Rebuilding a Gottlieb VUK (vertical up kicker)

As work continues restoring this Gottlieb system 3 pinball machine, “Waterworld”, I rebuild the broken VUK (vertical up-kicker). This is from a series of videos where I rebuild a number of the core components on this game that’s been on location for probably more than a decade.

Diagnosing and testing optos on a Gottlieb System 3: Waterworld

Another video from my restoration work on this Gottlieb Waterworld pinball machine – actually two videos in this series where I talk about trying to isolate a problem with the optos on the game and comment about the design of the game and how the optos work, how to test and figure out what’s wrong?

But there’s more… I discovered an issue on this particular game, and possibly on other Gottlieb games that use this style of opto bracket… more info here:

Creating your own drop target artwork

Here’s a short video outlining my process of creating some custom artwork for drop targets for a Gottlieb System 3 pinball machine: Waterworld. I thought I might create some custom images to commemorate the huge budget of the movie’s production 😉

One note – after you put the decals on, put some heavy mylar over the decals to keep them intact – just the decal and triple thick isn’t enough to keep the graphics from not being damaged by the heavy pinball.

Check out the video!

First Look: “Waterworld” pinball by Gottlieb – pulled from a Casino

Here is a first look at a new pinball machine to enter the PinballHelp.com studio. This came out of a casino on the Gulf Coast, then found its way into the back room of a laser tag place and sat for quite awhile before the owners needed room and made me a deal on it. I don’t believe the previous owner did any work on the game so we have the original, largely un-maintained condition it was received from after being operated at a casino.

Follow along with me and let’s see what we notice about this game? How “hacked” is it? How much of it will actually work? What’s it going to take to get this game fully operational?