At that price, and from what i'm seeing, it's definitely a no brainer. All time classic!

Awesome. Thank you

Anyone looking to sell their Centaur/Centaur II? I've been looking for one for a bit and striking out.

I'd like a Centaur in the PA area or driving distance, if anyone has one for sale/trade.

Just sold mine two days ago, not within driving distance of you guys though.

I'm willing to pay shipping, but not that far!

Looks nicer cabinet wise than mine, I paid 3200, but that's socal prices.
It looks realy nice.
I would buy it at that price.

Message from the Freeeek Kingdom.

Hey all, i'm looking to eliminate the playfield GI flashing during attract mode, It bothers my wife and i'm not a fan of it either. I realize that bypassing it will eliminate the lights flashing during multiball.

To allow the GI flash during multiball, i was thinking that I could put in a switch triggered by the multiball launcher arm, so when the arm is in motion (not at home) the switch would open the circuit to briefly turn off the GI.

Any tips on how to bypass so the Gi so the GI is still switchable??

Thanks, Glenn

Hello i am also a centaur(2) member ☺️ i only want the second one, which makes a centaur pinball much more unique for me. the newer cabinet looks like, it has always been designed for the centaur. just awesome!!!
One Question, how is it actually possible to defeat the centaur? i have really never managed that and dare to doubt that there really is a method. i also read about a new code for the centaur. can you finally defeat him now? best regards from Munich, alex.

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Finally in the club! Got my Centaur II machine on Tuesday and been working on getting it dialed in. My next step is to do playfield touchups in a few spots. Does someone know where I can get some high quality scans or photos of the playfield? My plan is to complete the touchups and then install a playfield protector.

On a separate note, my son said he prefers the weird shape of the Centaur II cabinet to the original. I don't agree, but I can tell you that it looks perfect right next to my RFM. Probably because both backglass/translites are smaller and seem to stick out a certain way(I'll add a picture later to show you what I mean).

If you look there is a relay that controls this. You need to by pass this. I don't have mine set up. Yup... you can't have it both ways unless you add another circuit in front of the relay to trigger only during multiball. I think the signal is the same to activate the relay.

The relay you're looking at turns the multiball launcher coil on and off. The GI in Centaur is not switched through a relay, but is controlled by a triac that is in turn controlled by one of the lamp driver SCRs.

It is easy to bypass the triac, so that the playfield GI is on whenever the game is turned on. But if you do that, the GI will not flash during multiball.

There are pinsiders who modify the original code in these games. One of them could probably easily make the change you want. Then you'd just have to burn the new EPROMs (or have someone do it) and install them.

This was a thought I had as well as far as a possible solution. I know there is at least one widely-used "home-rom" version out there (never used or seen it in use myself), but in its readme file where all the changes/additions are listed, this sadly is not one of them.

But yeah, it's completely annoying and distracting to be playing a machine next to a Centaur if the Centaur is not being played.

Oh yea, It's the Triac on the top of the bottom plate. My bad but thanks for the reminder. If you bypass yup it hits both features.

Do you have access to the Home ROMS readme file ? Or link

I'm talking about the info found anywhere you search "centaur home rom", post #20 of this thread for example.

Thanks for the help on the GI lighting. Is there a modded rom for the Altek Board? I do have a rom burner.

I'm not sure on how to enable the triac, which leg do i need to disconnect and do i ground the pin on the board?

And to add the multiball flash, I am thinking on putting a switch mounted to the ball launcher. The switch will be in series with the triac input, to open (flash) when the Add a ball ball launcher is not at home position.
-Thanks

Centaur GI (resized).png

pic here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/centaur-clubmembers-only#post-837128

discussion here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/centaur-clubmembers-only#post-837278

Ahh Thanks! I thought I'd searched this forum.

Children always tell the truth

Slow progress on my Centaur project. 10 years ago, I bought a cabinet full of parts and just recently, I have slowly started a "gentle" restoration. Many thanks for the help with the drop target assemblies! Now, I need some help with the under playfield ball habit trail, such as pictures of the assembly installed. I think I have the shooter end done, but I can't figure out the other end. From the small amount of pictures that I could find on the internet, it appears that I am missing a "strap" near where the assembly ends at the playfield. I did find a couple of mystery parts, which may or may not be part of this project. One of these may be that strap that I was talking about:

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Here are some pics from mine pre-teardown, hope they might help.

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Thank you very much for the pictures! It does help, but I noticed that you are missing the "strap" as well. It goes near the hole, where the rails end. I see that there are two screw holes, where this would have gone. From the one and only picture that I found on the internet, the strap appears to be something like you would see topside, over the shooter lane.
I am still hopeful that someone can tell me if my mystery parts are part of this project. These were in the bottom of my cabinet when I got it.

Here is from my Playfield swap. You need a pic from the other side to see that the metal piece that is right of the one that holds the launch tunnel rails has a curved metal piece that fits between the 2 rails and pushes the ball up onto the Playfield so it doesn’t hit

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Thank you very much for the pictures and input. Can you tell me if the piece that I show in my post is the one that goes there? Does the other piece in my post look familiar?

