Question about the fish bone-us target. The one I am working on is stuck and won’t move. What do you need to take off to get to it? Does the tiger ramp need to come off? Would like to see if I can get it working this weekend if I can. Also need to put in half a dozen bulbs or so.

I’ve already fixed the issue with it saving the settings and the spinner in the playfield. Someone must have removed it and installed it 180 degrees off since the plug was off and the connector was on the wring side. Cleaning the opto and turning around the assembly fixed it.

Thanks for the reply. I went through the whole Bad Cats thread and in one of the early posts saw a picture where the rubber rights sort of melted into the mechanism. I expect to find something similar. I looks like I may need to take off both ramps to do it. If so I'll just wait until I bring it home. I'll need to do a full tear down on the top to clean, wax, and re-ring anyway. Just wanted to see if there was an easier way to pull out that whole mechanism to go through it. At the moment I think that is the only part not working.

This evening we took care of the rest of the lamps. My son helped. One had a broken solder connection on one end of a diode. After that all bulbs appear to be ok.

Got in a few games and it seems like a really fun machine! Will be a surprise for the wife. I think she will like this one!

Of all the pictures in the image gallery for this Bad Cats thread I didn’t notice any that showed the underside of the playfield. Anyone have any for reference?

Hello Chris,

Those pictures are awesome. What a great reference. One thing I was curious about was the single lamp boards. Mine are red too. I was wondering if they were all like that or if mainly the early ones had them.

I've got my machine running well. Just need to rebuild that linear target for the fish bone-us, clean/wax the playfield, and find 4 plastics. One to the left of the fishbowl ramp is missing and on the right side I have 3 broken plastics to find.

What size rubber rings are needed for the linear target? I’d like to order some so I can have them here before trying to get into that assembly.

I just got an original manual in the mail today and saw that assembly diagram. The illustration is great but it doesn't say what size rubber rings are on assembly #1. From pictures it looks like two regular rubber rings. While I probably have a couple left over rings I'd rather order a couple fresh ones to have before I start. I'd rather not tear off all the ramps, etc to get to it then let it sit for a week waiting on a couple parts. Worst case I can just order a couple each of the small rings just to be covered.

According to the repair log here the rubber rings should be 3/16” in that assembly.

http://www.jeff-z.com/pinball/badcats/repair/repair.html

What version is your Bad Cats? When I check my game the display shows LA-2 and the sticker on my game ROM shows REV 2. On IPDB.ORG it mentions L-5 so it looks like mine may be running an early version of the code. My game is all orange with the painted cabinet and head and seems to overall be an intact unaltered original early game.

Does anyone know what fixes and updates are in L-5 ?

Unless the MPU board is completely trashed by battery damage all the boards can be rebuilt. There are several people that work on them. Just redid the boards on mine, removed the battery holder, added NVRAM, and upgraded to the latest ROM set.

They don't seem to come up that often so you may want to widen your net a bit. If you want the machine and it has board issues that shouldn't hold you back as long as you factor that into the price.

I don’t know if it has been mentioned but I believe I found a bug in the most recent code for Bad Cats.

If your current game ends and you want to start another immediately after and press start while the back glass lights are flashing it will start a game but there is no skill shot lit. You lose that initial shot and just light whatever the ball hits without the possibility of a 2x bonus. Rest of the game plays normally. If I wait that doesn’t seem to happen.

Can someone try to replicate this and confirm you see the same behavior? I’m running the latest rom code. Any other odd features to look out for or quirks in the current code?

Congratulations. It is a fun quirky game that isn't very common. Does yours have decals or a painted cabinet? Seems that some are mix and match too. Also some have black paint around the edge of the head.

Mine is the all orange version with a painted cabinet and head. It's a nice survivor. Had some issues when I got it (wheel in playfield wasn't working) and a bad battery holder. Luckily no battery damage so I just removed the holder and went NVRAM in that board. Just need to rebuild the variable target and replace a few broken plastics. May try to do that this weekend.

Why are you replacing the display? Is the one in it now acting up? Even if a display is out it is still useful for parts. I'd be interested in that as-is.

Ok. That looks nice. So why exactly are you thinking radcals? Seriously? I would save those for a trashed cabinet. Unless it looks a lot worse in person I bet you can just clean that up and do some minor touch ups and be good. I would totally prefer a nice original survivor with minor touch ups than a refreshed cabinet. All my games are original but I will probably re-stencil my Grand Lizard. That one needs it.

Wait till you get the game to decide.

Bad Cats is a nice machine. I have mine next to Rocky and Bullwinkle which also has an animated back glass. Both family friendly games.

Bad Cats is just a fun quirky game. While it may not be as deep as other games it is one that can just make you smile as you play it. Nice to have a variety of games and this one just appeals to a lot of people. I'm just thankful to have a nice survivor machine. It is sitting next to a Rocky and Bullwinkle (very system 11 like) which also has an animate backglass. and the two work well together as family friendly games.

I expect that it is best to keep bulbs for the flame effects for the candle and grill. Mine still has all lamps but may eventually end up going LED for the inserts. I've done color matched inserts on other games with good results. I tend to stay away from super bright LEDs as those are usually annoyingly too bright. I've used those but sparingly.

Those are definitely great LED's and I used some behind a Meteor backglass under the rocket exhaust. They work great when powered all the time but I'm not sure how those would work when the MPU is trying to control the flickering on top of that. Won't hurt to try it.

