Should I be looking at a single diode, one per chip, or might there be several?

There are two 1N4148 diodes near where the battery would have been. Those would be for charging it and ensuring that it powers the RAM and one of the gates. Also check to see if U9 is a 74C32 chip. That has to be a CMOS chip or it may cause issues discharging. quickly. If someoue put an LS chip there then bad news.

U9 is a 74C32, so that’s good news.

Are these the two diodes? I can’t find a layout drawing to confirm, but they fit the bill. They are both measuring .600 one way and then .700ish the other way. I’m sure it’s best to have one leg removed, but wondering if that’s required in this case.

Removed one leg of both diodes and both check out fine. It might be as easy as the cap is bad. I have a few others so I guess I’ll swap it out and see if that’s any different.

Two more tests to report. I had two different caps charging off the game and got them up to 5v and then turned off the game and unplugged things from the MPU to see if the cap would slow down on the discharging. Spoiler, it was still dropping fast with all connectors removed. Something on the board is doing the draining.

Last test was to charge up one of the caps again with the boards and then remove both connections of the cap to the board. It might not matter, but I did the - side first and it started dropping fast. I did the + side as fast as I could and then it slammed on the brakes. It went from 5 to 4.5 in the time that it took me to remove the second wire and now after maybe 30 minutes or more has gone from sub-4.5 to 4.331v. With the meter on it it will slowly drop and I have been turning it off in between checks.

Odd question but does the 74C32 look like it was replaced? If so I wonder if it is a real 74C32. Unfortunately there are lots of fake and remarked IC's that may be similar but not the correct chip.

Can you post pictures of that area of the board with the memory chips too?

U9 looks original based on the way the solder looks. Very uniform, not done with an iron. Are 6, 7, and 8 normally socketed? Mine has sockets and the socket overhangs the through holes enough that I can’t tell without removing the board again.

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desertT1 Have you considered using my NVRAM (see post #815, 37 days ago in this thread)? Plug it in, remove the super cap and you're set

If anyone is looking to join the club I am going to sell one of my Gameplan games. I have a really nice survivor SharpShooter II for sale in Michigan near Detroit. Prefer outright sale but may consider trade for a Super Nova or Captain Hook. Keeping my original Sharpshooter and plan to always have at least one Gameplan machine.

I am considering it, as even off the game the memory caps are depleting faster than I would have thought. I’d like to see if there is a reason why my MPU is draining the battery that came with the game (not original) and these caps in case it can clear up any issues I don’t yet know about.

Can you remove various IC in the circuit till the draw drops off? I'm assuming they are sockected.

Did someone purchase the Game Plan rights and inventory when the company went belly up? I’ve seen several games for sale on-line claiming a NOS backglass or playfield. Is there a stash of Game Plan parts I haven’t discovered yet? Most of the game specific parts seem unobtainable.

Doesn’t Roger Sharpe own at least a portion of the rights? Never heard of any stashes of parts. Many odd parts like plastics I’ve found on eBay. Never had any issues with playfield mechanical parts. Coil stops break but the classic Stern ones fit and are an upgrade. PBR has new coils. Shooter rod housing is like early Stern. Parts are out there.

Wouldn't that be a treasure if it were true? A building full of ganeplan stuff waiting to be found? Not sure it's likely, but would be great for us GP lovers out here.
Mine is acting crazy yet again. I'm so done with molex connectors, I'm going to swap to din rail style connectors next. Replaced all those molex, and still have intermittent issues from time to to time. Time to upgrade to something more modern.

thats why I switched mine to gold plated computer connectors ...no issues what so ever .....the only thing is I couldn't change them all due to amperage needed to drive the GI and solenoids ....those got automotive connectors

I do electrical contrating, so I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to install din rail, and go all in on terminal blocks.

It seems that the issue is that the batch of contacts the used in the connectors were prone to corrosion. So far mine have been ok but if they ever give me trouble I’d just buy all new pins and one by one crimp on fresh pins. Plating on newer pins should be better. The plastic shells should be fine.

No different than putting all fresh pins on other brands of pinball like Gottlieb, early Bally/Stern, or some of the WPC games I’ve recently had to do.

