Hello everbody. My Cyclone flashlamps dont flash (yes, the bulbs are brand new) under the playfiled, its the 3 flashbulbs that is located between the spoke house hole an the boomerang hole. Whats the problem?

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Those 3 flashers need to be #1251 bulbs, not #89 bulbs like the rest of the flashers in the game.

We're good. Thanks for the offer. I got it figured out with him and one is on the way.

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This is an eye-opene, I thougth a flashbulb was a flashbulb. Thanks a lot for your help!

If someone either knows or has access to their playfield without the ramps currently installed and can measure, I'd like to know how long this missing ball guide is supposed to be?

It should be to the right of the #3 rollover lane. I noticed mine is missing, but didn't have one on hand with the game still torn down. Would like to get one and install the next time I have things apart.

Marco has them and I suspect it's similar to this one, but might be longer than one inch. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/12-6466-4

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I don’t think there’s a metal diverter there.

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Yeah, there’s supposed to be a metal guide there. I don’t have a measurement, but I do have a picture from my playfield swap.
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Parts manual page 16, item 23. 1-1/4” wireform, part 12-6466-5.

Thanks!

Pretty thrilled to have picked up a Cyclone recently (love this game very very much) and have been slowly going through it... it was supposedly owned by an arcade repair technician at some point in the recent past, but I'm finding so many soldered pins, spliced connectors, and ramps repaired with packing tape that I'm doubting their credentials a bit.

The Comet ramp at least appears to be a reproduction; I picked up a bag of used ramps a while back that happened to include an old, cracked Comet ramp, and it looks like the repro is a fair bit thicker (as repros usually are). It's so thick that it doesn't seem to fit where it's supposed to, though; it's putting a ton of stress on the bottom jet bumper cap (see picture - the two screws in the cap aren't in line with the bulb inside), and the ramp flap isn't able to sit flush with the playfield, which has been cause for a lot of airballs. I've tried reseating the ramp a few times but haven't succeeded in finding any obvious solutions to the problem. I'm not sure; has anybody had issues with this sort of thing before, or is it possibly just a bad repro? I'd be wary of finding another to replace it if it came down to that.

What have they done this time

I had to trim the cap down on mine. Once it is all together you can't hardly tell

Might be that your pop bumper cap isn't all the way down. I had my Cyclone torn down recently and when I put new, replacement pop bumper caps on, I really had to get a good grip of the bumper base with one hand and then push the cap down with the other. It's kind of an alignment issue. They go on perfectly, but only when you are perfectly straight on top of it. When the cap is a little bit angled one way or the other, it won't go down all the way. You'll need to take that ramp off to get the access you need.

Finally got my cyclone. It has been a favorite since it came out.

It was purchased out of storage of another pin head and in transport I seem to have misplaced the head screws (from the hinges) does anyone have the part number or the proper size so I can swing by a hardware store? (I don't have a manual - I'll grab one from marcos at some point.)

Thanks

Which screws are you speaking to specifically, maybe snap a photo? Here's a link to the parts manual. I'm unsure if it calls out the exact screws/bolts you're looking for though: Cyclone Parts Manual.pdf
Operation manual: Cyclone Operations Manual.pdf
Also I have both of these PDFs OCR'd to be text searchable (as those ^^^ PDFs are just flat images). Feel free to PM me with a gmail address and I'll share my OCR'd versions with ya via Google Drive.

Here's a silly question (and feel free to laugh at me or tell me to just play better ). The difficulty of squarely hitting the Boomerang shot has been driving me nuts lately. I was thinking that perhaps installing a "thinner" post sleeve rubber on the post in the attached photos (which are terrible sorry) would make this shot a tad easier. The stock rubber is pretty "fat". Does anyone know of a specific, "thinner" post sleeve rubber that would fit here instead? Or are all rubbers of this size the same "outer width"?

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The jet bumper on my game is so bent out of shape that it's hard to tell what a normal fit between the ramp and bumper would look like. Going to rebuild it later and see how everything lies, though it also seems to be bending the Spook House plastic out of position as well, which a new plastic wouldn't necessarily solve. I'd love to hear from anybody else if they've had issues (or a lack thereof) with installing a repro Comet ramp.

