So I’m an electrician of 31 years I guess one of the biggest reasons why I enjoy watching your videos is the problem solving factor so I go into a house and I have a service call and I have to take everything apart and see what happens figure out how I’m going to get power turned back on whether it’s outlet or lights and so on. I feel like you’re doing the exact same thing only on smaller scale and basically your cabinet is the house that I’m working in. And I hear the excitement in your voice when you find that issue and repair it so I totally get that feeling you get on every repair and it’s so nice to see someone take the time and repair it correctly and have the knowledge to make sure it never happens again

I really enjoy watching these machines work and listening to you diagnose and explain them.

You have incredible diagnostic skills! It is a pleasure to follow your thought process.

Geez mate your diagnosing skills are awesome. Can tell you have worked on a lot of these,really good to watch.

When I was 19, I converted a Gotlieb Haunted House pin to a 3 ball multiball. I designed a circuit board and wrote software to “take over” game functions as needed. After completing tasks, the cellar lockout saucer and the main play field saucer would light up to “lock” balls and completing the spot targets would trigger it. I used borrowed Black Knight visual effect of having “3” scroll back and fourth on the VFDs. I miss that game, but that’s my Gotlieb story.

Check your AS relay. Also called the alternating relay. It is in the backbox and alternates the upper right rollover lights and alternates the left and right outer drain lane lights as a ball is in play. It also randomly changes the game over match lights. Yours doesn't seem to be alternating. Had one for a few years and loved the game. I like the way you go thru each problem and give a good explanation of what you did to fix it. Thanks a lot for another interesting video.

Seems u located exactly my problem with my "new" Target Alpha. Great!

this was very educating to see ! Thanks for sharing this with us !

Great video. 1 of my all time favorite machines.Exellent trouble shooting.

Great video! Learn something new every time I watch.

I was playing one of these in an arcade recently, and once in awhile the score would randomly keep going up in 2000 point increments until the ball drained. Now I know why! One of the drop target switches was getting stuck. Thanks for the informative video!

Very helpful! My bonus unit was having that same issue! Thanks Joe!

Nice repair, i work now on my Williams Fire on cabinet repair ,and fix sound problem on my Bally 8 ball deluxe👍

I was playing Sinistar arcade lastnight and then the first boss battle i heard "beware i live...i hunger" then when it roared it scared me 😆.

Amazing!!

Great video!! I can’t understand why you fix the bulb’s issues and start in ball one 🤔 I have the same pinball, I achieved in very bad conditions and I’m restoring it. I fix score reels (stacked in 9), FS relay too and much more things... Just 2 problems that I cannot fix: I play single player and this happens: - player 1 ball 1 in score 1 (no light in score and no ball in play light) - player 1 ball 2 in score 2 😟(still no ball in play but score 2 has light) -player 1 ball 3 in score 3😬 (still no ball in play but score 3 has light) After that, game over and no match feature show in backboard. Multi player working more less and show ball in play in player 3 ball 1 and player 4 ball 1... Any suggestion will be appreciated and thanks again for your video 😊

I just bought 1 lol I'm extatic

Loved it Joe. You make it look Sooooooo Easy! Hey the person that gave this video a thumbs down is an idiot! How can someone give a video a thumbs down that teaches you how to fix your stuff for FREE! I appreciate your time Joe and all the FREE quality training you give us Nooobs. Keep em comin Joe & love the channel. Best Wishes n Blessings. Keith Noneya PS I'd give you a10 thumbs up if I could. Oh and if you work on electronics and you don't burn something up once in a blue moon or get a spark now and then, YOU AIN'T Working on electronics! Made me jump too and I wasn't even there, LOL! Keith

Wauw you put some effort in this repair and documenting it, thanks! My machine does not have the chimes, I guess someone before me got fed up with them :-) The only thing I miss, is the explanation on how multi-player works ("1 to 4" player-lights, should step up on repushing the red start button I thought) and the creditwheel on the right hand bottom of the top-half. When and why does it move. Like the score lights on the very top "20, 40 etc" I never see them come to live but that could also be a malfunction. Well maybe I should get my hands on some kind of user manual. What I find awfully annoying is that the ball gets stuck in the transparant round openings above the lights, need to 'tilt' it and loose the game :-( Did you remove that middle stud between the flippers? I guess it came from the lefthand bypass where it was missing. Should have been on your list hahahaha, just kidding! Which my machine looked as good as this. Cheers.

Great synopsis and troubleshooting experience on these very underrated, design wise, contraptions! Ok, one thing I'm not clear about is how you repaired the bonus wheel/switch? From what you determined, it was shaking and causing the G relay to stutter on/off? So , was it simply just securing the wheel more sturdier to the mounting hardware?

Was that the episode where Slater was taking caffeine pills?

Need help fixing a 76 Surf Champ. Pop Bumps lock on and will not release. One coil burned up and froze. Will new coils fix this.

I have a Solar City which is basically the same game but 2 player. Did a pf restore and it is almost working but I must have some switches stuck as it continually adds points.

I have this game and a problem developed recently. It won't start up. It will initiate about 2 seconds and then stop completely. Can you suggest where the problem may be? Hard to find a repairman in my area. Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

So that stepper unit is like a mechanical type of memory AKA a state machine?

Some Billy Mitchell shit going on with the high scores . Ha ha

hi just wanted to say thanks for this video i learned a lot i got a 76 gottlieb volly pinball machine for free that someone was getting rid of. im trying to get the machine to actually start the game. it powers on but when i hit start the motor spins but the score doesnt reset. i guess ill look through your videos thanks again.

At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2865">47:45</a> the ball hangs on that play field light. (don't know what it is called) I have an El Dorado which is the same play field and all of mine do that. Is the a way to adjust the disk to make it even with the play field?

That playfield looks an awful lot like Gottlieb's El Dorado from one year earlier. Is this the four-player reskin?

Hi Joe. Just got a Target Alpha machine. Is it possible to remove the entire back glass assembly from the main body of the machine? It will be a lot easier to get it in my basement in two pieces! Thanks!

what are you using to record these video's....what type of camera?

I always thought they were called thumper bumpers ?

My target alpha is adding two or three thousand points on some targets and not giving double bonus on last ball. It.s in the shop even he can't figure it out. It will work for awhile than start doing it all over again do you have any ideas why it keeps doing it.

I have the 2 player version of this game - Solar City. This video was extremely useful in getting it running smoothly. The only issue I have now is one of the 10 drop targets sticks sometimes mid game, so it just keeps scoring points until eventually it falls. Have you repaired any machines with this issue that you have posted that might be helpful?

Do u ever put led in your pins?

Solar City n El Dorado same design with different art work

That looks ALOT like El Dorado

I think that last digit is a zero, like with a line through it.

is it ok?..if i share your videos on em facebook page...they are Great .and folks would enjoy..

I just bought this machine. I am new to restoring pinball machines. I have no lights and blows 15a fuse after a few minutes of play...random. not on anyone isntance.????

Actually I think that last number in that score really is a 0. To me it looks like a zero with a slash put through it, albeit sloppily handwritten. That's how programmers/geeks write 0, they put a slash through it so as to distinguish a 0 (number zero) from an O (letter O.)

Not positive but that looks an awful lot like a machine that used to be in a KU frat house how it made it all the way to you I have no clue 🤔