Newby...looking for advice on a "Devil's Dare" system 80a

demoderbydave

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Newby...looking for advice on a "Devil's Dare" system 80a

Hi everyone...I am new to this forum and looking for advice on what I should do with my Gottlieb Devil's Dare.
I always wanted an Atari Asteroids machine since I was a kid...I am 46 now.. anyways I bought one about 6 years ago and played it occasionally and figured I needed a pinball machine to go with it. I picked this game up apart but was told it worked (you know how that goes). I did not pay all that much for it and I thought and I could always fix it up. 5 years later with it sitting in my cellar next to the Asteroids machine (which finally crapped out as well) I figured I would get going on the D.D. I bought and watched the Shaggy dvds, studied the manual that came with it and read everything I could about fixing this and realized I AM WAY OVER MY HEAD.
Over the years I bought some spare parts used drop targets on ebay, rubber re-ring kit, balls, lights and even a kit to do the mandatory fixes to the cpu ect. I figure I have about $500.00 in it.

My question...is this a desireable game?...supposedly they made about 3200 of them. The game itself is complete, the playfield is worn but presentable,I have all the plastics which are ok . The backglass is delaminating but it is still intact and looks decent and the cabinet is decent. The main cpu still has the battery on it...But I don't see ANY signs of corrosion. The boards has not been hacked up. But it doesnt play, it lights up but the flippers don't flip and the game sort of starts but doesn't do what it is supposed to. The sound board works in the test mode and it has been stored inside in a dry home for the last 6 years.

It takes a big man to admit he doesn't know what he is doing but...I am. I am not a complete idiot with electronics...I was a car stereo installer a while back and was a bench tech for a major cellular carrier a few years ago as well. BUT I am in no means an expert in electronics... I figure any attempt I make to fix it will cause more harm than good. Even if i send out the boards to have them gone through I am unsure about the rest of the game...testing coils ect and do not wan't to waste (anymore) money foolishly. I figure it would cost me a fortune to get it running to a point that i could finish it.

If I were to try to sell it what is it worth? Anyone out there interested? I live in Central Massachusetts ..Or anyone out there close by willing to take a look who has a clue that is... (NOT FOR FREE OBVIOUSLY)

Sorry about the long winded post and thanks in advance for any help!
 
I can help you here since I just worked on a System 80a game myself...

First off out of all the pins I worked (Williams,Bally, DE and older Stern) Gottlieb is by far hardest and the most finicky out of all of them. There's is a reason some people disliked Gottlieb pins even still today!

Devil's Dare is definitely a cool pin! I think I saw only one of them bitd, and I believe it was in a warehouse. It has also one of the creepiest backglass out there. Not sure price wise. Working and condition wise is a huge factor...

Repair-wise, you said you following pinrepair and the Gottlieb Topcast videos.... And you said you did the ground mods-a must! Were you getting the proper voltages out of the power supply? Also you said the flippers diddn't work. How about the slings and pop bumpers? I know on mine at first I was just getting the GI and that was it. It turned out U4 was bad. Also there is a *Game Over* relay coil under the playfield. Make sure that's open or nothing will happen for the solenoids...

There is a replacement MPU board in the works for System 80a and b games. Don't have a time table on when but it's being worked on....
 
It is a pretty cool game, I had one for a while. The thing you have to realize is that it is a widebody. they play a little slower, and take up more space. Having said that it had some nice action. I traded mine for a grand lizard, more of a williams guy
 
Doesn't ni-wumpf make one available now?

http://www.ni-wumpf.com/System80CPU.html

Rotten dog is another good source for repo sys 80 boards.

The guy from rottendog told me at chicago that his system 80 mpu board could not be licensed and sold until steve young had sold all of his. That's why the website says "on hold" new boards can be bought from pbresource.
 
The unreliability and difficulty of repair of Gottlieb pins is greatly exaggerated. I don't find them to be any more problematic or difficult than Williams System 3-7. It really depends what's wrong with it. Any pinball system can be a royal PITA with the right problem or an easy fix with another. The problem with the less common systems is that they're not documented on the internet as extensively as the other systems.
 
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