looks like a really fun playfield. love the deep wood colours of the cab.

My Aquacade United before restoration :
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After
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A lot of fun !

Is there a startup sequence documented somewhere? I have a paper version of the schematic and had that scanned a while ago to have posted to ipdb, but can’t find it in my email. It should be there somewhere so I’ll keep digging.

I know there is a lot to clean in mine, but if I can start looking to see what might be keeping it from starting a game that might be a nice guide.

Here, but sorry, it's in french : http://www.retro-flip.com/t8587-Restauration-d-un-Aquacade-United-de-1949.htm

If you find the schematics, T'm interested to get it if possible.

You're right!
On the Utah, they removed the 4 upper kick out holes and put a bumper instead. Passive bumpers have been moved around a little bit also. But gamepays are very similar...

Similar to Yuma Arizona too: https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=87
If I recall correctly those extra tall rebound rubbers at the bottom are there because the kickout holes launch the ball into them. See https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=87&picno=34006&zoom=1

/Mark

That's correct!
3 rubbers on the Aqua Cade :
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Very nice job!-great to see you removed that lower post.

I love the Aqua Cade! Very nice work. I'm adding this one to my wish list of machines with water skiers, I'm looking to buy. United Aqua Cade, Bally Surf Club, Bally Cypress Gardens!

Mike

Looking for a coin door for a 1950 Gottlieb Select-A-Card. Any help is appreciated.

You might like my United Skee Alley...

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Hey! Is that man made snow or genuine Wisconsin snow I see going down that slope?

Gotta love that Skee Alley! I think this is the first time I've seen pictures of the cabinet art. Alex, is that a natural wood finish under the green and red stenciling?

Brad

It's yellow green and red original paint. The paint is in pretty nice shape but looks to have been sealed at some point. It has yellowed a bit, but I think it gives it a nice warm patina. Here's more of a whole cab pic. Excuse the mess my gameroom was in transition at the time.

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I like the yellowing too, especially in your gameroom - it goes well with the wood walls. Really nice game.

I love it! Great Condition. Another one for my wish list that I will likely never find! What year is it? I'm guessing 1955.
Mike

Actually United's Venus Target Shuffle is a 1955. A couple weeks ago, I traded in the 4th
one that I had. I had a 1954 Comet Shuffle, and I believe there's one from 1952/53, and
possible another early 50s. I believe Alex's is a 1950, and most likely the first Skee-Ball
Shuffle that United produced. I'm a sucker for those Target Shuffles. I believe I had nine
total, and presently have a 1965 Kick-a-Poo (Williams/United) and 1955 United 5th Inning
(Man-Run-the-Bases) set up. Here's a pic of the head of the 1955 Venus that I recently
got in. They're a fun playing game..

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Yep 1950. I always liked the glass on the Venus Shuffle Target for 3 obvious reasons.

Why am I not surprised that the VST head is resting on a keg... :0D

I agree...I'd never seen one of these until visiting Tim's last year...what a blast to play with friends. Costly for the newbie since I never win the little piles of dollars, but a blast to play and everybody loves a donater. Haha...can't wait until the next time.

Sean

Ha, ha Sean, even an empty keg can surprisingly have a purpose..
You of coarse are welcome here 24/7, but the next good size gathering is February 23rd,
however, I understand in January, there may be something happening in your fairly neighboring
town of Spencer. I'll keep you filled in.. (T)

I am thinking about buying a beautiful Genco Big Town, just a nice example of this machine. What would be a fair price to offer that is fair to both parties?

Looking on ipdb Genco Big Town certainly looks to be a very handsome looking game,
but not sure what the actual play would be like (is it fun?)
Max i would pay would be in $300-500 range depending on condition and playability.

I think this estimate is spot on. It is a very nice looking machine but these early machines tend to be more art than function in a game room with other pins.

Latest restoration - 1950 Williams Nifty. I ended up with two of these games so combined best of both into one game. Both cabinets in good shape; one backglass excellent, the other (on the right) maybe even better -- except that someone pulled the glass from the backbox with the backglass lockbar in place, which resulted in a large scratch down the center. The other glass also had a few scrapes and flakes.
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Repair touchups on both glasses went well, except my touchup yellow for the scratch went slightly darker than original when it dried. Left - scratched glass, right - the other glass. I went with the unscratched glass for the keeper.
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Both playfields cleaned up well, but someone had removed the metal rails for the 5-6 lanes from the one on the left (why?). I went with the one on the right for the keeper.
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The plastics had a lot of scratches around the post holes but repair touchups worked well. Left - before repair, right - after.
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Nice cabinet, just needed cleaning...
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5 nifty cabinet left (resized).jpg
Restoration and all functional repairs finished, and in its spot in the small game room... A nice-playing game.
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Love these. Great job!

