The Internet Pinball Serial Number Database or IPSND collects serial numbers of pinball machines and publishes a database of these on the Internet. Our goal is to make available a registration of all pinball machines in existence and allow tools for slicing, dicing and visualization of the data.

Games: 6,703  Serials: 70,951  Visitors: 82,714,800  Members: 5,816  Photos: 46,320  Lat/Lng: 39,542  Masks: 70,951(1,058.50%)  Traits: 579  Nudges: 234,858  Backglasses: 1,865
  Most Serials: Twilight Zone(1,358)  Most Submissions: Dennis Braun(6,171)  Most Points: Dennis Braun(45,943)  Highest Quality: The Knight(17.00)  Most Nudges: pinballservice-nl(30,155)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - IPSND/IPDB No. 536 - August 1978
Backglass Image
Manufacturer: D. Gottlieb & Co., a Columbia Pictures Industries Company
Players: 4
MPU: Gottlieb System 1
Production Run: 9,950
Game Type: Solid State Electronic (SS)
Model: 424
Submissions: 170 serials of 9,950 (1.71%)
Coverage help:

Coverage is a mathematical interpretation of the serial numbers that have been submitted so far. The term 'coverage' relates to the amount of the production run that has been 'covered' in the given submissions.

There are two coverage methods shown, each has a different approach of calculating an guess on the number of games produced by analysing the currently submitted serial numbers.

Linear: Linear coverage simply looks at the highest serial number and subtracts from it the smallest serial number to estimate the number of games produced. For some games, this works fine because the serial numbers were sequential and without gaps (Early Bally, Early Stern, etc). However, this approach starts to fail quickly for games that serial numbers are part of a bigger numbering scheme (Williams pre 1984, Current Stern) or that intentially had gaps/skips in the numbering sequence(Gottlieb post 1960). If you see a linear coverage number that is higher than the known production run, it is probably not the best way to look at the serial range and you should look at the clustered approach below.

Clustered: Clustered coverage assumes that there are gaps/skips in the serial sequence for a game. It groups the serial numbers together based upon how close they are to the next serial number in the sequence. If they fall within a certain threshold then the SerialBot assumes that there are valid serial numbers between the two. If they are far enough apart, then the SerialBot assumes this is a gap. Once all the gaps and groups are determined, it sums up all the linear ranges in each group. This way, if a sample run of games started at 15,000-15,100 and the production games started at 17,000 onwards, it would assume that the serial numbers between 15,100-17,000 were a gap an are not counted. Using this method, as more serial numbers are submitted the gap analysis will get more accurate.

18,127 (182.18%) linear / 8,700(87.44%) in 4 clusters 497 wide.
Cluster Serial Number SerialBot Submitted By Country Game Part

Submit a new Game Trait

The following traits help

Game Traits are properties for an individual game that you would like to see tracked along with the other information gathered for a serial number submission. Some examples of existing traits are... Joust: Black or Blue bottom Arch, Black Knight: Faceted Inserts or Normal Inserts, Twilight Zone: 3rd Magnet Installed or not.

have been submitted for this game...

Field NameDescriptonSubmitted BySubmit DateSubmitted
There are no traits submitted for this game

Cluster Serial Number Country

This section lists any known game part serials that happen to match this game's serial mask (if defined). What this can tell you is if a game has any orphaned parts that might exist in other machines. This generally applies to CPU/MPU boards, Driver Boards, Display boards etc that are easily moved from game to game. Repair shops and distributors often robbed parts from other 'scrap' games laying around in a pinch if they were not able to fix the original part or of the original part was damaged beyond repair. If serials start showing up in the database as 'game parts', there is potentially a good chance that that game has been parted out completely, which is unfortunate. It is becoming more and more common for people to part out games and sell them on ebay simply because the seller can often make more money that way.... Please do not sacrifice complete games for money!!!

