Sudbury, MA
Hi all. This will be my first post at Pinside! Happy to have found this site.
As I mentioned in my "story" page, I inherited a Bally D&D machine from my wife's grandparents, and it has worked great. It is my only machine, and the first one I've ever worked on at all. It needed a few lights changed, and some other misc rejuvenating, like new rubber and balls. I also switched out the rechargeable battery that has been the downfall of many 6803 games for the AA package, and that has worked great. At one point, a few years ago, it had some trouble with the opto board that senses ball in the chute and acts as switches for the chute. I was able to find enough info online, as well as an updated replacement opto board, and made the change easily and it hasn't been a problem since.
The reason I need some help now is that the game powers up just fine, but refuses to start a game. Here's where I am at:
When powered up, the game comes to life, lights work perfectly, displays work perfectly. I'll try to attach some pictures. The start button is working, because when I press it, the display reads "1-4 can play credits yes". It resumes its idle behavior of cycling through the following messages "game over", "1-4 can play free play", and "00 00 00 00" afterwards. The lights are in the attract pattern with no problems. But the start button doesn't want to initiate gameplay. Is there a setting that I have wrong? I have the 6803 gamepad hooked up and working, and am reasonably adept at getting through the "Bally Testing is as Easy as ABC" menus. The only switches that are closed are the three outholes, because there are balls in the chute. When manually closed, other switches display as closed, so I am pretty confident that everything is right as rain there.
There is no sound/music. This has been sorta flaky the entire time I've owned the game, and it's something I've been meaning to get around to. It cut out a while ago. I think it's an unrelated problem, but I'm not positive. Would a sound problem disrupt the game from initiating? Don't know, but don't think so.
The flippers (and magic saves) don't activate when I press the buttons, even though the switches close. Not sure if they're supposed to activate when not in active game mode (standby/attract mode).
I hope that I have provided enough info to help someone help me. If any other information is needed, I'll be happy to do what I can. Sorry if there are mistakes with the lingo. I really appreciate places like Pinside. Sorry if this ends up being a double post.
