1940 Gottlieb Score Card sequence game pinball

1940 Gottlieb Score Card

No! this is not a post about Gottlieb score cards. If you do need score cards for a Gottlieb, Inkochnito's website is the place to go.

This is about Gottlieb's 1940 Score Card sequence game. This is very deep down the rabbit hole of EM pinball machines.

Gottlieb Score card is an obscure title. There's no information for it anywhere. It isn't mentioned in any of the old Russ Jensen articles.

Gottlieb made other similar sequence games around the same era: Lite-O-Card, Lot-O-Fun, Lot-O-Smoke, Keen-A-Ball, Spot-A-card and Sea Hawk

A variation on the sequence game is the light-a-name game such as Gottlieb's Five & Ten. This feature, which consists of progressively lighting up letters in a name can still be seen in contemporary games.

Bally also produced a few Sequence games: Spottem, Pickem, Variety, Triumph, Etc.

Other manufacturers also tried their hand in the Sequence Game "craze"... More like a flash in the pan.

Sequence games are a type of pingame that were produced between 1939 and 1941. The games usually display two or more cards with a number sequences on the backglass.

Playfield has a series of numbered bumpers and rollovers.

Rolling over a numbered rollover lights the corresponding number on the backglass cards and turns off the light in the corresponding bumper.

Contrary to what the name implies the numbers do not need to be hit in numerical sequence on Score Card.

The objective of the game is to light all the numbers on one of the cards and score replays.

Score Card has a Novelty and Free Play mode.

Free Play mode means that credits can be accumulated, played via the coin slide and reset with a knock off button.

"Knock off button" is a type of hidden button on a machine that is used to manually reset credits, It was outlawed by the Johnson Act. The rationale being that the credits accumulated would be reset by hand by the attendant of some establishment and redeemed in cash or goods.

Novelty play disables the coin slide free play coil and the knock off button. Any credits accumulated, would be completely wiped out once a new game is started via coin play.

Unfortunately after 80 years, I do not have the instructions to convert the game from Novelty to Free Play mode. I had to figure it out myself.

This half tag refers to the red nut seen below. Basically there's a long screw that can hold up a reset pawl so that it completely resets when reset coil is energised, instead of just subtracting one credit.

Different ways of scoring replays:

Hi score:

Score Card has panel scoring

There are high score adjustment plugs. Via adjustment plugs, replays can be awarded between 30 000 and 39000 points.

Bumpers score 100 points unless stated otherwise. Top 3 100 / 1000 when lit bumpers are lit alternately every time a 100 point bumper is hit

Special rollover:

The rollover, when lit scores 1 replay. Rollover is lit after it has been rolled over 3 times

The rollover lights up the #12 and has progressive scoring:

First rollover scores 2000 points
Second rollover scores 3000 points
Third rollover scores 4000 points
Fourth rollover scores 5000 points and 1 replay
Fifth rollover scores 5000 points

Completing a sequence:

A: 1 to 10
B: 2 to 11
C: 3 to 12
D: 4 to 13

Any sequence, if completed, lights up all the bumpers again and every bumper hit scores a replay.

Number of replays is displayed on both sides of "D" card. Knock off button is hidden on bottom side of cabinet. If replays are displayed, coin slide can be pushed in to start new game without a coin. 1 credit is subtracted each new game.

56 replays

Ball size is 1 1/8 inch

I had this game in storage since 2013. I honestly never thought I would ever get around to repairing this machine before this self isolation thing.

Next post: Repairs! and technnical info