Yes. There is no freeplay setting on classic Sterns do people set the replay value to its minimum, 10,000 points

The sound should be at a constant volume the entire game.

Ok, so any clues on what to do?

Re-seat connectors? But which ones?

New capacitors? Not even sure what they do but seen people selling them....

Up top on your MPU are two ribbon cables that travel over to a small sound board on the side of the back box. You can try reseating those ribbon cables. Be careful because it is real easy to plug them back in and be off one pin. Also, one of the ribbons is keyed. Good lighting is nice to have. Pay attention to each connector as you pull it. Mark them if you need to.

If reseating the ribbons does not help, I think new capacitors on your sound board should solve your problem.

All of the back glass lift rails on my old Sterns are rusted badly so I have been busy replacing them with polished stainless steel lift rails that Gatecrasher makes.

The other item I am starting to replace is the white trim strip that goes along the sides of the classic Stern back glasses. I don't know about you but on all of my classic Sterns that white trim strip is just one more piece of plastic turned yellow from years aging and of nicotine exposure.

You cannot buy white trim strips. You can only buy trim strips in black. Some people are happy with the black trim strips. I'm not. I like the white ones but as I said, you cannot buy them.

I have found a solution. Here are 3 pics showing a comparison of the old trim vs. the new.

The old:

IMG_8451 (resized).JPG

The new:

IMG_8452 (resized).JPG

Side by side:

IMG_8453 (resized).JPG

Here are the new white trims on the Star Gazer that I am building.

IMG_8449 (resized).JPG
IMG_8450 (resized).JPG

Some people like the black trim and I get that. But for those who like the white as I do, here is how you procure some white trim.

You go to Lowes or Home Depot and get a length of white plastic channel that is used as a border for shower walls.

This stuff. It is designed to cover the edge of shower wall material which happens to be 1/8" thick. Your back glass is 1/8" so the fit is perfect. The only thing you have to do is make the short leg of the channel a little shorter than it is; You can leave it as you bought it which is longer than what Stern used but if you have access to a table saw you can trim the short leg to the correct size.

Eight feet of this shower wall trim costs about $3.00. It will yield enough sticks to do both sides and the top of your back glass. $6.00 worth will allow you to put new white trim on three of your Stern back glasses.

IMG_8456 (resized).JPG

Now, I need to put this on the other Stern threads.

Will try that when coil arrives - thanks.

And might need to buy this. The Big Daddy kit.

Stern VSU-100 Speech Board Capacitor Kit

Used on the following Stern games: Catacomb, Flight 2000, Free Fall, Lightning, Orbitor 1, Split Second

I’d replace the cables while you’re working on your pin. These mpu to sound board cables are well known to be low quality. You can buy them on Pinside from pinitech or see if you can buy them from big daddy to ship with the cap kit to save on shipping

Hey Spiro. Just joined the club. Where is the serial number? I dont see it stamped on the cab like other Bally's?

I mean "like Bally's" not "other Bally's".

Front of the cabinet on the lower left side. See here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/catacomb-club/page/5#post-3577714

Cool thanks!

Mine is 5313. Does anyone have a spare bagatelle ball to sell me? I have a 1 inch wooden bead in there now but it's not great. Also my backbox wire gate falls out of the track a lot. Is this common? I just removed mine for now as my ball will sometimes get jammed behind it when it gets out of the track.
20180917_154228 (resized).jpg

I may have a repro bagatelle ball that is pretty close to the original... let me check tonight

That would be awesome thanks!

I have one... Pm me your adresse and i will send it to you

You are the man! Thanks so much. PM incoming!

I am getting through reading all of the pages of this thread but not there quite yet but I did see someone seems to have had the same issue as me.

My background bass sound cuts in and out at seemingly random switch hits.

Is this normal or do I have a sound issue?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/85i4ez3maxowro3/Cat%20sound.m4a?dl=0

I don't hear anything different than mine. If there is something wrong I don't know about it.

You have a sound issue. I replaced several chips on my should board and it eventually went away. I don’t have the machine anyone so I really can’t help you with exactly what chip it was. It was one of the most frustrating things to diagnose as it’s not repeatable. The sound would just get quiet randomaly and then get louder a couple of seconds later. Good Luck. I wish I could be more help.