The other Nifty has been sold. It's definitely restorable. I think the worst problem will be finding those metal lane guides that someone removed for whatever reason.

All the bumper skirts are original to the game.

I am trying to figure out how the game meter that is mounted on the back of the door of a 1949 Gottlieb Three Musketeers is connected to the coin slide mechanism to step up the meter. Does anyone have a photo of a meter and slide from a game of this era in which the meter is connected to the slide and steps up when the slide is pushed in?

I tried searching for good photos of the backs of coin doors on ipdb and the internet in general but can’t find anything useful. Below is a photo that shows the meter and slide on the door of a Three Musketeers (a cropped version of a photo I found online—mine currently doesn’t have the meter in place).

Given how game meters work in early fifties Gottliebs in which a coil activates the meter, I assume that a rod is attached to the axle on the right hand side of the meter and then this rod is attached to the coin slide (presumably to the hole in the arm on the slide that is shown more or less in the center of the photo) and is pulled forward (rotating the axle to step up the meter) when the slide is pushed in. Nonetheless, the coin slide moves more than the coil plunger moves and so I can’t use the same rod-spring combo that it used with coil driven meters.

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This is how it should look.....

I have one game with this set up and finally got my counter working 100%.

This is not my game so can go look at mine if needs be.

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Thanks so much!

And it looks like the horizontal rod that goes through the hole on the coin slide’s arm is a tilt bob wire (with a tilt bob wire clip)! Either the original design made use of parts already in hand or this tilt bob wire was added to this machine sometime after the original one went missing (or my assumptions about it being a tilt bob wire are wrong).

No hurries on this (as it only satisfies my curiosity), but next time you have the opportunity, can you check to see if your machine has a tilt bob wire (and clip) in this position too? And if so, is it identical to the actual tilt bob wire that holds the tilt bob on your machine?

It is a different part but very similar to tilt bob - just shorter - maybe 3.5 inches.

From memory I used a tilt bob and cut it shorter as it was missing on my game.

You need the other piece that hangs down.

Here are part numbers as I think I asked pbr if they had any in stock and I don't think they did.

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Great! Thanks for the info and part numbers! I think I’ll do the same with regard to cutting a tilt bob wire and imagine I can bend some piano wire to make a reasonable version of the other one. Thanks again!

Playing this lineup tonight.

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Realy nice lineup sir!!

Thanks, much appreciated.

I just picked up a '59 Gottlieb "Sraight Shooter". Around the complete lower cabinet, at the top just up to the top rails, there is a strip about 2 " wode that has a seperate pattern of paint then the rest of the cabinet. This would be the two sides and the front. Ok, so this pattern, the paint is a lot brighter then the rest of the cabinet and has a quite profoud stright line along the horizontal "bottom" of this pattern that makes it look like this game from day one had some sort of material OVER the cabinet. like a strip of metal sort of. so the paint underneath didnt fade like the rest of the cabinet , if this makes sense.
Also right in what looks like this covered area of the cabinet there are screw holes about every 7 inchs.
Di the game actually have some sort of aluminum, steel. or something else that was attached to the cabinet for some sort of curb appeal?
Thanks folks.
Weeze

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um a couple of other shots just for the heck of it

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My 57 Gottlieb Super Circus has odd metal over top of the woodrails. Kinda wondered if it is original or not. Very odd...

Sorry. Didn't have a better pic off hand.

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Operators fitted to stop people drilling holes through cabinet to get free games.

This was never fitted by Gottlieb.

Yep! And they went to metal rails not as much for aesthetics, but for armor. The wood sides were easy to "drill" through with a small pen knife...

I always thought this was an effort to modernize the look of a game when the metal rail games came out? Might be able to squeeze a couple more years of profit out of it.

Metal covers also covered over the cigarette burns, and prevented burns. Saving the costs of sanding out burns and re finishing the wood rails.
AlexF is correct as the metal rails also up date the game a bit, to extend the pins service life. Also as Stoomer states adds armour to the game.

Added to prevent someone from drilling into the game, to block access to the playfield roll overs. They painted the home made guards, and did quite creatively.

Interesting that the metal legs and rails were half the price of the wood, according to Neyens in his big interview!