Ship Ahoy
Gottlieb, 1976Set up my Ship Ahoy after it being in storage for a couple of months. I noticed that when scoring 100K+ that it'll light the lamp, but when scoring 200K+, 300k+ etc, that it doesn't light those respective lamps.
Looking at the schematic, it shows that there is a plug for Novelty vs AAB. Is this a function of that plug or do I have something else going on?
SA Scoring (resized).jpgThat’s the plug that enables the 200K+ scoring and also much higher scoring for the playfield. Get ready for the knocker to go off endlessly every time you hit 1000 points!
Makes for some fun, high scoring games, but the endless knocks made me switch it back to AAB.
Alberto
Thank you! This makes sense! My buddy found an older post explaining the stepper unit and the logic behind it.
Quoted from Peruman:The same stepper is used to count WOW on the AAB and then the 200K+ scoring in the Novelty mode. Sadly they are mutually exclusive
But it would be a great hack to add another stepper unit and do both! There may even be a thread on that topic. To search for more info, try the search string "Italian add-a-ball" because this dual-personality system was originally inspired by the Italian restrictions.
.................David Marston
Steve Charland modified a Lucky Hand to light multiple scoring thresholds as well as award AABs. As dmarston mentions it involved adding a stepper. There is some mention of it on RGP and used to be documention on the TeamEm site but I believe that site is NLA.
I’d really like to do that on Neptune. Once you get a few extra balls it’s easy to exceed 100k and all those lights are just sitting there
Dave
any resettable stepper unit capable of at least 10 steps up from reset can be used. A nine step unit would take a little more work.
how the step-up and reset coils get wired into the game is somewhat dependent on the game, but if ya want to do it and aren't sure how, get a stepper and start a topic on what to do. People will usually jump in quickly with modification ideas that use someone else's fire insurance 
I'll pass on modifying the game I'm actually selling it to a friend this weekend and while testing the game out (it had been stored for a few months) played a 200K+ game and noticed that the light didn't light. Funny enough, I was never good enough to score 200K+ during ownership so never noticed lol.
When looking at the schematic, it had seemed to my dumb brain that it was an either/or function of the AAB/Novelty modes. After reading how the ball counter is dual function from the link above, it made sense but I'm glad to have confirmed the function and that the game is working as intended.
It's up to my friend if he wants to add another stepper unit
I find it funny that it works this way because you would think in AAB mode, that the scoring is higher and that you would want to enable the 100K lamp scoring function vs in Novelty mode, where you can't earn extra balls.
Quoted from baldtwit:any resettable stepper unit capable of at least 10 steps up from reset can be used. A nine step unit would take a little more work.
how the step-up and reset coils get wired into the game is somewhat dependent on the game, but if ya want to do it and aren't sure how, get a stepper and start a topic on what to do. People will usually jump in quickly with modification ideas that use someone else's fire insurance
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Yup, you’re right. Seems like the existing 100k relay circuit can give me the step up, finding a reset pulse shouldn’t be too hard
Thanks,
Dave
Quoted from dgAmpGuy:I’d really like to do that on Neptune.
Should we turn this into some kind of workshop at Pintastic New England? There should be plenty of AAB experts there.
.................David Marston
Quoted from FatPanda:I find it funny that it works this way because you would think in AAB mode, that the scoring is higher and that you would want to enable the 100K lamp scoring function vs in Novelty mode, where you can't earn extra balls.
My high score in AAB was about 600,000 (I think, sometimes I loose count over 200,000), but when in Novelty mode, I’ve gone over 1,000,000 in five balls.
I have it in novelty now, but do miss AAB, so I’ll switch it back sometime soon.
Quoted from dmarston:But it would be a great hack to add another stepper unit and do both!
OK, add-a-ball fans, it's happening! We will have a seminar at Pintastic New England 2022 about this modification! It will probably be Friday afternoon. dgAmpGuy and
Peruman should plan to be there! (Also
Mopar
gdonovan
Dono
DropTarget jrpinball
Cash_Riprock who always seem to post on threads about AAB games.) It will be a great technical discussion, I hope.
.................David Marston
Quoted from dmarston:OK, add-a-ball fans, it's happening! We will have a seminar at Pintastic New England 2022 about this modification! It will probably be Friday afternoon. dgAmpGuy and Peruman should plan to be there! (Also Mopar gdonovan Dono DropTarget jrpinball Cash_Riprock who always seem to post on threads about AAB games.) It will be a great technical discussion, I hope.
.................David Marston
Very cool, David.
My wife and I are hoping to be there on Friday if all the stars remain aligned. Meeting Alberto in person would be a nice bonus as I have admired his work
Dave
Quoted from dgAmpGuy:Very cool, David.
My wife and I are hoping to be there on Friday if all the stars remain aligned. Meeting Alberto in person would be a nice bonus as I have admired his work
Dave
Dave
It would be great to meet you, you have helped me out so many times. This past Pintastic was my first one, unfortunately family obligations made it so I could only be there on Thursday to drop off a game for the free-play room (a Domino I had reconditioned) and Sunday to pick it up.
Dave Marston, I will be there, adding higher scoring to Ship Ahoy would be great.
I’m saving that Friday for Pintastic.
Alberto
I think the exact game used for the seminar will be Neptune, but the design principles should apply to all the Gottlieb add-a-ball games after Gold Strike that have the humongous Add-A-Ball/Novelty adjustment plug.
.................David Marston
Quoted from Peruman:That’s the plug that enables the 200K+ scoring and also much higher scoring for the playfield. Get ready for the knocker to go off endlessly every time you hit 1000 points!
Makes for some fun, high scoring games, but the endless knocks made me switch it back to AAB.
Alberto
i guess you can replace the knocker with a bell if you wanted..
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Merrimack, NH