I am really thinking about buying a CPR playfield but looks to me like the colors see off "much brighter" i cant tell if its just the pictures or what. Anybody have any thoughts that has seen them in person compared to their game.

Yeah I may have to breakdown and buy one, I don't think I will be able to find somebody to restore my original

I agree with you %100, mine is not trashed but not good either and with the right skilled restorer would blow any remake away.

thedoctor see my thread below o asked this same question. I took a step back from pinball for about a year and now I can’t believe the prices. People more or less attribute it to supply being so low. Games getting bought up restored and not leaving collectors hands. It’s crazy

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/what-happened-to-prices

Does anybody have an original playfield from a swap that they did or are doing that is in ok shape. I would like to buy one to restore

Based on what I have been seeing I don’t think that’s going to cut it. Probably looking at 8-9k

What condition is it in is the key?

That was a steal, if the wear is minimal to none yeah it’s worth that

Do you have a picture of the connector. It may be easier to help you out.

Pinball life may have them too. Great Plains is another good resource

Can one of you guys take a picture of the wiring on the light back board. Mine is hacked to crap. And I want to rebuild the wire harness. Whoever owned the game before me staples in bayonet sockets and put 455 bulbs in.

Bryan_Kelly are you sure that’s right. That’s what mine looks like I assumed that silver wire and bayonet sockets are a hack.

Wow learned something new today

Has anybody on here used the Phoenix arcade decals on their game. Wanted to know if you found they were easy to work with.

eBay but you have to buy the set. Email darin see if he has any front decals laying around he will sell

I am afraid so it’s a giant pain in the ass but the only way is to pull it from the game

Is there any difference between the magnet burn protection kits that are out there. Between eBay, Marco and pinball life they are all various prices. My gut says there isn’t much of a difference but just want to make sure my new playfield is well protected

Damn I already ordered it from eBay, oh well This works just as good as the in-line fuses?

Arent you better off just getting the replacement board as extra precaution

Is the back of your guys DMD/ speaker panel painted? I have always seen the back side left natural color of the MDF with an ESQ initial printed on for other games but my TAF is painted on both sides. Just curious since I am starting a resto and had to buy a new panel and wanted to know how to paint it to keep looking original. I know it’s a trivial thing but I am a part n in the ass some times

Starting my playfield swap and was going through and documenting and taking pics of the solenoids and noticed something I wasn’t sure about.

Is the thing kick out supposed to have a diode on it? Just didn’t seem right to me but also never really noticed it. Do you guys have the same set up. Also don’t remember seeing a coil wrapper like that before

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Yeah that didn’t seem right to me either

Any reason why you could think it was thrown in there besides the simple fact that is what whoever owned this game before me had on hand

Thanks man, I will remember the words of the zen master during the whole process

I posted this in the restoration section but also figured I throw this on here since it’s a TAF dedicated thread

I reached out to kstairmantis about a replacement (underside playfield) thing box for my TAF restoration, to which his response was, this is on his list but he has yet to make any. After brief back and forth I am going to send him mine so he can use as a template and also mentioned that I would throw something up here to see if there is genuine interest. I know its a minor detail but mine looks like crap all old and grey and will look even worse when I put all new stainless scoops into the game. I have seen Bryan_Kelly nickel plate this and the line box for KornFreak28 way back when he did his game for him but with the price of plating these days that's

Ha I think my game is missing that I don’t ever remember seeing anything like that. does anybody make those?

What does this board do, looks like in the book it says it’s the 5 switch and diode board but what I don’t get is it’s attached to the lighting wire harness not the switch harness.

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Thanks, I suck at reading the manual

You are correct sir

Does the opto circuit board on the bottom of the playfield control the thing flips opto at all. A while back I accidentally hit touched the connector and shorted out the game and from that point the thing flips never worked. I replaced the optos and still didn’t work. I am in the process of a restore and sending out my boards to Chris Hibler to do NVRAM and some other minor repairs, I would also send him the opto board to test if it’s possible I blew something up on it again not even sure if that is even the right thing or if there is somewhere else I should be looking.

Do you guys know what is supposed to go in these holes. They are t-nuts that are on the top side of the playfield but there was nothing in them on my game. There are 2 on each side

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Ah ok, I am not going bother putting t-nuts in when I do my playfield swap

Have any of you used the clear plastic bumper bodies on your games. I am intrigued but wonder if it will spill all the light out instead of concentrating it through the bumper cap. What about the transparent skirts. I usually like to keep my games looking original as possible but not opposed to a slight upgrade here and there.

Hell NO!!! Once is enough no desire to do them more than once this is why I am asking about to put a Marco order in so was trying to figure out if I should go a little outside the box

Yeah I am on the fence on the bodies. I meant the translucent colored skirts like the red skirts that you can somewhat see through or even green that goes with the grass in the cemetery. I know it’s sacrilege for those that are purists so I probably will keep it original

Never thought of Molexing those I was going to staple. I am slowly leaning towards molexing the entire game. I bought the supplies to Molex the flipper coils but I may order more stuff and do all the switches and rest of the coils too.

