it really is a great game i have to work out the skill shot issues becuse the ball get caught up near the pop bumer lanes

Hope u do get it working right it's a fast great playing game

Baywatch start button using the Baywatch font.

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I just got a new switch for the shark hole from pinball life. It was pretty loose and would fail to recognize balls about 50% of the time. While I have it open, I'm going to put in the plastic piece to fix the skill shot.

If you do, could you take some pics of your install and post them?

I'm debating between going with pinballdork or yellowghost's (BIG thanks to you guys, by the way!) and just wanted to see what else someone was doing. I've got some really thin aluminum bar stock that I think will be perfect, and unnoticeable to the eye...

I'll try. I'm going to try to install it without removing a lot, so it might be hard to get a good shot.

My dmd just gave up mid play. There are some noises coming from the dmd. Cracking noise? Any idea to resolve or just take the plunge with a color dmd?

check connections/ribbons. Unseat and reseat.

If the game powers and still starts a game, sans dmd, try pulling and reseating your roms.

I had exactly what you describe last year, and after trying a bunch of things, I reseated the roms, and viola, back to normal. Just be careful that you don't bend or break any of the little legs when reinserting them.

Also check the two pin power conector on the back of the dmd.
And if the pins solder joints arent cracked.

No luck. The transformer on the back of the dmd makes a crackling sound?

Color DMD is awesome. I have a brand new Dale I could part with.

Which board is a rottendog? The dmd board on the large Sega DMD games is incredibly sensitive to the 5v. You want it to be pretty much dead on or your DMD will reset. Check the 5v at the power supply and at the DMD board. There is a service bulletin out there where you can make a new connector to pull better voltage but your power supply may need a rebuild as well.

To be honest I rebuilt basically the entire original one and was still only getting like 4.94v which wasn't enough to stop the resets. I ended up just throwing a new power supply in there and called it a day. It reads about 5.02v now and works fine. I will get a very rare reset but typically only when all the games are on at once and multiple are being played.

Now that my machine is restored and working, what tips are there for ensuring the skill shot side ramp works properly?
Mine gets the ball to the side coil 1 in 3 times and then the side coil fires it around to the flipper about 1 in 3 times also. This makes the side ramp skill shot a pretty rare occurrence. The correct coils are in each of the plunger spots and the 2 lift gates work fine

I could use some advice, maybe from those who have done a restoration.

I noticed today that the two flash lamps mounted in the cabinet under the backbox and above the pop bumpers aren't working. Is there an easy way to access those bulbs? The opening inside the backbox is too narrow to see anything, the lamp covers are riveted on from the back and the front of the piece appears to be stapled to the inside of the cabinet.

How does one change those bulbs?

I literally just finished a restoration on this machine. Those bulbs should be screwed in, not riveted. Or at least the side that the bulb attaches to. Each bulb is on a L shaped bracket. You need to at least unscrew the 3 screws that attach that plate to the back of the machine. Worst case then carefully remove the staples to take the piece out if in fact yours is riveted

You can get to them from the back. You need to remove the three screws at the back and the staples. I replaced the staples with a piece of double-sides tape.

Thanks, guys!

I see now that they're screws, not rivets. I was able to unscrew the bottom of the plastic panel and reach behind it to unscrew each dome, without disturbing the staples. Inside, I found a pair of 25 year old burned-out bulbs, which I replaced with LED's. Then I blindly replaced the screws and lock nuts and now we're back in business! Those two flashers really make a difference in the game's lighting!

Hi mate

Are you running Chads Baywatch code ? I know he tweaked the gate timing to make some shots more reliable. I'm not sure if that is your issue or not ?

Hey all, my plunge has the ball falling into the lanes.

Question.

What exactly is the ball supposed to do during plunging ?

Ok, I always choose lanes anyway as it’s easiest for points and bonus after three of a kind.

I’ll choose others and see the difference I spose!

Yes I am. Watching the Buffalo Pinball stream the Baywatch there fires the ball quite easily to the coil behind the shark flipper and quite powerfully back to the upper flipper. Mine does not do that

And if you choose lanes, if the ball is almost there you can move the light with the flipperbuttons to predict where it drops

Swapped the shark hole switch and cut a piece of PCB to fix the shark hole. Installed it with a piece of double sided tape. Didn't have to remove any plastic. So far, 100% of the shots work. Thanks for the suggestion!

On the Papa stream they also recommend to only do the top lanes for skill shot. The other two are to difficult and you do not get that much more points.
I never use the other options although they also work.

Top lanes are definitely the way to go. However, the stream also suggests avoiding the shark hole. I disagree with this approach. It can be very lucrative and also setting up a lazer kick for the rest of the ball and then going into multiball is a great strategy.

Keep in mind the Papa tutorial was done before the ChadH code changes were made. IIRC, he doubled the amount of points you get for the completing all 3 skill shots. It still might be wise to go top lanes if you were playing in a tournament, but it's more fun (and considerably more lucrative now) to complete all 3 skill shots.

Yep! The Skill Shot point values were adjusted...

The "easy" Top Lanes SPF shot is only worth 10M.
The "harder" Shark Hole shot changed from 20M to 40M.
The "hardest" Side Ramp shot is 50M.

