Centaur
Bally, 1981
Centaur II
Bally, 1983After 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".
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! 
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
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.
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.
I have heard that too it is very informative and kinda puts a different perspective on the game.....
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
Glad to be a card carrying member
(BTW some may notice the original FLiPS logo in my avatar is in the CENTAUR font)
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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