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In Progress Gottlieb TX TX Tx-Sector (1988)
- Thread starter MajesticPinball
- Start date
OP
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Should be here next week hopefully, got slapped with £25 duty on it
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NOS translite arrived last week, the red is so vibrant but it's still an ugly translite let's be honest 
Before:
After:
Jet bumper mechs have all been hand polished, and new bumper skirts, bodies, rings/rods installed
New saucer plastics arrived so got those in too
Underside of the playfield is slowly coming together now, cleaned all of the inserts and put in the LEDs... Didn't order enough and want to get a few bendies to light a few if the inserts a lot better
Before:
After:
Jet bumper mechs have all been hand polished, and new bumper skirts, bodies, rings/rods installed
New saucer plastics arrived so got those in too
Underside of the playfield is slowly coming together now, cleaned all of the inserts and put in the LEDs... Didn't order enough and want to get a few bendies to light a few if the inserts a lot better
My dark, shameful secret - I've always like the translite. It's really different and pretty aesthetic with the colour palette. It's just unfortunate that it's the palette of solar-damaged paint... but to me that's half the fun of it. It looks like an old, worn relic of the older days of ultra-optimistic, naive pulp science fiction, along with the logo font. A great fit for a theme that focuses on teleportation and has a slightly darker undercurrent by having the multiball being a transporter 'duplication' accident, and some of the really evil-sounding bitcrushing effects on the pop bumper vocals. It's just so cool.
The middle circle also looks like it was trying to simulate being a hologram; if that was that good old silvered hologram foil in the middle I think it would look immensely better.
To me, it's a translite and a game, that instead of being upfront about it - it knowingly winks at this exact kind of scene:
I don't believe I'm reading too much into the art or the sound; just listen to some of the sounds coming out of the machine whenever the ball visits the pops - some of those variations, especially the low-pitch, crushed ones, are just skin-crawling, some of them not even recognisable as 'OH NO' anymore. You don't have to watch very far in -
I certainly think it's a million times better than that other translite that people seem to keep slapping on it, the one that looks like a rejected 3D graphics card box art and doesn't match the rest of the game's art or concept at all - why change the logo itself for example?
The middle circle also looks like it was trying to simulate being a hologram; if that was that good old silvered hologram foil in the middle I think it would look immensely better.
To me, it's a translite and a game, that instead of being upfront about it - it knowingly winks at this exact kind of scene:
I certainly think it's a million times better than that other translite that people seem to keep slapping on it, the one that looks like a rejected 3D graphics card box art and doesn't match the rest of the game's art or concept at all - why change the logo itself for example?
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I like the original translight too, complete with Superman 3D style lettering. Very 80's. 
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Thats a very interesting point about the teleporter failing causing Multiball, I'd never even thought of that. I've always wished the solar flare on the translite did something, Gottlieb did some crazy effects in their backglasses over the years and I've always felt that was a wasted opportunity a bit.
The bumper sounds are excellent there's one that really does make my spine itch every time I hear it
Those pop bumper sounds are the coolest I've ever heard in a pinball....
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Been slipping behind with updates on this log but been slowly working away while in iscolation. The last mechs I had to clean up were the 4 saucer mechs that are the teleporters, they were all covered in grease and gunk but cleaned up pretty nicely 
Next was the backbox, took all the boards out and reheated all header pins and cleaned over the edge connections of the boards with a fiberglass eraser. Dialed in the +5v power supply to a beautiful 5.03v under load then cleaned all the wiring and retired the lovely battery in a bag (BIAB) mod, which has been repurposed as a battery in a bin mod Replaced the T-Molding with the super beautiful/tacky 80s gloss black with a chrome strip T-Molding that I absolutely love.
Then I moved to the cabinet, took the Jet-bumper boards out and reheated the connections then checked over the various switch matrix diode boards which all tested fine, reheated those too. Cleaned all cabinet wiring and tidied it up where I could.
I decided to give the transformer panel some serious love as it was a hot mess. Cleaned everything as always and replaced the 10000uf 25v filter cap and removed the horrible ground boards ready for the ground mods. The fuse chart was in French and pretty nasty so printed out a new one - in English as my French is pretty poor. I'm currently waiting on some large lugs to arrive to bolt the ground wires directly to the metal work of the transformer panel.
