I am waiting patiently until the day where I can join this group.
Stargate is my pin equivalent of the Holy Grail. I live in Washington state and I want to find one that I can drive and pick up which is proving super hard. I'd drive 1000 miles round trip to get one but no one is selling in my neck of the woods.
Cheers to all of you for having awesome taste and please let me know if you ever see one for sale in the pacific NW.

I've been waiting to join this club since it was formed and I am happy to say that I finally found one for sale near me and it will be in my home in a week or two once I can go pick it up. I'll post up pics when I get it.
I already warned my wife that she or I might start mumbling shoot the pyramid in our sleep once we get it.
Cheers and have a great Thanksgiving!

- Josiah

It required some travel north across the border to lock this one down. Don't tell the Queen or the authorities in BC cause they may never let it leave, what with it being a masterpiece and all. Not sure how it got out west to begin with. I only know of 2 SG's anywhere within a 700 mile radius around my house so they are sparse.
Tommy @ Nitro in Mission BC hooked me up with the one that they had. It was a bit outside what I wanted to pay and he was willing to negotiate down to a price that I was happy to pay and my better half gave me two thumbs up so a trip north is happening next week or the week after to go grab it.
Next up will be a TAF for the wife. It's her favorite movie and she loves the pin. I guess good taste is expensive but she has been awesome with me diving headfirst into the hobby so she deserves it.

Awww yeah!!! It took a while but I am in the club now. This pic was taken after the 9 hour drive it took to get this bad boy home. My friend Steve drove with me and it was late when my wife took the picture but don't we look happy?
It almost didn't happen as our Subaru broke a rod a day before the planned trip but through fate and good friends we made it all work out.
It's a re import, has ball wear by the drops and is missing the rope light but other than that it's nice and clean and looks like it has been treated well.
Now comes an order to PBR and an order to Comet so I can get the lighting the way I want it and so I can get a manual not in German.
Does anyone know which connector the rope light is supposed to hook up to? I figured I'd ask in case anyone here knows that off hand or can take a peek at theirs. I have not had a chance to find that out yet on mine.
Cheers and have a great week!

1425595_10151772325067823_1781049078_n[1].jpg

Thank you viperrwk!
That's exactly what I needed. I appreciate it.

I also found last night that some of my spare 44 bayonet style led bulbs from comet would not fit into my playfield GI because they had a wide collar. Sounds like you may have had the same issue blondetall.
Can anyone give a recommendation for a LED brand who's single frosted led bulbs will fit into the PF GI?

viperrwk do you remember which brand of bulb you used for the flasher behind Ra?

Thanks for the help!

That's perfect! Thanks blondetall!

So having had SG for a few days now the only thing I have found wrong with mine is that the ball is not being sensed when you hit the Horus or Pyramid Shot and you have to wait until the game ball checks and then the VUK works like a charm.
This is the first game I have with optos and I am guessing that is the issue I am having. I am an electronics noob but I love learning so I thought I'd ask if any one else has had this problem. I know viperwrk and Gov had brought up optos earlier (end of page 1 beginning of 2) but any additional help would be great as I don't know what is actually wrong.

I'll also be ordering LED's this week so hopefully I can get this all sorted so I can fix everything when I tear it down in a couple weeks or so. Cheers!

I guess it could be a switch as well. My manual is in German so I without tearing mine down I am flying a bit in the dark. Thanks again!

Just wanted to share a couple of things that I have found useful as I have been tearing down my playfield. I am putting it back together right now with a fresh coat of wax, new rubber, flipper rebuilds with new coils, new skillshot ramp, new rope light....... and on and on.

Novus 3 worked great for me for polishing the rails, ramps and pyramid. All of my gold hardware is looking great with just Novus, a micro fiber cloth and some time rubbing. No need for an expensive re plate job now.

If you want colored LED's for your GI, the Ultimate Optix bulbs from Comet LED do fit the narrow holes on Stargate.

Still cannot figure out why my opto on the left VUK is activating randomly. Cleaned the lenses. Everything looks to be aligned correctly but it will still kick even when the game is in attract mode.
Any suggestions for what to do next? I really want to get everything working great by Feb 8th for our local tourney/rally and this is the last problem I am having.
Cheers!

Great minds think alike!
I had some of the 5 stack SMD towers from Art too but I liked the look of the Ultimate Optix ones better. He is also getting some narrow facted covered SMDs in soon. I got a sample and it worked great. That would be a little cheaper option than the UO ones I used. I also have some spotlights that I am going to try and use to light up the guardians and I have a 3 SMD strip that I am going to tie into the flashers behind the pyramid so I can get a better light show when the glider pops out.
I'll snag some pictures tonight and share them tomorrow.

I know I won't be judged for this in here so I will admit that I was up till 2:30 am this morning fiddling around with my SG. Mostly trying to remove the locktight that some evil bastard decided to use on almost all of the star posts screws.

I'll do that tonight or tomorrow viperrwk. Thank you!

As for bulbs:
I have some of the OpMax bulbs in my T2. They are amazing but they do not fit the playfield GI holes in Stargate. The Ultimate Optix ones have a smaller collar and they do fit the small holes. They are non ghosting/no flicker. The only issue is that they do not come in a frosted style but you can get them in with flex wiring which allows for them to be angled away from the eyes. That helps a lot in places like under the front left slingshot plastic where the bulb is totally visible to the eye.

