Update.
This is a lower quality test render of the entire reset sequence. It is a bit difficult to see in the default window but you can double click the YouTube link for a full screen. It can go by rather fast, (the timing is set to the actual game) but you can replay the video if you wish to catch the different sequences.

You can see the two score reels move themselves off of "0" at the very beginning of the video. It would be silly to reset the reels when they are already at zero. This is a test render without audio.

There's a couple minor problems which I've fixed for the final render, which has been "cooking" for almost 30 hours.

This represents only a small portion of my project, which will also include photos and movies of the actual machine to explain it in multiple ways to reinforce people's understanding of how it works. My goal is for people who are new to the hobby with a broken machine (IE score motor always running) to be able to troubleshoot more effectively.

One piece of information I need is to know what year Gottlieb began using this type of 4 player Player unit, and if I am correct to assume they used it to the end of their EM machine line before switching to SS:

Player_Unit_.jpg

I've been surfing around the ipdb.org website looking for player unit information.

"Orbit", a 1971 model shows the same Player unit in my photo:
http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1724

and "Snow Queen" 1970 has a previous version unit:
http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2230

I am not sure if the previous version operates similar to the newer style, but it appears my answer is 1971.

I've had a lot of free time the past couple weeks and been working on this animation project.

I had made a 1st model of the bench with parts and all wired together and most of the project was finished. Slow motion and timing explanations, every event etc. It was coming along nicely. But then I began describing the wiring, and realized I had it "wired" wrong and even missed a critical Start Relay switch!
Also, the Player Unit rotated in the wrong direction, and stopped in the wrong position as compared to a real player unit.

Arrg!
I couldn't release it with such errors. I had to do it all over.

I'm rendering this on my 3yr old Toshiba laptop (Pentium quad core, 4gb RAM) and it takes about 30 hours to render the 9 second video. I have a new HP quad i7 16gb RAM laptop coming in 2 days and I'm excited to stretch its legs in this project.
I've redone the bench model correctly with a few improvements and here is my 1st (Silent no audio) test render of the full sequence.
The reset is played real time- so things happen pretty fast as the game goes ready but it's all there.

Here's what I have uploaded tonight. It plays better when looped:

No audio explanations, but text explanations. Lots of slow motions and the same theory will be explained by many different angles. I plan to do brief troubleshooting explanations such as why a maladjusted score reel switch will keep the score motor spinning. I am hoping this project will explain a lot of things to new people in the hobby so when we suggest things like "Check the score reel switches" they might know exactly why.

This fairly simple project idea has become mammoth undertaking and I've put so much into it and need to see it to the end. My i7 Quad has cut 25-30hrs rendering time down to about 3hrs which is a huge help.

Thanks for the compliment.

I wanted to make a note that I have deleted all the "test" videos from my YouTube page regarding the reset sequence because the video is finished and this is the new thread:
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1971-1977-gottlieb-score-reel-reset-animation#post-686687

Sorry for the posts here with the deleted YouTube links.

Since the function of a flipper EOS switch is different than the others, I did this quick video showing the function of a flipper EOS.

It's really the basic of basics but here it is: