(Topic ID: 226448)

What Makes System 80 Games Tough to Work on?

By grantopia

5 years ago


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    #7 5 years ago

    Once you're familiar with the typical problem areas, they aren't as bad to work on as people say. Address those issues, and they're solid as any other machine.

    Williams, Bally, Stern--all those games have their quirks and issues. Gottlieb is no different.

    The board interconnect, special solenoids, and overloaded GI on classic Williams? Ugh. How about the awful chip sockets, connectors, and burnt/hacked up rectifier boards on classic Bally/Stern? Double ugh.

    I can usually get a System 80 game up and flipping much more quickly than classic Williams/Bally/Stern games. It usually seems like there's a lot less effort involved.

    However, yes, there are certain chips that are difficult to get--especially when it comes to sound boards. But that's fairly typical since sound technology advanced so quickly and changed so much. Try finding some of the sound chips for the Stern VSU-100 speech board or the Bally S&T board--some of those are nearly impossible to get.

    System 80 games really aren't any worse than any other game system. Heck, System 1 games aren't even that bad either once you address the common problem areas. Everybody just seems to panic when faced with a Gottlieb game just because it's a little different than what they're used to compared to classic Williams/Bally/Stern. They really aren't that scary to work on.

    #15 5 years ago
    Quoted from mbaumle:

    I agree fully with ForceFlow, but I'd also add that since Gottlieb games are generally much less popular than their Bally or Williams counterparts, there are far fewer people who have really hashed out the details and tips and tricks for Gottlieb games that have become commonplace practices on games made by other manufacturers.
    If someone is having an issue with a WPC game or System 11 game and posts an inquiry here, they'll get a ton of replies.
    If someone is having an issue with a Gottlieb System 3 game, and does the same, they'll be lucky to get 2 or 3 replies.
    If someone is having an issue with a Gottlieb System 1 game, and asks a tech question, the most common response here will be "just buy a Ni-Wumpf or Pascal board"

    The gottlieb pinwiki pages have a lot of good info.

    But yes, less popular games generally get less replies.

    Any time I run into a problem or notice an interesting problem someone else was posting about, I try to document it after it's been solved.

    System 3 games are basically black boxes. Very little info about them, unfortunately. But--they also are pretty rock solid as-is and don't usually have too many problems.

    Basically, if I leave any gottlieb game on free play at a show, I have never had to worry about them having problems. They are usually trouble free. (Well, except maybe Black Hole--I always see BH owners tinkering with them at shows).

    Quoted from dothedoo:

    Their wire colors make me crazy too. Too similar for me and with dirt and fading they can be easily mixed up.

    Yeah, I have to agree with you there. The wire color choice was bad. However, the quality and durability of the wire is actually very good, so there's that.

    #25 5 years ago
    Quoted from songofsixpence:

    When I first started to work on Sys 80s, at the time, it was impossible to find the split, terminal pin for the double-sided interconnect. The only choice to replace it would be to hack a JAMMA connector to it. Results were never pretty.
    Those pins have become available again.
    [quoted image]

    Those bifurcated pins don't appear to have been reproduced as far as I can tell.

    Look for part numbers 08-03-0306 & 08-03-0305

    What usually happens is that someone occasionally stumbles upon a small cache of them and then lists them for sale until they're gone.

    #28 5 years ago

    Looks like they have 57,757 of those in stock (according to the max number I could add to the cart).

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