Oh yeah, you're right. What I was looking for is score cards more applicable to a three ball game. Although I can use the one you have on there, 1300 points doesn't happen very often, but I appreciate that you do at least have one as there doesn't seem to be any other source.

I love our Night Rider but I think it is winning contest for fussiest machine in our collection this year.

Just set this beauty up in my game room today. Mystic Marvel, right next to its cousin, Sweet Hearts.

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Nice looking woodrail.....great addition.

Looks to be in great shape and it's a double award game! Nice find...

Found a nice one today at an estate sale.
Humpty's ball plunger has disintegrated, and it has the woodrail version of an armor powder coat job (painted trim and legs) but backglass is very nice and not a ton of playfield wear.

No lights in the head working as of yet, but I'll fight my way through this, at least the schematic was still on the back door. I'm afraid that 'time clock' is going to be tricky, not sure it survived the trip intact.

Thoughts on leaving as-is, or trying to restore the original wood trim and legs? I would like it more original, but it doesn't look terrible and I don't want to screw it up worse.

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It shouldn't be difficult to strip the wooden parts and refinish them with clear. Obviously you should disassemble the machine down to an empty cabinet first. Try one of the legs first. Apply some paint stripper to it, and see what you get.
The beehive shooter rod bezel shouldn't be terribly difficult to find. You can get a white Stern one and paint it red if you aren't able to locate an original red one. PBR has them.

I just checked. PBR has red beehive shooter rod housings. The part number is GTB-48RA. It's $7.60.

Thanks - that's how I'm leaning after spending the last couple hours getting 70 years of nicotine off the cabinet...it is looking nice.

Legs seem simple enough (though it came with two different lengths F & R) but is there an easy way to get the side rails off? I'm not sure how they're attached.

Another week and another wishlist game enters the collection. Bally Bazaar joined the herd on Sunday and joins fellow class of 1966 Gold Rush.

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Yes, about a month ago to a decent guy, just setting up his game room.

I wouldn't remove the rails. Just do your best with them attached to the cabinet.

Rocket III (Bally, 1967), all disassembled/cleaned up in restored condition.
Game was manufactured 2 years before the USA moon landing (unless you are a conspiracy theorist).
I am not going to do any touch ups on this game, as the playfield had only minor wear around pop bumper lines.
Very hard to come by in non-worn condition, especially near the slingshots and inserts.
Motor assembly for the rotary "fipper", or rotating spinning "bumper" in good shape as well, backglass and cabinet are superb.
This game was well cared for over the past 50+ years.

Another Ted Zale "zipper flipper" officially off the list, permanently, no more projects for this title.

Working on the history-features-gameplay video now.
NOTE: This is an example of a production model with replay (non add-a-ball), and there is quite a few prototype differences that will be discussed during the video, along with the history of the game, as most are not familiar today with the previous Bally Rocket games both from 1933 and 1947. This game also was non-factory modded cleanly to use a chime AND bell in the backbox (previous owner, not operator), and retains proper settings to carry over of planets.
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Similar to what Chicago Coin used on Spinball and Crazy Ball in 1948.

In the history of Bally games from this period (1960-68), I have not yet seen a cabinet that does not have serious flaking, unless it is was repainted, or a home use only example. The quality of top paint was very, very poor. Bazaar is no exception, especially in the bronze metal tone used for the lamps. However, the playfields held up extremely well with factory lacquer.

Yeah, Ballys and the front of Williams games.

Beautiful game. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve always liked these utopic space race era games. They’re such a cool slice of Americana.

Bring on the Ted Zale book !!!

An interesting fact. Ted Zale lived in Mountain Home, Arkansas, I believe until he passed away. Wayne Neyens was also living there at the same time, but neither one knew that the other resided there.

Rocket III is a beautiful game,
and one of my favorite C.Marche Backglasses,
but made for a underwhelming playing pin IMHO.
There is essentially no skill plunger shot.
Too much of the upper PF is obstructed (under utilized) by all the playfield plastics.
The action in the top third of the playfield is pretty random (in part due to the spinning bumper),
one can't even really make those top 6 mushroom bumpers with skillfull nudging or skillful shots from the flippers,
except by chance.
Your game does look very nice,
Mine was set up for True AAB play, but had a repaint on the CAB, but done with good result.

I totally agree with the problem with many poor CAB paint jobs from that era of Ballys,
I had a beautiful Bally Safari with nice PF and BG
but the CAB looked like it had spent all its time out in the sun and weather,
every time i brushed up against the CAB paint would flake off like snow flakes or dandruff.

See below my Rocket III buried with my stash of pins at my former auxiallary game room
back when i had some commerical space in Bakersfield CA. Now in the hands of the PPM.
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I am nearing completion of my Rocket III restoration. Mine is a production game. I swapped a few white posts for colored ones. Otherwise, the game is original. What are the playfield and/or backglass differences from prototype to production games?

I know that the proto cabinet utilized blue instead of black and omits the upper horizontal stripe.

I haven't yet installed the correct black legs and I'm awaiting a Bgresto backglass. I refinished the red and black cabinet graphics and left the aged white intact, sealing everything with a matte clearcoat to retain the vintage look and to enhance uniformity.

