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Complete Gottlieb Genesis (1986)

MajesticPinball

MajesticPinball

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5Years
Joined
Jan 11, 2018
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Welcome to the first meeting of Pinball Addicts Anonymous. My name is James Reed and I have an obsession with weird Gottlieb machines...

Now that we have those formalities out of the way I would like to introduce you to potentially THE weirdest Gottlieb my weird Gottlieb loving eye balls have ever seen! Sadly she doesn't work but hopefully it won't be long before the Gottlieb hate club will be turning their noses up at her once again!

For anyone who might have played it in the past this machine used to live with Steve at the Electric Circus! Anyway, currently it boots up fully but has some switch matrix issues, pressing the start button puts the machine into test, other than that I'm not yet sure what does/doesn't work. My main priority to begin with is bullet proofing the dodgy System 80B boardset. Which includes the ground modifications, servicing the 5v power supply and giving the board connectors a bit of Majestic love.

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I've taken the MPU board out of the machine as removing the old potentially leaking battery is a priority! Playfield looks pretty good, no major damage and should clean up nicely, theres 3 or 4 broken plastics which I'm hoping PBR will be able to help me with. I've also ordered the GORGEOUS clear ramps made by Mark in the USA as even I'm not that keen on the factory pink ones
 
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Something about those ramps makes me feel uncomfortable. The colour and texture. It might just be how they appear in photos.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
David_Vi said:
Something about those ramps makes me feel uncomfortable. The colour and texture. It might just be how they appear in photos.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
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No it's not the picture they really are that horrible in person! The clear reproduction ones are really nice and will make a huge difference
 
Got the MPU out of the machine and cut off the battery for now and will install a remote battery holder. Replaced the 2 7400N chips for the switch matrix returns while I had the board out as I already had the chips so can't hurt and hopefully might fix the problem.
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One of the cells had started to leak, I'm presuming thats what the dribble is on the other side of the board?
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There's also weird blotches on the board but nowhere near the battery, anyone got any ideas what it could be?
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Also I couldn't resist buying these purple drop targets to put in the machine when I start stripping the playfield down, already popped mylar over them to protect the art.
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Been cracking on with the boring bits this week. If it one thing I learnt from my last project is to get the game working first before making it pretty!!

So I started out with the System 80b essentials. Replaced the filter cap on the transformer panel - Got a bit OCD and used up all my cable ties tidying the wires around the transformer so will have to buy some more to tie the new cap down. Also did the ground mods in the cabinet while I was doing the capacitor.

Added an external batter holder for the MPU, I usually fix them to the sides of the backbox to be sure they're away from the boards but not sure in this case, might move it so it's above the useless reset board and tidy it up a little.

Took off the 5v power supply and reheated the connectors, then adjusted the pot. Currently got 5.09v coming out of the supply and a very steady 5.01v on the MPU so very happy with that

Let there be light! Luckily the ballast works fine just needed a new bulb! Need to secure the fixture down a bit better as it's a little loose on one side
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New cap quite surprised at how much smaller it is than the old one:
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Let's get rid of these horrible ground connections:
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Much better!
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Next up is to do the ground mods at the interconnect and then I believe that's it... The Gottlieb gurus might have to correct me on that. Also I'm very VERY excited to have tracked down an original NOS translite, which could potentially be the last NOS translite in existence? Paid a hefty amount for it but will absolutely be worth it. Will upload pictures once it arrives
 
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MajesticPinball said:
potentially THE weirdest Gottlieb my weird Gottlieb loving eye balls have ever seen!
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I don't think that Genesis is particularly weird, as Gottliebs go. I'd put Devil's Dare, Rocky, Black Hole and the legendary Haunted House as stranger. In my case, the most bizarre Gottlieb I've encountered was Q*bert's Quest, a John Trudeau whole-playfield experiment with (as I see it) his trademark 'broken-path/change direction' caper (I've not devised or heard of another description for it). And the speech capability used only for "Random Mumbling", much like me, sometimes.

