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Part 10: 1978 Gottlieb Close Encounters of the Third Kind Project is Finished!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·23m 0s·analyzed·Oct 29, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.017

TL;DR

Close Encounters restoration complete: roto wheel fixed after removing mechanical obstruction.

Summary

Mike Dus completes a comprehensive restoration of a 1978 Gottlieb Close Encounters of the Third Kind pinball machine, with the final challenge being fixing the roto wheel mechanism. After discovering and removing an obstruction causing the wheel to catch, he successfully gets it working. The video documents the final stages including Nywump board installation, switch cleaning, playfield restoration, and gameplay testing.

Key Claims

  • Close Encounters roto wheel was catching/obstructed due to misaligned rubber routing

    high confidence · Mike identified interference on the wheel targets, removed plastic and post caps, rerouted rubber, and resolved the issue

  • Nywump board provides superior lamp test diagnostics compared to original Gottlieb diagnostics

    high confidence · Mike demonstrated the lamp test feature showing proper identification of burned-out bulbs versus original board limitations

  • The Cyberknot (Bally 1985) acquired in the video has a non-functioning xenon tube backglass

    high confidence · Mike notes the backglass 'is not actually working' and mentions needing to check the xenon tube

  • Only 900 Cyberknot machines were manufactured

    high confidence · Mike states 'This game, they only made 900 of them. This is a Bali from 1985'

  • Mike replaced every board in the Close Encounters machine except the power supply (which was rebuilt)

    high confidence · Restoration summary lists original MPU as poached, power supply rebuilt/traded, soundboard replaced, driver board installed, Nywump retrofit

Notable Quotes

  • “I thought I was going to have to tear that whole thing apart again and realign it, readjust it, relube it, reclean it, re-eth with it. I literally pulled out like that's ball five. Pulled out all the screws, the six screws, and then started messing with it.”

    Mike Dus @ ~17:15 — Expresses relief that the roto wheel fix was simpler than anticipated, requiring only rubber rerouting and obstruction removal

  • “Do you want to hear the best bonus meltdown in pinball history?”

    Mike Dus @ ~22:30 — Humorous reference to the machine's bonus sound routine during gameplay testing

  • “And would you look at that? After all this time, there's freaking roto target parts in the coin box. And also this playfield latch. I knew I was missing one.”

    Mike Dus @ ~23:00 — Discovery of missing parts in coin box, enabling completion of restoration

  • “So I just keep hitting this white button inside the coin door till I see hardware. This is an old board, so it's going to be different on the newer Nwamps. Now, I hit the start button. Now, I go back to the inside coin door cuz I don't want displays. Lights is what I want.”

    Mike Dus @ ~20:00 — Technical explanation of Nywump board diagnostic capabilities vs. original Gottlieb System One

  • “I went on like a 5-hour round trip yesterday to New Market, Ontario. And if you watched the last video, there was a shack in this spot. Well, I brought the shack, dropped it off, grabbed some cash, grabbed some Cyber Knot, and brought it home.”

    Mike Dus @ ~1:00 — Documents acquisition of Cyberknot machine as a trade for a previously featured game

Entities

Mike DuspersonClose Encounters of the Third KindgameCyberknotgameGottliebcompanyBallycompanyNywumpproductShane JacksonpersonMark ValooppersonPinball Shenanigansorganizationroto wheelproduct

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Nywump board retrofit provides significantly improved lamp test diagnostics compared to original Gottlieb System One board capabilities

    high · Mike demonstrates the lamp test feature and explicitly states it is 'so much better' than original diagnostics, showing proper bulb failure identification

  • ?

    product_concern: Mechanical obstruction/misalignment issues on roto wheel mechanism can be resolved through simple rubber rerouting and post adjustment rather than full mechanism replacement

    high · Mike's troubleshooting process identified and fixed the issue by removing interfering rubber routing and adjusting post positioning

  • ?

    technology_signal: Adoption of aftermarket control boards (Nywump) for classic Gottlieb machines as standard restoration practice

    medium · Mike's casual installation and demonstration of Nywump board suggests this is now common practice in restoration community