SerialBotSerial NumberTypeSubmitted ByCountryDetails
32997 02551G Display/Driver Rod McLarge Cyprus flag Cyprus
35932 02685G Power Supply Pistol Pete United States flag United States
34120 02730G Display/Driver Adam United States flag United States
31162 02730G Display/Driver Matías N. Brusa Argentina flag Argentina
24722 02730G Solenoid Driver John Vorwerk United States flag United States
45968 02742G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
35772 02779G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
48534 02927G Solenoid Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
35440 02945G Display/Driver Adam United States flag United States
27570 02958G MPU/CPU John Vorwerk United States flag United States
37627 02970G Solenoid Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
47289 03031G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
36065 03034G Power Supply Adam United States flag United States
35493 03101G Display/Driver Adam United States flag United States
27722 03187G Solenoid Driver Pistol Pete United States flag United States
48864 03395G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
51767 03453G Solenoid Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
35956 03812G Display/Driver Adam United States flag United States
35623 03812G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
56624 03901G Power Supply Rod McLarge United States flag United States
54756 03992G Solenoid Driver Rod McLarge Canada flag Canada
21135 03995G Power Supply John Vorwerk United States flag United States
36237 04056G Display/Driver Adam United States flag United States
29877 04077G MPU/CPU John Vorwerk United States flag United States
75816 04144G Display/Driver John Vorwerk United States flag United States
25958 04365G Power Supply Antti Peltonen Finland flag Finland
33969 07049G Power Supply Adam United States flag United States
36511 07058G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
35632 07148G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
26900 07193G Solenoid Driver John Vorwerk United States flag United States
72698 07196G Power Supply John Vorwerk United States flag United States
28888 07202G MPU/CPU John Vorwerk United States flag United States
31876 07243G MPU/CPU Basil LeBlanc United States flag United States
37650 07374G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
69571 07577G Display/Driver Antti Peltonen Finland flag Finland
32994 08029G Display/Driver Rod McLarge Canada flag Canada
35773 08083G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
33007 08986G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
36149 09042G MPU/CPU Pat Herbert United States flag United States
27844 09042G MPU/CPU John Vorwerk United States flag United States
70306 09341G MPU/CPU John Vorwerk United States flag United States
33008 09352G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
75917 09391G Display/Driver John Vorwerk United States flag United States
72697 09391G Display/Driver John Vorwerk United States flag United States
29420 09537G Display/Driver Pat Herbert United States flag United States
48689 09560G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
36514 09841G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
47292 09976G Coin Door Rod McLarge United States flag United States
36513 10142G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
42958 10330G Display/Driver Adam United States flag United States
41484 10330G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
35769 10334G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
35449 10354G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
35626 10372G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
52910 10493G Solenoid Driver John Vorwerk United States flag United States
52240 10493G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
70662 10604G MPU/CPU Pat Herbert United States flag United States
70661 10604G MPU/CPU Pat Herbert United States flag United States
37654 10663G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States
43344 10730G Display/Driver Rod McLarge United States flag United States
29913 10770G Display/Driver Pat Herbert United States flag United States
29628 10826G MPU/CPU John Vorwerk Canada flag Canada
42872 10879G Power Supply Rod McLarge Canada flag Canada
78158 10944G Power Supply Antti Peltonen Finland flag Finland
70316 10944G Display/Driver Antti Peltonen Hungary flag Hungary
47447 11079G Power Supply Rod McLarge United States flag United States
47297 11079G Power Supply Rod McLarge United States flag United States
47485 11593G MPU/CPU Pat Herbert United States flag United States
29417 11640G Display/Driver Pat Herbert United States flag United States
28492 11664G Solenoid Driver John Vorwerk United States flag United States
35398 11873G MPU/CPU Rod McLarge United States flag United States

This section lists any known information about how to physically find serial numbers on games created by this manufacturer. For all manufacturer tips, please visit the Serial Tips Page . (Please do not post serial numbers here on this form.)