As to ocd re. wiring, you ought to've seen my efforts with the recommended additional fusing for the bridge rectifiers on my F-14; clear plastic sleeves on the spade terminals of each bridge, with an old-school fuseholder placed alongside each and the whole neatly cable-tied. Hang on, that reminds me of another strange Gottlieb, Gold Wings. Both of these (narrowly in Gottlieb's case) skated around the licencing requirements of Pop (sorry, Top) Gun
 
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Jay Walker said:
I don't think that Genesis is particularly weird, as Gottliebs go. I'd put Devil's Dare, Rocky, Black Hole and the legendary Haunted House as stranger. In my case, the most bizarre Gottlieb I've encountered was Q*bert's Quest, a John Trudeau whole-playfield experiment with (as I see it) his trademark 'broken-path/change direction' caper (I've not devised or heard of another description for it). And the speech capability used only for "Random Mumbling", much like me, sometimes.

As to ocd re. wiring, you ought to've seen my efforts with the recommended additional fusing for the bridge rectifiers on my F-14; clear plastic sleeves on the spade terminals of each bridge, with an old-school fuseholder placed alongside each and the whole neatly cable-tied. Hang on, that reminds me of another strange Gottlieb, Gold Wings. Both of these (narrowly in Gottlieb's case) skated around the licencing requirements of Pop (sorry, Top) Gun
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I was talking about the backglass mainly when I branded it as weird 😂 Gold Wings looks like a very interesting game, would like to get my hands on one of those one day
 
Poibug said:
"she" looks like a man in drag to me
Big hands, and ya cant see the adams apple area
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Putting the 'trans' into translite, maybe?

According to Kurtz and Flowers' book, the translite had to be altered after the original was thought to be 'too revealing'. With Gottlieb backglass/translites, 'strange' was the operative word for the late e/m game Strange World.
 
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Vimtoman said:
@MajesticPinball Just seen the clear ramps on a Pinside thread and they look really good.
You should put those in. Much better than the pink.
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My set arrived last week, would really recommend Marks repro ramps they're bsolutely perfect and crystal clear. My naff phone camera doesn't do them justice, very excited to fit them!
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They look great . Makes a major difference to playfield .
Crystal clear those. Nice one.
Did you see the old TNT youtube on the Genesis.?
They squeezed in a couple of bendies in the lane guides.
Does mean drilly holes in the playfield but I think its also a needed mod.
 
Vimtoman said:
They look great . Makes a major difference to playfield .
Crystal clear those. Nice one.
Did you see the old TNT youtube on the Genesis.?
They squeezed in a couple of bendies in the lane guides.
Does mean drilly holes in the playfield but I think its also a needed mod.
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Yeah I was contemplating doing that too. Don't know if I can take a drill to a playfield though would feel so wrong 😂 Gottlieb was very stingy with their GI though
 
Cracked on with the switch matrix issues this week. The main problem was that the start button was putting the game into test. Once in switch test pressing a switch would trigger that entire column in the matrix. I couldn't find my logic probe anywhere (and still can't) so I just replaced all switch matrix chips other than the 40 pin RIOT - this consisted of 2 Switch Strobes (SN7404N), 2 Switch Returns (SN7400N) and a Switch Enable (SN7432N). Luckily the game fired up and treated me to a game and some insanely awesome 80s music for my efforts.

After playing a few games to get an idea of what's going on and what does/doesn't work I stripped down the playfield.

Before:
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After:
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Playfield is filthy but nice, can't see any wear which is a bonus, plastics on the other hand are mostly broken, I think there's only 3 or so that are still in one piece
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The robot has also been removed as sent to Rudi to work his magic on.
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Been making slow progress on Genesis, stripped off all of the metal ball guides and hand polished them. While they were off I put on 3 coats of wax on the playfield and very happy with results. A few ball swirls wouldn't come out but that's to be expected.

Polished up all of the star post hardware and also bought beautiful new clear posts. Also removed the trough mech and hand polished all of that too. Will need to replace the ball release coil before the end of the project as it's a little toasty, but still works for now. Very happy with the playfield so far
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Fully dismantled and cleaned/polished the drop target mech, kicking target mechs, flipper mechs and vari-target. Still got to do the 4 jet bumpers, 2 saucers, slingshots and a few other bits but making good progress
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