Is the steel leaf at the bottom of the ramp flush with the shooter lane? Where does the ball impact the glass?

Michi -- the ball hits the glass right before the gate.

Do you have the correct spring on the plunger? It should be green, part number 266-5001-04.

Hello all! I Joined Pinside a couple days ago with having a POTC pin already. I got it back in 2014 from a Chuck E. Cheese for $1700. It was in really poor condition. Sorry no before pics. 2 optos were bad, the clutch for the ship was shot, and the link from the coil to the treasure chest lid was broke. In addition, the auto launch was not working and the decal on the Tortuga disc was worn down to about an inch in diameter.

I initially fixed some of the problems do be playable and have some fun with it. Last year, I started taking apart the playfield to clean it, as well as all the parts. Since this was a hobby, I worked on it when I could. Cleaning was the worst part of the whole project as it was evident that it wasn’t really taken care of that great while in the custody of CEC. But I cleaned it in the cabinet and out.
When I looked up online where to buy parts I saw some of the mods out there. Since I was on a budget, I saw some mods and figured I could create the same. There were some I could do though. Here is a list of mods.

1. Speaker Panel (I made using the old one and completed it in 2 days)
2. Speaker Grilles are a cloth material to allow sound to go through.
3. New speakers
4. Old sails broke and made new ones out of painted cloth and small dowls to hold them up. They are very light like the originals.
5. Added a modified firing LED cannon mod to the ship. Instead of the LEDs only coming on with the flasher when hit, I created a circuit allowing the LEDs to simulate cannon firing all different from each other. It stops “firing” when the ship sinks.
6. Added a jolly roger flair to the pops
7. Painted the chest
8. Purchased target covers
9. Purchased shooter lane protector
10. LED lights all over. Nothing color enhancing as I’ve seen with others as I bought them before I saw them.
11. LED behind the translight
12. Added cannons, by the flippers, on top a homemade deck. Cannons fire when you press the flippers. Special circuit was made so if you hit the flippers really fast, it only “fires” once. You need about a half a second for the circuit to reset. Both these and the ship’s cannons mimic cannon fire, not just flash. They do fade, but quickly. May be considered by some as they flash, but I made them the best I can to mimic cannon fire.
13. Added “Dead men tell to tales” homemade stickers on top of flippers.
14. Changed rules, I mean guidelines, as well as all images in that area. Installed a couple electroluminescent panels underneath to highlight them.
15. Added some coins on the front molding. It does not interfere with my hands when playing.
16. Added a coin to the plunger.
17. Added a few pics to the front.

I would like to get a decal set for the outside of the cabinet but need to wait for funds to get. Due to the location of its prior play, there is damage and extreme fading to the existing images. I would also like to add a topper of sorts. I’m still looking for the right items. I currently have a LED sign from when it was in tournament play at CEC. It shows the high scores and apparently my house is Chuck E. Cheese as the sign shows, other than the scores, “Welcome to Chuck E. Cheese”.

I hope you like what you see, even though some mods are the same as others. I do have a video of the cannons firing https://www.facebook.com/SmurfU/videos/vb.100000283422362/1723676784318419/?type=3. Due to the brightness of the LEDs on the playfield, the video does not do the flipper cannons any justice as to how they look when firing.

Thank you for reading.

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Well played!

That's a great looking machine!

The sails look really good, better than the originals. I really like those!

Michi.

Thank you. Since I never kept track of other expences, I would have to estimate as to the cost of repair/mods. I figure that with the game purchase plust parts/mods would be around $2500.

Thank you. I had painted the originals and played for a while, but during a game, a sail fell off. The plastic around the screw shattered and the other was showing major cracking. I wanted to have the sails look as close to the movie sails as possible.

The motor of the ship seems to be out of order. I checked if I got 20v on the connector, it was ok, I checked on the contact points of the motor, now it is 12v which is correct. How could I test just the motor to be sure?
Direct assign in to the 12v on the right side of the cabinet (the free one)?
Should it then at least make some noise?

Disconnect the motor and use a 9 V battery to try it out. Polarity doesn't matter. (When you reverse polarity, it'll turn in the opposite direction.) If the motor doesn't move with the battery, it's toast.

The motor is nominally 24 V. It's fed by the low-power circuits at 20 V, via the ship motor relay.

On the motor it says 12v 20rmp. After checking I will see if I can only buy a new motor on ebay and not the whole unit for $180. Thanks for the tip on the 9v battery, that is very easy to check.

The POTC manual suggests that it is a 24 V motor. I've never checked the label on mine (if it has one, I'm not sure). But I have physically removed the ship from my machine and tested the motor with a 9 V battery. I can confirm that this works just fine to test the motor.

hi togehter,

i joined the club today. got an huo from the netherlands. realy happy with the game.

now i need the sound mod with the original music from the movie.

can someone post the link?

best regards from austria.

If you converted to LEDs what color General Illumination did you use? Warm White? Cool White? Blue? Green? I plan to use Tilt Graphics Game Blades. Thanks for your help.

