Hi everyone. I'm new-ish to owning pinballs. Have had them before but it's been years so I need some help.

I just got a Riverboat Gambler (220V International version) and it arrived in fine working order. Everything was working well as far as I could tell. A few days after I got it, I powered it on and noticed the playfield was much dimmer and I had lost the right half of the backbox lighting and the CHIPS display. I dug into the manual and ended up replacing fuse F1 on the Gen Illum / Interconnect board (board 4 in the diagram below). This brought the right side of the backbox back to life, however the playfield is still dim and the CHIPS display is still out.

I'm thinking another fuse blew at the same time, or a power supply or something needs replaced but I need to know what to look for and where to start.

I'm sure it will not surprise you that I found many of the fuses installed seem to be rated much higher than the prescribed 5A.

Thanks for any help. RG is a great game. This is my second RG. It's not in great shape, but it's in much better shape than the first one I had, and I'm happy.

Thank you.

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Have you closely inspected the GI connectors? They often get overheated and burnt on system 11 games. That can cause resistance and make your GI run dim.

Thank you so much.

Looked at the one GI connector I know about (thick yellow wires) and it looks good. Removed it and things dimmed MORE.

Noticed the RED flasher is also not working, if that helps.

Still no CHIPS display.

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Do you mean reseated it? Can you snap a high res picture of the interconnect board. Behind the speaker panel and mostly the right hand side of it as you face it.

Yes!

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Thanks for the pics! I don't see the common burnt plugs either. I assume the plug with the looped yellow wires is the one you re-seated. (J6) If you changed something by just doing that (made it dimmer yet) it would seem that you are on to something there. A cold solder joint on a header pin or even a cracked trace on the board could do that. I have seen this happen, but am admittingly grasping at straws.

OK, will keep looking. Thank you so much for your help.

Seeking thoughts on a RG LED display.

First image shows the typical connections (please disregard the ribbon cable coming across the front -- this was for testing only). Jackpot displays fine, Chips is dead.

Second image shows the chips output from the interconnect board going to the jackpot display -- chips value is displayed, which means the boards are functioning properly and *trying* to send the chips value to the display, but it's not showing.

Does this positively mean the 7-digit display is bad, or is there something else this could be?

Thanks.

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Can't help you with a diagnosis, but if it turns out to be a problem with the ribbon cables, I have the two cables, working, that I removed when I upgraded to LED displays that came with new cables.

I'd guess that the cable is fine but rather the display is bad if it works on the other display.

Chris

Going to shop out this RB this weekend and install Comet Sunlight Led's.
It came with a set of new lockdown buttons also. Are there any recommendations on protecting the text, should I tape them off and clear over the text? Seems like it will just rub off after a short amount of time.

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I sprayed mine with Rust-Oleum 2X clear 5 years ago and they still look good.
I masked off everything except text areas. (button face)

Anyone know where I can find a new set of these buttons?

Definitely do something to protect them. I put a NOS set on ours and the red rubbed off a little with very slight home use.

Chris

Not sure actually. I got mine along with a NOS ramp that I got a few years back. Everyone shows them as out of stock now.

Chris

I just acquired an amazing RBG and was playing it. This title is WAY under appreciated. Game is very interactive. Love the theme. I was playing the game and the ball diverter fell into the game. Upon lifting the playfield I am a bit confused. The allen setscrew loosened up and it fell off of the ball diverter "T-handle". Looked like an easy fix and then the confusion set in. The solenoid does not have a bracket to stop the spring from ejecting itself out of the solenoid sleeve. Am I missing something? My assembly lacks the bracket that provides the stop so the plunger spring can't eject it. First post was found online. Second post is my plunger assembly. Third picture is my installed ball diverter solenoid assembly. Any pictures of your assembly from the underside would be greatly appreciated. I want to get back on the boat and play some slots!

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Here you go

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Back in the club! Family was none to happy when i sold it first time around lol!

Is the large roulette plastic as unobtanium as the red ramp?

I think that is just a decal. or do you mean the actual assembly? I don't have my Riverboat Gambler anymore, but hit up user EagleTG - he has it now and had many spare parts (including a NOS red ramp and a decent used red ramp) as well as NOS decals. Not sure he'd want to part with them but I know they are there. LOL

Chris

I recently bought a Riverboat Gambler and I cannot get the roulette wheel aligned properly to center. Always at the edge of color. I figured it is random chance to affix wheel to center of stepper motor step but I tried 5 times and result is always the same. What do I need to do to fix this? Would buying new motor board fix?

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Look at
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/riverboat-gambler-wheel-issue#post-4425557

Hopefully this helps

Thanks for the info!

I have a roulette question. The manual says roulette is active if you have 100 chips. Often I will make the roulette shot with plenty of chips and "play roulette" lit. I get the call out "pick a color", the wheel is spinning, I pick a color and the ball drops and nothing happen. Anyone else? Is this normal or is this a mis-adjusted switch?

My guess it’s a switch issue. Have not experience what you describe on my machine. Good luck!

Glad yours is working normal. I checked all the switches and OK. I am thinking the roulette motor board has problems. I think the opto may be weak and ordered some parts to trouble shoot. Will post results.

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If you were to select black does it call out “black”? If it doesn’t call out the color (black, red or green) you selected then I still think it’s a switch issue. If this is the case then switch 61 (pass botton) is somehow being selected (open) each time. Just thinking through possibilities

On my machine, I get the occasional ‘status report’ when I power up. The report gives an error for switch 61 which I know is the pass button. When I run switch check there are no faults. All switches are fine. This occasional ‘status report’ doesn’t affect the game play.

Thanks for the info. Guess the pass would do it. When I press red/black the gate opens and ball drops and nothing else. I will play around in the switch test and see if anything seems amiss. Will report back if I ever figure it out.

When you are in switch test and select red then switch # 60 should appear. I believe lower right display. Pass =61 , green = 62 and black = 63. I would check all buttons/switches with lock bar on and off to see if there are any discrepancies.

Small note for above posts.
The pass button rarely gets played during game play. If not selected for 35-50 games, at power up it will give you an error code.
It's a system 11 thing.
My Fire does it all the time but for the coin shuts, because I never put a coin in my Fire.
I flip coin mech, error code gone.
Same with pass button. Once you go into RB diagnostic and select it, code will go away.

Bill6271 Fixed. It was the lockdown bar buttons. When I bought the machine I noticed red and pass were not in location shown in other photos and flier. I thought I tried them and verified all buttons seemed to give correct result (maybe not?). Maybe I did something playing around with the setting but now the red and pass button locations match the pictures. I cannot figure out how the locations could have changed. Does that sound even possible? Anyway all fixed, I swapped locations of red and pass and all is good. Thanks for everyone's help. Now I just need to get rid of the power line hum from speakers.

Awesome, Good to hear you fixed it.

I’ve read that the hum could be the results of missing screws on circuit boards mounted within the head unit. Missing screws cause grounding issues that affect the sound. Also read that all sys11 machines hum. It should faint and almost unnoticeable. Good luck!

Thanks Bill6271
I have been trying to get rid of the constant idle hum from my Riverboat Gambler Tried everything but did find a fix! I tried the ferrite chokes and was waste of money. LEDs looked great but did not help humming. Moving wires did not help. Adding capacitance to light matrix cap did not help. All boards were screwed down. Unplugging roulette wheel did not help. Adding larger caps to sound card DC input filters did not help.

I found three things that did help:
1. Had Rottendog power supply. I placed large capacitor on +12V line to ground. This got rid of higher frequency noise form PS but made no difference in power line 60Hz buzzing.
2. Put nylon washer on lower left screw on sound card. Need to have screw loose and card pulled away from bracket. Makes huge difference. Went from loud buzz to something that could only be heard for 15'.
3. Added resistance to speakers. I put four 220 Ohm 1/4W resistors in parallel to give 55 Ohms. Added for backbox speakers and also added for bottom speaker. This made humming barely audible from 3'.

Before the humming was unbearable. Had to switch game off when not in use. Now can hear at 3' at idle but now I can leave game on. Hope this helps.

looking for playfield plastics for this game. Any help would be aprreciated

Thank you
Steve

I just searched on eBay. Found the red left target plastic cover I needed and ordered it. Hope there are more.

My Riverboat plays awesome. The only thing that stumps me is that during game play all sounds work perfectly. When game is in attract mode just sitting. The light show works but there is no music. The Adjustment 31 Attract mode sounds is turned on, however no sounds are made until you coin up. Any help? I am adding an amazing topper. I will post pictures when complete (hopefully tonight!)

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Ours did that too. No attract mode sounds even though it was set to do so. My Bad Cats is the same way

Chris

That makes no sense. As soon as you drop a coin she gets excited with each quarter. Ooh, Yea! That MUST be correctable somewhere. It totally ruins the attract mode.

Here is my custom Riverboat Gambler topper. The paddle wheel LEDs rotate giving the appearance the boat is moving. Check it out!

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First of all that topper is Awesome!

I believe the attract mod is at the end of a game.
Play a full game. Now if you wait after the match for about 60 seconds the game will start to light up how to fullfill casino.
At the end of this cycle the roulette wheel will go to green.
That's it.
Now, I can swear that if you let the game sit for a very long time, say 60 minutes, it will do it again.
I have the most up to date roms.

That is an awesome topper!!

Mine does the exact same thing

I have been having the ball jump off the ramp after hitting roulette diverter. I found a simple fix using 1/4" clear bumper pads. The pads slow the ball so it does not jump off. Note: it would be cheating to use these at top of skill shot.

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Hello Riverboaters! Im looking for just 1 pop-bumper decal "3 Chips When Flashing". If anyone has one or can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated! Thanks Philly76

Anyone have any luck on recoloring the lockbar buttons text? I can see a faint outline of the letters on all the buttons, so I could take a stab at painting them by hand with some screening paint, but finding the correct font and making waterslide decals would be much quicker and look better.

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Lmk how u make out on this I could use that as well!

Always the black button lol. I believe the other three buttons are available from marco, but the black one is no longer available. I replaced all mine a few years back but was never able to find a replacement for the black one

Does any one have the roulette wheel plastic available? I have a big hole on the right side of mine, doesn’t Intefere with gameplay just would like to replace it