The stock rubber is a yellow 7/8" post (1/2" OD), but a black 1-1/16" post (7/16" OD) fits as well (same inner diameter). You may need to trim the height down a little if it doesn't fit the post. Consider that the Boomerang is worth 50k (or 50k + 100k at 7x), a bonus X advance, and potentially a Special in addition to stopping all timers and (assuming the kickout is friendly) giving you a free trap on the left flipper, so it shouldn't be extremely easy to hit. I find the shot risky enough from a trapped ball that I tend to just post-pass to get the ball from right to left, and I'll usually only consider shooting it for control after a Cyclone or Million shot (especially if I've built up a large-enough bonus throughout the game).

That said, the metal scoop on my Cyclone flares out to the right to the extent that changing the diameter of the post sleeve wouldn't affect how tight the shot is at all. Does yours not have this?

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Whoah, you just blew my mind. No the metal of my scoop as far as the side of it and the post rubber in question doesn't extend past the sleeve like yours does. That metal "lead" "stops" at the back edge of the post. I know my photos suck but if you look closely you should see the difference. So is this my problem all along aka that the lead is supposed to pass the diameter of the post rubber? If so and b/c my "lead" doesn't extend past the post rubber, is my entry into the boomerang scoop essentially smaller width-wise?

It looks like the flared edge on the left side of your game's scoop is the same length as the one on mine, but the flared edge on the right is shorter somehow, like it was broken off or the two scoops are just flat-out different. If anything, I feel like it'd make the Boomerang shot on your game slightly wider since the metal sheet isn't in the way, but it's feasible that the bouncier rubber post could be deflecting more good shots than the steel would be. I haven't thought a lot about the geometry of the shot, but it feels like it was designed to be a kickout for the Spook House first and foremost; being able to actually shoot the Boomerang directly may have been a bit of an afterthought, which is another way of saying it's a difficult shot on a lot of the Cyclones I've played. I feel like replacing the post sleeve wouldn't help significantly since a majority of the successful shots I make to the Boomerang actually ride up the left side of the scoop, but it couldn't hurt to replace it with a narrower post sleeve if you happen to have one lying around or if you find yourself ordering parts in the near future.

That scoop shot is difficult on my game too. It got harder after I changed my rubber rings and post sleeves as well and I'm not sure why.

It's a decent strategy for big points if you can hit that shot reliably. Especially since you keep getting the X bonus on all remaining balls as it doesn't reset after draining. After 7X you get 100,000 points. Not sure if that 100,000 stays at 100,000 or keeps increasing to 200,000, then 300,000, etc. as I didn't get that far. It plays a special little whistle tune when the bonus awards at the end of your ball if you've gotten to 7X.

What posts and screws are used to fasten the Ferris Wheel ramp to the wood rail? I've seen pictures of a few games using what look like star posts, but the parts catalog contradicts this.

There was a post earlier in this thread where somebody was commenting on how poorly documented the playfield posts and fasteners are. I'm beginning to feel that, I think.

Mine looked like these. Visual only, sorry, no part numbers.

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Looks like mine.

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I created a separate post before realizing I should have posted here:

This is more of a nit that I have with my game, but the skill shot is extremely difficult, and I suspect it may be a setup issue more than a skill issue. It seems like 90% of the time after a shot lighter than enough to clear the ramp altogether, the ball seems to 'stick' and hit the first (10K) slot. I can't tell quite what is happening (I might take a slow motion video to try to help), but it seems that if the small metal ramp leading up to the skill shot were misaligned, it could hit the gate off-center and 'stick'. I feel like this has gotten worse over time (or maybe I have!), and just wondering if anyone else has run into and resolved this (or a similar) issue.

Yeah there shouldn't be any sticking issue with the gates. It should be a pure, smooth, simple shot entirely dependent on how hard you plunge. A slo-mo video sure would help to see where it's hitting.

I think you’re describing something my game did at first when I got it and also one I played in league recently.

If you look at the two lower tips of the wire form as they sit on the blue plastic of the skill shot area, they need to be resting on the blue plastic and not hovering just above it. When they won’t sit down far enough, it is because of where the top two tips are. Look closely and make sure the left side top tip is UNDER the top of the metal gate bracket.