Probably less cost to repin the existing than a complete alternative route.

I did new connectors, new pins, new plastics, crimped, then soldered each crimp. The problem is the plug. They move, they expand, they don't stay tight, and I keep having one here, then one there make a bad connection. No more molex for me, there are too many good , more modern connectors on the market to fool with these any longer.

Although that would make it really reliable....what happens if you ever sell the machine or want to move it somewhere else ....would take a while to get the back box off and back on wouldn't it plus you would have to use wire markers on each wire. Although gameplans wire colors are some of the best I have seen there are duplicate red, grey , yellow and blue wires .......be about 80 some terminals all together

I'm working on two Gameplan Foxy Lady cocktail pins and two Gameplan Star Trip cocktail pins.. just curious if anyone knows if I can simply swap my extra Star Trip playfield in place of the second Foxy Lady playfield? Obviously the connections may be slightly different. I think Foxy Lady suuuuucks and I'd rather build it out as a Star Trip, which really isn't that bad a game.

Also, is there any reason why I SHOULDN'T molex the cab switch section that Gameplan for some reason opted to not (circled in red in these pictures)? It would definitely make it less annoying to swap playfields in and out.

I already posted on the cocktail thread, just figured maybe general Gameplan knowledge could answer my questions.

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I assure you it's not going anywhere unless I die soon, and I have a heat shrink label maker that I use in PLC panels, and control cabinets to mark wires. They will each get their designated number from my game plan schematics, and yes, it will be entirely more reliable with actual terminals.

Greetings Game Plan fanatics.. last year I bought the gameplanpinball.com web site from Brady, shout out to him.
I have been making some changes to the site.
I added more info under the machines page.
I added a documents page, where I am scanning and linking schematics and manuals (big work in progress, one page at a time).
And I added detailed info on ROMs. I will also add the combined (27C64, 27C128) ROM images so that they work in the MPU-3.
Full disclosure, I am the same fellow that makes the new MPU board.
As for new boards, the LDU replacement has been a pain, it just will not work with LEDs. It may never.
And the SDU board is in test, the MOSFETs that I chose did not have a low enough on resistance.
A PSU board exists, as well as both 6 and 7 digit displays, but they are not in test yet.
And very early work is being done on sound boards.. I plan to make one core that plays sounds, and then make a board for each of the sound boards that it fits onto.
I am interested in any comments or suggestions on the site.. please feel free to browse it and comment back. I am particularly interested in whether folks want mostly repair and parts info, or if the site should lean towards interviews and artwork.

That's welcome news. Thanks for maintaining the website and your work on the circuit boards. It goes a long way to revive these Game Plan machines.

Very cool, I did not once that site existed. The blue bar along the left makes it pretty hard to see things on a phone, but will try on a computer later.

I have a repro board from robotworks, and leds work everywhere but on the special lighting because of the reverse voltage. However, reverse polarity leds are not impossible to come by.
Sight looks great, and glad to see you keeping the games alive. Proud owner of coney island serial # 30171!

Hey all Game Plan fans! Just got my first Gameplan game the other day, a Sharpshooter! Just so happened that Roger Sharpe was going to be in town for a special screening of his movie, and there was going to be a meet and greet beforehand. I thought it would be cool to have one of his games there for photo ops. I picked it up the day before, and tried to get it working properly, but when a switch was registered the game would lock up. No problem, new MPU on the way.

My question is Roger had told me to get in contact with Jeremy ???? on Pinside, as he was sure Jeremy was making drop targets for the game. After a search for anything to do with drop targets for Sharpshooter, I came up dry. If anyone knows anything about this, please point me in the general direction. Thanks!

I don't know of anyone making Gameplan drop targets. You have a few options:

Find good used ones as replacements. The originals do break. I've have broken a couple myself and had to replacement.

Buy some Gottlieb drop targets and modify them by enlarging the slot (mentioned on Pinwiki

Buy a complete set of Data East drop targets. These fit perfect but you have to replacethem all and add four 1/4" spacers and get 4 screws 1/4" longer. I did this on one machine. Very easy to do and those drops probably won't break. I made tumbleweed stickers for the plain white drops on that one.