I would check for mechanical issues first. When you push the target does the shaft turn the encoder wheel? That is often a problem. If that is working then check for cold or cracked solder connections or a wire that is broken loose.

What do you mean hasn’t been swapped? Are you talking about a new reproduction playfield? Many would prefer a really nice original over a reproduction if the price is the same. To me it’s all about the condition of the game whether parts were replaced or not.

I get that about the touchup work and/or wear. The comment on the playfield swap was more in general and not this specific game for sale.

That is one of the best options. Did that on my Bad Cats and working great ever since. Just need to be really careful unsoldering the original RAM as it is easy to damage the traces and pads on the board if you don't have good desoldering equipment.

Better than AA batteries! If you have to use AA then the only ones I would consider at the Energizer Lithium AA as they last long and have yet to hear of those leaking (but I guess any can leak)

Paws is watching your progress and wants to see how it turns out....

Paws_BadCats (resized).jpg

That's awesome you were finally able to find one. I hope this means you may consider code updates for the game! I know there is at least one bug if you start a new game while the backbox GI is flashing you lose the skill shot on the first ball. I'll be happy to help if I can like I tried to do with Pinbot.

Sorry for your loss. Hardest part of having a pet. Hopefully lots of good memories.

I think I have a flakey switch on my game. Going to try and dig into it this weekend. Anyone happen to know offhand what the 5000 point switches are? Often a game will start with 5000 points.

I'll be checking these this weekend and will double check all the switches while I am at it. Thank You!

Everyone looking for one is going to suggest you sell it. Really it all is on you. Have you played it enough not to miss it if you could never replace it? I had one on the list for a long time and lucked into one. It is just such a family friendly theme that I don't foresee selling. Just a quirky, silly, fun game.

So if the game was called Good Cats then maybe she would have been ok with it. (If she hates cats)

There is also a bug if you start a game while the GI is flashing at the end of a prior game you lose the skill shot.

I am running the ROM version L5 in my game and it is totally reproducible on my machine. When a game is over you have to wait until the backbox GI starts to do the seizure inducing flicker. If you start a game then for some reason none of the lights will show for the skill shot and you can never it the 2x bonus on launch.

If you press the start button when a game ends before the backbox GI flashes or after it is complete it is fine. But if I press start during that sequence then no skit shot for the first ball of that game.

I had helped testing you PEMBOT code (which is awesome) and will be happy to test any new code for Bad Cats or help with coding in any way. Maybe you can leverage some of the 680x code I did for the Bally Backjack that I updated.

I am having issues with the MILK drop target #3 in my game. Has anyone had issues with the slotted optional sensor? Haven't dug into this much yet but will be doing some troubleshooting this weekend.

So to close the loop on this it was an issue with the opto for the #3 milk target. Solder joints were all ok but a lead was broken off between the sensor body and PCB on the component side. Just soldered on a new lead, re-insalled the sensor, and washed the board.

Working perfect now.

Will probably order some of the replacement optical sensors to keep on hand for next time.

Should put a label to cover the windows on the EPROM chips when you get a chance. For the settings are you using the coin cell? Is it fresh? Have you checked power from the holder to the power pins on U25. I haven’t had to replace any of the diodes for the battery backed RAM yet.

I had a bad battery holder in mine but just put a socket in U25 for NVRAM. You need good equipment to do that or the board can be easily damaged.

If you have the AA batteries wired in you may want to pop out that coin cell.

Sounds like you making progress on the game!

Have you looked under the playfield carefully to see if there are any pinched wires? Maybe a lamp socket that is bent or touching something it shouldn’t. If it has never worked correctly that you’ve seen is there any evidence of prior work or repairs. So many things are caused by prior repairs done incorrectly, connected wrong, etc.

Your machine sounds like the original board definitely had battery damage and was a bad board. Lots of people buy new boards then put them in only to find the issues they are chasing were in the machine the whole time.

The Rottendog boards for the System 11 have gotten better. There are at least 3 different variations that I know of. Can you post pictures of the board? The latest one has two multiturn trim pots for the audio section. If the board has been moved from game to game who knows if any of them may have done something to the board. I’ve had to repair a couple in the past and found a bad PIA which was easily replaced. You could try swapping the PIA for the lamps with one of the others to see if it clears up the lamp issue.

That is one of the earlier versions. Since your original board wasn’t showing that sign the definitely try swapping PIA chips. Also things happen when working on the games just unplugging and plugging in connectors and moving harnesses. When things are disturbed new issues can pop up.

Mine is just like that. Never really noticed it until you pointed it out and I specifically looked for it.

Is your cabinet painted or stickers? Also, is the cabinet all orange or does it have the black painted trim around the head?

I think my game is an early one. My cabinet is painted and is all orange. I noticed some red boards in your pictures which is also in early machines.

So, maybe the early ones are like this and they fixed it on later games.

Sounds like his game went to the right home!

I would be in for one.

Are any of those spots going to be completely hidden once the ramps and plastics are all installed? Some may not mater so much. But I can see where you wouldn't be thrilled to get one new with those spots.

Was this graded? Do they still do that?

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.

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.

I just looked at mine and both are question marks. I think my game may be an earlier one since it has a painted cabinet and head with all orange. No black trim around the head.