Do you know what I mean?

I don’t have access to all my game photos but I’ll add a couple later if you need it.

Just check to see that those lower two tips are not hovering above the blue plastic surface when they need to be touching. The lower tips are angled so if the ball gets to them, it rolls down that last half inch and into the first hole. If they hover, there’s just enough space for the ball to hang up and not roll back into the shooter lane and not fall into the first hole. On my game it was because that top left tip needed to be under the wire gate bracket instead of on top of it.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I took a look, and the wire form does sit flush on the blue plastic ramp. What I DID notice (and hadn't noticed in the 10-ish years that I've had this game) is that my monorail plastic is mounted on the WRONG SIDE OF THE BLUE RAMP! Meaning it was mounted on the left-hand screw of each of the gates. Seems a likely culprit (will have to wait until morning to test). Okay, so now that I want to move it to the correct place on the right side, I'm presumably going to need some longer screws and some sort of spacer between the gates and the plastic? Would anyone mind (at your leisure) sending me pics of that area so that I can try to piece together what I need to get?

I don't have any pictures at the moment but the monorail plastic is mounted on the top and bottom gate screws on the right side of the skill shot ramp with 3/4" machine screws. My game is missing the spacers as well, but 3/8" spacers seem to work. Make sure they're not too thick; the ones I have on hand (I believe they are from Pinball Life) are too large and don't let the gates swing freely, so my plastic is without them for now (and it works just fine).

I think the wireform ramp skill shots that a lot of Oursler/Anghelo games had have a reputation for being slightly unreliable, but mine has worked smoothly since I've gotten it. As far as other possible culprits go, make sure that the ramp isn't leaning to either side, make sure that the transition at the bottom of the ramp is smooth and flush with the playfield so the ball isn't rattling on the way up, and make sure that the spring you're using isn't too strong (it should be a pretty weak spring).

Need a little help turning off attract sounds on my new cyclone. Any idea what I'm doing wrong here? Start button does not change setting.

Based on the display test that's visible for a short moment at the end of the video, the player 4 display on your game isn't working. You're changing the attract mode sound settings just fine when you hit the start button, but you can't see it being changed because the value is shown on the non-functional player 4 display.

You sir are a wise man. Going to double check that tonight. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, can you swap individual display cables so that say display 3 becomes display 4 and vice versa? For this kind of troubleshooting? Is there a danger of electrically damaging something if you did it while live? Not giving that suggestion quite yet, just talking through options…

SantaEatsCheese Did you pick this up at York? I was eyeballing your Swords of Fury but didn't want to trade my newly hard topped Cyclone .

Yeppers! Sold SOF to fund this. We could have made a deal. Aside from a dead player 4 and a cracked ramp she's really good. A few LEDs, rubber, and decals and she'll be dead sexy.

That's was it! I can take ot from here. Thanks!

After putting my monorail plastic on the right side, I took a couple of slow-mo videos to try to figure out why I can't seem to hit the skill shot anymore (there was a time when I could). It seems like the ball has a tendency (particularly when hit lightly) to hook sharply to the left. Thinking through it, it seems like there could be a number of causes: machine out of level (checked), ramp sagging to the left / out of level, shooter rod off center to the right, wireform misaligned / warped, uneven wear on ramp, etc. Anyone else have this issue?

Weak shot:

(sorry, for some reason this one converted to full speed; view at 0.25x on YouTube to see)
Strong shot:

The bottom gate looks like it's wedged open. The ball could be hitting it and rattling around on the slow shot and blowing past it on the fast shot. Try switching it with one of the other functional gates and test it again.

Is anyone in our Cyclone club also familiar with Police Force? Or own both perhaps? Is Police Force more or less using the same shot patterns? They look very similar. Thoughts on whether Police Force would be a good game to go with a Cyclone in a collection?

There is a Cyclone and a Police Force within 10 feet of each other at Crabtown USA. I prefer cyclone. I have never played Police force to "explore the code" but seem to end up on it once a month in a tournament. The tournament strategy is just... spam the center ramp. It is a scoring exploit. With that said it looks like there is lots to do and it has charm, but it is one dimensional when it comes to scoring.

