No Thanks. I'd rather buy Rottendog! All Circuit boards are Made In the USA.

Just joined the club with a mild project that basically works, just needs new speech ROMs, some board bulletproofing, and a full pf teardown/rebuild (planning on a hardtop).

The backglass isn't in the greatest shape but even after swapping the box to leds, I'm impressed with how it looks - the flecks of paint that disappeared actually give a "diamond cavern" effect, like Gorgar actually has something to defend LOL. I'm honestly tempted to keep it this way, but wish Gorgar & the humans weren't faded (to lesser degree).

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ANYWAY a quick question regarding gameplay and the magnet: so, what exactly does the magnet do? It seems pretty underwhelming as implemented: it doesn't do anything a saucer kickout (like the one right below!) wouldn't have accomplished, and probably faster. A firing kickback would have been more fierce and worth "beware-ing". OR it would be cooler if the magnet engaged by larger proximity or some other trigger to grab the ball passing by. But having the magnet kick on only when you deliberately shoot a target, which makes it act like a saucer lock... honestly seems pretty lame and not worth the expense. What am I missing? Is this the first use of a magnet in a game?

I think the purpose in this game was to lock the ball and when released it would drain straight down between the flippers. It will do that if your game is level so it takes a skilled player to nudge the game and save the ball. I have no idea when the magnet was introduced but knowing this machine was made in 1979 probably is one of the earlier models.

The magnet grabs the ball and you get points. When Gorgar says You hurt Gorgar all the lights turn on the snake tail, the magnet shot is worth 50,000 points. It holds the ball only for a second or two. I do not know what other games have a magnet. I hope this helps.

I have seen other Gorgar backglasses look like that, My backglass is new and I have also installed all LED's. My back glass doesn't look at all like the one you show.

Yeah, the multicolored areas have lots of flaked-off spots that wash out white from the bulbs, but the effect isn't terrible. For some reason, the solid-colored areas like flesh tones, title, and even the snakes and such didn't flake off as bad, so it's still somewhat presentable. I've seen a lot worse from backglasses of this era! So using what it evolved into, I might try a laminate on the board behind the glass to enhance that "diamond fleck" effect and add some depth.

As for the magnet, that's interesting it would eject STDM despite being so far off to the left. I guess I'll try to dial it in once I put the game back together. I dismantled the PF yesterday to prep for a hardtop, so I still have lots of work ahead.

Well, I paid through the ass for a new back glass because mine was so bad it couldn't be saved. I think it looks fine. A little touch up and you'll be golden!

I just bought a Gorgar- good news, back glass mint-playfield and plastics 8/10- bad news-other than some back lights and one slingshot light its dead. Back to good news- only paid 100 bucks for it, so np bad feelings about having to spend a bit to get it going!

100 dollars can not beat that. Great find.

That is an excellent find!! Nice going!

If you're up for fixing it yourself, this is the best way to troubleshoot everything about your new game:

https://pincoder.ca/index.php/2020/07/10/adapter-2020-06-23-0506/

You can also download the software for free if you have a chip programmer and some chips:

https://pincoder.ca

Download the latest release from the Download menu and take a look at the documentation for each test. This will give you a roadmap on how to help find what's wrong.

Hope it helps

How the f**k do you find $100.00 pinball machines? Never seen one in my life!

If you lurk around in the hobby long enough, you'll get lucky and find one that cheap or even free.

It's strange but true. And it also helps balance out those times when you "gotta have" or "don't know better" and pay a little more than conventional wisdom might suggest.

Patience and contentedness is the key.

Nice, paid around that for mine too. It was hiding under a pile of clothes, standing in about 2" of water in an old Op's home basement (Legs had lost a few inches due to rot). Cleaned up nice, cabinet almost looks new.

Well, my lurking has not produced! To far north in Michigan and too little population/pinball density I suppose.

Was working and a regular customer said"you want to buy a pinball machine"? I said "How much"?=he said 100, and I slapped a ben in his palm and asked when i could pick it up-didnt even ask model or condition.

Thanks to everyone for the comments, info and kind words. I would like to fix it, with a bit of help rather than take it somewhere. I figured I would lurk here and read up for a bit rather than just milk the members as a newbie with a bunch of questions. Thanks again.

