Stick a fork in it.
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Here’s another pic for @stashyboy, who restored the Blast Off you can see in the background.

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Thanks for all the nice compliments, y’all!

It’s not my favorite game, but I do like Spin-a-Card. DirtFlipper restored it, so it plays nice and fast. Strong pops. It’s hard to light the aces because they’re both in the return lanes, which the ball rarely rolls into. You can try to flick them off the tip of the flipper and up the opposite lane, but that’s hard as hell to do.

Again, not my favorite, but I do love the backglass, especially the card-belching joker. Todd Newman wrote a nice appreciation of Pop-a-Card, how soothing the single-chime sounds are as the ball rolls around collecting 10 points here and 100 points there from predominantly low-scoring targets, then suddenly FIVE THOUSAND POINTS when you go through a lane. It’s also fun to be 1,000 points shy of winning an extra ball, then make a plunger shot that lands in the top entry lane that’s lit for that amount. The ball slides down it slowly and you get a big fat knock, and that’s satisfying.

I have each and think there is room for both in one collection. The bagatelle experience is very different between the two games.

Only one of the numbered rollover targets is lit on Atlantis, and often you enter the bagatelle at a level where there is no chance of hitting it, so it’s 500 points allllll the way down, no matter which lane you go into.

But when you do have a chance, there is some good suspense waiting to see if you’ll roll through it. And sometimes (although very, very rarely) you can luck into hitting 1+2+3+4 or 6+7+8+9 sequentially. It’s very rewarding when that happens.

C37, on the other hand, you have a 50-50 chance of scoring big in the bagatelle. Every time. The lights alternating with the 500-point relay is fun, too.

Atlantis is a stingy game. It’s hard to advance more than halfway through the sequence, let alone all the way past 9. Some games you’ll finish still stuck on number 1. Brutal!

C37 is much more generous. You have a lot more advancement ability with the ABCD rollovers, double advance relay, drop targets, and kick-out hole. You also have total control over the drop target bank resetting. The corner kick-out hole is really in a sweet spot on the playfield. The same spot on Atlantis has a commonly broken plastic because of the beating it takes.

The 5000-point bonus for dropping two targets on Atlantis is killer. It’s a singularly distinctive feature no other Gottlieb EM has.

C37’s thermometer—though it’s just a straight line—is still a dandy bit of backglass animation. Get to the top, and light it up! It’s simple but brilliant. I use a 455 flasher on mine.

Both very fun games, in my opinion.

Results will vary depending on the severity of the oxidation. Anything with scabrous rashes or pitting cannot be helped.

This Atlantis had fairly clean zinc-plated parts. They were clouded somewhat, but not too heavily.

Sometimes I used a buffing wheel, but most of the results you see were from hand-polishing with a rag. The trick to polishing by hand effectively is to think of creative ways to leverage your effort. If you are holding the part in one hand and polishing with the other, you will not get the best results.

Examples 1: if the part has flat surface areas, lay the rag onto your countertop and bear down on it with the part. Rub the latter against the former. This gets effective results the fastest.

Example 2: if the part is irregular in shape, find a way to make it stationary. You can fasten many parts by screwing them into a 2x4 scrap held in a vise. Once it’s secure, you can “floss” it with the rag. Don’t be afraid to cut the rag into narrow strips so you can reach recessed areas.

Lastly, you cannot handle zinc-plated parts after getting them shined up to this degree. Any oils from your skin will oxidize and cloud up the zinc coating within a matter of days. I carefully reassemble things by cradling them with clean rags and gently reinstall them the same way. This is an unsolved problem for which I am still seeking a solution.

It’s frustrating because this problem will rear its head down the road. Months later you’ll open up an immaculate game to adjust some malfunctioning thing, and the next day that part will looks like somebody dusted it for fingerprints.

I honestly question if the effort is worth it. Why make these dumb hunks of metal look pretty if their beauty is so fragile?

A local collector fella had a spare door with an Atlantis schematic still taped to it, and it now lives in my game. Thanks, @beatnik-filmstar!

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