Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Gottlieb, 1978Machine history is unknown. I received this game dead with battery eaten MPU and Driver board. I replace with new Ni-Wumpf MPU and Driver board. I also replaced the power supply with a new one from Marco's all at one time. All the lights come on and makes a wild sound at boot up, but I am unable to start a game or add credits. I even tried to do the free credit mod on the pinwiki site.
I have the manual and the schematics, but I have no idea where to start looking.
See Ni-Wumpf's website about a problem with some cpu boards not recognizing the coin door switches (including start button). This notice was dated Jan 23, 2017:
Some system 1 cpu boards were mistakenly sent out with bad switch input circuitry. Contact Ni-Wumpf for free repairs/replacement boards.
Also a note dated May 22, 2017 mentions some system 1 driver boards had defective driver transistors. Again, you need to contact Ni-Wumpf for free replacement/repairs.
Can you get into the game diagnostics?
Does the start switch work? Test continuity with a multimeter.
Does the bundle of wiring for the coin door look ok? Sometimes the insulation can wear through in the door hinge.
If the original MPU was battery eaten as you stated, then more than likely many of the crimp pins in the two connectors below the battery (cabinet switches and playfield switch matrix) are destroyed. You will more than likely have to re-pin them.
Can you get into the game diagnostics?
I was able to get into the game diagnostics with ease until I installed the Driver board.
Does the start switch work? Test continuity with a multimeter.
Yes, when I was in the games diagnostics, I used the start button to select options.
Does the bundle of wiring for the coin door look ok? Sometimes the insulation can wear through in the door hinge.
There was one wire going to the start switch that was frayed, but I repaired that.
Quoted from CactusJack:If the original MPU was battery eaten as you stated, then more than likely many of the crimp pins in the two connectors below the battery (cabinet switches and playfield switch matrix) are destroyed. You will more than likely have to re-pin them.
Yes I did re-pin the two connectors below the battery and replaced pins in other connectors that were questionable.
I wanted to give a follow up to the trouble I had in starting the game. After I received an email back from Ni-Wumpf, I checked to see if I still had the free play mod installed (http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_1#Setting_up_a_Game_for_Free_Play) which it did. There was no warning that it might conflict with other brand of boards on the Pinwiki web site
Email quote from [email protected]
Patrick:
I had the chance to look at your boards and test them out. The CPU board had the engineering mod. that corrected any switch issue (there were only 8 boards that escaped for which that notice was posted), and the driver board too had been correctly updated to cover the driver board notice as well (6 boards to just one distributor for that flub). But, the PinWiki modification has one disadvantage: it fries the strobe chip eventually by shorting two outputs together. Be sure to remove that jumper before you install this CPU back in your game – it blew out the switch strobe (Z14). These boards have free play settings built into the software. The driver board is all set.Best regards.
-Ace
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Olympia, WA