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I used Comet sunlight white frosted twin smd's for most of my GI. In a few select places, I used the same led in cyan, and blue. I tried to keep those to a minimum though. There's a video of my machine at the link below for reference.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dead-men-tell-no-talespotc-owners-club/page/21#post-3584417

Just put up 337 million. Normal settings with 3 extra balls. All I had left was Davy Jones and although I attempted the battle on ball 2 and many times after, I could not defeat him. Grand champ score needless to say. Took a picture after my massive ball 1.

Found out that you go can for a broadside without destroying the sails to get back to Davy jones, very helpful.

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It seemed like an impossible number, haha. I looked with one ball left a couple times and he was still at 3/4 life. I did get a ball stuck under the ship as it was trying to raise back up in that mode, so that was a first. Not sure if he regenerates too like the kraken

I think he does, though I haven't seen it. I've defeated him pretty quickly sometimes, but today I brought in both other multiballs and still couldn't get him halfway

Not a fan of the Jack the Monkey sign on top of the ramp and saw some pics that Natay-Tay posted with a monkey figure on top of the ramp. PMd him but no response....just wondering if anyone else has done some kind of "monkey mod" . Been looking for monkey figures but not having much luck....any help?

I added this one to my machine. It's from a Neca Black Pearl Series 1 Barbossa set: ebay.com link: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN NECA BLACK PEARL 7 Captain Barbossa MOC

Michi.

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Yep....that's the one. May have to break down and get one of those.

Here is an image of the box. (The eBay link will go stale eventually.)

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Any tips or things I should watch for when removing the main ramp?

It's fairly obvious. Disconnect the ramp under the playfield and remove all the screws. The one tricky bit can be the VUK. I removed it completely. You also need to remove the small plastic shield on the backboard. The manual also shows what to do.

Michi.

I'm still always having trouble with this one. A part of the metal rail from the upkicker (VUK) in back, is in a hole somewhere in the bottom. And at the same time the main ramp is in a groove on the backboard. Somehow I need a lot of force to get them both out in the same time...

Let me clarify with an image from the manual. Getting the pin out (1) and the plastic tab (2) together seems impossible to me. Unless there's some kind of trick to it.

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By the way: can somebody tell me how to remove the compass spinner? There seems to be a tiny allen keyhole in the middle but I cannot seem to rotate it clockwise- nor counterclockwise. I tried to remove the whole assembly with motor and everything but I'm unable to fit it through the hole because the backboard is in the way.

Why would I want to remove it? Because it's very squeaky when it stops rotating. I'd like to see what's causing this and hopefully resolve it as well.

You must remove the Vuk wire first. Then you can remove the main ramp. Before you can remove the wire you remove that plastic above it. It really shoul all come of without force.

I already unscrewed the VUK wire from the playfield (4) but I'm unable to unscrew the VUK wire from the plastic ramp. Not sure anymore why I can't. I think the bolt is unaccessible when the ramp is in place.
But that's what you mean right? Remove the VUK wire as a whole first?

Well you should be able to remove the 2 bolts that attaches the VUk to the ramp. Problem is mostly that the nut under the ramp rotates with it. But it is possible.Then you can remove the VUK and completely remove the ramp.

Finally got to 4 winds multiball... Drained out pretty quickly so never got to the "Gauntlet of Pirates"... But still great game. Rrally love my Pirates.

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It takes six hits the first time, assuming you get them in quickly, so he doesn't regenerate. If you go all the way around Four Winds and do it all over again, each ship takes more hits to sink than the first time (I think two extra hits per ship, maybe more), and Davy Jones takes seven hits to defeat. (I didn't bother testing after going around Four Winds a second time because I don't think that'll ever happen in a real game.)

Michi.

At least you got there. The only time I could do it was at @yzfguy's house when his optos were f-ed up and kept giving me unlimited multiballs. Of course, he STILL couldn't get to Four Winds, so...

Just sayin'.

I've started Four Winds a dozen times now, but never finished it. The best I have so far is three of the four winds. It's a lot of shots you need to get through while staying in multi-ball.

Michi.

I don't know how you guys do this. I haven't been able to reach four winds yet even with 5-balls games! (which end up with aprox. 8 balls due to east arrow extra ball, treasures en a specific extra ball score)

Have ony make the super jackpot only once and never defeated Davy Jones yet. My highest score is 142 mil. so I guess I just need to keep practicing...

I do hate outlane drains. A lot of unexpected bounces (slingshots) drain thru the outlines...

Lots of practice. I've been watching many of the tutorials on papa.org. You can learn a lot about flipper technique from those. The two most important shots are Tortuga and the chest. Get those down, and you can set things up such that you are in multi-ball most of the time. That's good for progress towards other goals, and acts as insurance against drained balls.

A bit of luck helps too. But it's funny, the more I practice, the luckier I get

Michi.

