A couple months ago @Lecari was on holiday with her parents, while I sat at home browsing the forum. This Black hole popped up in the eBay/FB thread and I noticed it was near us, so I texted Claire 10minutes before the auction ended, just as something interesting.
I didn't expect her to bid and then win it. To be fair Claire likes her games with lower playfields and she's big into space
I was a bit annoyed, as we don't have room and Claire's games already outnumber mine, not to mention that most of Claire's games end up being big projects that I end up taking on.
This was no exception.
In photos and even upon viewing it, it didn't look too bad.
However it had numerous issues both mechanically, electronically and aesthetically (are those all words?).
Every rubber on the game had perished to the point where I had to use pliers to shatter the post rubbers from the posts. Multiple broken plastics and posts, perished foam washers holding the playfield window up so it was impossible to level and the ball would cause wear the playfield around the edges. Those awful awful awful Gottlieb Mylar rings around pop bumpers, that aren't stuck to the playfield so become sand paper wearing the art away. Also a few incorrect plastics, like the lane guide by the flippers was red, and some drop targets had been replaced with the incorrect ones.
It had a Ni-wumpf CPU board from 2005 which according to the nu-wumpf guy would never have worked properly with Black Hole as it was so out of date and missing updates, (which explained the sound issues we were having).
One interesting thing about this Black Hole is the fact it has an original USA Backbox, on an export cab. The spinning disc motor has been replaced with an incorrect one that spinned far too fast! (Apparently most original motors were replaced as they were either noisey or failed).
Here's a video from before work began, it's quite hypnotic
View attachment VID-20230611-WA0058.mp4
I tried resistors and a potentiometer to bring the speed down to mixed result, it's a lot better but not ideal.
In the past few weeks I cannot count the hours I've spent on this game. I'm not an expert and this is our first Gottlieb where I've had to get my hands dirty so I've had to learn fast, with mixed results
A big order from Pinballresource sorted most of the broken plastics, posts, a manual and other misc parts.
Cool white LEDs in the GI (one of the only classic games that suits cool whites in imo). Binned the 313(?) Bulbs that illuminate the lower playfield and used normal cool white LEDs with a modification to the power to that GI line. Also a brand new plastic tube as the old was burnt and melted from when the lower pf coil had stuck on in the past.
Pascal 3 in 1 board plus a GOSOF soundboard (we have one spare if anyone needs a sys1/sys80 soundboard!) So we also have the USA sounds and speech now!
Clear titan rubbers, light and dark blue flipper rubbers. Plus replacing most of the metal acorn post caps with colour coded titan rubbers caps.
A huge thanks to @david retro for ordering in the titan rubbers and comets we needed for this!
Also added switches to the flipper buttons wired upto the coin door coin switches to allow you to enter your initials, (a feature the original games didn't have).
We've still got to finish the backbox GI and lights behind the spinning disc so ignore those!
I left the wear under the pops and covered with proper mylar, my skills with painting would only make it worse. I did however touch in some of the wear around the window.
A cool tasteful mod, adding a blue led to illuminate the tube when the gate is open
I'll add more photos when the backbox is done.
I'm glad to finally have it working, I haven't mentioned the hours of rebuilding connectors and sound issues that made me want to quit. But as I solved it today I'm ready to share and be done with it. @Lecari please stop buying games now.
Providing it copes with the move it'll be playable in the UK Pinfest Classics!
I didn't expect her to bid and then win it. To be fair Claire likes her games with lower playfields and she's big into space
I was a bit annoyed, as we don't have room and Claire's games already outnumber mine, not to mention that most of Claire's games end up being big projects that I end up taking on.
This was no exception.
In photos and even upon viewing it, it didn't look too bad.
However it had numerous issues both mechanically, electronically and aesthetically (are those all words?).
Every rubber on the game had perished to the point where I had to use pliers to shatter the post rubbers from the posts. Multiple broken plastics and posts, perished foam washers holding the playfield window up so it was impossible to level and the ball would cause wear the playfield around the edges. Those awful awful awful Gottlieb Mylar rings around pop bumpers, that aren't stuck to the playfield so become sand paper wearing the art away. Also a few incorrect plastics, like the lane guide by the flippers was red, and some drop targets had been replaced with the incorrect ones.
It had a Ni-wumpf CPU board from 2005 which according to the nu-wumpf guy would never have worked properly with Black Hole as it was so out of date and missing updates, (which explained the sound issues we were having).
One interesting thing about this Black Hole is the fact it has an original USA Backbox, on an export cab. The spinning disc motor has been replaced with an incorrect one that spinned far too fast! (Apparently most original motors were replaced as they were either noisey or failed).
Here's a video from before work began, it's quite hypnotic
View attachment VID-20230611-WA0058.mp4
I tried resistors and a potentiometer to bring the speed down to mixed result, it's a lot better but not ideal.
In the past few weeks I cannot count the hours I've spent on this game. I'm not an expert and this is our first Gottlieb where I've had to get my hands dirty so I've had to learn fast, with mixed results
A big order from Pinballresource sorted most of the broken plastics, posts, a manual and other misc parts.
Cool white LEDs in the GI (one of the only classic games that suits cool whites in imo). Binned the 313(?) Bulbs that illuminate the lower playfield and used normal cool white LEDs with a modification to the power to that GI line. Also a brand new plastic tube as the old was burnt and melted from when the lower pf coil had stuck on in the past.
Pascal 3 in 1 board plus a GOSOF soundboard (we have one spare if anyone needs a sys1/sys80 soundboard!) So we also have the USA sounds and speech now!
Clear titan rubbers, light and dark blue flipper rubbers. Plus replacing most of the metal acorn post caps with colour coded titan rubbers caps.
A huge thanks to @david retro for ordering in the titan rubbers and comets we needed for this!
Also added switches to the flipper buttons wired upto the coin door coin switches to allow you to enter your initials, (a feature the original games didn't have).
We've still got to finish the backbox GI and lights behind the spinning disc so ignore those!
I left the wear under the pops and covered with proper mylar, my skills with painting would only make it worse. I did however touch in some of the wear around the window.
A cool tasteful mod, adding a blue led to illuminate the tube when the gate is open
I'll add more photos when the backbox is done.
I'm glad to finally have it working, I haven't mentioned the hours of rebuilding connectors and sound issues that made me want to quit. But as I solved it today I'm ready to share and be done with it. @Lecari please stop buying games now.
Providing it copes with the move it'll be playable in the UK Pinfest Classics!
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Claire’s black hole is a thing of beauty 
We can't really buy one until we have the new office space built, which won't be for a couple of years 
In the meantime, I'm going to find one to play (yours maybe?) as I've never played on in real life to make sure it's as fun as I find it on Pinball Arcade 
bringing a Black Hole to Pinfest 