Sorry I didn’t notice that picture. The lower right is 100% the piece I am talking about. I think the other is part of the ball trough if it’s from from this game. I can look for a pic

Part on left is part of the under playfield trough

Part on the right goes at the exit of “orb launch”

Just joined the club with a restored re-import that arrived yesterday. The game wasn't changed to 120v. Does anyone have a pic and an idiots guide to changing it back to good ole American electricity?

Get the schematic. It shows which taps to use for 110/120 VAC.

Soldering will be involved.

how is it actually possible to defeat the centaur? I really never managed to do this and I dare to doubt that there really is a method.

I also read about a new code for the centaur. Can you finally defeat him now?

If you have not checked out HEP's newest Centaur restoration, you should. The new color scheme for the cabinet and backbox looks great. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hep-this-week-9-17-18/page/173#post-6122314

Can someone make a scan of a very small part of the backglass for me? The area just below and to the left of the player 2 score display, as shown here. There's a little chip in the paint and it drives me nuts when I see light coming through it. Want to make a decal with the missing graphic.

I've been told not to put a decal over it, but I'm going to try anyway, thanks.

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I can get you a scan if you explain what the hell is going on with those nixie tube displays?

I'm at work and don't have access to any more pics right now but happy to explain. That's a set of prototypes I made and exhibited at the 2010 Texas Pinball Festival. The tubes are Russian IN-14 type. They are direct drop-in replacements for the original plasma displays, powered by the stock 190 VDC regulator circuit on the solenoid driver board.

At the 2011 TPF they were installed in an exhibitor's Xenon machine. I think there's a video of that on youtube somewhere.

I made four 7-tube units and one 4-tube unit for the credit/ball in play position. (Not wanting to do a 6-tube version as my first one, I converted my SBM to 7-digit using Oliver Kaegi's updated EPROMs and adapter).

In my profile pic you can see a display in my Silverball Mania with a blue LED backlight inside the backbox. Observers can see the game's boardset lit up in blue, between the tubes. My Centaur has a red backlight.

I also designed a version with a PIC microcontroller, which can add custom effects to the scores such as a fade transition between the player score and high score to date in attract mode, and other Nixie-specific effects. But I decided it was overkill and never finished a code version for it. If I were to take it up again I'd use an Arduino controller instead.

Here is the Bally factory archive blue print for the Orbs drop target assembly I picked up off of ebay.

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That is awesome

I logged in to buy that after receiving the notification and was a few minutes too late. Congrats!

Hi Da-Shaker Mine is doing exactly the same - did you find a fix for it

Yes, I replaced my sound roms. I bought new ones on EBay. He was a good seller with well packaged shipping. I believe sound rom #1 was the culprit.

The roms were socketed. It was an easy fix. No soldering.

Thanks. I’ll order some and see how I go.

Double value Queens Chamber shot. I love that this shot is repeatable and is fast. I've only done it 3 times in a row just once.

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Any luck?

Final polishing completed, the new playfield is now ready to go in. I noticed for the first time that the end of the centaur's whip has claws!

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Looks awesome! Was the underside of the play field pre-drilled? I thought that you had to drill your own holes.

If it's anything like my CPR Centaur that I'm working on right now, there will be dimples instead of drill holes… which is fine, because every single one of those dimples will be in the wrong place, so they need to be ignored. The routing for the pop bumpers was the wrong size for Bally pop bumper bases, and the magnet needed to be routed out too. The neighbours have definitely heard me cussing.

The only playfield I have that was fully drilled in the right place was a Meteor NOS playfield.

Yikes, I've been wanting to make the move and purchase a new play field. However, I don't want to get stuck in the middle of a swap and can't finish.

They might have improved the process/accuracy somewhat. I bought my Centaur playfield second hand and it's been in my basement for three years before I've made it to the project.

Playfield swap takes me about a month working an hour at a time in the evenings. Connectorizing, bulletproofing, repairing, cleaning, polishing is a very labour intensive process. Lots of folks can get one done in a weekend by just sliding everything from one field to another, but I like to take my time.

I've definitely ended up buying lots of tools to make it easier. Ultrasonic cleaner, tumbler, socket drivers, compressor, upholstery nailer, calipers, router… it definitely adds up pretty quickly.

Being a II owner myself I am probably biased, but I like the Rapid Fire cabinet design as well... It's certainly unique, which is definitely an attribute in spades of the original artwork. IMO, what you lose in backglass art due to the smaller dimensions is more than made up by the different cabinet design which makes the machine stand out further from other machines. The primary artwork is the PF anyway, which is the same on both.

Also, even though my plasma displays are still nice and bright, if it comes down to replacing them the red lens in the cabinet makes it less noticeable if you need to swap in leds.

On the flip side, if you need a new backglass (like me), they are a lot harder to come by... I've got a want-ad out, so if you've got one let me know!