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:04
I'm Mike Dus and [music] this is Pinball Shenanigans. Okay, I'm back at this Close Encounters and the idea for today is to see if I can get the roto wheel working once and for all because that is the last thing on the to-do list really before this machine is uh ready to go. So, I'm going to flip the playfield upside down again, and then I'm going to take the whole darn thing apart again. I don't really need to give it a thorough cleaning again since I already did that at home. So, I'm just hoping it's a matter of some sort of adjustment. And uh we'll see what happens. Uh, also on a side note, I went on like a 5-hour round trip yesterday to New Market, Ontario. And if you watched the last video, there was a shack in this spot. Well, I brought the shack, dropped it off, grabbed some cash, grabbed some Cyber Knot, and brought it home. This game, they only made 900 of them. This is a Bali from 1985
1:30
and it's got a really cool art package. It's in very nice shape
1:39
and I am excited to uh get to work on this. I don't know how many times I've ever played it. I imagine I have somewhere at some show at some point sometime but have very little time on it. So got a little bit of insert wear but it's like been chopped up. I mean we got blue flipper rubbers. We've got newer looking rubber rings. There's some old school looking LEDs in there. Anyway, Cybernaut has joined the queue. So, in order for me to get another machine into the basement, though, I really need to sell something. So, we'll see what happens. And it is almost November, so I don't think I really want to do I I'd rather do this in the basement. It's just much more convenient. Then, I don't need to bring a bin full of tools. This is not a very good toolbox. every time I need to dig in here. It's not all that convenient. I also uh brought this space heater, which doesn't turn off and on every 10 seconds like this one does, cuz it gets too hot too quick. So, this is my secret weapon for today. It's actually pretty nice out, though. It's like I think 12° C. So that's partly why I'm here because if it was uh a lot colder, I probably wouldn't be venturing into uh the cold garage. So I guess uh it's time to flip the playfield over. All right, there we go. I love this trick. It is great. Very easy to do. Just uh got to be careful though. Definitely can go wrong, especially by yourself. Be helpful if you have a helping hand. You don't want to jam anything. And when you put it back, you want to make sure you twist it the opposite way. So, you do got to be careful. And this metal garage door thing is definitely was not helping at all. Okay. So, here we go again. Going to just start taking everything apart. Hey, fellow shenanigans. If you are enjoying what you are seeing, why don't you click on these three dots at the bottom of any video and then find this heart. Click on that and hey, look at this. You can buy me a beer. You can use the slider to buy me 500 beers if you really like. But this is a way you can uh send thanks. And I very much appreciate your support. If you do so, your comment will be highlighted and also I will give you a shout out. So, thank you for all your support. Okay, my first thought is that this plunger and uh uhoh, I got to sneeze. [clears throat] Oh, pardon me. this plunger and this um nylon bushing thingy. It's not aligned very well. Right. So, I thought that I would use the adjustments on the other side of this bracket to align that better. That's that was my first inkling. So, oh crap. I might need a couple hands for this. But I discovered something that may be part of the problem. So, I'm going to hold that down. I'm going to spin this wheel. Watch this like target in this position. Whatever it ends up being when I spin the wheel gently. Okay.
5:46
See that 400? Watch the next one. See how it looks like they're catching on something. See that?
6:04
Well, that appears to be See if I can demonstrate. It's really hard to see. Let me zoom in then.
6:35
Now, if it was only that simple, that would be incredible. But in order to really uh find out, I got to swap the playfield over again. I started taking all these flathead screws out, but now I'm sticking them back in. But I'm upgrading to these hex head screws that are darn near identical and so much easier to work with. I can use my magnetized nut driver. Can attempt to, but my belly doesn't hold tools very well. Now I can actually try doing that with a flathead screw. So I'll do that to all six screws and make life so much easier. All right, playfield swapped back over. And look at this.
