Diagnosing gameplay issues on EM pinball machines (Target Pool)

This is a fun video that I think is quite informative. I go over the process of how I discovered a feature in the game was not working. It’s a good example of how even supposedly “fully-working” games are often not fully working and many people don’t realize.

So what do you do when you discover a play feature isn’t working? I go over how we can diagnose and identify/fix the problem, even without having schematics. Check it out!

First Look: 1968 Gottlieb Target Pool – looking over a new game before turning it on

This is a first look at a 1968 Gottlieb wedgehead electro-mechanical pinball machine “Target Pool”. I unloaded it and what you see is what I see in real time as I take a look at the machine and what needs to be done with it. This video goes over a few things that I typically do before I even try to turn a game on.

First Look: Gottlieb Target Pool and adjusting stepper units

I’ve been on the lookout for more 60s-era Gottliebs with the small flippers. We don’t have hardly any in the collection and after hearing Bowen Kerins say “Target Pool” was his favorite game from the 60s, I knew I’d made the right choice in picking this machine up. Unfortunately, I never turned it on or checked it out electrically/operationally before I bought it. But I could see the game was complete and the seller said it did work. This was one of those times where I knew I was going to get it any way. So here’s the first look so far, a playlist of 3 video clips covering the initial examination of the game, and finding out what’s wrong and fixing some issues. This is a good example of how to fix certain problems with stepper units.

If you watched the previous story on the Target Pool you may see the same first-two videos. I am keeping them all together in case someone sees this story by itself. If you’ve watched some of the videos in the series before, just hit next on the player to skip to the next video.