Thanks for the replies. Definitely a sound issue. Just discovered this...play both clips back to back.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/54es4xg07r6uvz0/Cat%20sound%202.m4a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s8gciszu3wj5362/Cat%20sound%203.m4a?dl=0

Links don't seem to be working but the pitch for the voice in the game changes from "normal" to deep.

The first link is working. It sounds like mine. I have never heard another Catacomb and have nothing to compare it to. I just figured this is the way it was supposed to sound.

If you figure it out I would appreciate knowing.

I will see what I can figure out. I uploaded the sound bytes again. Lets try these links...Listen for the change in pitch on the voice. The lower pitch also sounds a bit slower.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/katjyur1p4tta4k/Cat%20sound%202.0.m4a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7l7xebazjkvq5mc/Cat%20sound%203.0.m4a?dl=0

Ok 1st link works but not 2nd. I am smashing my head against the wall now. The clip works on my desktop just fine. The other clip's link works fine. Cant get the 2nd one to work. Must be bed time(*)&&#$(&*_&@#$_)*$_@)(%

OK couldn't give up just yet. Merged both clips into Audacity. This one link should play them both. Fingers crossed!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qegvmcmkn91wgwz/Cat%20sound%20high%20and%20low.mp3?dl=0

Ok. I hear what you are talking about. Mine sounds like the audio clip with the higher pitch voice. I have no idea what's up. You might try snagging a sound board and a speech board on Ebay. I know that's not much help. I'll put it my "do some digging file" is best I can do.

But your Catacomb is playing OK. Correct?

Sorry, forgot to reply to this. Yes it is playing great overall. Spent a lot of time tweaking, adjusting and dialing things in. Occasional reset to look into as well as the sound issue. Just ordered new plastic set from CPR

Just installed new thick, glossy printed apron cards!

20180925_173042 (resized).jpg

“Just ordered new plastic set from CPR”

If your right slingshot plastic is in nice condition, I’d like to buy it from you! Would you consider selling it? It’s the only plastic I need.

Where did you get those apron cards? I want some.

Marco Specialties has the score/instruction cards: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/534?VIEW_SIZE=60&view=card&sortOrder=SortProductField:totalTimesViewed

The bottom has a chip out of it sadly

You can download them on IPDB https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=469

Then take the file to the print shop. I paid $6.40 cents for 3 pages total. (one for walking dead, 2 pages for Catacomb). All on thick and glossy card stock!

Thanks so much to cottonm4. Just got my wire gate in the mail today. Also have a repro backbox ball on the way thanks to redketchup. Should have smooth bagatelle action soon. I currently have my crappy gate removed and a not too spherical wooden ball that gets stuck sometimes. Playable but not great. Plus I have to adjust/clean all backbox switches as some dont work too well. Will be night and day difference soon!

P.s. I'm finally starting to figure out the rules to everything. Was one number from completing my 1st set of toast today

Both have arrived! Oh yeah!!!!

20180928_143307 (resized).jpg

Nice combo

Getting much closer to a working game!

My issue was a blown transistor...... had to use another off same board for now.

Friend fixed

Any idea where I get one of these?? Or a few really.

And I want to re-set the high scores and looking at manual you press reset button inside coin door.

However if I open coin door power automatically shuts off, so I can't do anything with the door open. Any ideas?

IMG_4154 (resized).jpg

IMG_4155 (resized).jpg

1) What are the numbers on the transistor. Your pic is fuzzy.

2) Where does the transistor go? You will probably want some TIP 102s. Depends on where it is located.

Sources:

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/search.asp

GPE is currently out of stock.

https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=search&search_in=all&search_str=tip+102

Steve at Pinball Resource stocks them.

Prices are all over the place. Shop wisely.

If the coin door loses power only when opened then it suggests a lose wire connection somewhere. There is a 20 or 24 pin connector along the side of your cabinet that the coin door plugs into. Next time you lose power to the coin door start wriggling all if these wires around aand see if you get connection back.

Is your game a European reimport that has a power switch on the door?

SE9302 transistors are long unobtainable - we now use TIP102 transistors for the solenoid driver board as cottonm4 suggested.

Thanks - yes it was a SE9302 off the driver board.

Yes. So is it an off/on switch?

Worked out I could manually keep finger on this and then I could use re-set button?

Thanks

IMG_4165 (resized).jpg

Yes. Those coin door power switches are annoying so they're one of the first things I remove if a game I buy has them.
You could probably cable tie something flat over it to keep the switch on if you want.

Nice call on that door switch. Some European safety thing?

