Gottliebs display "BILLIONS" when you cross the Billion point threshold. So that DMD message is not tied to what actually gave you the points.

Check your battery voltage - you might be borderline.

viperrwk

Scoring 5 billions on SG is remarkable... If I remember well, transporter 3X scoring does not multiply everything, such as the superjackpot (?). Max I could get was 700 millions there.
Battle is another way to score many, many points, especially the second or third time. But no way you can jump to 5 billions in a heartbeat...

2.6 billion is my best.

And my father put up a whooping 4.9 billion.

He played for close to an hour...

The battery on this is a lithium cell battery. You don't really need to change it unless its dead. No real fear of these leaking like AAs

Actually 3x scoring does work on (double) super jackpot. In fact during multiball, the timer doesn't go down, and the supers are the only thing that do get multiplied. It's all in the rulesheet. last time I played a working one I broke 2B without breaking a sweat. The only strategy is to get 3x right before Eye of Ra.

I'd never let you play mine because when I play I want a chance to beat the machine's high score, and you would ruin it for me. It's a good thing mine isn't show worthy so we'll never have to worry about it.

I've gotten close to 2 billion on my SF2. I wish I had friends that could beat it for me so I had something to go after.

If you live in Chi Town, I can think of several people you could make friends with to fix that problem.

I must have had mine set pretty hard. Think the highest I ever got was 900 million.

CaptainNeo and I are in the same boat. I'm sitting just shy of 1b right now. I don't think I've ever played a game where I have more difficulty keeping balls in play during multi-ball.

I 'wrapped' Stargate one time. When you get to 10 billion it starts over at 0. I think my final score was like 10.4 billion, but I didn't get to enter my initials, lol. My second high score was only 4.2 billion or something like that, so it definitely was a fluke.

I just had the same thing happen.
my score was about 150mil then bang 6 billion this happened twice and then the letters for high score wont stay at a particular letter they keep scrolling through the letters.
I have recently had it fixed and my settings are all over the place.
Any thoughts on a cause.
I will try reset to factory settings and see what happens.
1.5 bill is my legit highest score.

there has to be something going on with software revisions, because that seems fishy. Billion on Stargate is damn hard to accomplish. I always had mine set on tournament mode. Maybe that's the difference. Might be some billion jackpot lit from transporter or something, if your not in tournament mode.

I just got 6 billion again on a combo.
I have not reset factory settings yet.Played 3 games all normal then 6 bill on a combo.

do you guys have tournament mode on? I think you have to if you want it on free play.

I did not have mine on tournament mode and it was on free play.
I have done the factory reset and I have put it in tournament mode and I just got 6 billion on a bracelet multiball.
What is going on?

early Rom revisions? I had to put mine in tournament mode, or It wouldn't let me put it on free play. That little switch on the inside. Maybe older roms didn't do this? I've never seen a billion points awarded on Stargate and I played the shit out of mine the past 6 years.

Same for me.

for Gottlieb, tournament mode is done by a little slide swtich. Either on or off. You might be in tournament mode and not know it.

me too on my SFII, not my waterworld though.

I have changed reduced scoring to yes which means trade quartz is 5 and 25 mill.
Have played a dozen games and have not got a 6 billion hit.
On the other hand my average score would be only 150 million.Dont know if that has anything to do with it.
Would it help to get new ROMs?

My wife got 1.7 billion on my stargate a few years ago. I finally cracked it last year and just got over 1.8 billion, but all our other high scores are around the 800 million.
When we got those billion high scores the opto server on the top right ramp was not working either.
I have now had that fixed and I can't even get close to that score. I've always had it on tournament mode because thats the only way I can get free play.
I have a switch just inside the door that turns the tournament mode off and on but I use the flippers in settings to change it.
You can do a 6 quartz trade and get 50 million for that, do a few of those and it builds up quick.

4 quartz are enough... still relatively slow.

It seems there are faster ways to score points:
- Do the drop targets in the right order, from bottom to top : 5+10+20+40+80 = 155 millions
- Battle sequence: with a reward that increases each time by 10 millions, you can score a lot. Especially if you reach battle a second time during the same game.
- some of the multiballs score a lot. Glider for example.
- Don't forget the superjackpot, that can be increased several ways, and scores hundreds of millions.

Well Stargate is up to old tricks.
I have just resoldered a wire back onto the upper left kicking target.
And got a 6 billion point kick.Twice.During different games.
Any more info on this problem?
Bad diodes?

just a software bug

I don't know of any way you could get 6B points in one shot on SG.

If you just rewired a switch and are getting crazy scoring, you likely have a hardware issue. There is probably something wrong between the switches and lamps. The thing about Sys3 games is that the switch and lamp matrix share the same strobes, so a problem with the lamp matrix will create odd behavior with the switches. Do you have LEDs in the game? I would look at lamps L11-L17, pull each, one at a time, and see if the odd scoring remains.

Also, if you're running any ROM version less than 4, you should upgrade. The latest for SG is V5 (checksum 89AA.)

viperrwk

We ran into this scoring bug in our league. The machine owner decided to put his SG in 'tournament mode' for league and that's what caused the 5B jackpot award. It happened more than once during the night. Once we took it off tourney mode, it went back to scoring like normal.

