Thanks for doing this!

Guess I got lucky today. I got a notice that the rare 5 opto drop target PCB used on Bad Cats and Swords of Fury was restocked. I snagged one but it looks like it is sold out again. I assume it must be a repro PCB or maybe NOS? Either way happy to snag one as one of my optos is very broken on my orginal board.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=C-13239

Not in stock any longer. I bet DumbAss could make those, though.

Image on the website shows likely OEM. It could also have been a GLM board (http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/index.html?http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/products/pinball/sy115dt.html). I don't think any other manufacturer makes this board.

I suspect this board has not been reproduced due to lack of demand. It's not a complicated board. In order to reproduce this, I would need a template ("donor" or more precisely "loaner" rather than donor) for physical dimensions. The online PDF for this game does not include any information on the board so that doesn't help either. The board is simple enough that the schematic can be inferred from the trace layout.

I will pull mine and send it to you if you want. Lemme know.

Got my return labels from cpr today. Still at no time during any of the emails have I seen any acknowledgement or ownership from them of the issues, literally talking about anything but the grease under the clear and the hole through the back coating on the Backglass. It's odd, but I guess I'm going to get a refund on the TAF backglass and a replacement playfield that's actually been checked before being shipped, so their ownership or acknowledgement of the issue is irrelevant, other than the principle of the thing. Anyway.... Will update when my next pf gets here. I was SOOOOO excited when this arrived, now it's just Meh, kinda ruined the whole thing. :/

Odd. So does Marco just randomly find a NOS opto board on occasion or one from GLM? I’ve been on the wait list a few months. Glad I pulled the trigger fast.

I'm just imagining someone stumbling into one on a shelf someplace. Lol

I recently had a shit experience with them. They totally dropped the ball on my plastics for Comet. Art would just fall off; sometimes come off when removing the protective film or had one where the art was coming off straight out of the box, before even removing the film. Had one plastic that was physically damaged straight out of the package. FOUR sets of plastics later, it seems to be resolved, but we’ll see. It was super frustrating dealing with them; they would not respond for long periods of time and when they did, I’d get like one sentence out of them and no resolution. They did eventually make it right and sent me a fourth set AND refunded me in full.

I do have a (local) friend with a Bad Cats but I haven't seen her in quite some time. I don't want to rob this board from her machine unless there is a real reason to reproduce this board. I know it would be nice to have this but I don't have a ton of spare time to work on something when there is no demand.

You can tell if it's OEM or GLM. The OEM board will have through hole components. The GLM board will have SMD components. It is also possible that another manufacturer now makes this board. There are a small number of manufacturers making these small boards available. Most of them are OEM circuit identical and inherit all the issues (if any) associated with the OEM circuitry.

I once asked BAA (when they maintained a separate store from PPS) about tokens for another game. The token sets were long out of stock. I got lucky. They had just "found" a set of 300 international tokens. Brand new. I bought them. I still have that completely unopened set of tokens. I don't know how often these stores "find" stuff but it does happen.

Well if you get bored and want mine to make them from, no problem, will ship it to you.

So this is what Marco delivered. I’ve never heard of this company!?

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Gulf Pinball. I think they either have an exclusive distribution arrangement with Marco or they are wholly owned by Marco. You will only find this board manufacturer at Marco.

There are plenty of board manufacturers out there so you have a choice. Having a choice means knowing what you are actually purchasing.

Some examples (not this board but other boards made by the same manufacturer):

• https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/doctor-who-owners-clubtime-lords-welcome/page/126#post-7805440
• https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/doctor-who-owners-clubtime-lords-welcome/page/126#post-7805454
• https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/road-show-a-19359

I am sure you can find more like those. I am sure you can find posts stating the exact opposite. That last thread indicates to me that you should probably test that board as soon as possible.

Marco should update the image associated with the board. The image on their site implies you are getting an OEM (either repaired or NOS). This board is not what is imaged.

Finally, if you paid $120 for that board, you got taken to the cleaners. Components on that board are in the $0.10 range (except the slotted opto). The major cost of that board would be due to the dimensions. No way the dimensions would make it cost $120.

My offer to send you mine so that you can make these much cheaper and more readily available still stands

Looking to sell my Bad Cats. Will be at expo on Friday only if anyone is interested, otherwise located in Mukwonago WI.

Lots of pics uploaded to my Google drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ai63-B5CCQ1tUnUvaYDXVu7VX53fZ7fh

Original cabinet, overall in solid condition but does have wear around legs and edges.
Art is in good shape on body, faded on head.
Backglass is original and in great shape.
Playfield swap was done when I got it with a nice condition original. Some very small touch ups done, and small wear for around top in lines.
Repo plastics install, originals included
Leds installed
Replaced the red posts with orange to match art
Ramps in good shape for being original
Boards in great shape

Only two things I can think to mention:
Fish bone target in back stopped registering some time ago
Could use a cleaning
Just stuff I haven't gotten around to lately.

Asking $5200.

Yeah I'd buy one, just to have it as a backup.

I've been testing this ROM for months. Really impressive stuff!

Well the 3rd party 5 opto board works but the larger design makes it VERY difficult to connect the molex connectors without having to snip one of the zip ties. Also the new board doesn’t have the rubber grommets so there is slack when the e-clip is back on it. I had to use a nyliner washer to make it work. Pretty annoyed that Marco advertised this as an OEM. I’m gonna reach out to customer service but not sure they will really do much. Is the opto available for me to just fix the original? One of mine broke on the PCB causing the issue I was having.