That’s awesome, that’s what I am waiting on too I can’t wait to see how it looks. How long did it take from order to shipping. I think I am still about 3 months out.

I pretty much expected that he’s an awesome guy to talk to and is passionate about the hobby. I would rather wait 4 months for a quality cabinet than get it in 3 weeks

Ordered the Zitt clear I like the idea of the frosted look. I don’t have access to a sand blaster so frosted paint will probably be my only option. What do you do just mask the outside and spray paint the inside with frosted paint. Which one do you use if that’s the way you do it

Any particular brand work better than others. I always use rust oleum for standard paint but I also know the frosted stuff is a little more specialized

Thanks I’ll post some pics when I do them.

I don’t believe there is any functional reason for it in the game. My guess is has something to do with either the screen printer when they applied the art work or when they made all the cut outs. There were different manufacturers contracted by Bally/Williams to make playfields which is why there are always slight variations so it could be that’s the way one did it vs the others. The reason is a total guess by the way but seems the most logical.

By the way that’s a nice playfield, restored by HSA one of the best playfield restorers around

yes pleas sent pics I can’t wait to see what it looks like.

Are plastics sets no longer produced for TAF, I see planetary sells them but they are reduced price. Didn’t CPR make them when they made the playfields

pinballinreno

Just got my Zitt pop-bumper bodies yesterday, they are a hair smaller than the originals, thats not going to be a problem is it. Just dont want to get them on the game and the lights and leads back in the game and have to do it all over again

Thanks Dave!!

Do you go all LED? I still like the look of the incandescent bulbs and when I test fitted it with a 555 bulb it touches the top of the pop bumper cover. I love the way the frosted body looks (I painted it) but wondering if it will cause an issue down the road

I was afraid you were going to say that

Do they make shorter wedge bulbs that would fit?

Condition is obviously going to be a huge determining factor. If you have a bunch of things to fix like wear spots at at the scoops, chewed up shooter lanes, and ball drops costs can go up fasts. Things like planking is what’s going to increase costs on the em side. If you love the game and it’s something yo I will always have it’s well worth it. If they are as good as the original HSA it’s well worth it

Go with the NVRAM board looks so much better

Yup! That’s what I did got the new board and the Marco magnets

I never noticed TAF being that dark before but hear a lot of people saying it lately. Is it because more of the modern games are much brighter and I am only really used to 90s era WPC games

Do you have any recommendations where on a TAF to put them As you probably saw in some of my other posts I finally warmed up to the idea of slight modifications and am now curious

Yes that would work fine but, I would hate knowing that there is an elevated risk of magnet burn just waiting. At least with the board or the in-line fuses you have a safety net

Ha yes I did, the post above you. Oops I’ll correct now

The CPR playfields are the best ones as far as remakes go even they have a flaw or two that can be made perfect. They are out of stock but I know they are floating around out there. If you do get one I recommend sending to one of the playfield restorers out there to do slight correction as well as a nice clearcoat

None that I know of unfortunately. Ron Kruzman kruzman on here is one of the best around he is based out of MI and does phenomenal work ( I have two of his playfields) he mainly does corrections and clearcoats on NOS and reproductions he stopped doing restos a few years ago. He packs them in a crate that he makes specifically for playfields which is essentially bomb proof. If you can find a nice repro shoot him a PM work out the details with him and have the person mail it to him to save on shipping.

He sure does, the clear on my TAF is beautiful

Have you guys noticed that sometimes on the switch matrix they put two of the white and striped wires together. For example on two of my switches I have a white and blue and a white and grey wire attached to the non banded lug of the switch. I traced them back to the column and row and think I figured out that the two grey wires are on a “not used” in the matrix. I guess my question is why bother having the wire at all. Is it because it comes off of one branch and it would not be possible to eliminate it?

So for example the right outline switch which is on the white and blue row and red and green column had a white and grey wire soldered to it.

I also noticed the same thing with the Grave A.

The interesting on both of those columns the white and grey that corresponded to them are labeled as not used.

This game has been in pieces for a couple years and I am putting it back together so just trying to figure it out.

I thought it was kind of odd myself. The other thing I can think of I wonder if the blue stripes on that wire faded a bit.

Ha no worries it was just really strange to me. By the time I noticed it was 2 AM and I was fading fast

Followed the wire it’s on the blue and white string either they used a very light banded wire or it faded over the years. Picture for reference you can see how it can be mistaken for grey

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That’s crazy because it’s so confusing since white-grey is used elsewhere, especially for anybody trying to repair a game. Not sure how often that would have came up in the operator world for Bally to think about it. Obviously they didn’t have restoration in mind for collectors when they did that

Yeah pretty much much in line with what I was thinking too

Anybody have any opinions on the jet bumper skirts. I am pretty sure I am definitely ruling out the solid green, but can’t decide which looks the best out of the others.

