I always loved the game since my childhood.
Loved to play a game after eating my french fries.
Now I have a project machine and will ordering a brand new backglass from PPS.

Peter
www.inkochnito.nl

Great game, I love my blackout!

One of my favorite pins to play, but I need to find new inserts for mine

Thanks for starting this owners club. Blackout was the first pin I bought. Seems like I played it every night at the local bar back in the day.

I have a tech question for the group.

My Blackout has a Rottendog MPU 327 board. Everything works great except that the green bank lights will not go solid when hit - they continuously flash. I have spoken with the owner of Rottendog and he sent a couple of chips that I replaced on the board but it did not fix the problem. Anyone experience the same problem or have any ideas about what might be causing it? I still think it is the board.

I am thinking about buying the planetary pinball backglass. I have two original back glasses. I,would consider selling one,of,them if anyone is interested.

Thanks.

Check this thread to see if yours is OK. My board was fine...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/warning-to-rottendog-327-owners-check-it-now

I love Blackout, I had it along with some other system 6 machines about 3 years ago in my lineup. Learned a lot of pain repair on these machines.

image (resized).jpeg

I have one of the new PPS backglasses on order and am getting ready to strip the playfield for a full clean and wax before putting a playfield protector on it. This is my first pin, so I'm spending way more money on it than makes sense.

I've also installed the Rottendog 327 MPU, Rottendog power supply, and a Kohout sound board while I take time reconditioning the original boards.

Oh yeah, and I'm nearly finished with my LED conversion, have a new speaker to install, and will be replacing the volume pot and ancient power cable.

If I ever stop tinkering with it, I'll put a sticker on the inside that says "Orbit complete!" with the date I finished the core reconditioning.

It sounds super great with a nice new speaker turned up to the max, esp the bonus countdown

Anybody have the ability to scan their in good shape cabinet and send the scans to Jeff at Pinball Pimp to make stencils?
My Blackout's cabinet need a repaint, and nobody does stencils.
Jeff said he could do them if he had a scan, but mines not worthy of scanning.

I could probably do it if Jeff would seriously consider making the stencils. I have a few scuffs, but nothing that would stop the scanning process or impede his ability to clean them up.

13612278_10157210574350430_7163969970611394600_n (resized).jpg

Don't forget to put some fuses in line with the 18V and 34V bridge rectifiers.
Or you can put in a Bridge Board from me.
Available from Big Daddy Enterprises or Marco Specialties.

Brug Bord 03 klein (resized).jpg

I talked to Jeff about a year ago, and he said if someone could send him scans, he could/would do them.
If you contact him, he can give you specifics.

Thanks! This would be great!

Love my Blackout!
Just pulled the trigger on a PPS backglass.

Would love to see CPR making a repro playfield...

Anybody with a decent extra playfield for sale?

Got in touch with Jeff and sent him the photo above. He says my cab is definitely good enough to scan for stencils, so I'm going to get the details from him on what will work best for the scanning grid and see if I can get something to him. I'm hoping he doesn't say the rails have to come off. UPDATE: Whew, no they don't.

He's sending me the scanning details, and I'll try to get it scanned and sent to him in the next week or two.

I'm working with Jeff on another machine and he has been incredibly helpful and cool about the whole process.

Nice!!

Thank You!

"BLACKOUT!"
"BLACKOUT!"
"BLACKOUT!"

My favorite call out!

Great game. The one I picked up probably should have been parted out. I did get it playing great, now I'm onto the cosmetic issues. I've been collecting pieces for a while now.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/williams-blackout-repro-backglass

In case someone has been thinking about a PPS backglass and hasn't seen this ad...could save you a couple bucks.
(Not mine, just sharing)

Especially if shipping is less. I'm eagerly awaiting my repro and am curious as to whether or not some of the small mirrored details are in the new glass, specifically - portions of the gloves and details on the helmets that are mirrored on the original. Haven't been able to tell from photos of the repro whether or not those are still present. I do see some of that detailing on the umbilicals, though, so I'm optimistic.

if you can highlight some of the areas with this problem I will check the glass and report back

I'll try to get a photo tonight that shows the original mirroring clearly, but the spots I'm talking about are noted in the attached image. I wouldn't call it a problem, really, but I didn't even notice the mirroring in these areas until I was taking photos for somebody interested in purchasing my original bg and was curious if the screening for the repros carried them forward.

blackout-details (resized).jpg

I went home at lunch and checked over my PPS repro back glass, and can confirm mirroring in the helmet and glove areas.