Yep! That would be me
I created a 3d sketch of a Gameplan drop target. I actually have a few of these in my games and work well. I have had to use an xacto to knife to ensure the slots were pretty clean. Here is the link:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5151387

That is awesome. Thanks Jeremy!! Any idea where I can get decals for the targets from?

Jeremy, thanks for posting the 3D files of the drop targets.. I had some printed, they look great.. I have a Sharpshooter that is all busted up. If anyone comes up with stickers, please shout out.
I have some news, on the pinballreplacement parts store, I now carry a Game Plan SDU-1 replacement board. It finally passes all tests, and is ready for prime time.
Next to make it to the web site for sale will be the PSU board and both 6 and 7 digit LED displays. If anyone has a DDU-1 that they want to give/loan, I am in the market.. it does not have to work. For that matter, I will repair it and return it as a thank you.
And last, I have been working on the www.gameplanpinball.com web site.. namely in the Documents section, making high res scans of manuals and schematics so that you can actually read them! I have most of the schematics scanned, less the SCU-1, LLU-1, SSU-2, SSU-4, and MSU-3. And I have 7 out of 20 manuals scanned.. you can see on the web site which ones. If anyone is willing to help, I need to borrow or buy the rest so that I can scan them and put them up. I need clean originals, complete.
I do not feel right downloading someone else's scans, since they went to all of the effort themselves. I want to do the scanning myself. Plus higher res really makes a big difference!

When I put Data East targets in one of the SharpShooter games I rebuilt I made up some tumbleweed stickers. They came out well when placed on the plain white drop targets.

Would be nice to get some of the original style drop targets made up too at some point.

I'm down to just my SharpShooter as my only GamePlan machine but it is a keeper and plan on keeping that going for a long time.

Anyone have a cheap Sharpshooter project in the Northeast they'd like to unload? I have a decent semi-populated playfield begging for a home.

Glad to hear some love for these machines. Took me a bit to get mine going, but the repro cpu I got has worked flawlessly up until a glitch showed up which I think is a connector issue I hope. Weird sounds, and only the number 7 shows up on all the score reels, and game won't boot. Just started getting weirder last few days, so I'll fiddle with connectors first and hope that helps

Is it advisable to use a dielectric grease like Super Lube on these connectors to make them easier to come apart? Or might that negatively impact the game?

They gave me a terrible time, so I used some heavy duty work gloves with a rubberized grip and the connectors came apart pretty easily!

If they are Game Plan connectors, there is a well known problem. When they boiled them in colored die, the PH changed.. and over the years the pins invariably corrode. The only real solution is to replace both male and female. They pins are super hard to get out, so the solution is two housing and all new male and female pins. I have the right parts, I am planning to do a video to show how to replace them. I have a second Sharpshooter that must have this treatment.

These connectors were replaced not long ago with new ones, but I will never use molex connectors on a pin again. I'll be swapping over to aviation connectors like I did on my homebrew, and never, ever have to concern myself with connectors again. In 37 years in the electronics, and electrical business, pinball machines use the worst, and I mean worst connectors of anything I've ever seen. Punch down types, and molex are literally the bottom of the barrel in the electrical world.

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Nice!

That is fantastic. If I see your pinball machine flying by, I will know what is going on.

I can connect them and disconnect them and the pins are fine, it’s just that the connectors are tight, that’s all I was asking. One just has to grip the housing tightly and pull carefully. I’m about to put my Captain Hook back together after moving it, and I also have to reassemble my Old Coney Island.

Just looking to make the next removal a little easier with some dielectric grease, if possible. I won’t change the connectors until there is a color-matched replacement. Game Plan was smart using dyed connectors so the common Williams connector mistake doesn’t happen! Williams had a bunch of connectors all keyed the same and it can easily blow up the boards. Bad design!

I tried real hard to die them different colors.. they just do not want to soak up the color. I resorted to just painting a band of acrylic paint around them.

I simply use a sharpie and mark which connector it is.

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We should name the blonde on Old Coney Island!.. how about Samantha? Julie? Amanda?

She's definitely a Tiffany, or candy