What's new
By:
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Gottlieb Appreciation Thread

JMP said:
Ah nice one, looks in good nick. Hope you have the backbox ;). Any topper?
Click to expand...
Yeah I have the backbox, translite is really faded and the topper is long gone sadly. The playfield is really nice, cabinet not too shabby, coin door is hideous so will try and get a new one for it.

Vimtoman said:
I must admit your Genesis build was perfect
Click to expand...
Thank you I'm very pleased with it, appreciate that comment 👍
 
MajesticPinball said:
Yeah I have the backbox, translite is really faded and the topper is long gone sadly. The playfield is really nice, cabinet not too shabby, coin door is hideous so will try and get a new one for it.
Click to expand...

Will keep a look out for translight… Marco have sold them previously but not sure on the demand for this title (!). There are the alternatives, but I like to keep them original, cheese or no cheese. Keep an eye on Best of Pinball in Germany too.
 
Gary Flower did have a NOS topper for Monte Carlo but A. I said DID and B. it wont be cheap!
 
JMP said:
Ah good stuff, enjoy doing it up. :)

This arrived last week and just set it up tonight in prep for the Glaswegians Gottlieb Glory (!) @ailsaclunie

View attachment 101866

Couple of jobs including a rail to cover the broken ramp entrance (always the way on these) and will be good to go.
Click to expand...
So it eventually turned up then. Looks like a nice one.
 
Got Monte Carlo set up today and swapped over the MPU with one I had in Genesis and it booted up for the first time. Loads of little issues and a few segments out on the display but looks promising. Going to have to look into why the MPU it came with instantly locks up though.
IMG_20200213_183351.jpg
 
Segment joints crack, may be able to join with silver epoxy. Aftermarket led displays available tòo.
If will to change, just the gas display available too
 
I re-soldered the pins on my Victory display to solve exactly that issue. Worked fine afterwards. The new displays are well expensive !
 
Apologies for necro-threading...

I'm a n00b to pinball and have bought two machines - a Fish Tales and I have a Lord of the Rings on the way.

I play pinball a lot on iPad (Williams and Stern/Pinball Arcade), have visited Flip Out and Chief Coffee in London, and Black Hole is currently one of my Top Five favourite pinball machines.

Hence, if we ever get a third pinball machine (and this is contingent on the building of an extension in a few years' time), I would probably like it to be a Black Hole.

Googling around, they don't seem especially popular and suggesting I wanted to import one from the States got a funny reaction (!). From what I can gather, old Gottliebs aren't very popular here in the UK and it's hard to get spare parts.

I just wondered what was wrong with Black Hole? And whether it played differently between iOS and in real life? I'm hoping to play a Black Hole in an arcade/pinball museum if we get to Chattanooga in the US next year. Is it hard to get spare parts for old Gottlieb machines?

I generally like fast pinball machines with pretty brutal play. My Fish Tales has slingshots that ping the ball like trying to land a 30lb trout and we keep the tilt fairly high: also planning to fit a pair of lightning flippers once I get the chance. I wondered if Black Hole played really slow because some of the 80s machines at Flip Out seem to have much softer/spongier flippers than the Golden Age machines or modern Sterns?

Sorry for all the questions. I had noticed someone selling a Gottlieb (not Black Hole) on the forum and it had made me idly wonder about this stuff.
 
VeeMonroe said:
Apologies for necro-threading...

I'm a n00b to pinball and have bought two machines - a Fish Tales and I have a Lord of the Rings on the way.

I play pinball a lot on iPad (Williams and Stern/Pinball Arcade), have visited Flip Out and Chief Coffee in London, and Black Hole is currently one of my Top Five favourite pinball machines.

Hence, if we ever get a third pinball machine (and this is contingent on the building of an extension in a few years' time), I would probably like it to be a Black Hole.

Googling around, they don't seem especially popular and suggesting I wanted to import one from the States got a funny reaction (!). From what I can gather, old Gottliebs aren't very popular here in the UK and it's hard to get spare parts.

I just wondered what was wrong with Black Hole? And whether it played differently between iOS and in real life? I'm hoping to play a Black Hole in an arcade/pinball museum if we get to Chattanooga in the US next year. Is it hard to get spare parts for old Gottlieb machines?

I generally like fast pinball machines with pretty brutal play. My Fish Tales has slingshots that ping the ball like trying to land a 30lb trout and we keep the tilt fairly high: also planning to fit a pair of lightning flippers once I get the chance. I wondered if Black Hole played really slow because some of the 80s machines at Flip Out seem to have much softer/spongier flippers than the Golden Age machines or modern Sterns?

Sorry for all the questions. I had noticed someone selling a Gottlieb (not Black Hole) on the forum and it had made me idly wonder about this stuff.
Click to expand...
Congrats on your first two games, can't go wrong with Fishtales. Firstly Gottliebs are no harder to find parts for than any other manufacturer, not sure where why or how they got a reputation for being hard to source parts for but they're not and there's plenty of supplier options.

Black hole came in 2 flavours - The US and Euro releases. Most people consider the US version more desirable as it has the infinity mirror backglass with spinning black hole inside, the Euro version is just a plain ol' backglass. Given the choice I think most people would want the US version as it just looks so much nicer.