That switch looks like the modern type, that you can pull it forwards after the door is open , grab the end and pull , it should stay out so that the game still has power .

Yeah it started around 1980 from what I can tell.
The Stern Orbitor 1 and Bally Skateball schematics onwards list it as an Interlock Safety switch.
A Flash Gordon from South Africa I saw also had one.

Interlock_Stern (resized).jpg
Interlock_Black (resized).jpg

Slowly going through the manual to set up the game the way I want.

I think using coins, means winning specials feels more like an achievement, so coins it will be.

Bit surprised my game has 3 coin mechs, all with a 1981 date on them.

Going through the menu I noticed total plays.

Is this likely to be from day 1 or can this be re-set like the scores?

Don't want to re-set mine so can't test!

I have 17200 plays. Curious what others have?

Wondering if this is a day 1 figure which I think would indicate a low played game? It would be if it were an EM with this figure.

In 1979, the U.S. started minting a new coin called the Susan B. Anthony dollar. It was poorly designed and not well received by the publc. In 1981, the govt. admitted defeat and quit making the coin. In the U.S., the two outside coin drops were for quarters and the middle drop was for Susan B.

Apparently, Stern figured out the Susan B. was a dud and returned to the two coin drop format used on the other Sterns. My Catacomb has the two coin drop. I"m thinking Stern may have foisted of the remaining three coin drop to the foreign markets. I have no other speculation as to why your Cat has the 3-drop.

I don't have any provisions for total plays on my Sterns. Is this something that was added by an operator? I wish I did have play counters. Is it a mechanical play counter? Or some electronic beast?

Interesting re the coins.

As for overall game plays, doesn't every game have this? Diagnostics in the manual.

It's the 11th press of the test button.

I am just playing around with these settings at the moment but didn't want to accidentally re-set my overall plays, if that is possible.

IMG_4167 (resized).jpg

Meanwhile ....one of my coin mechs, this part/clip/spring has broken.

Anyone, any idea where to find it? Have looked but can't find a thing....

It goes under the 2 screws and through the hole and over the little knuckle.

Without it, the actual coin mech can't stay in place.

Thanks!

IMG_4168 (resized).jpgIMG_4169 (resized).jpg

I would guess that your total plays could in theory be accurate if you have the original battery on the MPU but any person/operator can reset that value by pressing the reset button on the mpu clearing it to zero so I would say that number cannot be trusted in most cases.

Man, I have rarely messed with that test button. I have not had time. Just taking care of mechanical items on these pins I have bought in last couple of years has been keeping me jumping. My present attitude with the electronics part is that if it is working then just leave it alone.

There is a lot to discover with the test button

I just set my game up on 3 balls, first replay at 860,000, then 1,280,000 and lastly 1,600,000.

Every time the high score is beaten it will award 3 credits by 3 cracks of the knocker - nice reward.

Still working game out in test mode.

The yellow spot number 2 target - am I right in thinking it will spot one number/letter in the grid? And after that it scores 5000 points but no more numbers/letters awarded?

You are not going to get very many replays

That action will not last very long

The yellow target (when lit) will spot the green number 2. Then it just scores points. The two rollover inserts at top spot the 6 and 8. After that they are points only.

The bagatelle mode will also spot you one time per game (maybe per ball--I will need to check that out). So, you are in bagatelle mode and the four lights in front of the drop targets are rotating. Then you shoot and your ball will match whatever light/column was lit as the ball dropped. You can keep on letting the pin auto-rotate and you keep shooting as long as you don't hit the same number twice. However, as you are auto rotating, if you hit a light/number that you already lit up, the pin will spot you another light/number for one time only. If you hit the same light/number a 2nd time your bagatelle mode is over.

You can do all of the above except without auto-rotate. Just hit the left flipper and now you are in control of which colors of lights are lit. Your A-B-C-D Catacomb will make the bagatelle mode easier to figure out which lights to shoot for (instead of which number to shoot for you will be deciding whether to shoot for A-B-C-D. So, for the most part, you will be deciding which color to shoot for while I always have to remember if a red #7 is in column A or B or C or D. And I am assuming the A-B-C-D versions of Catacomb will also do this spotting business so the same spotting rules should apply.

I will test all this later. Thanks.

With the left flipper on the bagatelle, does it change the colors all the time, all the way through the game? Or as the grid becomes more complete, the left flipper doesn't change the colors?