Differences between The Addams Family Gold and regular TAF pinballs

This article describes the differences between a genuine Bally The Addams Family Gold pinball machine, of which a limited run of 1000 were made, and the regular The Addams Family pinball of which 20.750 machines have been produced.

Some people are confused about the Gold machines. There are 2 types of Addams Gold pinball machines. Once the regular production run had broken the previous sales record (held by Bally Eight Ball - 20.230 machines), every machine then produced also had a gold colored cabinet. These are however regular Addams Family pinball machines ! The only thing that makes them special is that they were produced at the very end of the production run.

This is a regular production run Addams Family pinball machine with gold cabinet.

The real Addams Family Gold machine is also know as 'The Addams Family Special Collectors Edition'. Six months after the run of regular machines was finished, Bally / Williams decided they would do this special run of 1000 Addams Family machines with gold trim. On one day the whole run of 1000 machines was sold out. This article is about the differences that this special run has compared to regular TAF games.

Most people only notice the differences in gold trim. But technology advance in 2 years, so there are quite a lot of small differences once you start to look into every detail.

Cabinet differences

The gold trim on the cabinet is the most noticeable. While the regular Addams Family pinball machine has blue, grey and yellow colors on the cabinet and backbox, this is all changed into Gold.

This is how the cabinet of the regular Addams Family pinball machine looks like. The sides have a lot of blue in them, which is replaced with a gold color on the late run gold and special edition.

Front of cabinet of a regular TAF.

Front of cabinet of a Special Collectors Edition (Gold). Note the purple in the Addams Family logo at the buttom and the rose near the start button. This is a pink color in the regular (and late run gold).
The lockdown bar, ball shooter assembly, siderails, legs and leg bolts are all gold colored.
There's a plaque at the bottom right of the cabinet.
TAFG games have an 'Extra ball' button at the right side of the coin door.

Closeup of the plaque in the lower right corner of the cabinet. Note it's held in place with tamper-proof screws.

Differences of playfields

The Addams Family Gold also has a gold-themed apron. Note the gold plated siderails.

While on the regular Addams Family the apron was silver colored.
A very important difference on the playfield can be seen in these pictures: regular TAF games had an extra text in the right outlane: 'This playfield is protected by Diamond Plate'.
TAFG playfields were done by a different manufacturer, they do not have this extra text.

Some playfield plastics have different colors. Things box is red, the bookcase assembly is blue, and the pop bumper caps have different colors.

On TAFG these parts all have an orange/gold color.
The center metal ramp is also gold plated.

In the playfield artwork there are small differences. The star pattern in the red carpet is a bit different between TAF and TAF Gold. In TAFG the largest star is less visible.

Further there are some color differences in the paint used for to make playfields. This is noticeable in the red, green and orange colors.

Playfields of Addams Family and Addams Family Gold were produced by different playfield companies. The stamps (CCC and SP) on both will be different.

The date stamp on the TAFG will be in 1994.

Internal changes

Electronically the biggest difference between Addams Family and other WPC pinball machines is the Fliptronics board. Addams Family is the only one that uses a Fliptronics-1 type of board. All other WPC games use a Fliptronics-2 board, but games like The Getaway do have the same revision 1 WPC power board.
The Addams Family Gold is an exception to this 'rule': it also uses the Fliptronics 1 board, but already a later revision of the WPC power driver board.

Both TAF and TAFG use this fliptronics 1 board. It has NO bridge rectifier at the bottom right, unlike Fliptronics 2 boards used on all other WPC games.

Flipper buttons of a regular TAF still activate a regular leaf switch, like on older pinball machines.
Some regular TAF games may however already have Fliptronics-1 flipper opto boards, these have a metal actuator arm.

The WPC power driver board is revision 1, which still has a flipper relay.

TAFG uses a later revision of the WPC power driver board where the relay has been removed (see red arrow).

A look inside the cabinet of TAFG shows a lot of differences:
The flipper buttons activate type-2 flipper opto boards and not leaf switches.
There are 2 white microswitches that are closed/opened by the coin door. One is the extra interlock switch that has been added to WPC games during the Twilight Zone production run.
The wiring of the Extra Ball button will also be part of the wiring loom.

Serial number decals are also different. The Addams Family still uses Williams old style (like on System11 games).

The Addams Family Gold uses the new Midway style of decal. The date here will also be in 1994.
These decals can be found on the back of the machine and inside of the cabinet at the right.

Extras

Addams Family Gold pinball machines came with an extra certificate. The number of the machine is printed on it.
The manual supplied with the game is also different, TAF has a purple colored cover while TAFG has a gold cover sheet.

The software is also different and has a few more options (and support for a buy-in button). Therfor a lot of people install this eprom in their regular Addams Family pinball machine.

Credits: some pictures provided by Johan DM, Michel O and Erik.