Can anyone post a pic of the correct circuitry on the board for row 7 lamp matrix, please?

Here you go.

Blackout Lamp Matrix0001.pdf

Blackout is a great game. Best system 6 game out there. In my opinion it even beats firepower.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^what he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Excellent! Thanks for checking!

Hopefully, Popbumper caps will be remade.

I have an extra, mostly populated pf. Send me a pm if you need parts!

(I will be holding onto some parts for my Blackout.)

Edit: No pop bumper caps That would have been the first five inquiries...

I am claiming my spot in this club

Can't wait to work on this one, but I should work on my project pins in the order they came in...

IMG_6516 (resized).JPG

IMG_6517 (resized).JPG

Blackout was my first pin and still own it. Quick question - how difficult is the orbit shot on your games? My will make it rarely (with most of the time the ball only making it as far as the top rollovers). Not sure if that is how the game is supposed to be, or whether my flippers are weak, incline too great, and/or my skill (or lack thereof). Otherwise game plays great!

Try replacing the eos switches and the flipper button switches.
Most of the time they are burned and worn.
Use the tungsten tip switches, NOT the gold contact switches.
Orbit shot should be completed with a straight shot up the orbit every time.

Where do you get those? Every place I see eos for sale is gold

EOS switches on system 6's is definitely tungsten, NOT gold. Gold switches are only for WPC era machines that have circuitry controlling the EOS. System 6 they are disconnecting full voltage.

Best place for any flipper parts on these machines is Pinball Life
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=664

-Hans

Getting a few e-mails today about my drop target boards installed in Blackout, so I did an update to the diagram to answer the most common question.

-Hans

http://www.siegecraft.us/pinball/images/AK-02-010.JPG

Thanks. I will try replacing the eos switches on my game and see if that strengthens my flippers. Right now the flippers feel more "rubbery" on my Blackout than my other games (which have more snap to them, although my other games are newer/more powerful coils).

Every eos switch I buy from pbr is gold, whether for EMs, gottlieb, Williams ss, etc, but they're nice big round pads, not the small low current ones on a WPC. I'd still like to try the tungsten ones though. I measured the resistance of one of the brand new gold switches vs the slightly pitted originals on my super straight and super straight had lower resistance.

The switch in the link you posted also looks gold to me. Unless the tungsten ones are also gold colored, and I'm just an idiot.

Hans-

After you pointed out the lower jumper on the one board and I changed the position of it, mine is working fine.

Also, on my Blackout, the center target bank only has one white/yellow wire.

Got my upper boards installed yesterday (as per old diagram) and all is working fine.

Should I leave it alone, or change it to match your new diagram??

My only question would be the 1 white/yellow wire instead of 2.

Thanks Hans!

I changed my EOS switches, but the ball still didn't make the orbit loop in most cases (falling just short) so I decreased the angle closer to 4.75 and that seems to have fixed the problem.

1 wire or two all depends on how they daisy chained the switch wiring together for a given row/column. If it's at the end of the chain there will be 1 wire. If it's in the middle somewhere there will be two.

Mine takes a good clean, shot to make it all the way around. I get a full orbit about 8 of 10 times. It is because I have my game set super steep. When I do make the shot, it drains SDTM about 50 percent of the time.

Got my Blackout over 11 years ago. Put the Kohout boardset in it, and have never had any issues since.
Replaced all connectors with Molex, and rebuilt flippers, pops, drops, etc.
Just got the email that my PPS repro backglass will be here on Friday!

It stands next to my Defender Pin, Defender Video, Stellar Wars, and Cosmic Gunfight (well, if I get that finshed it will)!

"Orbit Completed!"