I had a blast getting, restoring, and upgrading this 1982 Gottlieb Haunted House. It was pretty beat up when I got it, and required everything from cabinet work to core electronics to artwork, and everything in between.

Once I had the cabinet repairs done, I was able to move onto electronics and basic game play. The entire display section of the MPU was damaged and had undergone some repair - mostly traces replaced with a thin solid-gauge wire. While I didn't love the fact that the previous tech decided to lift some chip pins and solder wires to them, the solder work was clean and solid, so I let this pass. While the 6532 display RIOT was socketed, it was actually a working chip which surprised me. The power board puts out solid, reliable voltages as does the power board for sound. The soundboard appeared unmolested, too.

I put in a Richard Doerr Z13/14 clamping diode daughter board, even though those chips indeed looked original and untouched. I expected issues on rebuild, so better safe that sorry and in it went without issue. Once I had it running, I noticed that the first display had segment issues. I pulled one I had from some System 1 stock in storage, and it was back in service (with the green filter put on top).

There were some burned out diodes in the switch matrix and a few black-taped switch lines which I repaired easily enough. All jacks and harnesses are in surprisingly good shape with bright connecters, no corrosion, and no failed pins.

For mods, past the Z13/14 upgrade, I also used the French Davrox Bros (Flippprojects) latest game PROM code, and acquired their speech code, as well. Since SC-01 Vortrax are so hard to find, I found a terrific Italian engineer named Alberto Antonin that makes a plug-in emulated SC-01. The work he's done is beautiful and his latest rev works well and comes with the feature to have it time internally or externally as needed. It dropped right into the board and worked immediately. I had to do a of sound board work to get the Davrox Bros code to do its job properly, and there were some back and forth emails and a lot of late-night troubleshooting sessions on my end. At the end, although they don't approve of my approach and result, I got it working and will leave well enough alone.

I also took out the odd 24v bulbs that fit in bayonet sockets but look like #44 bulbs. These are bright and are powered by solenoid voltage, which comes off a relay under the playfield. I removed the solenoid power from the relay, and installed a 5v line instead. I took some very bright white LEDs and put them in to service. Now the cellar lights up brightly and those bulbs can be replaced easily if necessary.

The whole game, except for four bulbs, is running LEDs (I left the three coin slots bulbs, and one blinker in the head). I used about five different grades of white light, since some are either too exposed or too bright for a player at the controls. I used colored LEDs, reds and greens, for key targets or backglass lighting. The drain on the power supply is quiet reduced, which should allow the game to have an extended life.

All rubbers were replaced with Marco stock, and I used colored Super Bands for all eight flippers - orange on the main, and green everywhere else.

Artwork was done by hand with acrylic and oil paints, as well with architectural grade pens, sharpies, and other markers to color match. There was significant damage under all pop bumpers, the attic ball landing zone, and the Welcome text at the end of the ball shooter line. Most of these were then covered with a small piece of clear Mylar to protect against continued abuse.

While I love Pascal Janin's System 80 board for the MPU (I love Swemmer's stuff, too), the price is around $500 right now, but this is the only path to making the game play multiball. That project also requires about another $100 in new parts plus a lot of cutting and shaping of wood and metal. I don't feel this need as of now, so that will wait or be passed on to whomever gets this game next.

I made a video of my work, which can be seen here:

Released in 1982, Model 669, 6,835 units made, Gottlieb System 80

Basics of the layout:

Widebody, 3 levels, 8 flippers, 1 ramp
Single ball play, 2 kickers, 2 kicking saucers, 2 up-kicks, 9 drop targets in 2 banks, 3 ways into the cellar including a secret entrance and a trap door, two ways into the attic by up-kick or ramp
Music – Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Funeral Dance of a Marionette
Designer John Osbourne 1998 GameRoom mag interview, art by Terry Doerzaph

Play fundamentals:
Standard ball launch to cellar, attic, or main playfield
No real way to rest/catch the ball except in two possible places
Bonus is built and multiplied principally by accessing attic and cellar areas – on main playfield, bonus builds from numbered targets, two other targets, and from entering the cellar exit
Bonus builds in the cellar display, which also shows high scores

Repairs:
MPU needed new chips for display section
First player score display replaced
MPU score display section was shot
Head re-built
Driver board had a few fried transistors
Cleaned/Waxed/re-Rubbered

Modifications:
Cellar lights converted from 24v to 5v with LEDs
LEDs placed throughout the machine
Flipper Super Bands new style material with color
Free-play wiring mod
Davroux Bros. game code
Added voice with SC-01 Vortrax emulator from Italy by Alberto Antonini and game and sound board code from François & Thierry Davroux
Emulator replaces impossible to find voice/speech phenome chip
Game code fixes small game issues with LED lights and changes the purpose of the secret tunnel light target to trigger the trap door
Game code sends voice phenome commands to the revised sound card ROMs and SC-01 emulator
IMG_0072 (resized).jpegIMG_9871 (resized).jpegIMG_9882 (resized).jpegIMG_9884 (resized).jpegIMG_9889 (resized).jpegIMG_9899 (resized).jpegIMG_9904 (resized).jpegIMG_9909 (resized).jpegIMG_9912 (resized).jpegIMG_9931 (resized).jpegIMG_9934 (resized).jpegIMG_9935 (resized).jpegIMG_9936 (resized).jpegIMG_9937 (resized).jpegIMG_9981 (resized).jpegIMG_9992 (resized).jpegIMG_9993 (resized).jpegIMG_9996 (resized).jpegIMG_9998 (resized).jpegIMG_9999 (resized).jpeg

So, Z13 and Z14 are a couple of 74xx series logic chips that are invoked in the Gottlieb System 80x switch matrix circuit before the signals are processed by a 6532 RIOT. They are 5v chips and while durable, they cannot handle much higher voltage coming in on their pins. In these machines, there are a few devices that can cause exactly this issue, which include pop bumpers/kickers but in my estimation, the kicking targets are THE worst.

Looking at a kicking target diagram (the manuals have good illustrations), they have low-voltage switch lines (5v) very close to switches and parts that carry solenoid voltages (25v or higher). Kicking targets have fish paper or cardboard in the switch leaves to "protect" them from grounding or touching lines of different power values, but these paper things die, fall out, wear out, or are often MISSING in these games.

Until I found my issues in a Genesis machine (80B), I was losing Z13 and 14 chips like fuses. Something in the game would trigger (again, in my case it was the left side kicking target) and the game would go wonky or die. A few times, I also lost a 6532 RIOT, and those are expensive to use as fuses...

I fixed my kicking target, but the loss of the chips was really annoying. Richard Doerr's board drops into sockets where Z13 and 14 would live (he sends you sockets if you don't have them) and then one drops their Z13 and 14 chips into his board (see my pics in the resto post). His board has clamping diodes in front of all the switch signal lines, so that any errant voltage would be blocked before the delicate switch matrix would feel it.

I included some of my repair pics below - I used some thin but strong plastic, cut to shape, to act as the insulator between the large kicking target solenoid contacts and the rest of the metal structure of the device.

But I like having Richard's board in my games - HH has at least three kicking targets!

Screen Shot 2020-08-02 at 8.22.38 PM (resized).png

IMG_6228 (resized).jpeg

IMG_6232 (resized).jpg

IMG_6233 (resized).jpeg