I like this game... Good memories playing it back in the day. I own one.

Yes I'm in. Goldball was my first machine which I still have given to me by a bestest bud. There are not many in the UK but coincedentally a local pinbud nearby has one too (I'm sure he'll pop in here soon @nedreud).

542 (resized).jpg

Proving 2 balls is better than one, here we are at NLP Play Expo, Manchester, UK 2015

WP_20151011_09_13_20_Pro (resized).jpg

share some pics of where you're at dude, plenty of room in this club

I've had this game at one time.
I always disliked the bad attract mode.
Together with Oliver Okaegi I've created a new attact mode.
I also advised to change some sounds as they did not seem correct to me.
At some point you would hear the "slam" alarm sound when it shouldn't be heard.
And there are some other changes too.
This is all in the rom file V12 on the ipdb.
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/1024/Bally_1983_Gold_Ball_Home_ROM_V12_with_new_Attract_Mode.zip

Peter
www.inkochnito.nl

Owner!

IMG_20180123_213541733 (resized).jpg

So what are its faults....

The gold target area gets a bashing. Anybody found a good replacement? I was considering covering it in gold leaf and lacquering.

WP_20150220_13_50_50_Pro (2) (resized).jpg

nedreud made some nice replacements for our machines

WP_20150616_20_35_18_Pro (resized).jpg

Here's a decent pic of my pf, two things are wrong if you can spot them, also has the field service kit plastics installed. Installing the ROM that changes the Gold Ball feature from random to skill is essential.
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/1024/Bally_1983_Gold_Ball_Field_Service_Kit_Instructions.pdf

WP_20150406_11_05_41_Pro__highres (resized).jpg

Something else is not the normal standard, more subtle, which actually looks good and possibly factory....

Not a problem, I've already done them for somebody else, but they aren't very different or necessarily better just says "SPOTS LETTER".

On which subject there are a load of plastics on the bay at the mo from a US based seller (not the field kit version);
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bally-Gold-Ball-Pinball-Machine-Plastic-M-1330-209-4-FREE-SHIP/122467142434

Yer I never noticed, I wonder if it came out of the factory like that as they'd run out of red that week!

If you pm me your email address I'll send you the scans of the field kit plastics.

H'lo all -

We picked up a GB project about a month ago and have slowly picking away at getting it working. To date have replaced MPU with Alltek MPU refurbished soundboard, refurbished lamp/driver board, rebuilt double coil for GB kicker, replaced gassed out displays, traced down and back box GI issue to triac issue (surface rust between washers and plate). On a cosmetic side cleaned up layers of wax from playfield and posts, new rubber nuts for plastics. We scanned an original bumper cap, cleaned up and vectored the artwork and a local sign co is cutting out/printing sized adhesives that we will apply to blank caps so we can get some uniformity on the caps.

Any suggestions on how to mend or at least stop flaking on artwork on the back glass or where to find the elusive center target plate for advancing G-O-L-D-B-A-L-L would be greatly appreciated.

G.

The two UK machines shown above have hosed backglasses, the thin translucent areas in particular lift and these are hardest to touch up. We Krylon triple thicked them with the weigh down method.

What makes it the future of pinball?

Looking at the first thing in the first post is super hard

It's on the flyer. Look at the bottom of the front page

I'm liking the blue too. Here is a pic of mine all lit up. I added lights under the top corner plastics. I also put blue LEDs in the "GoldBall" letters in the playfield. It looks a bit washed out in the pic, but it is very bright and looks great

IMG_20180124_120318764 (resized).jpg

Sorry guys my blue lanes are a special and copyrighted. I think it links the left and right lanes better.

Am liking that, it's so dark up there. Where have you added the load resistors for the LEDs?

The other mod on mine is an upgraded speaker and separate tweeter hidden under the BB behind the grill - big sound improvement.

Similar wear on mine around that top arch, unfortunately that area wasn't covered by the mylar treatment.