With regards to comparing the speed to Fishtales/LoTR you've got to remember Black Hole is a big old girl being a widebody machine - that usually slows games down, older games usually feel a little slower because they don't have the flow and fast paced shots/ramps that newer games do.... Which isn't always a bad thing, and they still can be as brutal and evil as brand new pins, it's all about dialing the game in and making sure the pitch of the machine is set up in a sweet spot to make it play faster, but not be absolutely savage.

Goodluck in your search for a Black Hole, if you have any other Gottlieb related questions let me know!

James
 
Last edited:
VeeMonroe said:
Thanks. Flip Out has a Spirit, so I might see how I feel about the 'ball speed/feel' on that :)
Click to expand...
Spirit is such a wonderful game, a lot of strategy to it. It's quite a tightly packed playfield too unlike Black Hole which is fairly open so I'm not sure the 2 are very comparable but if you like older games with a lot of strategy you'll love Spirit. Enjoy dude!
 
Re. the differences between domestic and export Black Hole; domestic also had speech, which export didn't. Though I suspect the same audio pcb was used, without the costly speech chip.

As with Lola Taxi's, though, some domestic ones must've got here. A local operator I visited to collect from (boards that hadn't been in a Flash Gordon backbox, purchased as complete) had a export domestic Black Hole. And the downright odd Q'Bert's Quest.
 
Last edited:
Jay Walker said:
Re. the differences between domestic and export Black Hole; domestic also had speech, which export didn't. Though I suspect the same audio pcb was used, without the costly speech chip.

As with Lola Taxi's, though, some domestic ones must've got here. A local operator I visited to collect from (boards that hadn't been in a Flash Gordon backbox, purchased as complete) had an export Black Hole. And the downright odd Q'Bert's Quest.
Click to expand...
US = domestic and Euro = export?

The Pinball Arcade Black Hole has speech clips, e.g. "Reentry attempt... has failed", but Pinball Arcade is a US app.

I love the spinning black hole on the back-glass that I've seen on videos, especially where the GI has been upgraded with blue LEDs and some UV lighting. It does look pretty incredible. So, I'd definitely be on the hunt for a US model... if it has speech as well, that would be better still.
 
Matt Adams has a US one with the spinning backglass but I doubt he'd sell it. Not sure I'd want to maintain one anyway!!

@VeeMonroe if you like "fast machines with brutal play" I wouldn't get and old machine as these always feel soft compared to modern ones. But then again, I don't consider LOTR as a fast brutal machine either :D
 
VeeMonroe said:
US = domestic and Euro = export?

The Pinball Arcade Black Hole has speech clips, e.g. "Reentry attempt... has failed", but Pinball Arcade is a US app.

I love the spinning black hole on the back-glass that I've seen on videos, especially where the GI has been upgraded with blue LEDs and some UV lighting. It does look pretty incredible. So, I'd definitely be on the hunt for a US model... if it has speech as well, that would be better still.
Click to expand...

You can add the appropriate speech board to a Euro BH.

The 'reverse' playfield is also great fun to play.
 
Yes, Vee,

I meant U.S.A. for domestic. Older Gottlieb games have the coin entry surround stamped "Manufactured for Mondial Exclusively for Export", emphasising it. I think some early solid-state games even have different transformers fitted between the two versions.

I'm only aware of one instance where an export version's had something extra over the U.S spec. Unfortunately, it's Williams 'Millionaire', with a rotating beacon or 'mars lamp' atop the backbox. Possibly to use up left-over stock from High Speed, since its follow-up F-14 (scheduled for production after Millionaire) was going to have three such lamps, using a different, larger motor.

I'd not claim to be fully up to date, but in the last I recall of discussion about fast and brutal play a strong contender was Johnny Mnemonic.
 
Last edited:
VeeMonroe said:
US = domestic and Euro = export?

The Pinball Arcade Black Hole has speech clips, e.g. "Reentry attempt... has failed", but Pinball Arcade is a US app.

I love the spinning black hole on the back-glass that I've seen on videos, especially where the GI has been upgraded with blue LEDs and some UV lighting. It does look pretty incredible. So, I'd definitely be on the hunt for a US model... if it has speech as well, that would be better still.
Click to expand...
I have a US black hole they are moderatley uncommon over here but findable, Spirits are rarer and as such id suspect more expensive. Spirit I think is considered by most the better game but black hole is amazing too if a little slower. BH is genuinely one of my favourite Gottliebs If you like it digitally you'll love it in person.
 
I have a Black Hole.
Had many years love it.
If a keeper pick up an after market.
PI80 all in one board by Pascal Janin, waay more reliability, diagnostics, high scores for top 5 ,you can roll the scores etc then.
You can retrofit a speech board, I have.
 
My favourite Gottlieb was Gladiators though Tee`d Off had a quirky kind of appeal to it and i played it a lot. Just never had the chance to properly get into some of the older ones as they are rarely for sale in decent nick and at shows someone is usually breathing down you neck to play what you are on. Did enjoy very much the TX-Sector at the Glasgow show and Raven which used to be in HMV Buchanan street before it sadly shut it `s doors a while back.
 
Poibug said:
I have a Black Hole.
Had many years love it.
If a keeper pick up an after market.
PI80 all in one board by Pascal Janin, waay more reliability, diagnostics, high scores for top 5 ,you can roll the scores etc then.
You can retrofit a speech board, I have.
Click to expand...

Ive not got one in black hole but youre right i should. I grabbed one for my Genie and Mars God of War both in the capable hands of @MajesticPinball for a resto. Genie home soon hopefully :clap:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom