In April 2019 I bought a Gottlieb Robo-War from a warehouse in Milan, Italy (I was living in Germany at the time). This post will document the work I will undertake to ressurect this great pin. Besides photos, I will make a video every so often capturing the work.

Here is video #1 of the series:

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Update #2: The electrical troubleshooting continues as I begin to work through the many small problems the machine arrived with.

Update #3: Starting to strip the playfield and decide whether to repaint or apply a playfield overlay (which are not available for purchase anywhere).

Update #4: The playfield is now stripped and ready to begin the overlay installation process.

Update #5: The home-made playfield overlay has been applied to the playfield. I believe I am the first person to use this overlay graphic that was made by a gentleman in France. Kudos to you pal, I made some edits to the file and it looks great. It turned out a bit too long front-to-back (1.5-2 mm) but this is easily adjusted in GIMP. Waterslide decals have also been applied. Ready for clear-coating!

And the "paint booth" has been built minus a filter. A few more items to collect before I can begin spraying.
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Update #6 - Clearcoating the playfield!!

The Robo-War is in the line-up! I have a few more small details to still work through but I am very pleased.

For anyone who might want to do the same playfield restoration to their RW...I have one extra copy of the vinyl graphic that I used to overlay this playfield. If you are interested I am willing to sell it for $100 plus shipping (which is what I have into it). Please be aware that is is around 1-2mm long (you can see the minor mis-match in my restoration video series on YouTube. I also added a small "easter egg" to the graphic above the pops to make it my own.

I can also provide the pdf file to anyone who wants to try and get their own printed out. I made a pdf of the inserts that I printed onto waterslide decal material that I can share as well. Send me a PM. Thanks to those who helped me along the way.

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Thanks a lot! I appreciate the feedback!

Thanks for the good words! Yes, the insert areas have to be trimmed out with a razor knife. Take a look at my Update #5 video. You can see in the beginning how the inserts are blank and I made and applied water slide decals later in video #5.

Unfortunately my printer in The Netherlands could not print the graphic onto a clear material...that would have been ideal as the insert lettering was already there. I had to do it the hard way but it worked in the end.

The RoboWar is finally 100% after many months. Over the past few days, I finally found the source of the distorted sound effects. I was also able to fix the pop bumper issue that I identified during the restore. This will be the last video in the series. I've also included some gameplay video at the end to showcase this awesome Gottlieb. Enjoy!