Finally getting around to working on my Atari Middle Earth prototype pinball machine. Machine does not work of course. Looks like it has had some wiring done to it plus some pcb work. I did a video of it showing what it does when I turn it on and off and back on again. I checked all connections and cleaned all the edge connectors. As well as the socketed chips on the pcb. I have 5 volts on the board and 14.96 going into it. I am wondering if it is a board issue or something else that is causing the issue from the wiring that was messed with. Also thought about the big capacitors in the back of machine, but they look like they may have been replaced. From looking at other pictures of other machines the big capacitors that look original on the other machines are silver colored. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. Here is link on video

The rom are you talking about 608 and 609, the Eproms? The machine locks up as you can see in video. It does a brief attract mode then locks up. As for those mods on flippers I am not sure why those was done. I recently picked up a working production model middle earth and I put the board in it from the prototype middle earth and it does the same thing in it. So it is definitely a board issue and not anything else in the cab.

I would probably order them. As one on each board is in a socket and the other is soldered onto the board. I had thought about trying this mod. Not sure if it would help it or not. Or if I should just order the new eproms first.

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Also could you possibly post some close up pictures of your lower right flipper and upper right flipper. The production one I have I am trying to figure out a problem with it. I noticed the upper flipper one of the diodes was blown. Flipper still works but when you hold button it hums and will get hot. So I ordered a new one and got it yesterday and hooked it up, but now when you hit the button it blows fuse on the transformer. If you hit flipper button briefly it will dim lights and right side flippers wont do anything. So for some reason having 2 diodes is making it not work. So I put the old coil back in which is not the correct one. I think it might be a bally. But anyway it works, but you still can't hold right flipper button for long period as that upper coil will start to get hot. I'm not sure why it's having that issue with that's extra diode

Thanks for the pictures. I will look it over and compare to mine. I noticed in the manual it says micro switches, but see yours has leaf switches like mine. But I have seen some with the micro switches. I wonder if ours are early production runs and later they switched to micro switches?

So I tried that reset mod and I thought for a second it was gonna work. All the lights was working and such, but then a coil started firing non stop and sounds locking on. So I undid that mod and its back to the way it was. So i think Ill order new eproms. On my production middle earth I mentioned the flipper coil issue, I took that new coil and ohm tested it and it shows bad. So they sent me a new one. I got that today. I ohm tested it before I put it in and it showed good. So I installed it on the left side first to see what it would do, And it did not fire at all. I thought what the heck. What is going on. So I put the old one in and it worked fine. I then put that new coil on the right side where the one is that I want to replace and I fire game up and hit the flipper but and it blew the fuse again. I put old coil back in and it works, but that coil does not have both diodes. One looks like it blew at some point, only the leads are left. So I don't know what to think of that. Not sure if these new coils are not made right for this machine or what. And when it blows a fuse it blows the bottom one on the transformer. It doesn't take out the one that is on the edge connector assembly.

Yeah my wiring for the coils appears to be correct. and the diodes are in the right direction. So perhaps its the coils themselves. Maybe they are not made correctly.

I would like to see some pictures of them. Would you mind posting some.

So I replaced the 608 and 609 roms last night and it still does the same thing as it did in the video. I also changed out the dip switches for new ones and still no change. Anyone else have any thoughts?