(Topic ID: 48888)

Centaur Club.....Members Only!

By vster23

10 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 2,306 posts
  • 294 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 32 days ago by Billc479
  • Topic is favorited by 112 Pinsiders

You

Linked Games

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

PXL_20240211_221127686.jpg
pasted_image (resized).png
Resized_20230912_061545 (resized).jpeg
20231009_182416 (resized).jpg
20231009_182336 (resized).jpg
20230919_184247 (resized).jpg
IMG_9524 (resized).jpeg
image16367 (resized).jpg
20230813_123311 (resized).jpg
345694115_274152354957119_6832428364690629222_n (resized).jpg
IMG_4456 (resized).jpeg
20230812_141434 (resized).jpg
IMG_3426 (resized).jpeg
IMG_3425 (resized).jpeg
IMG_20230719_160347799 (resized).jpg
IMG_20230719_160343265 (resized).jpg

There are 2,306 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 47.
#1 10 years ago

After seeing all these clubs for DMD machines. I thought that one of the best solid state pinball machine deserved some recognition! Centaur is the one of the rare games that has both beauty and good gameplay! It was way ahead of its time when it came out! So this thread is all things Centaur! "Bad Move Human".

#2 10 years ago

Here are some pics of mine to get it started!

304.JPG304.JPG

#3 10 years ago

more pics.

308.JPG308.JPG 306.JPG306.JPG

#4 10 years ago

Does Centaur II count?

#5 10 years ago
Quoted from kguenther6:

Does Centaur II count?

I haven't ever played a Centaur II, the only differences I can see are the cabinet. So I would say Yes Centaur II does count!

#6 10 years ago
Quoted from vster23:

I haven't ever played a Centaur II, the only differences I can see are the cabinet. So I would say Yes Centaur II does count!

You are correct sir. The only difference is the backbox. Otherwise it is the same bad ass game!

#7 10 years ago
Quoted from vster23:

Centaur II does count!

Yes! I'm in a club!

#8 10 years ago

I like this club. Centaur is my all time favorite. I will post a few pics in a bit. I have white(cool) LEDs on the backglass and I think it is nice.

Also vester I dig your collection

#9 10 years ago

BTW... I had a grounding issue on my centaur II a few weeks ago. My playfield GI lights were dim. On the bottom of the cabinet the ground wires connect to some small round button type thing that is mounted on a bracket. My problem was the bracket wasn't making a good connection to the grounding plate. But I'm curious as to what that button type thing is that the 2 wires connect to. Anyone else have that on theirs? Does it serve any purpose other than a place to connect the wires to? I'm surprised they don't just screw them down to the grounding plate.

#10 10 years ago

I will check mine but it doesn't sound familiar kguenther6.

#11 10 years ago

I was lucky enough to find a project and complete a CPR swap a couple years ago.

Also went to Expo 2011 to meet and hear Jim Patla and Paul Faris reminisce about the making of Centaur.

The audio recording of their talk is on this page:

http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2011/index3.html

It's worth a listen IMO.

#12 10 years ago

I have heard that too it is very informative and kinda puts a different perspective on the game.....

#13 10 years ago

I recently completed a CPR playfield swap on my Centaur II. Awesome game!

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/centaur-ii-reborn-playfield-swap-complete

CentaurIIfull.jpgCentaurIIfull.jpg CentaurIIpf.jpgCentaurIIpf.jpg

#14 10 years ago
Quoted from crassmage:

Also vester I dig your collection

thanks, I like getting bang for my buck pins rather than just one cool "A" title.

#15 10 years ago

Nice pin Treveism!

#16 10 years ago

A couple pics of mine, still a work in progress but almost there new plastics and the SIA thing figured out and I will be done. And my 4p display is really bad I know....

_DSC0015.JPG_DSC0015.JPG _DSC0014.JPG_DSC0014.JPG

#17 10 years ago

Glad to be a card carrying member

(BTW some may notice the original FLiPS logo in my avatar is in the CENTAUR font)

#18 10 years ago

official member here.. I have some strange thing happening with my centaur currently - I sometimes I will have an orb captured then I hit the targets in order it fires out multiball but it fires the autolauncher maybe 3-4 times for just one ball..anyone else have that issue or know what that could be.

#19 10 years ago

Check the connector under the PF for the "special solenoid" (<- Real name escapes me)board on the right hand side. mine was filthy and the connectors were poor. It is a start anyways.

