(Topic ID: 236240)

Purpose of flashing some playboard lights during scoring?

By DaMoib

5 years ago

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Latest reply 5 years ago by JWJr
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Abra Ca Dabra Gottlieb, 1975
Volley Gottlieb, 1976

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On mid-70’s Gottlieb EMs, what is the purpose of routing some of the playboard lights through a switch on the motor typically labeled “Opens circuit to playboard lights”? In the case of Abra Ca Dabra, the pops, center target, drop targets and the special lights are on this switch (Motor 3D). Volley has the pop, specials and about half the rollover lights on its Motor 3D circuit. The net effect of this circuit is to flash (off then back on) this select group of lights during 500 and 5000 point scoring or any other motor rotation. Other lights with similar functions remain on. The lights chosen to flash tend to be evenly distributed around the playboard.

Is there some reason for this circuit, other than providing some additional visual activity on the playboard during gameplay?

Quoted from JWJr:
In the score motor is running to score multiple of some point value, hitting one of those targets won't score what it normally would, until the motor stops.

I'm not sure that's it... this circuit only blinks lights - there's no impact on scoring.

Abra_switched_lighting (resized).jpg

Quoted from slochar:
It turns the lights off because you can't score the value as JWjr said while another is scoring - so you would get 'ripped off'. That's why it says "when lit". When lit in this case means 'this point value is available, right now'... and when its not lit, you get nuthin'.
I think I heard this from an old school Gottlieb designer on a podcast in the past but I could be wrong about that.

Quoted from chuckwurt:
Makes sense to me. I always loved that about gottliebs. If you hit two drops at the same time, only get credit for one. The bonus advance can only move so fast and be ready to advance again.

Atlantis is one exception to this...

OK, I guess I'm getting it... a "system busy" indication - point scoring is disabled until motor activity is over. And we have higher expectations when hitting lit things. Numbered rollovers (on Abra, say) are directly connected to sequence relays, so they remain lit during this "system busy" time and a rollover can be registered for the purpose of advancing the sequence (BUT no points are awarded there, either). In general, NO additional points can be scored during this system busy time - rollovers, bumpers, pops, targets (lit or unlit).

Point queueing came later...

I seem to recall a designer that was happy he got to redesign (with some queueing) a football themed EM after being a tester (as a teen) of the previous version and hurting his foot after the machine didn't register a critical hit. I think it was on a podcast or an IPDB quote... I'll have to look that up.

Thanks all!

Quoted from JWJr:
Easy way to envision this:
You hit, say, a 100 point target, and the "100 POINT RELAY" is activated, once, to score the points (the "^" is the pulse to the relay):
TIME --->
-------------------^-------------------------------------
Now, you hit a 500 point target, and it starts the score motor to pulse that same relay 5 times in succession:
TIME --->
------------^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----------------
Now, imagine hitting another 100 point target, during (say) the 2nd of the 5 pulses:
TIME --->
------------^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----------------
-------------------^-------------------------------------
The relay is just "on" or "off" - it can't tell that it's being activated by two different switches at the same time. The 100 point hit just gets "swallowed" by the 500 point activity. So, the lights "blink" to indicate that more_ points won't be scored until the motor run is completed.
If you've ever worked on an EM where there's a coil next to the coin acceptors that kicks in and out as the score motor runs, it's the same issue - the coil prevents coins from being accepted while the motor is running, when they might not register as credits.

Thanks, yes, I can see that now... on Abra, there is a motor switch 1C that cuts off large portions of the scoring circuits (bumpers, drops, etc) once the motor is in motion.

I found the quote from John Osborne who was pissed off about a particular implementation on Pro-Football and got to correct it on Gridiron , as the designer - the addition of a delay relay to capture the missed hit.

https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1089

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