I would only go for a Police Force if I had a particular affinity for the game because I don't find it particularly captivating otherwise; the center ramp takes a lot of the value away from the rest of the playfield. Police Force has more in common with Taxi than it does with Cyclone; if you were looking for a game with similar gameplay to Cyclone for whatever reason, I'd look at Bad Cats, which has the same focus on looping ramps (and has a novelty mystery wheel) but is a lot more lopsided because the ramps are far more valuable than Cyclone's (the unlimited millions Tiger Ramp is harder to loop but is still unlimited millions) and don't need to be relit (despite what the rules card says). In either case I'd probably keep the space open for something else I know I really want.

Thanks. I've never actually played a Police Force, but saw one come up for sale locally so thought I might want to check it out. The comparison to Cyclone was meant in a literal sense, like how the playfield shot chart looks very similar. Someone pointed out to me years ago that Lethal Weapon 3 and Terminator 2 share basically the same layout of shots. That's all I meant with the comparison of Cyclone and Police Force. Especially because they both are the work of Barry Oursler and Python Angelo.

Guys,

Can someone help me out quickly with a quick backbox total bulb count?

My machine is still in the shop, and I want to order new LEDs in advance, so when its done I will have the right bulbs on hand.

How many Bayonet 44/47 bulbs total are there in the backbox please?

How many Wedge 555 bulbs total are there in the backbox please?

Thanks so much for someone taking a couple minutes to count for me!!!

I don't have the quote from when I ordered mine, but spend the extra couple of dollars and get all non-ghosting bulbs.

Having owned a Cyclone and a Bad Cats... Bad Cats is much closer to Cyclone that Police Force is.

I'm in the process of switching mine over now. In the backbox (which I don't have a count of right now) you need the non ghosting bulbs for the wedge bulbs. Doesn't really matter for the bayonette.

Backbox has 40 wedge base bulbs and 17 round base ones.

Playfield GI has 29 round base bulbs.

Plus 2 more round base bulbs for the coin door.

The inserts with round base bulbs are the two extra ball outlanes, the X advance, Ride the Comet, Spins Mystery Wheel and Score Ferris Wheel Bonus for a total of 6 more.

There are a total of 26 inserts that use the wedge base bulbs.

Plus 3 wedge base bulbs in the pop bumpers and 6 more in the backboard (the lights that tell you how many points for hitting the Comet ramp).

So the entire game needs 75 wedge base bulbs and 54 round base bulbs. I get the cool white, frosted dome, non-ghosting 2SMD ones.

This doesn't include the flashers. I don't have that list handy, but can tell you that besides the normal flasher types for round or wedge, the three round base flashers that light up the subway at the Boomerang need to be 1251 flashers as that is high voltage supplied there unlike all the other places.

Actually, one difference I left in from when it came to me from the previous guy is that the big arrow pointing to the Spook House hole is sometimes red and sometimes yellow. I think this is because it has a regular insert bulb and a flasher, and the flasher that was used in there is a yellow one. Kinda cool effect, especially when it's about to time out and reset the drop target, it flashes yellow like a traffic light might.

Is the Spook House flasher also a #1251? The one currently in mine is a huge, unlabeled bulb that's completely burnt on one side but still works OK somehow. The manual says #89, and it's on the same circuit as one of the firework flashers in the headbox, but the couple of bulbs I tried didn't work. It was the only flasher (other than the Boomerang ones) that wasn't LED when I got the game, so I assume the previous owner was having trouble with it somehow.

1251s are the three bulbs on the bottom on the subway/spook house.

Thanks Alex!!!

Yeah, I did that intentionally to rule that out, and I didn’t set it back when I took the video. I got it solved - among a few other tweaks, I put a very slight bend in the wireform to direct it more to the right (specifically, bending the mounting screws slightly to the left) and now it is working smoothly again. We have a winner!

Shopping out my York show cyclone. How do you get to these lights in the backboard? Any tips? I removed the plastic but fingers are too fat. If I removed the board with a mirror don't know that I could ever get it back on.

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