Back in the day my first pinball was given to me by my Dad's close friend. Since then no freebies.

I bought my Gorgar for $500 and I thought I had a great deal. It did need some work new cpu, driver board, sound board, power supply, and I also put new score boards in it. The playfield was great and the backglass was ok. It plays great now.

I used to own a pet store- when someone got a free goldfish at the fair, I would tell them "they just gave you a hundred dollar bill"-of course I ment the cost of the aquarium and supplies!

Ya, for 500 or less, you can pretty much restore one and still break even or better on resale. In my case, I'll lose money. Restorations are no longer a viable occupation at these stupid current prices. That's not a good thing for these classic machines. Kills the incentive and if one does chose to restore, it's going to be a more half assed job as you Will lose your ass! Nothing like doing a shit load of work to lose money!

Got a weird issue going on with my Gorgar that I'm pretty sure someone will be able to quickly identify a fix for...here's hoping...

When changing settings, if I adjust setting 33 (Extra Ball and 1-4 lamps), it ALSO changes setting 29 (plumb bob tilts) to the same setting. I want to have the settings standard (29 at 03, and 33 at 11), but when I change one, it changes the other. So I either can't have the 1-4 lamps random, with extra ball on...or I don't get a tilt bob warning, lol.

Anyone know what the deal is, here?

Take the batteries out, open the coin door, power up, power down, power up again.

Then try the adjustments again. If it issue persists its likely a bad 5101 chip. See the documentation for the "03-CMOS" test here:

https://pincoder.ca

You can find that under the Download menu.

So, my knocker coil is burned up. Is it worth buying a new coil? Or just replacing the whole assembly? If so, anyone suggest a certain assembly?
Also, what all does the knocker knock for besides credits?

As far as I know, just credits. I would just replace the coil.

No knock for extra ball? That would suck!

In all fairness though, Gorgar makes it's own unique sound when extra ball is earned, that is, when another sound doesn't over ride it.

Had a pinball enthusiast drop by last week, and after testing voltages etc- decided to buy a power supply, and while shopping for it went ahead and got the rottendog mpu/driver combo. Will this play nice with the stock sound board-or another aftermarket soundboard/voice combo? I plan on re working the original boards at my leisure, decided to replace for time saving and bulletproofing.

It plays nice with mine.

Same here. I have MPU327 in the one at our club while the original MPU and Solenoid driver are out at Coinop Cauldron. No issues.

I've all but finished my Hardtop restoration except for installing the ungraded main cab decals. This game is a lot of fun! I have it set to 7-degree pitch with the 5 inch leg levelers in back and sitting on a slab of 3/4" plywood LOL. Added an 8" warm white LED strip to the right center plastic so the whole thing is illuminated...really nice! Also an extra bulb under the left center wing at saucer that wasn't previously illuminated. And awaiting another 8" LED strip from Comet Pinball to install in the trough area. I will post pictures when done. The hard top is smooth and plays beautifully! Looks beautiful too. The new flipper assemblies have lots of power and are nice and snappy. Also, the NMP drop target kits are awesome!! Easy to install and work perfectly. I can't recommend these enough!! I used mostly all warm white 1SMD LEDS in back box (skipping several, as too much light causes too much reflection off playfield glass) and playfield along with a few sunlight whites at slings and out lanes. Color matched 4 SMD's under the colored inserts. Amber works great under the amber inserts as well. Couldn't be happier with results. On the next hard top project, I'll replace any inserts that are less than perfect and spend more time restoring the shooter lane, including Vid's technique for repairing and airbrushing it.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration/page/18#post-1730160

https://troxelrepair.com/product/nmp/

At one point, there was a service bulletin addressing GI voltage above specification, in most cases around 8 volts. It involved installing a bridge rectifier in series with the GI fuse. The yellow GI wire was removed from the fuse holder, attached to the + and - terminals of the bridge. Then, a wire was run from the AC terminals of the bridge to the fuse holder. This dropped the GI voltage, and the bulbs ran cooler and lasted longer.

