I bought this Genesis a few months ago. At the time, I had several Williams projects. Those are pretty much completed.

It's time for me to buck up. Bite the bullet. Take the plunge. Jump in to the world of System 80

I committed to buying this game from a few, vague photos, so I really don't know what I am getting into. I've tinkered with a couple system 1's, but that's about it. Enough to know that my experience with Williams/Bally/Stern isn't going to be much help. This game is pretty dirty. The cabinet looks ok, if faded. The playfield that I can see looks all right. Oh, and it has a Burglar Alarm!
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This has got to be the heaviest lock bar I've ever seen! I'm frightened to think where this was routed that it needed this kind of armor.
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And Here's the Big Reveal.... DAAAAAAAN DAAAN DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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It actually looks pretty nice
Cautiously, I opened the front door - Careful not to set off the Burglar Alarm!
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Hmmm, no burglar alarm.... I guess it's already been removed!
I gotta say, the playfield is pretty nice
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Way ahead of you guys. I have purchased Freeplay40's new ramps (in clear), and Cliffy's protectors. I'll be posting about my thoughts on alternate translite

More unveiling...
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The fluorescent tube is out. Probably the ballast. The rest of the boards look good.
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Im sure everyone reading this knows that smell of a decades-closed pinball. Just imaging that as you look at this pic.
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...a dusty, manilla envelope...
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Woo Hoo! a Manual!
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lol. One of the top reasons I am looking at alternates.

Gottleib.

This game was going to be a litmus test for me. I have only been into pinball repair for a relatively few years. And only more recently in Solid State. (Since then I've pretty much given up on EMs). I've worked on early Bally and Stern (same thing, really). Williams system 6 through 11. On all these, there is copious amounts of information available online. Clay's guides. IPDB. Pinside. Every problem I've ever come across in a Williams SS machine, someone else before me has already had that problem, figured it out, and posted the solution online.

Gottlieb Solid State. Not so much.

My personal experience with Gottlieb Solid State was trying to fix a Dragon for a customer. It has a squirrely problem that I spent quite a long time trying to figure out. After many hours of research and repairing, I had finally diagnosed it had a bad spider chip. Game Over. Ni-Wumpf!
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For me, that was a Fail. The customer didn't want to spend the money on a new board. And I put in a lot of time an effort that I didn't get paid. Lesson learned. It really didn't do much for my confidence, though.

I heard that Clay had written up a nifty guide dedicated to this era of Gottlieb. No longer available on his site. Did they encroach on Gottlieb's intellectual property, or was there some other reason? Not sure. How about the IPDB? No Gottlieb manuals there. Sure, there is Pinside, and some other people I can ask, but I like to try to research before asking around.

So, I've taken care of all my non-Gottlieb projects before tackling this. At the same time, my Gottliebs are starting to pile up. I have a Black Hole that I really want up and running, and a The Games on the way. I gotta learn this stuff! I can't call myself a pinball repair guy until I do. And yet, when I look under the hood on this Genesis, I think: Yikes!

Anyway, I decide I'm going to throw caution to the wind, and turn it on. I figure I'll plug it in, then flip the switch. If it makes any kind of strange sounds / smells, or otherwise seems about to burst into flames, I can quickly shut it off. So, I plug it in. It makes a few clicking sounds. I hadn't turned it on yet, so I didn't think much of it. I stand up and walk around the power switch, and see some of the feature lights blinking on the playfield. Now I realize it was on when I plugged it in. Crap, I didn't mean to do that. Luckily, it seems to be in attract mode without any issues.
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The funny thing is on the entire playfield, there are 4 working lights. One GI bulb under the right sling, and 3 feature lights. The rest are out. Either every other bulb is burned out, or there is some other common issue.

Done!
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Was done already.

They're actually pretty clean.
The connectors are displacement type, so I don't see how to repin without replacing.

I've been futzing with some of the bulbs, and they have been coming on.

Thank you for this!

