That playfield looks nice

I've been working in my Af-tor the last few days trying to get it 100% working. Such a cool pin. I have an extra playfield that is in fantastic shape too. I'm planning to have it professionally cleared soon....that should really get this pin playing fast.

I would like to have your old playfield after the swap if its up for grabs.

Quite a few other games had free play before this. My Williams Blackout from 1980 can be set to free play.

Af-tor is a pretty interesting machine. Has anyone found a source for some of the plastic mechanical parts (Thumper ings, levers, etc) Would like to find some spares in case any break. Would prefer to keep original and not have to retrofit other parts to make it work.

Did some more work on Af-tor and getting close to 100%. I noticed a couple lamps out. Checked the bulbs but they were ok. Then saw that they share a red/white wire and all of Row 7 is out. So missing more lamps than I thought. From the schematics it looks the TIP102 at Q54 may be bad.

My Af-tor is not booting. The CPU LED stops on 4. Manual says "SET-UP 4 should help in finding problems in the WATCHDOG circuit."

Anyone have the signature analysis manual by chance, or have any ideas? Thanks.

CPU 4 (resized).jpg

You could try swapping the two 68A09EP CPU chips to see if you get the same error. If not then maybe a bad CPU. If you get the same issue then somehting on the MPU board. If you have access to and EPROM programmer it would be worth pulling the ROM's and compare them with the images on IPDB.ORG in case one of them is starting to go bad. If it dropped a bit in the startup code it could be crashing there. Also if you have a memory tester you can pull the 2K RAM chip or swap it out if you have an extra around.

Any signs of prior work on the board? Luckily these didn't have a battery so corrosion isn't too much of a concern.

I had to do work on my own MPU to get it going. These as a bit more involved than some of the others since the two MPU's share resources.

Would be worth checking all the fuses too. Not sure if the one was out for the zero crossing circuit if that would prevent it from booting or not.

Hey, thanks, I did swap the 68A09 chips and got varying led results. I think both might be bad. I had access to one 68B09, but got varied results with that as well. I thought maybe both chips needed to be A or B. I ordered 2 68B09 chips to replace both. I replaced the ram with a spare I had, no change.

I wonder if the MPU sockets should be replaced.

Doesn’t look like there’s been any work on the board. It had worked fine for a few months, and then I took it to the York show and it started acting up right away, as it happens when you move a machine, heh.

I do have a rom burner, can do a diff on those from IPDB.

I'll have to take a look at mine to confirm what ones are in my game. The A and B relate to the speed rating and if they will run at a faster clock speed ok. The B version will run up to 2Mhz but will run fine at slower speeds. I think this MPU needs the EP version instead of just the P. the E means is for External Clock. The regular non E version won't work.

I've dealt with these same chips on some of the Williams WPC machines and have had to replace bad ones on sound cards and MPU boards before. Ended up buying a tester just to help verify it CPU chips are ok.

I haven't looked closely at what sockets were used but I have had to replace sockets on other boards.

Another thing to watch out for are the IDC connectors. If they have been pulled on then you may have a bad connection where the wires go in the terminals. Ran across that on one of my displays.

I'll be doing some work on mine hopefully this weekend. Need to figure out why I have a row of lamps out.

So I switched the chips again this morning, a few times, now consistently getting 7 on the board LED. Strange. Going to read the roms now. Could prob use new sockets.

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Those sockets are definitely suspect. I'd use a good quality dual leaf replacement.

That style looks like the type where you can carefully pry off the black plastic carrier leaving just the pins. That helps since you can warm each pin and pull out one at a time then clear out the solder later. Helps ensure there is no board damage.

I just recently got my own Af-Tor and got it running. Getting familiar with the architecture of this unique system myself. However I have repaired countless other games, boards, etc and will help where I can.

I appreciate it! The game roms matched with the ones from IPDB.

I think I’m going to sit tight until I get the replacement 68B09EPs.

I was able to get all the lamps running on my game. All of the lamps on row 7 were out. I just used a logic probe and started probing each of the row outputs on the logic board. Easiest place to to that was at the bank of pull up resistors at the outputs. I could see pulsing on all the lines. Then I did the same at the connector on the driver. No pulsing for the row 7. Ended up being just a bad connection on one pin of the jumper that goes from the MPU to the driver. Now everything is working on the game.

For issues like this a simple logic probe really help track down the issue.

Yes, it's "After" the apocalypse.

According to the desinger, Tom Sfrazansky he pitched a trilogy of games (based loosely on Mad Max) one game was before, one was during and the final was after and WICO only wanted to produce the final game.

Did he ever mention any details on the other titles? Maybe what event caused all the issues to become Af-tor.

Bey-For
Du-Ring
Af-Tor

I think I'd go for a Du-Ring LE with invisiglass.

Considering Wico only made this one pin,, if something goes wrong can you find parts? Especially the cpu.

Luckily the MPU never had a battery on-board like other manufacturers so battery corrosion isn't an issue. That is a huge plus for these machines. The only custom IC's would be the EPROM but the image files are on IPDB.ORG so those can be made if needed.

As long as the MPU isn't missing it can be repaired. I had to fix the one in my machine.