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Not a clue it’s supposed to be a hard material the transparent version. It’s going to be in joke environment if that helps

Was thinking standard colors for TAF

Thanks for the advice on the bodies can’t wait to see them lit up

It has begun. Holy shit drilling out the clear to countersink the jet bumper screws was a bitch. Definitely ghosted the clear in a few spots. Thankfully a couple of the spots were able to be glued back down and the rest are hidden

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It’s was a NOS Bally playfield I picked up about 5 years ago. Ron Kruzman did the clear coat on it

Took a lot of persistence to get that damn playfield

Outside of a touch up and clearcoat from a restorer not a whole lot you can do. A low tac Mylar if you can find it but not sure how great that will look

Is the backboard on the playfield supposed to be perfectly flush with the edge of the playfield. I was doing a playfield swap and I got new rails and a new backboard. The backboard sits in a little from the edge maybe like a 16th of an inch m and there is a gap between the wood and the bracket I thought I remember it sitting totally flush. Problem is I do t have my old backboard I sent it out to use as a template.

Thanks I just measured mine it’s a 32nd too. Does the bracket just not sit flush on the backboard. Of course I didn’t take pictures of it when I took the game apart stupid me

Here is a picture

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Thanks, I moved everything back and its lines up perfectly. Was a pain in the ass to redo but was a learning experience I guess. That was my thinking too, get the rails and backboard on first so I can feel ok with leaving it on the rotisserie. I just did it ass backwards I put the sides on first then the backboard.

What are you looking for? I think micro’s are still available. CPR is sold out but Pop up here and there in the market. I know starship fantasy carried cpr at one time he may have inventory laying around

1) I agree there, I am not a huge fan of tricking the game out with mods but to each their own. If you like it go for it, if you are on the fence leave it

2) they make covers that you can put on the sides so when you lift the playfield up it doesn’t scratch the hell out of the sides

Chances are the previous owner was trying to prevent wear would be my guess. Not sure if you have any history like was it routed or was it in their home collection and they were just trying to be extra cautious. May have also been before the days that clear coating became popular or they didn’t want to take the whole playfield out. If it doesn’t bother you I would say leave it alone. I know people that know what they are doing take Mylar off with caned air and solvent to remove the residual glue but i sure as hell don’t trust myself to take those chances and risk pulling paint or the insert off. It shouldn’t really devalue since the game is already in good condition and it is removable by the right person. If anything like you said it probably saved the playfield from wear overtime. I have been told by quite a few people even in a home setting you will eventually get some kind of wear or ball trails no matter how well you maintain and a very nice clear coat although costly will protect for a very long time.

Second that PA decals are awesome

I can’t say anything about coin taker but I can tell you the PA decals are a dead match for the original. They even have the same texture as well. They are 350 for standard and 400 for gold on the PA website

Wow he raised his price. I just bought a replacement set two weeks ago when UPS destroyed them when I shipped them to the cabinet guy and paid 350

Coming from a guy who is strictly a purist when it comes to his games and doesn’t believe in most mods I have to say it looks pretty freaking cool

I have a shit load of pics that I took when I attempted to do mine if you run into something you really need let me know there are over 100+ pics I wouldn’t even know how to get them to you

There shouldn’t be any green on the rose stem in the front cabinet decal it’s always been a pale yellow color. Usually fades to a light faint washed out blue. Buy the PA ones the best hands down

Hmm cant tell if that was color fading or there was a hint of green behind the yellow on the originals.

Well then I stand corrected, from the pics on his site it looks like he doesn’t include it on his decals. I don’t have my decals here anymore to check in person so I can’t tell if it’s his pics or if it truly isn’t there

Phoenix arcade has been known as one of the best cabinet decal companies around he’s been around for a while. He screen prints everything and is usually dead on color wise his also has the texture. He makes awesome TZ decals best ones I ever saw and is also one of the ones the more selective restorers use. I know everything else on his TAF is dead on so I am surprised the green would be missing. I also haven’t seen a nice unfaded factory TAF in a very long time so I could be misremembering

No need to apologize

I must be color blind because I can’t tell if the amber should be on the top or the bottom

Think it just depends on who the end user is. Some are straight purists and just want it to look like it did in 1992.

I am in the keeping it original camp but a guy I trust twisted my arm into tasteful LED upgrades on my TAF resto I can’t wait to see how it looks. I am still in the fence with putting leds behind the backglass tough

I do like the way the blackout looks I have to say

Is there really a difference between the boards or is it basically like coke and Pepsi

Sorry I meant is there a difference between the LED OCD boards and Hergs not if they were needed. Boards are a must from what I have been told and read throughout the site.

Ahh got it.

That settles that then. The rest of the detail/accuracy of the pa decals outweigh the lighter green shading in the stem

For those that replaced their topper did you go with Smokey or clear. Whose did you use

Whose did you buy. Starship only has the clear one now

Thanks, didn’t want to bug you.

I hear you. It beats not having one. I drilled out the rivets on mine to clean 30 years dried up grease out of it. Just hope I put it back correctly lol