And then the Skill Shot Variety Award for hitting all these shots in a game increased from 50M to 150M.

Hopefully that will incentivize the player to not always take the easy route.

Also, in the PAPA tournament they physically disable the Left Ramp lock. By doing this, they completely cheated themselves out of potentially huge Earthquake jackpot values! My code allows you to disable the Left Ramp lock via code, and adds the ability to get the jackpot functionality via that Left Ramp shot so you can still enjoy the full game.

Would be great to see a PAPA tutorial with the new code.

Interestingly, I find the Shark Hole shot to be the harder than the side ramp.

IIRC, the gate timing was also screwed up and that would also sometimes mess up skill shots 2 and 3, which is another reason I think Papa just recommended skill shot 1. With the timing issues fixed in your code, all the skill shots work reliably every time now.

I’ve replaced the coil, coil sleeve and springy washer and now the plunger is weaker than it was before on the auto plunge. Has anyone tried a stronger coil? If so which coil works?

Maybe it’s not striking it perfectly square in the ball?
I have a feeling mines not hitting it perfect and just missing a bit of the power it should have

It is, still not making it around

Okay, the auto ball launch is officially driving me insane.
I have put washers under the plate to lift the entire ball assembly and when it shoots the ball is now making it around 2 out of 3 times.

The problem now is whenever I hit the right flipper the ball launch noise happens and kills all the skill shots. The ball launch noise happens constantly in gameplay when I hit the right flipper.

Would the diode possibly be in backwards? I copied the last coil setup

Just to be safe, check the switch matrix for all things in the same lines, there could be a switch or contact wire faulty ie down the line
That could make weird things happen.

Switch test seems fine, nothing locked on or not working

I think a ball will still launch with both flipper held? Am I crazy or is that another one if my pins?
Maybe it thinks your flipping both?

A LOT of DE/SEGA/Early Stern games do that (which is not only very annoying, but catches people off guard in a tourney setting when they walk up and ritualistically flip the game to feel it out before meaning to plunge)

I know my GNR does, but I think it's disabled when set in anctual "tournament/papa" mode, but I like to play with the extra balls on so I rarely set it to tournament mode...

That said, with Chad's code, I'm pretty sure it's disabled (Thank you!!!)

No, I don't remember him doing that. Hold the right flipper button down, then press the left flipper button down, and the ball launches. But, yes, you can disable that by going into tournament mode.

*runs downstairs and checks machine*

Huh, I guess I never noticed. Good catch sir! Thanks.

I'm aware of that too but no, I'm only hitting the right flipper and nearly every time I flip the right flipper in gameplay, the game makes the noise like I missed the skill shot

The easter bunny was early here with some lovely colors.....staying at home is expensive!

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I removed the staples and replaced them with black screws. This mod is not visible during play but only when player lowers head almost all the way down to glas above the playfield, but gives easy access to flashers in case of necessary service.

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Beating a dead horse and all...but what has everyone done to get the skillshots working properly?

I'm running ChadH code;

I've adjusted the autoplunger to hit the ball dead center;

I've waxed the wireform;

It almost appears like the ball is hitting the gate midair as it comes off the launch wire form, so I will slow-mo video it tonight after work. That said, it almost seems like the gate is opening at the same time as the ball reaches it and is bouncing off 85% of the time.

Other than bending the wireform down, and seeing what's happening in slo-mo, is there anything obvious I'm missing?

And for the life of me since I've had the auto shark flip disabled so long, and would like to toy with it to see if I can get it to work properly, I can no longer remember how or which test/diagnostic mode where you place a ball over the appropriate shark flip switch, and the game will flip it for you, and out of the shark hole if it goes in...I know adjustment 50 is for adjusting the timing...but if a ball is rolled over the switch with the coin door closed, I get no flip in that adjustment...Can anybody refresh my memory?

Once I put in a piece of plastic on the left side of the launcher channel per the messages earlier in this topic, I haven't had a launch failure. But mine wasn't hitting the launcher gate. It was spinning a bit and hitting the wireform by the pop bumpers.

My problem is on the INITIAL launch, the ball bounces off the gate 85% of the times and down through the lanes; the relauncher works perfect since adding a shim (for tidal wave at least), and the rare occasion it makes it all the way around from the initial ball launch and the third skill shot option is picked....

I'm going to try increasing the rear levelers slightly as well...

If you've already looked at weakening the launch coil, maybe try bending the gate so it opens a little wider when activated.

I had that happening when I first got my game, and it drove me crazy. I'll tell you what worked for me. I inspected the metal post by the SPF lanes closely and I could see the left side of it (from the perspective of the ball exiting the wireform) was well peened. So mine was making minor contact every time a ball was launched and messing up the ball trajectory. The wireform could only be adjusted about 1-2 mm upfield because it was then making direct contact with plastic on the backwall. But guess what, I have never had a single failure of the ball to make it thru the gate since that slight adjustment and that was 2 or 3 years ago. Hope you have the same problem I did.

If you prevent the ball from getting to the gate (with your hand) does the gate still open on its own?

I recall having a gate issue with the machine I was working on. The gate would open in Diagnostics mode... but it would not open in the game. It was trying to open... and when the ball got to it, the ball gave it that push it needed to open. Make sure your gates open 100% of the time without the ball in the equation.