On pinball displays, you can "recharge" them by running 9v through the filaments for 5-10 seconds to burn off the build-up & corrosion on the filaments.
(Topic ID: 227783)
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There was a Bally prototype for an early solid state design that used vfd displays.
I'm pretty sure Gottlieb was the only one that used vfd displays extensively. They sure made the right decision to not go with plasma displays, IMHO.
Quoted from mbaumle:For sure. I also really love the way they stand out in a gameroom. The rich blue/green on all their games definitely stands out.
I was mainly referring to their longevity.
Quoted from mbaumle:I just hate the fact that the A/N displays are essentially unobtainium. Especially the lesser used larger font units used in System 3. Good thing they last forever.
I got some NOS glass and blank PCBs at some point, so theoretically, I could make my own. However, now that I think about it, I don't exactly recall what sizes/models the glass and PCBs we're, so I'm not sure if they'll match up. Hmmm 
Quoted from Don_C:Who's your friend? Google is your friend. I Googled: "recharging gottlieb displays" and got instructions, Youtube videos and everything else you need to do this safely.
Give it a shot, you don't have anything to lose.
Don C.
Keep in mind, this is *not* a VFD that Gottlieb used. This is something else, which may (and likely does) have a completely different pinout on the glass. Connecting voltage to the wrong pins may (and probably will) cause damage.
Quoted from BlueSea:I previously tried a 9v battery but when the filaments turned red after 1 second I got concerned and pulled the battery.
That's normal.
And to be clear, the filaments are the horizontal wires in the display (there should be about 5 of them, depending on the size of the display). If the digits are turning red, then that's bad.
Quoted from BlueSea:My mistake was not watching closely
You should have only had them connected for less than 10 seconds.
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