widely available toy motor for this assembly, which is still available to buy from many Chinese electric motor suppliers (part no. EG-530AD-2F). To couple the motor shaft to the reflector base, cap the shaft with a rubber post cap. Spins like a dream now!


    There were also some inoperative switches. The cave-in drop targets needed adjusting. There is also an optical switch pair by the pop bumpers that most people don't know is even there. These opto boards needed reflowing to get them working. A flasher wasn't working, too. This was due to a dodgy connector under the playfield.


    Game is now playing nicely and is ready for sale!


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    Repair log: Solar City (Gottlieb, 1977)

    1977 Gottlieb Repair log solar city

    ο»ΏRepair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, πŸ“¬ Contact Us to discuss how we can help!

    ο»Ώ

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    A service call turned workshop repair. This Solar City (Gottlieb, 1977) was not starting properly, nor was it working quite right when it did eventually start. Lots of work to get this machine up to scratch. Solar City is an unusual game because it shares the exact same playfield as six (!) other games. They are:



    Target Alpha is the game that people generally remember as more of these were made than any of the other varieties. However, the gameplay and playfield mechanisms are basically identical between them all.

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    Super Mario Bros

    1992 Gottlieb Super Mario Bros
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    You might have read the blog post on Pinfest 2022 with a little confusion. I talked about bringing a Super Mario Bros (Gottlieb, 1992) machine to Pinfest. But I have never mentioned owning a Super Mario Bros machine before, and there certainly hasn't been any restoration blog posts about the machine. What gives?

    ​I had actually purchased this machine a couple of years ago from a young couple who also lived in Sydney. They had bought the machine over a decade ago and it had been sitting in the basement of their house for some time, rarely played because it had various issues. They offered it to me for a reasonable price and as I was looking to get more experience repairing Gottlieb machines, I was keen to take them up on their offer! Below are a few images of the game as provided by the seller.