Not to get too distracted, but I picked this up today

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Genesis needs some parts.

- Pop bumper skirts. Will put mylar under them
- Titan Competition Rings. I'm thinking purple
- LEDs.

I have an idea for the alternate translite. Will post later.

So, I guess I can get a bit distracted with my latest purchase. I picked up this and a Stern Stars.

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Very clean game. Electronics look good. Backglass looks good. Plastics look good. Cabinet is OK. Playfield looks pretty fair. Maybe touched up with a sharpie. Looks like the original battery, which seems to be keeping the high score. Right flipper coil is shot. Won't take much to get it going

When Freeplay40 was started making these ramps, my Genesis was still wrapped up in storage. I had never seen the condition of the ramps, but I didn't want to miss them, and need them later. Of course, I got Cliffys too.

I opted for the clear ramps. I liked that they show off the details underneath, but it does subtract some of the purple coloring. Also the pop bumper skirts are pretty chewed up. I was considering replacing these with purple ones. Not sure how they would look with the rest of the pop housing in white.

Lets talk about the translite. This one is from Marcos. Used without permission.
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And to a lesser extent, the cover of the manual. A different picture from the same photo shoot.
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The Little Person. The Dwarf...? (Is that Politically Correct? Sorry, if it's not). Everyone seems to recognize him from somewhere. A B-movie actor? A 1970s porno? I googled pictures from Time Bandits, and I don't think he was in that one. Are we just remembering him from the Genesis backglass?

The Girl I don't recognize at all. Was she an aspiring model, or just a relative of someone associated with the photo shoot? She looks a bit different in the unretouched manual cover, where she looks much less like the Bride of Frankenstein. At the shoot, was she provided that outfit, or did she arrive wearing it? And just how in the heck do the Batman earrings fit in?

The Mad Scientist - I feel certain that this was the beginning and end of his modelling career. I have convinced myself that man is a dentist, who was asked to wear his smock, and bring some dental tools to be used as props. The one that blows air on your teeth is the one used in the final cut. As for the maniacal, mad-scientist-brings-his-creation-to-life, wide-eyed smile? He's doing his best, but really comes off as some kindly old grandpa with moussed-up hair, on his way to teach about oral hygiene.

I like that clear purple - but I'm assembling a Marco order, and they're not available there.
I was thinking of the purple skirt, with a white with violet rings body
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I gotta say, I like what you are laying down. Had I seen this I might have considered the red rings.

So... the translite
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What is the Theme of Genesis? Mostly I hear it's based on the 1927 film Metropolis. Much of the playfield art, and the under-playfield reveal of the robot really line up with the Metropolis theme. But at some point, Genesis kind of steers away from Metropolis, and moves towards a stereotypical Mad-Scientist-Builds-a-Beautiful-Human/Robot/Monster, vein. The theme is completely off the rails by the time we come up to the translite, where the Mad Scientist has turned into the Mad Dentist with his beautiful creation and his Dwarf/Igor/Sidekick.

I've seen alternate translites, and I do like most of them. In some, the backglass has the name "Metropolis"
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It's really all that has to be done to complete a re-theme of this game.

The alt translite I like the most is on the eBay link that ForceFlow posted above. It really ties in the Metropolis theme

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The criticisms I have, is that it's a bit monochromatic, and the scenes are a bit repetitive. Rotwang in the lower left, is supposed to be looking up at the robot, but the perspective is wrong, and he is looking off behind her. I do like it otherwise, but I don't $100 like it.

I have the poster this translite is based on:
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I wanted the Maria Robot, but I really wanted more colors. I also wanted to incorporate the pentagram, but I didn't want to over-Metropolize the backglass. My game is still Genesis, but with a more consistent theme, and less of an identity crisis. I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

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Looks a lot better in person!

I'm curious, what changes would you make?

On mine, I've thought long and hard about what to put in the negative space at the edges. One thing I've considered, was to put in the numbers of the clock