I had that issue and it was a blown transistor on the board. Fairly common one that has the heat sink on them.
You should also have a blown fuse.

Strangely seems to be working again after I reseated a few things by the flippers. Hopefully it stays that way.

Maybe a loose connector on that board on the left side of the cabinet that controls all the flippers and start buttons.

So, the previous owner stated this problem and mentioned it could be dirty optos. Right away I'm thinking ok. why didn't you just clean them then...?

Soon as I tried the flipper buttons and saw just how weak they were, I pulled the glass. I pulled the left board off and cleaned the optos knowing full well someone likely already tried that and it wasn't going to make a difference.

Immediately noticed the interrupters were definitely worked on at some point from the solder on the back. Then the orange wire on that opto board harness broke off from the pin, and there were two orange wires spliced together right before it, no heat shrink or anything. I just called it a night at that point, as I don't have any 0.100 pins at the moment.

I don't have much experience with these opto boards, are they relatively straight forward to repair?
EDIT: Just looked at the boards again, its basically 2 optos and two resistors.

I read another post stating that the driver board was their issue with this problem. They switched it out, and they flippers were strong. Just trying to narrow things down

I just bought two new boards from pinball life and made sure the optos were being “interrupted” correctly and that fixed my issue. Mine was only the left flipper though. It had an intermittent opto signal so it was fluttering and was super weak.

My left one too, so I just changed both out at the same time.

I'm likely going to order two opto boards for the flippers. Before I do, does anyone have a bulb count, at least for the GI? I don't have the game in front of me at the moment, and it's been color bombed. I'd like to redo the GI with Comets.

I think comet has a kit already that uses white where they should be and even a different color white for the slings.
It is a good kit.
https://www.cometpinball.com/products/demolition-man-led-kit

I also highly recommend getting the GI lighting board that dim the lights during modes it is supposed to when you had the incandescent bulbs.
https://www.cometpinball.com/products/led-ocd-boards-general-illumination?variant=39990957473894

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Yeah I usually just order Comets from a Canadian reseller to save conversion, duty etc. Their site doesn't elaborate on their kits either to let you know how much of what bulb type you're getting. I ended up just ordering a couple hundred so I'll have spares. They'll get used.

As for the OCD, I wondered about that as my friend is overhauling a Scared Stiff and he was wondering if he'd need one as I believe that game dims at certain times as well.

Yup.

The OCD boards are expensive but they restore the original lighting dynamics that LEDs remove. Think flashbang full brightness vs dimmer switch. I posted this a while back but gives a side by side comparison with and without (both GI and regular OCD boards installed). The lighting is now at multiple brightness levels as the game was originally designed. DM does utilize it quite well.

cool "breathing" light effects

Can anyone snap me some pics of the left and right flipper opto connectors?

Is in the manual (if you have it and know how to read schematics ). Good luck

Thanks

I managed to repin the right connector based on the wiring diagram to get the flipper working correctly, but lost the trigger switch in the process. The wiring is so hacked up on this game, it was definitely not a "dirty opto". I have a good idea of what will need to be done, just need to have a good look at the triggers and their wiring as well.

The LEDOCD board did wonders on my LotR when I had it. If I ever get another Demo Man I’d do that, as my previous two didn’t..and didn’t know about the dimming (cause I bought them led’d).

Agree! Definitely makes a big difference... going from full brightness LEDs all the time (flashbangs, that the game was never designed to do) to the original variable dimming levels makes a huge difference in the experience. For example during Demolition Time and other MB modes the light shows are essentially night and day with the overall visuals of the modes. The entire playfield will get dark with OCDs where with the LEDs only they will either flicker or stay full blast. It is noticeable all the time really but the special modes where the "light shows" happen are even more impressive.

The price, no argument... sucks... but I have no regrets buying BOTH OCD modules because now I have restored a part of my game that has been missing all this time.

FYI if interested, my installs of both OCD boards so you can see what they look like. I actually didn't realize at first that both OCD boards were for different purposes. One is for General Illumination and the other is for the inserts. If you were only getting one I would say get the GI but both are really needed for the full fix. PS. You want "regular" LEDs for these mods, NOT the "non ghosting" LEDs.

First one
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/demolition-man-owners-club-members-only/page/60#post-7777975

2nd one
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/demolition-man-owners-club-members-only/page/60#post-7839463

So i've finally been able to get a good 20 games played on my new to me Demolition Man and have some questions for the experts.