These ones are what I am talking about: http://www.cometpinball.com/category-s/1837.htm

Whysnow - The Comet single SMD 50/50 no ghosting bulbs DO NOT fit the GI holes. Tried that first and it did not work.

I did get a bag of bullets to try out too and I found them to be pretty lame in terms of light output and "cool" factor, at least for my taste. They just didn't make the game pop and I hated the way they looked under the plastics.

Like I said, I'll grab some pics tonight to share.
If anyone else has any confirmed bulbs that fit the narrow holes in the playfield please chime in.
Cheers!

It's not fully back together yet but here is what I have so far. Pardon the glare from the backbox lights.

gweempose - Who's bulbs did you use?

sg1-44.JPG

sg3-436.JPG

sg5-878.JPG

sg2-748.JPG

sg4-205.JPG

First, huge thanks to viperrwk for the suggestions on the optos. We checked the board while in switch test (everything looked good) and reflowed the solder on the opto but the damn thing keeps not seeing balls and kicking at random times so I guess we will be ordering a new one from PBR.

Got the rope light installed but noticed that all 4 flashers in the backbox are not working and I can't seem to find them in the lamp matrix. Any suggestions on how to diagnose the issue or has anyone else had this issue?

Any chance someone has an extra 3 lamp board that they would be willing to part with? I have one that I would like to swap out and PBR is sold out.
Thanks again and cheers!

I'll be doing this as soon as I get home.
I obviously owe you a beer or some other form of token repayment if we ever meet in real life.
Thank you again viperrwk! Your help is greatly appreciated and I just may get everything fixed by our local pinball rally on Feb 8th.
Cheers!

viperrwk I can't thank you enough.
Well the chips were not BUZ 72's but there has already been some damage. This was the only board that I didn't take a great look at when I got the pin. Turns out that was a mistake maybe.
Board work is definitely something that I am not comfortable with as I am fairly new to the world of electronic repair. I would rather send it out to someone who can possible save the board and do the job right rather than possibly botch it myself.
Granted they are not the best quality but any suggestions based on these pics?
Thank you again for all your help. Cheers.

sgb 1.JPG

sgb2.JPG

sgb3.JPG

sgb4.JPG

Sounds like I will be reaching out to Clive. I'll let you know how things progress.
Thanks a bunch!

Ouch. Here is what the back side looks like. I am waiting to hear back on if Clive wants to touch it or not. He said they have never had a flasher board from a Stargate in for repair before and he wanted to see pictures of the damage. It's not looking good based on my little electronics knowledge.

Flasher 2.JPG

Thank you, that makes me feel a bit better.

Clive said he can do it so I will be shipping it out to him. Until I get some boards to practice on I am leaving repairs to the pros. Thanks again guys.
Now I am just waiting for my opto's to get here from Steve at PBR. Hopefully that will fix the upkicker issue and once I get the board back everything should be 100% working.
Cheers!

Do it ledge!
It's a great game and it looks amazing. If you like the movie its a no brainer. A DMD pin with a fun rule set with a theme you like for under 2K is like a gift from the pin gods.

First - viperrwk - you are my Stargate hero. As others have said thank you for all of the help you have given people in this club. We really appreciate it.

Second-
I finally got off my butt and ordered the upgraded coils for this game. Only did the bottom two flippers as I didn't know how the game play would be. Wanted to give the club my feedback.
WOW!
The right ramp shot is now easy to hit as are all other lanes. We had previously rebuilt the flippers but adding the higher strength coils has really made this game a true joy to play. All of the shots feel smooth and easily attainable.
I was a bit worried about the added strength with how close that 3 bank of drops are but they seem to be holding up well.
If you have already rebuilt your flippers and are still unhappy with their strength or I'd say look into getting the slightly stronger coils.
Cheers!

Strange as I get no airballs with my game at all even with the stronger coils. At least none that I have noticed so far. Just put them in about a week ago so I will keep my eye out.

I do need to replace my cabinet flipper switches. Gotta remember to do that so thanks for the reminder.

Man do I love this game. I've owned it for about a year and a half and I don't think it will ever leave my collection. I am just now getting to the point where I can usually complete all of the stargate objectives and the modes in the same game. Still have not beat the final wizard mode and I still tend to freak out and drain when sandstorm kicks in. Learning the rules is a must for high scoring. Finally cracked the 2 billion mark the other day. Milked that Horus build up and transporter 3x bonus for all they were worth!

As for the ramps, strong dialed in flippers are a must but almost as important is your timing. The ramps on this game, especially the left one, are some of the toughest I have played. With that left ramp you just have to play enough until you know where that sweet spot is. Both of them feel amazing when you can hit them.

I still say that this game, when working 100%, is by far the biggest sleeper DMD in pinball. I don't know of another game that has the depth, look and dmd animations that be be had for the price of one of these AND!! you can still get parts for it to boot.

Mine is next to a LOTR, TSPP and TAF and I honestly enjoy it just as much as those three.

Cheers!

I would be worried as all hell about playfield art lifting on this game when removing a Mylar.

Love this game btw. It's next to a TAF and a LOTR and I like it just as much as those two A giants.