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Some of the more common Rocket III differences off of my memory presently:

1) Primary playfield/backglass colors were changed from the light blue to the bright green as seen above Florida (plastics were identical)
2) Special is absent on prototypes, as is the notification in the playfield area with the letter "E"
3) Kickback did not exist
4) Bottom arch is completely different artwork design
5) Playfield glass was a "slide in" versus the "canopy" metal frame design
6) Playfield buttons were metal as used in imbedded Bally games from 1966
7) AAB backglass design had added number graphics (I don't remember if this was carried over exactly the same to production)
8) Cabinet had blue versus black stripe pattern
9) Initial prototypes reset the planets with no carry over feature with each game (this was implemented late in the design)
10) Various wiring differences due to above features

I have only seen one prototype in my lifetime, and in this case, the production model is more desirable due to features, AAB included, although I liked the light blue in the playfield and backglass

The Orange flippers are cool, but not original to Rocket III,
what other Bally games used Orange-Red zipper flippers?
Surfers and On Beam I think
Any others?

If these 2" flippers were changed, I don't know where the previous owner found an extra set? (difficult), I just cleaned them up as I found the game. I liked them so well and they were in REALLY good shape (matched playfield), I decided to keep them on the game.

I agree completely that Rocket III shipped with WHITE 2" flippers based on research.

Dixieland used NOS orange AND white (I have a documented factory purchased game in orange), and a few others orange (Dogies, Surfers, Gator comes to mind), but I have to go back to my Ted Zale list to reference all games properly. The hardest ones to find now are the periwinkle blue used by games such as Op-Pop-Pop.

It is ENTIRELY possible that some games whether domestic/export or parts availability could have been swapped at the factory at the time of construction, but the only way to tell is IF a game came out of Bally with a certain color and is is sales documented such is the case with my Dixieland. By the time the later games were made such as Fireball, Nip-It, and 4MBC, the flipper colors were standardized to 2" white only, but had either black or blue "flipper" lettering.

Thanks. The only proto Rocket III I've seen is on the pinballowners website.

Picked this up last week.

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i think you picked that up from troy if im not mistaken , reminds me of a triple action i used to own only pool themed

Picked this up a couple of weeks ago my girlfriend is always hounding me for a multi ball well this way I feed my early 60s Williams appetite and. Give in just a little

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Looks like you got a nice backglass with that one. I spent almost a year looking for one for mine, then I gave up.

Congrats!

Yeah I did. Great guy! Glad I got it. Didn't take long to get going again.

picked these old girls up at last night.

williams golden gloves from 1960

second game is the jewel. gottlieb cinderella from 1948. is in amazing original condition for being 70 years old. backglass and playfield are 9.8 condition.

plans for cindy will just to install a stepdown transformer, clean the playfield, install new rubbers and refinish all the timber.

golden gloves works well, that will be a full restore in the spring.

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Very nice. Congratulations.

Just picked this up today. An El Dorado that has been in home use since 1978. I was going through the manila envelope with the instructions and schematics and found the original invoice!

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You struck gold!

Hey JR, wouldn't that have to be a "Gold Strike" to qualify?

I really like the look of that Golden Gloves,
always wanted one to sit next to my
WMS Golden Bells.

Ship-Mates just moved into the game room two nights ago. This machine took me more time repairing and troubleshooting than any game I can remember having. First I completely stripped, shopped it and rebuilt everything including new pop bumper bodies, the correct caps, all coil sleeves, etc. Fortunately playfield, cabinet, plastics and backglass are acceptable without repainting or having to touch up. Once it was cleaned and shined, I literally had to clean and adjust every switch and mechanism in the game to get it working 100%. There isn't a single wire on the schematic that I haven't covered in my troubleshooting at this point. It plays great now and is pretty snappy without having to high tap it. A new slice of playfield glass was the last addition and it looks amazing in my game room!

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While I'm posting, I'll throw in a second EM that's new to me. I got this beautiful Bally Expressway from Pinside member "docquest" during the pre-Allentown for sale thread. This game arrived in beautiful shape and unlike the Ship-Mates above required a minimum of repair and troubleshooting. I cleaned and shopped the heck out of it and finished it off with a new slice of playfield glass. The game sure is a beauty. You have to look close at the cabinet to tell that its original. It almost looks too nice not to be a really good re-stencil job!

Thanks to docquest for a smooth purchase and a game that was if anything nicer that what I expected! Also, thanks to Pinside member Rixzilla for the excellent and unbelievably fast shipping service to Florida.
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Beautiful Ship-Mates! Backglass reminds me of Paul Bunyan... I guess Gottlieb was in their "little women" phase. Different artists though (Parker and Stenholm)

Sure are a lot brighter than I remember either of these being. Must be all that elbow grease.

Must be the elbow grease. I did use LEDs but just on a few really dark inserts on Ship-Mates. Other than that both games have #44 bulbs and no LEDs in all of the playfield inserts and GI.

The Ship-Mates is a great head to head game because of all the progressive rules and extra ball robbing that are possible!

It's not bad! You got a nice one there. Hard to get one with a decent backglass, so I'm told.

Played both Ship Mates and Expressway at the Jersey shore in the arcades on the boardwalk. The games really do look so nice especially the playfields where all the action takes place. Viewing your pictures make me want to come over and play the heck out of them beauties. Thanks for sharing and bring back some special memories. Nice work!

Georgous!

Now I miss it even more

Glad you like it. It's a really fun game. I only wish I had more space so I didnt have to get rid of games to make space for new ones.

Congratulations. I bought the Expressway at the 2018 Pinfest. I find it to be well-balanced and tremendously fun.

Just finished restoring this Lawman.

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Very, very nice!
Good looking machines.
Nice to see my score and instruction cards are being used.
Is that a F14-Tomcat left of Lawman?

Peter
www.inkochnito.nl

Great job! That Lawman looks beautiful.