My Gorgar did not have that modification installed. Instead, a previous owner had installed a 6.3v filament transformer above the main transformer cage and was feeding the GI from that. I located the taped off original GI wiring, and hooked that back up. With LED load, I measured 7.9 volts. I then installed that 3rd bridge rectifier, as per the original bulletin, and ended up closer to 7 volts with load, still a bit high. I used a 20 amp bridge rectifier from NTE, which is supposed to have a 1.2v drop at 20amps. I suspect the LED load is low enough that I'm not getting as much forward voltage drop as I would with incandescent lamps.

Does anyone else have this GI modification? If not, what’s the voltage across the GI bulbs in your machine? I’m curious how prevalent this modification was.

Agreed. I will say, make sure you use some strong glue to adhere the magnets on the back of the drop targets. I used super glue gel and have had the magnets fall off a couple a times. I just picked up some two part epoxy to rectify this.

Wrong link.

I used these. No worry about the glue shattering and easy clean installation. Clean drop targets and magnets with alcohol before applying pads. Also rough up the magnet with some sand paper like 320 grit for some tooth.

https://www.theclip.com/store/3m-vhb-double-sided-adhesive-small-round.html

Hm. Maybe I'll give those a try on my current build. Here is where we are right now.

IMG_0693 (resized).JPG

Perfect Hard Top project!! Don't buy a Mirco repro!

Hardtop in hand! I'm going to sand it and clear it this weekend.

Be really cautions of too much clear on inserts. Just sand to 1000 grit and hit them with one coat of Rust-Oleum 2X Painter's Touch Ultra Cover Gloss Spray Paint Clear. Just so the inserts look smooth and not pocked with egg shell like texture. Make sure to blow out saw dust for inserts and tack cloth first. Also, don't forget to clean the back side of the Hard Top insert windows.
Good luck!

Replacing and polishing all of them. Let’s sand!

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Following along, keep the posts coming.

Is there a list somewhere of all the inserts used in Gorgar?

After I get mine running, I'd like to install a hardtop. Most of the inserts are cupped so I'll probably replace them. I'd hate to go through all that work and have air pockets on top of the inserts. I imagine that would cause some fogging or haziness.

Mine were all cupped and once you're done sanding the inserts to 1000 grit they will be flat. It's the raised ones you need to worry about being flat! Just replace any cracked or damaged inserts like ones with epoxy on the back side (I had a couple of those).
IMO people are making this into a bigger job than it needs to be in some cases.

I replaced my burned Gorgar knocker coil with a 23-700 which is the next size stronger than a 23-800. I had one on hand. It works. But it is not very loud like the original. Maybe a 23-600 would be even better. Just not sure if that would be wise.

I’m going to be listing my Gorgar for sale. It’s got a new Mirco playfield with plenty of curing time under its belt. Also new plastics and new mirrored backglass. What do you all think about a price?

I know, it's really lame! There's a reason they no longer make this style of knocker assembly.

The best way is to just replace the whole knocker assembly with a modern design like the one below (see links). But, not worth the money as it only does credit knocks. So, I'm just going to live with it as is.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/500-5081-00

And strike plate.. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/01-7525

Then, mount it like this... it will be nice and loud!
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Unfortunately, a really nice restored Gorgar is only going to fetch 3000 - 3500 UDS. Maybe 4000 if you find the right buyer! It's why I went with a Hard Top rather than a new playfield. But I still put more into it than it's worth. I don't care as I keep my pins for ever. And I really love Gorgar!

Thanks for the advice. I'll sand first to see how flat I can get them.

Removed working and parts are used original. Coils are good. $22 shipped. Flipper Rings are black Titans and like new. End of stroke I’ve seen worse….message me.

BTW…Gorgar Fans?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3498499426859515/

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Just be careful to not take too much wood off and get low spots. But you would have to be pretty aggressive to do that! I thought I did, but everything turned out fine! Outside Edge instructions are spot on. No need to go above and beyond their recommendations on installation. It was fun to do, and my Hard Top lined up very well. Not perfect but they almost never are.
You will need a Dremel. Get yourself a couple off these to do your hole adjustments... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004UDKD
Also, a small block plane like this for trimming the edges... https://www.amazon.com/YOGEON-Woodworking-Carpenter-Woodcraft-Smoothing/dp/B082431CLR/ref=sr_1_1_sspa