7:47
I'm really hoping that's all there is to it. Definitely some interference there. So,
7:58
I'll remedy that. I didn't bring my rubbers. I'm going to have to reroute this rubber [snorts] and or use like a 5/16 rubber on this instead. Or I don't know, maybe even look in the manual and see how the rubbers are actually supposed to be. Okay, I got the plastic removed, all my metal post caps removed. Do you guys have one of these tools? If not, they're pretty handy. They slide under here. And uh in case like these are on so tight that you're removing the whole post, so it locks on like that. And then uh you're good to go. I think they're available at Pinball Resource, are they called? a PAL nut removal tool or something like that. They really should be called nut pal removal tool, but whatever they are, they work good. And let's see if my solution is as simple as this. That could be it. That could be it. I don't think it's rubbing anymore. Oh, look at that. That seems to be H. It's almost going a little too far. See that arrow is not lining up dead nuts to the star. But beggars can't be choosers. If that ends up working, I'm going to leave it as is. Should maybe tighten this a little bit. Just make sure that's never going to hit.
9:35
But see how that just clicks right back into home position. now just so effortlessly.
9:52
I have high hopes for this. Let's give it a try. Okay, the moment of truth. First, I must warm up. I forgot to mention about the Cyber Knot. Um, just noticing the cool mirrored back glass. I mean, I did look at it briefly when I picked it up and obviously I saw photos, but I haven't really checked it out live and I'll have to do that live once I get this into the basement at some point. But it is not actually working. So, got to figure that out. And it's got a xenon tube. So, we'll have to check that out at some point in time. So, anyway, moment of truth here.
10:43
That didn't sound very good. Oh, Shane Jackson of Maple Pinball is calling me right now. But, uh, I want to tend to this first and I'll give him a call back. See what he's saying. I just listed a whole bunch of, uh, old electromechanical pinball parts. Just just miscellaneous crap. Maybe he wants that was I wouldn't be surprised. There we go. Just got to press the button better.
11:11
Okay, I didn't bring my tripod. I didn't really think that far ahead. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to be able to solve this problem.
11:29
Okay, I'll zoom out a bit here. This is going to be onehanded, so bear with me.
11:46
I didn't really hit it that hard. That's a good start. It's very It was very leany to the lefty and I didn't want to just mess with the uh leg levelers because it was easier to stuck stick drywall underneath the legs. They all turn nicely. But now it's leany to the righty.
12:14
But that first hit I had was kind of weak. So not surprised that one didn't register. The second hit seemed like it registers. Registered. Okay.
12:30
Need to bounce past. Oo. No. [music] I do realize I could just throw the ball at the thing, but that's not as fun. Okay. Got to do it here onehanded. I got a shots. Almost. Let's try and shhat. Try again later. There we go. Oh, almost.
13:01
That was a good hit. Spinner. Okay, rolling shots. Oh, that's hard to do. There we go. Ah, going early. Here we go. Going late and right down the middle. Nope.
13:21
Whoa. It's good defense. See that? Nail it. Come on. Oh, it's going to lean.
13:39
Jeez. Oh my god. I almost saved that. Good thing it's set for five balls.
13:48
Oh, got some good bonus there. Well, I don't want to get too excited, but I think we might be good. It was just a matter of getting rid rid of the obstruction. Who would have thought? Boom.
14:09
Uh-oh. Oh, that was a pretty impressive save, I got to say. Okay, let's shut and nail it. Boom.
14:21
Oh my god, I'm so happy. I thought I was going to have to tear that whole thing apart again and realign it, readjust it, relube it, recclean it, re-eth with it. I literally pulled out like that's ball five. Pulled out all the screws, the six screws, and then started messing with it. And then that's as far as I got. And then I just stuck in my hex head screws back in there. Look at that. And let's try the 400 target. 400's a little nestled in there, but that is awesome. I cannot believe it worked. I'm so happy. That is wonderful. Look at that. We have roto wheel success. I am so thrilled and it didn't fight me too hard and long to figure that out surprisingly. So, that means that uh I'm just going to do a few more rounds of play testing here. Stick this plastic back on my uh metal acorn nuts. And then um I really should do a gameplay video, but I didn't bring my tripod and I don't know if there is a way I can do it without it. So, we'll see. Okay, I've got that taken care of. And