#20 10 years ago

One way to greatly improve the rule-set on your Centaur is to install the special "Home Roms". It turns a really good rule-set into a great! It makes the following changes and can be downloaded from the following site:
http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

if dip switch 25 = on and dip switch 26 = on freeplay is enable: decrease credits not lower then 01
coin 3 works now same as coin 2, dip 17 - 20 has new meaning
dip17 = off, flashing 50k and getting 50k for hitting orbs in sequence
dip18 = on , erase bonus after one ball total
dip19 = off, don't give power orb during multiball
if orb targets are out of sequence laught (but only if O was the first target you drop)
Dual target hits for ORBS target enabled (we wait two flashes until we detect an out of sequence error...)... change speech:
When (no multiball is running) or (multiball is running an dip 19 = on) and all ORBS dropped in sequence we say:
"Sequence completed activate Power Orb"
otherwise if all orbs are not dropped in sequence we say "energize power orb"
If multiball is running and all ORBS are droppend in sequence (with dip19 = off) we say "Sequence completed activate Power Orb"
if Multiball is running and all orbs are dropped not in sequence (withdip19 = off) we say "completed"
Installation notes:
read the file readxxx.txt file
create (based on your orignal roms) customs roms

Burn the two files on 2732 eprom
After power on you will see the version number in the player one display.

#21 10 years ago

I can't burn roms but have been looking to do that for awhile now. Any chance you know a guy who knows a guy?.....
Did they find a place to put that laugh in there?

#22 10 years ago

I can burn Roms - I might have to give this a try after I fix my autolaunch issue

#23 10 years ago

Can I join your club?
I'll bring the beer!

image.jpgimage.jpg

#24 10 years ago

I wish I was in your club. 8-( This game is impossible to find at a good price anymore. Just recently discovered how awesome it is.

#25 10 years ago
Quoted from Nilroc:

I'll bring the beer!

Sure you can join, but bring the beer and leave the Centaur!

#26 10 years ago

Sure you can join, but bring the beer and leave the Centaur!

I go everywhere with my Centaur!

image.jpgimage.jpg

#27 10 years ago

Yeah, I'm in a club too! I bought mine from Kirk Weaver about 12 years ago. I. Replaced the playfield and plastics. Centaur can have some hard to track down issues. Mine would launch extra balls and it turned out to be drop target switches on the right side of the playfield. Had a heck of a time figuring it out. I still need to level the in line drop targets a little better, some are just a little high when down and it makes it hard to hit the next one. Other than that it is a great player. My reverb was original and worked fine for years even though I didn't use it. Then I went to check it out and the impossible to find chip went south. I bought a knock off and it works great. I also replaced the displays. Awesome game, thanks for the link on the making of it. I am going to listen to it tonight.

#28 10 years ago

I'm in!

#29 10 years ago

Here's a closeup pic of my centaur legs .

skulls.jpgskulls.jpg

#30 10 years ago

Count me in!! One of the best pinball machines ever. I have bought Fathom, Centaur and now Flash Gordon all in the last 6 months. I really like this era of Bally games. I changed the steel orb posts to Williams red and put Cointaker post lights under each. I tied the each post to its respective orb insert. It really adds to the game. Here is a pic.

Centaur_Orbs.jpgCentaur_Orbs.jpg

#31 10 years ago

The home rom is very good as well. I highly recommend using that version of the software.

#32 10 years ago
Quoted from trilogybeer:

Here's a closeup pic of my centaur legs .

Those legs are great!

#33 10 years ago

UK member here. I bought mine which was basically scrap, boards missing, wiring loom cut, backglass missing... Restored now and plays great.

418500_10150649939994931_1137238085_n..jpg418500_10150649939994931_1137238085_n..jpg

#34 10 years ago

Great early 80's Baly line up epotech.I have never seen a Fath or Emby live,but would love to own either.I got a nice EBD which was hard to come by.Centaur and F/Gordon ain't no slouches btw.

Visiting the UK in June for the first time.Looking forward to the adventure. cheers.

#35 10 years ago

Love this game own 2 of them atm. C2 is a player C1 is getting full restore atm then off to its new owner.
Epotech you need to add Elektra, & Medusa to that lineup

#36 10 years ago

Centaur has it all! Great artwork, gameplay, and lots of drop targets! As you say, way ahead of it's time. Here's a beautiful restoration that I picked up over a year ago...

http://s1205.photobucket.com/user/snaroff/library/Centaur?sort=3&page=1

After getting Centaur, I decided to beef up my 80's lineup with Fathom and Paragon. A great threesome

snaroff IMG_7810.JPGIMG_7810.JPG

#37 10 years ago
Quoted from Hellfire:

Epotech you need to add Elektra, & Medusa to that lineup

check my machine profile!

#38 10 years ago

I would love to join this club some day.

