gilligan's island pinball

pudluther

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http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/tag/1581062967.html



the ad says it will power on and play sometimes but other times it will power on and not play.

does this sound like a major problem? expensive problem?

he wants $750 for it, which is around my range, but i honestly have no idea if that's a good deal considering the existing problem with the machine.


any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.




thanks fellas.
 
Someone should help on this, but sounds like you should see it yourself (in person) , you know play a few games and examine the hell out of it. Could be something simple, you never know. Hell, you may find out that you dont even like the game. Make sure your purchase is of something you like and enjoy playing. Good luck
 
GI

I have seen a few of these working sell in the last year for the 700-1000 range, If his is nice, I guess his price is about right. On the shutting down issue. Hopefully a pin head will happen along for some advice on the common causes
 
On the shutting down issue. Hopefully a pin head will happen along for some advice on the common causes



yeah...i was hoping for the same thing. the game is really appealing to me due to the theme - we have small children that love playing pins/arcade, so the "family friendly" theme is a big deal. plus, i like gilligan's island. ;)


but hopefully someone can shine a little light on some possible reasons for the random problems...again, from what the guy says, it powers on all the time but sometimes won't play at all.
 
My kids and I love our GI. Family theme, good sounds, music, and easy rules set to learn. We got ours in a bulk deal so I was not looking for one. The playfield is diamond cote so it cleaned up beautifully. However it had two problems. Error on startup and half of the GI lights on the playfield were out. The first was because of bad and leaking batteries on the CPU board. I removed the batteries and holders, cleaned up the area, and mounted a remote battery pack with fresh batteries. Simple problem solved. The other problem was not so simple to fix. The driver board had several burnt GI connectors and I found where a previous owner had soldered the power connector leads directly to the board. I thought only Gottlieb system 1 owners did this! I replaced some connectors, pins,and terminals and I also had to reinforce some of the burnt traces with wire. It's not perfect but it now works great. A brand new driver board will set you back around $250. Just a couple of things to look out for. As with any pin, when checking it out ALWAYS remove the backglass and check the wiring and boards for burnt areas, damage, or leaking batteries. Its a good price and the family will love it. Best of luck.
 
have been in contact with the seller since i posted this thread....supposed to be going tomorrow to pick it up.


everybody cross your fingers. ;)
 

what i would do is search ebay and find out whats its worth ballpark working in real good condition with not a lot/none playfield wear.
call a technician nearby and find out how much he charges per hour.

then go look at it and see the condition of playfield and how much wear there is, plastics condition, rubbers, just general over appearance etc. see if it plays etc.

then you have most of the info to do the calculation.

thats what id do anyway.
 
what i would do is search ebay and find out whats its worth ballpark working in real good condition with not a lot/none playfield wear.
call a technician nearby and find out how much he charges per hour.

then go look at it and see the condition of playfield and how much wear there is, plastics condition, rubbers, just general over appearance etc. see if it plays etc.

then you have most of the info to do the calculation.

thats what id do anyway.





using the bostonpinball price guide thingy, it's about a $1K pin.

taking everyone's word for it, it's about a $700-1100 pin.





this guy is asking $750 for a "semi" working pin and, to be perfectly honest, it looks amazing in the pics i've seen (which, IMO, would shoot it up closer to the $1K range if it were fully working.....but probably AT LEAST worth the $700+ price tag for "semi" working).


at least that's the way i look at it...............and i fully admit i may be wrong. :)

but seriously, it's a pin that i really want, a theme that i really need (given my young kids that LOVE to play vids/pins), and i really think it's AT LEAST a decent deal (if not a "good" deal).

we'll see.......
 
and, obviously, splatter...i'm gonna be taking a decent (although "novice") look at it before i buy it. that's a given.




seriously though, thanks for all your input (and the others on this thread).....i'm truly a pinball novice and any/all information and/or opinions is precious to me.

keep the thoughts coming, guys.......i'll post a pic of the machine if/when i finally secure it. ;)
 
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Just remember that you will have that theme song in your head for a looooooooong time! By the way, I have first dibs on Mary Ann. You can have Ginger.
 
Well did you get it? If so like to see some pictures of it. I always wondered why did Bally put the speaker at the top for? I dont really like that lay out, I do like williams set-up from the same era with the speakers on each side of the DMD, and the different faceplates for the speaker panels you can mod your pin with. Well anyways I watched a few Youtube vids on GI and it seems like a really fun game, you better like the shows and be a fan as the music seemed to much.
 

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ok...took a quick vid of the box while it was open. like i said, it's not working, but i see some obvious issues....just not sure exactly what i'm looking at or exactly how to go about fixing it.

noticed the batteries had corroded/leaked - cleaned that up and was hoping that was the only problem...then i noticed the "burned" looking place on the plastic connector for the yellow clump of wires in the vid.



what am i looking at, fellas? thoughts on how to proceed from here? and please remember, i am a total newbie in the pin scene...this is only my second one, but it'll be the first one i've really had to work on.

here's the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Sv2JK5Svo




sorry for the poor quality....my garage is about pitch black even with the lights on and that's where i've got it now....had to use a flashlight just to get some light on it, which is probably why it wouldn't focus for s**t.
 
I believe the clump of yellow wires is for your GI lamps which would not prevent the game from starting. It should be labeled J115. Check the connectors above it, the ones with thicker wires for browning also. These are the from power supply. These WILL keep it from booting. Pull the connectors off to check the header pins also. Pull the CPU board and check on how much damage the leaking batteries have done. If nothing else, remove the battery holder by unsoldering it and visually check everything. Good luck and btw nice game.
 
I believe the clump of yellow wires is for your GI lamps which would not prevent the game from starting. It should be labeled J115. Check the connectors above it, the ones with thicker wires for browning also. These are the from power supply. These WILL keep it from booting. Pull the connectors off to check the header pins also. Pull the CPU board and check on how much damage the leaking batteries have done. If nothing else, remove the battery holder by unsoldering it and visually check everything. Good luck and btw nice game.




thanks...is this the same problem you had with your gilligan?


and yes, the yellow wires are labeled J115.










edit: thanks on the "nice game" comment. the guy i bought it from is claiming it's a HUO pin (i'll post more on that when i start my "my 2nd pin!!!" thread after i get her cleaned up). now, i have absolutely no idea how one tells whether or not that's true, but i can tell you that the pin looks GREAT. the playfield is in excellent shape (again, i'll post pics once i get the sucker working). that, along with the excellent condition of the back glass and the body art is all i really care about....i could not care less if it's actually HUO or not....my main thing is that i got a pin that i wanted, that was reasonably priced, and that looks fantastic. now i just gotta get that effer working. ;)
 
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ok...i couldn't resist...went ahead and snapped a few pics:


IMG_5010.jpg


IMG_5011.jpg


IMG_5020.jpg
 
IMG_5015.jpg


IMG_5017.jpg





i'm really happy with the way this thing looks...hopefully the repairs won't be too difficult.

i'll put up some pics of the problem area that i found in a bit...should be easier to see than the video i posted above.
 
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