Looking at your pic makes me think it's a shame this game doesn't use the more standard pops as orange translucent bodies would look really good. Do you have the original bumper caps to re-use, if not may be an idea if you're starting from scratch.

These are from Coin Taker, $5 each. I used the alligator clips on a nearby GI. Super Easy!

IMG_20180124_144306385 (resized).jpg

NkYyNkRCRjhEQTEzRjAxMTdGNTE6MzUxMjIwOWFkNTI4NDBjODZhNmM2YjBlMzZjMzEwZjU6Ojo6OjA= (resized).jpeg

Here is another pic. They have a different colors available. I used cool white to match what I used for GI. My inserts are either color matched or warm white. Except for the blue in the GoldBall letters

IMG_20161108_215919343 (resized).jpg

I once had the backglass on my work phone at Grainger.

Customers would always ask what it was and start taking about pinball. Good times.

Ok let's talk some balls - gold balls - what are you guys using in your machines? My machine came with one (possibly original) and I bought a replacement but in both cases I'm underwhelmed and you can hardly see the difference when it ejects following the fanfare.

pasted_image (resized).png

Just set a new high score on my machine! 2,635,340! Machine set for 5 Ball and random Gold Ball

IMG_20180205_171636930 (resized).jpg

I followed Hop-Pac tip to light up the back corners. My machine is incandescent so I used the 3 SMD warm white Comet strips. There is a hole to route on the left corner on the right I routed up the back of the pf and under the plastic. Whilst I had the pf up I noticed the side rails are drilled/counter sunk but actually only stapled to the pf, how cheep - are others like this? Anyway pleased with the lighting job.

20180428_135517 (resized).jpg20180429_115940_001 (resized).jpg

I installed Oliver and Inkochnito V12 home ROMs today. The improved in-game sounds and in particular the attract mode light show are a big improvement. Get it everybody

20180609_121123 (resized).jpg20180609_130038 (resized).jpg20180609_130040 (resized).jpg

Need a little help from the owners of this game. Working on a Goldball and I have no GI lighting. I have gone thru the boards and cleaned everything up I can find. I'm reading the schematic for the triac that flashes the GI when the gold ball comes out and I can't seem to find the 555 socket for the light bulb fuse on this one. I seems like the operator back in the day had to do some "Re-wiring" before he sold it. need a pic of the triac boards in the backbox and the lightbulb fuse. thank in advance

I have these pics that may help, can take more. The two Aux Driver boards separately drive backbox and playfield GI. I lost one set of GI on mine when the MOC3011 went bad. You likely know that the Triacs themselves are in the base of the cab bolted to the power board.

WP_20150313_10_07_17_Pro__highres (resized).jpg
WP_20150313_13_03_04_Pro__highres (resized).jpg

Well all that looks right. Anyone want to point me in a direction. Everything else is working but no GI at all

Strange that all GI is out they are quite separate with own flasher PCB, Triac etc, so I'd test for the 6VAC on the rectifier board at the point before it splits to BB and PF. If you can believe the manual schematic for this on Pg 45 (which says GRAND SLAM!) then it's at fuse F6 (bb) and F7 (pf).

It might be worth starting a separate thread for this issue in the Tech section.

I'm pretty sure Marco pinball has them.

I have an EBD cap on my machine for some years and have never seen NOS or used Gold Ball caps for sale to replace. I do have a very good pdf of the hot stamp graphic if that helps to make a transfer or similar for a clear cap if you can get those (the rarer 3 prong type).

I dug this picture out demonstrating the graphic file for the bumper hotstamp - very good work (not mine).

WP_20151117_18_06_13_Pro__highres (resized).jpg

Marco had 17 of these pop bumper caps in stock today when I got one. Now they have 16

Cheers for the heads up!

Check your Solenoid driver board for bad solder joints at the print headers.
Problem number 1 for these things.

The coil loses power if there is a cracked solder joint.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
It will cause little sparks at the cracked joint and increases the problem over time.
Bad connector can also do this.

I’m in