I really miss my Af-Tor. I wish I had been able to keep it.

I got the replacement 68B09s, but that didn't solve my reset/hang issue. I then started testing the capacitors on the power board. C1 (100uf/100v) was testing at 6uf. Replaced that, and then it would only reset, mpu would boot right back up to C. Getting somewhere. Then I replaced BR1 and BR2, but still had the same resetting. I had a spare LM323 in the box, so I swapped out the 5v regulator too. And now no resets!

Still have a few switch issues to deal with, and might be re-pinning some connectors, but getting there.

Nice! If my 5V acts up I may try one of these

https://www.ezsbc.com/product/psu5-nonoise/

There are so many fake lm323 out there this seems like a good option unless you have some known good stock.

That's exactly what I ordered. Usually have an extra on hand, but must have used it, kept an old one I pulled off a WPC, heh

I think they also made "Big Top", but the point well taken. It's funny I remember getting the big thick red covered WICO catalog of pinball parts back in the 1960's, and ordering parts for my first Gottlieb Sunset machine. They used to be a huge parts supplier, but lost their way when they tried to turn all those parts into real-live machines....

Robotworkshop Can you check what capacitor size you have at C1 on the power board, upper right? The manual says 1000uf, but I pulled a 100uf out of C1, which was bad, but this has me scratching my head...

I should be able to check it out this evening and will let you know.

I had a chance to check my game during lunch. The capacitor at C1 in mine is 100uf, 100V axial cap. You can use one with a higher voltage rating if you want. I have some on hand since the early Williams Power supply boards use a similar capacitor.

If the capacitor is on the output of the AC rectification, it was likely reduced in value to save a few cents during the manufacturing process. The bigger capacity provides smoother DC power, but costs more. For many designs, a smaller cap will provide stable enough DC... and save some money in the process.

Hey, thanks for checking, I determined it was a mis-read of the manual. The CPU board has a C1 that is 1000uf, I was looking at the parts list below the diagram, not above.

On the lower left of the power board, there is a red LED (CR102). Is that usually on?

If you are referring to the one by U32 then it is barely lit on my game when the machine is on.

This one. Had been lit prior to br/cap replacements. Don't see anything mentioning it in the book.

IMG_4796[1] (resized).JPG

That one is not lit on mine. Or my LED is bad.....

Robotworkshop getting everything back together and have the trough kicker firing on power up, seems to prevent the MPU from booting. I disconnect that solenoid section at the power driver board, and it boots fine. The three coils on that connector are the trough kicker, ball release to the shooter lane and the saucer/ball lock.

On inspecting the coils at the trough, they have diodes, and then, what looks like a ballooned diode, but both have it, so maybe that’s normal? Do you see the same?

The other thing I found was a green wire attacked to the ball guide/frame, with a frayed end, and not connected anywhere else under the playfield. Strange. Does yours have that green wire there? Thanks.
-Mike

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I’ve never had the apron off but I can take a look to see about the green wire and if mine has one. As far as that odd diode it should be a regular diode. Just a different case. They used to be more common but you can still get them. Will have to see if my game has those or if someone replaced it on your game. If prior work was done can’t assume it was done right. Would check for shorted coils and diodes, and if they are wired properly with proper orientation of parts.

I would really appreciate it. You probably don’t have to take off the apron to see if that green wire is there actually. So you can see the recognizable diode on those coils also. The replacement for the on marcos only has a single diode on it.

Have you looked in the manual to see if the wiring for the coils is shown there? It may show diodes on the coils/

Only found this diagram so far. Logical placement, not physical, so there are 2 diodes, but one might be on the board.

trough-coil (resized).png

Mine is setup the same way as your game. Connections to coils match and each coils has two diode like yours.

How do you remove the pop bumper caps on Af-Tor? Do they just pull straight off? Do you need to twist them off? Need to replace a lamp and don’t want to break one!

You'll probably just want to go ahead and send that thing south so I can handle it forever. No worries, I'll get it done.

Wish I had some information to help, but I don't. I miss my Af-Tor!

I'm sure I'll figure it out. Just hope that someone who has had them off can share how they removed one. It isn't clear in the manual. Just shows the exploded view. There doesn't appear to be any fasteners holding the cap. It must just clip on. Just not sure the safest way to do that. I don't want to break one!

If anyone finds a source for WICO parts for Af-Tor please share. I like this game and want to ensure I can keep it running.

Yeah I don't believe I ever pulled caps on mine either. I don't regret selling many games but aftor... Is one!

That is my concern. I always thought this was a pretty cool machine. When the chance to buy a non working one popped up I jumped on it. After fixing it had considered trading it but the game is really growing on me and I think I would regret it later.

I sold mine early in my time in this hobby as a means to afford my original grail (world cup soccer) which I do still have and won't sell. Otherwise I'd still have it. In retrospect I wish I had found another way.

Does anyone happen to have any displays for this game? Or happen to know of a replacement? I believe they are 40v

I haven’t seen any. Are your displays bad or missing? When I got my game some displays were out. Ended up that someone had tugged on the wires too many times and started pulling the wires on the IDC connectors going to the displays. Had to reseat all of those and got the displays back.