Everything is now reinstalled on the playfield but can't power up the machine until the ground lugs arrive, so will show you all the topside of the playfield when I can get her fired up again
Does anybody happen to have a part number for the backbox tube fixtures? Can't seem to find anything like them online - unless I'm using the wrong wording when searching.
Next up is the coin door and cabinet switches and then I think she's nearly complete
Next was the backbox, took all the boards out and reheated all header pins and cleaned over the edge connections of the boards with a fiberglass eraser. Dialed in the +5v power supply to a beautiful 5.03v under load then cleaned all the wiring and retired the lovely battery in a bag (BIAB) mod, which has been repurposed as a battery in a bin mod
Replaced the T-Molding with the super beautiful/tacky 80s gloss black with a chrome strip T-Molding that I absolutely love.Then I moved to the cabinet, took the Jet-bumper boards out and reheated the connections then checked over the various switch matrix diode boards which all tested fine, reheated those too. Cleaned all cabinet wiring and tidied it up where I could.
I decided to give the transformer panel some serious love as it was a hot mess. Cleaned everything as always and replaced the 10000uf 25v filter cap and removed the horrible ground boards ready for the ground mods. The fuse chart was in French and pretty nasty so printed out a new one - in English as my French is pretty poor. I'm currently waiting on some large lugs to arrive to bolt the ground wires directly to the metal work of the transformer panel.
Everything is now reinstalled on the playfield but can't power up the machine until the ground lugs arrive, so will show you all the topside of the playfield when I can get her fired up again
Does anybody happen to have a part number for the backbox tube fixtures? Can't seem to find anything like them online - unless I'm using the wrong wording when searching.
Next up is the coin door and cabinet switches and then I think she's nearly complete
Been slipping behind with updates on this log but been slowly working away while in iscolation. The last mechs I had to clean up were the 4 saucer mechs that are the teleporters, they were all covered in grease and gunk but cleaned up pretty nicely View attachment 106610
Next was the backbox, took all the boards out and reheated all header pins and cleaned over the edge connections of the boards with a fiberglass eraser. Dialed in the +5v power supply to a beautiful 5.03v under load then cleaned all the wiring and retired the lovely battery in a bag (BIAB) mod, which has been repurposed as a battery in a bin mod
View attachment 106624
View attachment 106625
View attachment 106626
View attachment 106627
Then I moved to the cabinet, took the Jet-bumper boards out and reheated the connections then checked over the various switch matrix diode boards which all tested fine, reheated those too. Cleaned all cabinet wiring and tidied it up where I could.
I decided to give the transformer panel some serious love as it was a hot mess. Cleaned everything as always and replaced the 10000uf 25v filter cap and removed the horrible ground boards ready for the ground mods. The fuse chart was in French and pretty nasty so printed out a new one - in English as my French is pretty poor. I'm currently waiting on some large lugs to arrive to bolt the ground wires directly to the metal work of the transformer panel.
View attachment 106629View attachment 106630View attachment 106631View attachment 106632View attachment 106633
View attachment 106634
Everything is now reinstalled on the playfield but can't power up the machine until the ground lugs arrive, so will show you all the topside of the playfield when I can get her fired up again
View attachment 106635View attachment 106637View attachment 106636
Does anybody happen to have a part number for the backbox tube fixtures? Can't seem to find anything like them online - unless I'm using the wrong wording when searching.
View attachment 106638
Next up is the coin door and cabinet switches and then I think she's nearly complete
I have some second hand ones here somewhere
poi
Tho personally I just replced with an LED strip that runs off the 110v - it looks a tad better IMO
poi
poi
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Where did you get the strips from mate? Was thinking of doing something similar with my genesis, when it's got the bulb in it only boots 60% of the time, if I take the bulb out it boots every time. Never got to the bottom of it
Amazon, will try and get link
I was going to say just stick a memory cap on there and do away with batteries like I have done, then I noticed how bad the acid corrosion is and that you need to tackle it ASAP...
I'd just replace them with reset generator like the DS1811.
This section explains it all... https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_80#Battery_Leakage_and_Corrosion
I'd just replace them with reset generator like the DS1811.
