Gottlieb Sure Shot (Gottlieb, 1976) Game Count question

[Ommief]

I'm getting into the guts of the game these days and found something discouraging. The game came in with the new game button set to start up even without quarters going in. From everything I've seen, this is a good thing. However, when it came in the game count was 36,018. I've played 100 games or so and I'm looking now & finding it's still at 36,018. I've figured out that the wiring to the game counter is wired to the coin chutes. If I put a quarter through, the game counter bumps properly. Of course the downside to this is that all the games that have been played since the new game button was set have not been counted. Shouldn't the counter be wired to the Start New Game relay?

 

[Coil_Smoke]

I'm thinking wire the counter parallel with the reset relay coil. I think that relay gets pulsed only once per game and is not energized for long periods of time.

 

[pinballdaveh]

often vendors would make this change to keep track of coins inserted. a coin tally sheet would be kept next to the cash box. when the machine was collected the coin collector person would write the the new tally on the sheet to help verify coins received. it was also done so the vending owner could make spot checks to be sure the collector wasn't stealing. so coins counted was more important than games played, instead of adding another separate meter. an additional wire was prob. added and connected to the relay coil like coil smoke says. the meter usually has 2 black wires coming from it that get soldered to connection lugs near the meter. clip off the additional wire splice and re-solder the meter wire back to the original lug to change it back to total plays. once operation is verified clip off the other end of added wire and remove it. on some machines i think bally EM's did have a 3rd lug , so vendors could make this change without adding the extra wire.

 

[Ommief]

Thanks for the informative replies! I'm not sure how accurate those tally sheets would be though - I was inserting coins into the chutes and the right hand chute took a quarter and advanced the counter. However the left-hand chute took a quarter and bumped the counter twice as I believe you got 3 games for 50 cents. So it seems to me that the quarter count vs meter count would only be an approximation. Thanks again, I'll move that wire when I get a chance.