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I'd explain the issues with it being shown as OEM and that it's not even the same size, orientation and you want to return it. I wouldn't use that turd.

The flasher behind the trashcan plastic on my game has never worked. Based on the adjustments it looks like the flasher should light up together with the Fishbone flasher under the playfield. But on my game the two are not wired in parallel. Before I start digging, can somebody please confirm that I am assuming correctly?

Weird that it is larger. There's no a lot of complicated trace routing required for this board. It's 5x almost identical circuits with about 5x components for each circuit. Looks like there is a lot of unused board space on the Gulf board so I can't explain why there is a size difference. I'm sure there is a reason for this but only the manufacturer of the board would know since I cannot deduce one.

The board can be repaired. Most boards can be repaired. Even when through holes and traces have been pulled. They won't look like beauty queens but it should be possible to make them work.

The schematic and BOM for this board is tough to find. The Bad Cats PDF online is incomplete. This 5-opto drop target board appears to be used in SoF but that manual is also lacking. Fortunately, the Taxi (which uses a 3-opto drop target board) manual appears to have a schematic and BOM. The BOM shows the part number is 5490-10159-00 and is available on Marco for $13 (!!!!). That's insane. You can probably use a TCST1103 available on PBL for $1.

There's nothing demanding on this circuit that needs anything special (like fast response). The slotted opto beam is either interrupted by the drop target interrupter or it is not. That gets translated to a binary state. The switch is open or closed.

If you're not comfortable repairing the board yourself then you could send it out to a repair technician to have it repaired. It might be cost prohibitive due to shipping to/from and the labor/parts cost. Then again, it's hard to see how the total cost (shipping/labor/parts) would be equal to the $120 for the new board.

I had to fix the OPTO board for the drops in my game. A couple of the leads for the OPTO's broke off right at the PCB. Luckily those boards are easy to repair and don't cost much to repair.

Didn't have any issues with the through hole plating on these. If needed I have eylets for repairs when parts need it to help with mounting the new parts.

If you don't have the info you need on this by the time you see this, let me know and I'll check whatever you need me to check.

We have ONE seafood window left and no plans to have more made anytime soon.....

Can vouch for the high quality on these! Better grab one while you can!

I'll take it.

Marco sells the rubber grommets; I’ve had to replace them before for other boards. They look to be the same diameter. I’d, at the very least, have Marco send you a set of those since they claimed it was “OEM”.

SOLD. We are officially sold out of all the seafood wheels, if anyone wants one PM me or reply here to get "on the list" for if/when we have more made up.
Thanks everyone.

Marco offered a full refund or 30% off refund which I think is fair. I needed the board so I kept the refund. Any chance you have a link to the rubber grommets? I couldn’t seem to find similar ones.

Usually on boards like this the rubber grommets are sold separate. Go put any opto board in the cart and they usually pop up under related items

Considering the origin of your game Joe I would have sent it back and had the og fixed I think. Can always do that later I guess.

Yea I’m planning on buying an opto and fixing my board. Def a necessity to keep my machine original. I was just excited to have Marco alert me to know they had what I thought was a OEM Williams board! I’ll keep the 3rd party PCB has a spare. Seems like a very simple fix assuming I buy the right opto…ugh $12 for one opto!

If I had to have it, sure, but I understand that you don't have to have it working, you can wait, it's not a vital part of your lineup...Not being a dick, but for me, Marco could suck it and take it back, sell that shit to someone else. I'm just really a principle guy and that's crappy.

My 2nd (replacement) CPR playfield arrived.

There are no obvious issues with grease or dirt under the clear on this one, the T nuts for the window are not stripped or screwed up, there are no obvious gouges or scratches.

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The shooter lane is ugly AF though

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I've got it sitting against a wall "curing" I guess. I probably won't install it because of the shooter lane, but we'll see. I think they still have them available so I might order another and see it looks better and sell this one off or hang it up or something. I dunno, kinda dejected. Bleh.

I need to open mine. I've never opened it and it's been here over two years.

It probably could use some air.

Consider it a calico !

I’m looking for the ramp decal with the tiger on it. Doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. Can somebody provide a scan or sharp high res photos of it so that I can redo them myself?

Seafood Window arrived safely in Christchurch, New Zealand today!
Thanks NO GOUGE PINBALL, looks great, will get this installed soon.

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Thank you!

What does everyone's jackpot stop at? Mine varies, but seems to always be really close to 20M. I don't see an option to change this in the menu....

How did that plastic I sent work out for you, was it oem or didn't match and no workie?

Best Black Friday purchase ever

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I guess it was really for sale after all LOL

That really seems like an item we, as a community, or we as in me and you, or with DumbAss should reproduce

The Opto board? Is that a needed part? I've made a ton of similar optical encoder boards for my robots. This is just like those and I could easily make some up.

The PCB is super simple with the opto and a resistor the only components besides the connector. That should be easy and cheap to re-make. The mechanism consists of about 20 individual parts, most of which are off the shelf. Without disassembling there are 4 parts that look custom to me: the bracket, cat target, drive assembly roller and pin. I am guessing that fabrication of those would be the main difficulty.

Except for the cat target I wonder how much demand there would be since the remaining parts look pretty much unbreakable.