In 20 years or so I can’t recall ever working on a Gold Ball, or even a Grand Slam for that matter. They share the same board set which is unique to those two games save for the logic which is also used by Baby Pac-Man and Granny and the Gators. A combo solenoid, lamp driver and power supply is used as well as a modified rectifier board. When I lifted the playfield on this Gold Ball this is what I found.

For those of you familiar with the game you will immediately realize something is wrong, besides the Gottlieb transformer mounted on the side of the cabinet. On closer inspection I was starting to see what was going on.

If you look close enough you will see that this transformer/rectifier panel is from either a Mr. and Mrs Pac-Man or possibly an Eightball Deluxe Limited Edition. The FS-2 Starter and socket as well as the markings from where the ballast used to reside is a dead give away.

Obviously these are the wrong parts. The rectifier board used in Gold Ball is different in that it has only one bridge, which is mounted on top instead of underneath. It only has one resistor and instead of having two transformer input plugs it only has one 12 pin plug. Oddly enough the output plugs are identical but pinned slightly differently. Fortunately I found out “by accident” that this modified rectifier board even existed. I’ll post part two soon and I’ll go into more detail as to how I didn’t blow this game up sky high.