Here was my strategy: I started with focusing on the heart multi-ball and getting that super jackpot. Once that was done, I focused on the Jack the Monkey shots. Once that was done, I focused on Tortuga. Once the Port Royale was lit, I then moved onto the ship shots. Got the Kraken defeated after the first ship was sunk. Then after all the ships, the Davy Jones battle was tough. I usually fail there. It doesn't really work to trap balls and take planned, controlled shots; as he regenerates fast, you will never make any progress. So you have to hit it on the fly.... Just got lucky - mind you this was my first time ever to four winds and I only got 1 of the 4 winds completed.

yes the 4 winds was over when I was down to one ball and I had tonstart acheiving the objectives again from scratch - as if I started a brand new game. Probably will never happen again...

P.S. tried it again the same way tonight and just couldn't get the magic touch but my strategy for the approach makes sense to me...

Four Winds ends when you are down to one ball. At that point, the compass resets and the ships reset, and it's as if you are starting back on ball 1, but with the ships harder to sink now. If you get back around to Four Winds a second time, progress is remembered, so if you completed two winds the first time, you only need to do two more to get to Gauntlet.

Well, the missed shots still give you points. In fact, a viable strategy is to purposely not defeat DJ. Instead, wail away at the ship and the kraken over and over, without ever killing DJ until you drain. Hits on DJ are worth an increasing number of points, you get pretty quickly to more than 3 million per shot. The kraken is worth the current jackpot value; especially if max jackpots are on, once you reach DJ, just hit the ship and the kraken and trap up until DJ regenerates. Rinse and repeat indefinitely.

If you haven't defeated the kraken during the first three ships, yes, the kraken is invincible during DJ. You can still defeat the kraken by defeating DJ, and then starting the ships all over again. Doing so is harder though. The first time around, you need 4, 6, 8, and 10 hits to advance through the ships, and 4 hits to defeat each kraken. The second time around, it's 6, 8, 10, and 12 hits per ship, and 5 hits to defeat each kraken.

Of course, if you are interested in completing the compass (who isn't? ), you should defeat the kraken during the first three ships.

Michi.

I just double-checked, and this is wrong. The compass resets when Four Winds ends, but the ships do not. If you defeat DJ, sink the Interceptor a second time, then start Four Winds and not complete it, the progress on the ships is not lost, so the Interceptor is still marked as sunk (solidly lit).

Michi.

I've had it only for a year, not tired of it yet Space doesn't allow me to have more than one machine (well, two at the absolute most). I don't think I'll ever be a big collector. I bought the machine because I like it, and because I wanted something to practice with.

Do you have a strategy guide as to how to score big points, tips and tricks for players?

If big points is what you are after, it's simple: Tortuga and chest all day. Ignore everything else. If extra balls are on, it can pay to complete Jack and one kraken, to get the West compass award. Otherwise, ignore Jack (it's a dangerous and low-value shot), and pretty much ignore the ship and the kraken too (except when lit for jackpot).

POTC really is a one-ball game when it comes to points. The ball that collects the South compass award is the one that counts. The idea is to stay in multi-ball as much as possible, getting the multipliers by sending additional balls into Tortuga, and cycling balls through the chest enough to re-light the jackpots. I ignore the chest super jackpot too, unless I happen to be able to collect it as a convenience while re-lighting jackpots. (The super is not worth enough points compared to the other scoring opportunities to make it worth chasing.) Sending balls into Tortuga is useful not just for the multipliers, but to get balls out of the way and park them for a while.

Once the ball that collects the South compass award drains, the same strategy applies, but for fewer points. It's possible to work up the jackpot value to well over a million (I've managed 1.8 million once). But that takes a long time and, if you get the jackpot value that high, you are having a stellar game already anyway. Once above 1 million, the jackpot value resets back to 1 million at the end of each ball, and it takes too much effort and risk to work it back up again. I never shoot at the center saucer because it's a tight shot that can easily cause a drain. Instead, get your Liar's Dice awards during multi-ball, where balls end up in the saucer by accident, and the award is collected even if it goes into the saucer from the bumpers. (In single-ball play, getting into the saucer from the bumpers does not give you the award.) The accidental saucer hits also raise the jackpot value as a side-effect.

I try to avoid stacking Tortuga and chest multi-ball. There is no scoring advantage to be had this way. If the multi-balls are stacked, when multi-ball ends, you end up in a waste land with no progress towards either the chest or Tortuga. Generally, I try to use one multi-ball to make progress towards the other one, without starting the other multi-ball. That way, when multi-ball ends, I have next multi-ball ready or nearly ready.

Ship multi-ball can be useful as an add-a-ball feature. If the ship is ready or nearly ready, and Tortuga or chest multi-ball are down to two balls, shoot the ship to get a third ball.

Work the lane completions at the top, they add to the bonus multiplier. Bonus can get large on POTC. (The largest I remember getting is a little over 80 million.)

The Davy Jones strategy of not defeating DJ to keep getting big points is definitely interesting. My best score on POTC on factory settings is well over 600 million. In that game, I never defeated DJ, but tried and failed three or four times. All the hits to the ship during these attempts worked up the score a fair bit. (With two balls in Tortuga, a shot at DJ can be worth 9 million or more.)