#39 10 years ago

Here's mine I put together last year. And when I say put together, I really mean that. I started with a populated playfield from Ebay, bottom cabinet from an unknown machine (was already sanded and painted black), half of the backbox from a supersonic, the other half made from new wood, NOS backglass, CPR playfield swap. Had to make all of the wiring harness except for the playfield. All LED strips in the backbox with adjustable brightness, and lastly stenciled the cabinet. It may not be original for a purist, but it turned out great! Even won best of show @ the Houston arcade expo last year.

IMG_6988.JPGIMG_6988.JPG

#40 10 years ago

Pics of the before and after of the cabinet.

2012-09-17_18-34-09_142.jpg2012-09-17_18-34-09_142.jpg 2012-09-18_18-24-26_598.jpg2012-09-18_18-24-26_598.jpg 2012-10-11_18-06-19_937.jpg2012-10-11_18-06-19_937.jpg

#41 10 years ago
Quoted from fusion301:

official member here.. I have some strange thing happening with my centaur currently - I sometimes I will have an orb captured then I hit the targets in order it fires out multiball but it fires the autolauncher maybe 3-4 times for just one ball..anyone else have that issue or know what that could be.

I think that's the triac, fusion301. It switches the pf GI lights off and on. See the arrow in the pic.

#42 10 years ago

Try that again...

Centaur_-_power_supply_with_arrow_on_t.jpgCentaur_-_power_supply_with_arrow_on_t.jpg

#43 10 years ago

I may have to work on finding one of these...very cool and ahead of its time for sure. wow.

#44 10 years ago

Triac controls the GI lighting, check the solenoid expander board located on the underside of the playfield. Check the #555 lamp is working.

#45 10 years ago

Reply was meant for kguenther6, not fusion301. As for the issue with the launcher firing multiple times, fusion301, there is a microswitch that's located in the launcher lane, near the top of the launcher rails. It's switch number 33 in the matrix. This switch tells the MPU that the ball was successfully launched. If the MPU doesn't see this switch closing momentarily after it fires the kicker, it assumes the ball didn't make it to the pf, and will fire the kicker again. It will repeat this a few times (three I think), then give up. So check that switch for proper adjustment. Even if the switch is missing the game will play properly but the multiple kicker firing is annoying, especially since the GI lights go out momentarily when it kicks, so in the dark you're playing blind for a second. (That's if the triac is installed and working, not shorted or bypassed.)

I've found that if the switch is working but out of adjustment, the closure will sometimes be too short for the MPU to see it, and you'll sometimes have multiple launch attempts.

Michael Beverly

#46 10 years ago
Quoted from RoyGBev:

Reply was meant for kguenther6

Thanks!

#47 10 years ago

I've seen several Centaurs that either don't have the triac or have it bypassed. On one Centaur the triac was missing and there wasn't even a hole for it on the rectifier board mounting plate. So the PS in that game probably came out of another Bally (EBD, Xenon, etc). The owner didn't know that the PF GI is supposed to flash instead of stay on constantly.

The way the PS wiring harness is made, you can pull the two molex connectors that go to the triac, then take the two connectors from the harness and plug them together. This bypasses the triac, making the PF GI light up continuously, just as it does in most other Ballys of this era.

But you lose a lot with the bypass. One of the coolest features of Centaur is that the entire PF goes dark momentarily whenever a ball fires out of the launcher. So in the dark you can't see to play any balls that are already in play.

It's easy to tell if the triac circuit's working properly. On power up the PF should be COMPLETELY DARK, no lights, until the MPU completes the seven flash power up sequence.

Michael Beverly

#48 10 years ago

My Triac is mounted a little different than yours. Mine is on a bracket and the bracket is bolted to the mounting plate. The problem I was having is the bracket was dirty and making a bad ground to the plate. I had no idea what the Triac was. It didn't look like it did anything. Thanks for the explanation. My GI are working and flashing as supposed to.

#49 10 years ago
Quoted from RoyGBev:

As for the issue with the launcher firing multiple times, fusion301, there is a microswitch that's located in the launcher lane, near the top of the launcher rails. It's switch number 33 in the matrix. This switch tells the MPU that the ball was successfully launched. If the MPU doesn't see this switch closing momentarily after it fires the kicker, it assumes the ball didn't make it to the pf, and will fire the kicker again.

Yeh this is what I have been tinkering with - anyone have a picture of how this switch is supposed to be wired, I will try and post mine tonight. Also is there a way to put the machine in a switch edge test where I can see if this switch is working properly. These older games diagnostics drive me crazy.

#50 10 years ago

Wow RCcola777 that is some impressive work!

Promoted items from the Pinside Marketplace
From: $ 399.95
Lighting - Led
Pin Stadium Pinball Mods
Led
There are 2,306 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 47.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/centaur-clubmembers-only and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.