An historic nicely preserved Gottlieb pre-flipper classic. This was the first game Gottlieb produced following World War 2 (WW2). In fact I believe they started making this game a little before the end of the war.
I have possibly seen two groups of serial numbers of games found in the wild although the two low numbers may be mis-reads. The serial numbers indicate a healthy run of over 5000 games, possibly over 7000. I think once the war officially ended they kept on making this game. Note however that material scarcity made it hard for manufacturers to produce games in quantity until 1946.
Please refer here to my feature story on this game that I wrote when I worked on getting it operational seven years ago. Many of the game details are available.
I have recently taken another shot at getting it more fully working and after a few hours of toil, it is now running pretty well. I have also learned more about the general operation of this game.
So you get a game that is working pretty well, but with absolutely no guarantees! At least there is the original schematic to help you. The wiring is all good (cloth covered) although as usual it is sometimes hard to tell wire colors. NOTE: I have labeled all relays and units in the cabinet! This will save you hours of time if you are working on it.
The backglass is in very good shape. However there are some minor flaws as the photos show you. I think the flaws are due more to sctatching or rubbing from the backing panel than any inherent loss of paint adhesion. The panels on these early games are screwed on unlike newer games. So I can't just flip the back down to inspect the back. But I believe the paint is in pretty good shape and all/most important bulbs are working back there. If you read my feature story you will also note that one of the colors is faded.
The playfield is in very good shape although there are a couple of spots with minor problems. Again, as noted in the feature story referencved earlier, there is some fading in the blues. All bumpers and the correct/original bumper caps are in good shape without warping. All bumpers are I believe scoring properly although you may want to tweak some if you find a dead spot. I know for a fact that there is one relay armature that is broken. I thought I had two broken ones and obtained two from someone, then discovered a third. It only affects one secondary feature and so I don't think it is too important. You can look for a replacement and it only takes 5 minutes to put it in.
The legs and cabinet are in good shape and it has the original back door. As you can see, the corner of the front door has wood missing in the top right corner. There is also a replay knock-off button underneath (see photo)! The legs have newer levellers on them. The playfield glass is ok but is probably plate glass, not tempered.
The coin slide might be broken. But you just push it in to start a game (no money needed) and it all works smoothly.
This game uses a light projection system for displaying the number of credits. As the photo shows, the plastic disc with the credit numbers on it is very warped. Thus you can't read the number of credits through the glass. But you see the light shining to know you have credits! I imagine the disc could be removed, gently heated and flattened.
I am asking for $450 for the game, DELIVERY TO THE CHICAGO PINBALL EXPO included, Oct 19-23 2011. You can also pick it up at my house of course if you are local (Newmarket, Ontario, Canada). No shipping, paletizing, crating, etc. Payment MUST be made in full by PayPal prior to the time I leave for Chicago.
Click on the picture links to view the images of interest. A new window will pop-up for each pic. Close the window when done.
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