Posted 10/2/2008 2:04:32 AM by Mal Voisin
Serial found stamped in ink on top of head.
Posted 6/12/2009 5:25:53 PM by Larry Tuma
Serial number in lower cabinet on right side on top of 1st stiffener. Also on right top inside near ball shooter
Posted 9/17/2010 2:38:21 AM by Max Bowman
Stamped in upper left of cabinet on front panel above coin door. In timber. This is between the coin door and removable steel strip that holds the glass in.
Posted 6/5/2012 10:47:57 PM by Frederic ROBIN
Serial found inside cabinet nearby front door, stamped.
Members can submit new tips on how to find serial numbers! Sign up for a free membership here!

This game has the following serial number formats defined in the database. As serial numbers are sumbitted, trends are recognized and defined or information about a serial number format is collected through historical information.

TypeExamplesRegExMaskLowerLimitUpperLimitAutoAssignable
Production Game 02598, 02849, 03296 ^(?<sortdata>[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$ 1000 False
Sample Game 01023S, 01184S ^(?<sortdata>0[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(S?)$ 1000 1999 False
Game PCB 02598G, 03296G ^(?<sortdata>[0-1][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])(G)$ 1000 True


The Serial Bot Summary information here gives a detailed explanation of the Serial Bot analysis for this specific game. The theory behind the Serial Bot is this...

Every game has many many serial number submissions, the goal of the IPSND is not to guarantee that *all* information is 100% correct but that over time, the system should automatically devalue inaccurate submissions while increasing the value of correct submissions.

You may click on the SerialBot score of any submission to see how it was calculated.

SerialBot Color Codes:
- Not Validated The serial number submission has not yet been validated by the submitter via email.
- Unknown There is no known information on the serial number format for this game yet. As more submissions are received we can start to make a best guess on the serial number format.
- Good If a serial does not fail any of the tests for a status of Warning or Bad, then it is good.
- Suspect A serial will have a suspect status if the format is technically correct but there is something wrong with the data. Examples might be that the number might be too high or low for the known range of serials for this game.
- Bad If a game has a serial number definition mask defined for it, then a serial may be marked as 'bad' if the number does not validate agains the mask. Masks are created for games by looking at known serial number formats and consist of a regular expression to define the format of a game serial.

SerialBot Scores:
1 Point Awarded if the serial number has a game assigned to it. This autoatically makes submissions with a known game more valuable than submissions without a known game.
1 Point Awarded if the serial number has been 'verified' by the submitter. A submission is 'verifed' if the submitter clicks on the link in the email sent to them for each submission. The basis for this rule is that submissions by people that do not take the time to respond to the email might be entering garbage data and/or giving fake email addresses. However, it is common for 'verification' emails to get stuck in spam filters etc, so, members may have 'verification' emails re-sent at any time.
1 Point Awarded if the submitted serial number matches one of the predefined serial number masks for this game.
1 Point Awarded if the serial number was marked as 'Physically Viewed' during the submission process. This is an interesting distinction as there are many times that serial numbers are submitted off owners lists, Ebay auction, etc. While these serial numbers are valuable, they may also be innacurate. In comparison, Physically Viewed serial number submissions are numbers that the submitter has actually been in front of the machine reading the number and then submitting it. Since it is more likely to get a good visual from a physically viewed machine, this gains an extra point.
1 Point If a photo is uploaded with the serial number submission. The submission automatically gains an additional point. Be aware however that this opens the submission up to 'Nudges' by members where even more points can be added or subtracted based upon the quality and accuracy of the photo.
-3 to +3 Points Members can 'Nudge' every sumitted photo once and give it an extra boost of 1 point or take away 1 point depending if the photo matches the submitted serial number. While any number of members may nudge a serial, the nudging can only affect the score by +/- 3 points in either direction.

The following map shows the locations of all serial numbers that were submitted with a geolocation...