This section explains it all... https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_80#Battery_Leakage_and_Corrosion
And as outlined in this amazing repair
https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/robo-war-boots-🎉-man-vs-robot-man-wins.45394/page-2
https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/robo-war-boots-🎉-man-vs-robot-man-wins.45394/page-2
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Yeah I did notice it when cleaning up the edges of the boards, it's pretty grim, but somehow still worked perfectly but it's on my list. Will get the grounds done boot it up and check nothing explodes from everything that I've done then try and save the board
Love the T moulding any chance of a link to where you got it? Might be good for a arcade project I’ve got on the go
Thanks
Yeah I did notice it when cleaning up the edges of the boards, it's pretty grim, but somehow still worked perfectly but it's on my list. Will get the grounds done boot it up and check nothing explodes from everything that I've done then try and save the board
Good idea, repair the most expensive item last and hope the corrosion doesn't get any worse. I like to operate the other way round knowing that replacement MPUs are £280...
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I'm sure one more day will be fine but thank youGood idea, repair the most expensive item last and hope the corrosion doesn't get any worse. I like to operate the other way round knowing that replacement MPUs are £280...
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Here you go mate, it looks a lot better in person than in the website
https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/Glossy-Black-3-Quarter-Inch-T-Molding-With-Chrome-Stripe.html
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Thanks for the link Poi will order a few of these and put them in all my 80b's I think
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Transformer grounds all done and aligned as best as possible as I have crazy OCD with this kinda thing dissembled the cabinet switches and cleaned out 30+ years of gunk... Forgot to take pictures however they were pretty nasty.
Time to fire this badboy up for the first time.... Luckily it didn't explode! Waheeey!
Now that it's fired up and played a few games (oh my god have I missed playing this game!) I've still got the coin door to clean up, will probably remove that tomorrow and give it a spruce up. I ordered a bunch of the Dallis DS1811 ICs so I can get the reset section of the MPU cleaned up and rebuilt
Once lockdown is over, who knows when that will but I will be sending off the metal ramps to get blasted and replated as the rear one is a bit tarnished and nasty.
The end is very near with this one
dissembled the cabinet switches and cleaned out 30+ years of gunk... Forgot to take pictures however they were pretty nasty. Time to fire this badboy up for the first time.... Luckily it didn't explode! Waheeey!
Now that it's fired up and played a few games (oh my god have I missed playing this game!) I've still got the coin door to clean up, will probably remove that tomorrow and give it a spruce up. I ordered a bunch of the Dallis DS1811 ICs so I can get the reset section of the MPU cleaned up and rebuilt
Once lockdown is over, who knows when that will but I will be sending off the metal ramps to get blasted and replated as the rear one is a bit tarnished and nasty.
The end is very near with this one
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No dude I just gave he spinners a real good polish there's no decal on them they're just metal that's got loads of angled dents in to reflect the light nicely, they do a great job too. And I'm pretty sure the drop target decals were new already, i cleaned up the targets and they're all perfect so didn't have to find replacements thanksfully
Smashing job James......without sounding like an old Grandad !?
It’s great to see such a young man get stuck into pinball repair /refurbishment . ...good to see games that are normally left
Neglected getting the love they deserve .not the usual suspects .. The “M” games as we call them here at NFP. It saves time in a conversation . (You all know the games i mean Mm.Mb.Tom.Addams.Afm. ...pretty much all Williams / Midway currently, apart from a few e.g Gilligans, Popeye )...Very encouraging , keep it up !
All the best Keith .
It’s great to see such a young man get stuck into pinball repair /refurbishment . ...good to see games that are normally left
Neglected getting the love they deserve .not the usual suspects .. The “M” games as we call them here at NFP. It saves time in a conversation . (You all know the games i mean Mm.Mb.Tom.Addams.Afm. ...pretty much all Williams / Midway currently, apart from a few e.g Gilligans, Popeye )...Very encouraging , keep it up !
All the best Keith .
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Stop Keith you're making me all emotional
thank you though mate I massively appreciate that, you're my inspiration and I hope to get to your standard some day. Working from a small spare bedroom in my flat isn't ideal and holds me back a lot, just waiting for the day I can get a workshop and fill it with ugly Gottliebs