There was only one wire and one end of the diode off the switch so I am pretty sure that it went back right.
But I did just put a few extra LEDs in the machine just before it went crazy.
I will check on the tournament mode.
Thanks.

It is in tournament mode.
How do you put credits on the machine?
When I turn off tournament mode I need to put credits on it.It has always been free play as I don't think the coin mech works and it takes Euros which we don't have.I came up with 3 credits but I don't know how I got them
The checksum is 352B.Is this an old ROM?
I will have to do the remove the lamps one at a time and play test next.(in tourney mode)
Thanks

Very...

ROM checksums for SG

Initial release - 352B
V1 - 36D9
V2 - CB45
V3 - F6FE
V4 - 99AA
V5 - 89AA

Personally, I wouldn't run anything below V4 in mine. There were many bugs in versions prior to 4. V5 is the same as V4 except it addresses a warm boot issue with the MPU board.

Your choices for upgrade: Steve Young at Pinball Resource, John Robertson at flippers.com or someone local who has a ROM burner and knows their way around Gottlieb ROMs.

viperrwk

I know that messed up optos can cause all kinds of weird issues on Sys 3 games. My dad's Big Hurt was having issues including awarding billions of points for one shot. It took us forever to track it down but it did end up being a bad opto. You can run a switch edge test in the menus and see if you have any optos or switches acting weird.

Man, I'm dumb. I miss my Stargate.

Hope you guys get your issues fixed. I love this game and now that mine is working, it's never leaving.

Viperrwk was a huge help to me getting mine running correctly so I'd go with any advice he has.

Cheers and good luck.

Have done a test and the switches that come up are

21 glider motor stop
24 out hole
34 trough
35 rollover drop target
does this mean these switches are suspect?Check each one in edge test?
3 of these are close to each other on the matrix(I think it is the switch matrix)
I am a bit lost at the moment.(beer not helping)
Any advise very welcome.
Cheers.

The 6 billion is only awarded when I get the first free game(extra ball) at 300mill.It then jumps to 6.5bill.
I had the glass off and when it clicks 300mill I get the 6 bill.
Did it 5 times in a row.
Only a problem if you get 300mill I suppose.
May have a beer and watch the football.

Your switches are fine. Those are the ones I would expect to be on before starting a game (assuming the roll over drop target is down).

RazerX is probably right here - software bug. Given the old version of your ROM and the general stories I've heard about the bugginess in the early SG ROMs I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's happening. Personally I've never played a machine with anything less than v4 ROM (that I recall) and have never run into thebug you described.

To eliminate the ROM as a possibility I would upgrade before doing anything else.

viperrwk

Thanks Viperrwik.
Yes drop target was down.
That's good news I will get a new rom.
Once again great advise.
Thanks 'you da man'

Ordered Roms.
Had to get a sound one also.

Was the sound ROM missing or bad? It was never updated from the original release so there is no need to replace it unless there's a problem.

Display ROM OTOH should be updated. Latest version for SG is v3.

Unlike Sega/Stern games where the major display ROM version needs to match the game ROM version, Gottlieb had no such "rule." Therefore you could have a machine with a V4 game ROM and a V1 display ROM.

There is no diagnostic test to tell you which version of the DSPROM is installed. The only ways to identify which version of DSPROM you have:

Pulling the chip and look at the checksum - ADF9 for v3

Look at the sticker on the ROM and trust it is correct (if the sticker is still there)

Set the game to take paid credits (not free play,) and enable "Extended Play" (adjustment 30) aka buy-in for extra ball. When you are set like this, you have to observe the countdown timer at the end of the game when you are prompted "Deposit one coin for extra ball." With the V3 DSPROM installed, the countdown timer will appear in the upper right corner of the DMD. If you have the V1 or V2 DSPROM installed, the countdown timer will appear in the middle of the screen amongst the text.

viperrwk

Sorry it was not the sound ROM.I did not read suppliers reply properly.
This is the message I got from my supplier.

I have version 4 which uses version 3 display rom

So 2 roms = $18 + $8.25 postage = $26.25

He is in the top of East Aus and I am at the bottom of east Aus.

So after breaking off a leg on a ROM I have finally got the replacements installed.But when I turned it on there was no familiar Stargate bing and no display.I have reseated the cables but have not reseated the ROMS as I had a hard time getting them in.
Any ideas.
My next move is to reseat the ROMS but they feel like they are all the way in and they are in the right way.
Thanks
Scott.

Oh it reads like I installed the broken ROM.
I got another new one.

It's very easy to bend a pin when installing a ROM and not see that it's bent - everyone's done it. If it was working before with the old ROM and not working now, I'd pull the ROM and make sure all the pins are straight and also that the socket itself is not damaged.

If you're having difficulty, you can pull the board out to put on a table and install it that way. Honestly, that's the way I usually do it because it's easier to see all the pins as I install it.

viperrwk

No familiar with this system, but if you are getting the same issue with the new one as the old, possibly the socket is bad. I'm not sure if Gottlieb used crappy sockets, others might know.

Probably not a socket issue unless OP damaged it installing the new ROM. Sys3 sockets are pretty robust.

viperrwk