15:57
I think it was my buddy Mark Valoop who suggested this tool. Portable, rechargeable,
16:07
and handy. instead of using compressed air and spending 10 bucks a pop or more. And I just do this like you know multiple times throughout my dealing with the playfield. And I pulled out some pretty good stuff out of the corners initially mold rubbers and miscellaneous gunk. But oh look at that. It even has a light. Okay. I was doing a little play testing and a little trying to figure out all the uh rules. I thought I had a flaky bulb and then I remembered this is a nywump board. So I can show you the lamp test and how much better it is than the original gotle diagnostics. So, I just keep hitting this white button inside the coin door till I see hardware. This is an old board, so it's going to be different on the newer Nwamps. Now, I hit the start button. Now, I go back to the inside coin door cuz I don't want displays. Lights is what I want. Now, I hit the start button. And look at this. An actual proper lamp test here. And sure enough, my 3X is out, which I was suspicious of. So, that is so much better. Okay, for whatever reason, I was trying to get a special and um it did work, but I'm at max credits. So, it went from 14 to 15, but I didn't get a knock. So, just receeded this connector here for the knocker. Checked everything out. Seems to be wired fine. Uh, I did it with the power on, but I recommend not doing that cuz I heard a little chirp of the soundboard and I thought I might have fried it. So, always turn things off. Fortunately, didn't fry the soundboard, but listen for it.
18:19
We got knockers. All right. Do you want to hear the best bonus meltdown in pinball history? Here we go.
18:46
Isn't that amazing? And would you look at that? After all this time, there's freaking roto target parts in the coin box. And also this playfield latch. I knew I was missing one. I didn't realize it was here. So that's bonus. Check it out right there. I can install that now. Okay. I wasn't sure if that clip was latching in properly. We can see. Look at that. That is
19:24
looking good. So, I literally just used the screws that I took out of the roto bracket. I got that snugged in there now. And uh let's uh see if we can do this without breaking anything. Kind of might need to pull out the plunger. Okay, ready for the satisfying click. Boom. That is uh on there. Good. All right. I gave the cabinet one more vacuum and uh organized the coin box, threw out the trash, kept what I wanted to keep, and I'm including what needs to be included when I list this machine for sale. But this uh inside of the cabinet has come a long way. All right, I think that is basically a wrap. I have cleaned up the playfield glass. I don't have it installed right now cuz it's too glary. And I'm going to zoom in so we get rid of all this dust. But brief summary, when this came in, it was a bit of a basket case and it had some pretty good funk all along the exterior. Moldy, mildwy, white, fuzzy goodness. So, cleaned that all up and cleaned up the coin door, changed the bulbs, rebuilt the shooter rad, but this cabinet is in real nice shape all in all, and the back glass is a beauty. It's tiny little bits of wear, but overall cleaned up nice. And of course, I replaced one of the displays that was a little dim. Replaced every single board in the machine. The original MPU was poached. The power supply was testing okay, but needed a rebuild, so I traded that in for one that was rebuilt. Same with the soundboard. Put in a driver that I knew was um good to go and repinned a poopload of connectors. Obviously, I did the ground mods. I did the fuse mods. Replaced some miscellaneous diodes and um other electronic components where needed. Cleaned up the playfield, which turned out very nice. All new rubber. Tightened up all the posts. I had to do a lot of toothpick and glue on, you know, half these posts. Went through all the bulbs, cleaned all the switches. put on some new flipper rubbers. The aprons in nice shape. Of course, I disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the uh dreaded roto wheel, which is now happy. And um I'm sure there's lots that I am missing, but I think Close Encounters is finished. So maybe I'll bring back my tripod at some point and do a gameplay/tutorial video. But for now, that is a wrap. Thanks for uh joining me on this uh adventure. We'll see you on the next one. Uh