PSA. You now can install NVRAM to get rid of those batteries forever! Retention rating is 124 years! Soldering is required on this one.
https://www.pinitech.com/products/gottlieb_sys3_nvram.php

Did you blacken your own balls? How so?

I would bet he blackened them with a hammer.

Had a girlfriend tell me that once.

Back Alley Creations makes the black balls. I have the ones that look like bowling balls...they have silver spots for finger holes.

I have a set in mine and have always been curious how it was done. I've always thought they would look better with 3 finger holes... just sayin

My Strikes n Spares continually clicks in the back and doesn’t return the balls. This happens every so often and I am not sure why it sometimes fixes itself. Thoughts? It’s something behind the pins.

Random problems are the hardest to diagnose and the most problematic. The guy I bought my Strikes N Spares from had the same exact issue as you're having and he gave up trying to figure it out. I thought I could do better but eventually got frustrated continually lifting the hood to diagnose and fix whatever the problem was.

Finally I said F--k it and tore everything down in the back end and gave everything a serious deep cleaning and adjusting.
I haven't a clue as to what mechanically changed or how, but my game has played 100% snice then and that was a couple of years ago.

I wish I could be more specific for you but that's what I did and it worked.
- Best wishes

I had that happen on the game I worked on for my friend. The upkicker spring would get jammed sometimes and keep the plunger in the up position. I'm not sure if the upkicker was still trying to fire or the diverter for the left/right return. I swapped the spring out and it has played 40 games since then without incident.

Has anyone used these balls before? Do you like them?

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/PB114-BBB

Those are the ones back alley creations makes and marco buys them from him. I have these with the silver finger holes.

https://www.backalleycreations.com/collections/black-pearl-pinball-balls

I have them in mine, I’m glad to have them, but I feel the blackening is too inconsistent.

I think they look great in my game. But I wish they were better priced.

Yeah those are pricey...but so are the regular balls. Is there a better place to get them than Marco? I want to get 14 new balls and thats $60+. Seems crazy for some pinballs.

Ebay has 14 for 45$ free shipping. Marco's is usually my last resort but they are always over priced in everything.

Beware that Seller.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/warning-mad-amusements

MAD is fine if you live within the USA(I've used then 20 or more times no problems). Mostly the people that have had problems have been from Canada. Shipping to Canada is very difficult for some reason.

14! What you need 14 for???

Do you have all 14 in there now?

Ill tell you this; when my game has more than 2 balls on each side, it fails to kick the ball out into the lane and you have to wait for the "shoot again" light to light to be able to try again. I had to go from 3 on each side to 2 to stop this from happening.

Not sure if its common, but you may want to consider before dropping all that cash.

Yeah I suppose you don't need all 14. I have 6 that are good right now. I think I have 8 others as well, but they have pitting and I don't want them in the game.

Use the pitted ones in the area where they are just for show. If you have a tumbler, tumble them first. Just a thought to save some money.

Let's see if anyone can beat my strike 90 score.

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what the what??

What’s a NOS (still wrapped up) PF worth?

798767CE-8055-4176-9890-2C38D15CF0C4 (resized).jpeg

ECD02B88-8A6E-4D7B-ACAF-08F105C978D6 (resized).jpeg

I've seen plenty of NOS playfields that look like they are just barely above average looking. You're going have to cut that open for some real pictures. Don't think anyone would want to gamble on it otherwise. Even NOS backglasses get removed from boxes to have pictures taken, front and back.

Fully understand. I got the PF years ago, but still do t have the Strikes N Spares to go with it!

steve young at pinball resource sold them for 600$ for NOS. He must have just sold out becasue they are no longer listed.

How do I change from free play mode? Can’t seem to find info on it?

You must have an Alltek. Switch 1 on the game select bank is ON for Free Play and OFF for coin play.

I’m in the same boat. Trying to set up coin play and it stays on free play.

Alltek doesn't make a replacement for the Gottlieb System 3 Strikes N Spares bowling game. I'm pretty sure you are thinking of Bally Strikes and Spares.

Yep, whoops.

found it, gotta use internal button near volume to access menu, but must keep front door closing sensor pushed in to use, then it is scroll with flippers and start button. Tournament mode turned off that way as well, don't need it anymore confusing than it is for the general public.

What's the latest ROM on this game?

I'm having an issue with one I purchased a few months ago. It was one of the reasons the guy sold the game. Typically around the 7th frame, the game will register one or two misses. After it does that, you can see a coil up top continually firing. It fires 10-12 times, stops and then things return to normal.

I thought it might be registering a ball landing on the up kicker so I cleaned that opto. Unfortunately, it still does it.

Anyone know how this thing works and what sensor controls the scoring? It can't be an issue with the pin sensor, or it would at least register 1 pin. It has to be something past that point.

Oddly enough, it normally happens around the 7th frame.

Very odd, I’m presuming it does this without the player even releasing a ball?

I would say the switch (I think opto) for the ball VUK is flaky but also scoring a miss is interesting... I thought the sequence was that you had to have a released ball for a miss to register and just having something register in the VUK wouldn’t do it by itself. I’ll experiment with just dropping a ball in without releasing one and see what happens.

When this happens is the gutter-ball solonoid also firing? Just thinking maybe its registering a ball there by chance.

Thanks for the help.

It does it without releasing a ball, if I remember correctly. The VUK seems to work just fine, it's the upper solenoid that keeps firing after the miss is registered. Typically, it puts up two misses in a row.

I tried out a couple games randomly hitting switches without first releasing a ball. Nothing would trigger any type of scoring (not gutterball, nor dropping into the vuk, nor rolling across the pin rollovers). For the game to score it seems that the program has to think a ball is in play.

To me, that leaves a couple possibilities:
- A ball kickout is weak along with a flipper switch that is triggering making it appear like no ball is in play but the cpu received a signal to release the ball and since there is no mechanisim to confirm release it scores accordingly. Its a stretch but I like to rule out all mechanical/playfield related options before anything else.
Or
- Board issues... maybe the program ROM is corrupted or maybe the RAM is... or maybe a socket is just getting flaky. Might try reseating anything socketed. If that clears it up then replace the sockets.

Thanks for doing that for me. The ball kickout seems fine. I haven't had any issues with it and based on the condition of the game, it barely looks like it's been played.

I'll re-seat anything in a socket and report back.

Thanks again!

I pulled the pin setter mech out and cleaned all the optos that control the ball diverters. We played about 6-7 games on it last night and it seemed fine.

Keep your fingers crossed.

In the club! Quick question: do you need to remove the pin mech to remove the ramps? Those screws are way back there on the ramps.

I don’t know if you have to pull it, but your life is going to be a lot easier if you do. The pin setter mech comes out really quickly.

Added a touch of character to my bowling lane.

20200208_125628 (resized).jpg

Nice idea, it looks very classy. Are those pin-blades or something you custom made?