The plastic above the upper left flipper broke after the first game, but it seems as if many people have a broken plastic there or have found a way to mount it to the post above the post you are supposed to secure it to. Has anyone found a fix for this besides a plastic protector? I put a washer there, and that washer broke within a few games. Spent $210 on this new plastics set and already snapped one ASAP, so that hurts.

Also I'm getting TONS of airballs. Especially from the right flipper where it flings up in the air and get stuck on top of the car crash plastic or on top of the left flipper. I just rebuilt the flippers and made sure i had the gap tool set when i installed them, but something feels off. The flippers are nice and strong, they are the original 11629 coils in the manual, but they come down the ramps SO fast, it rattles around in the wireforms.

I never got a chance to play a Demoliton man on location before purchase, so not sure how it's supposed to play. The flow is amazing on this game though, the ramps are awesome, but the multiball/left loop shot is really difficult to get in the scoop, you must hit it absolutely perfect.

Any wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Plays like mine.

Well, DM is definitely known to break plastics and have an occasional air ball without a doubt.. I do think plastic protectors are mandatory on this game but having said that what you are describing seems excessive and abnormal to me. You literally played one single game and already broke a plastic? I guess it could just be bad luck but this game shouldn't be THAT violent. There could be an element of getting used to where the shots are also. I can tell you that when I play my game, I hardly ever get an airball and hardly ever hit any plastics although like I said it does happen, just rarely.

You may want to re-check the flipper gaps to make sure they are correct. If they are off, I suspect this could be one reason why you are getting a lot of air balls.

GL!

Managed to repin the flipper optos connectors based on the manual and got the cabinet switches working.

What was throwing me for a loop is the trigger switches. I’m guessing there were z connectors that tie in somewhere but those are long gone and the switches were wired directly and bypassed the optos boards.

Can anyone confirm for me that the black wires from the trigger switches tie into blue-gray (left) and black-yellow (right)?

Both cabinet switches and triggers work and flip strong with that setup. Just want to confirm that’s correct before I call it done.

I'm not near a machine but a quick search of the thread found a lot of photos in post 923. Hopefully you can see what you need!

If not, let me know and I can pop off my glass later and take some pics. I meant to do this yesterday but the kiddo is on spring break and I was busy dadding

A little head decal resto…got these on ebay as the cab decals were fine and didnt need an entire set. Hairdryer and spackle tool made quick work of the old one!

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Thanks guys - post 923 did give a bit of clarity of how the original wiring looked. This game looks much different. Not sure why things got hacked up the way they did.

From that pic at the z connector I does look like the left side trigger goes to blue-grey (sw1) on the opto. I would assume the right side goes to sw1 on that respective board as well.

That’s how I wired it. The flippers wouldn’t work without the triggers connected so it took me a minute to figure out what was up.

The left side did start doing weird stuff and flipping on its own so I’ll have to take another look at things. One of the two new opto boards locked the flipper on so they both may have some issues. I’m going to switch that side out with another known working opto board and see if it goes away.

In any of the 4 multiballs, how do you get a “double” jackpot? I’ve only ever seen single jackpots but I know there’s an animation and callout for a double.

I don't think double, but super jackpot up the right ramp when lit.

Maybe you mean the secret jackpot? Hit the trigger on the handles, you get one secret jackpot per multiball
EDIT: I think its the trigger? Been so long since I played! But there is definitely a secret jackpot by hitting a button during each multiball

I do know about the secret (cool feature) and super. I must be going crazy. This was taken from the original trailer in museum multiball.

IMG_1909 (resized).png

I'll have a look through all my rom dumps for the pin2dmd project later and see if I can come across any instances where I caught it

.
You're not . The Double Jackpot definitely exists. I don't know all of the ways that you can earn it however in this video you can see that during MUSEUM MBALL, the red light is flashing on the middle loop ramp fed by the upper left flipper. When the ball lands into the kick out it registers a DOUBLE JACKPOT. Note the DMD is slightly lagging behind the game (bad editing) but you can see the reflection on the glass for more precise timing. Slow down the video playback to make it easier.

Interesting, thanks for posting this!

The double jackpot is the side ramp near the computer

This makes sense. In my video the double jackpot doesn't show up until the ball routes down to the kickout, but it could just be that the game was still catching up at that point and it was actually the ramp that gave it.

I got Double Jackpot for the first time last night in museum multiball. Hit the first lit shot, then hit the upper flipper ramp and got a double jackpot, then it went to the computer, then the right ramp for super jackpot i believe. So it's definitely a thing, but i've never got one in Fortress multiball.

You definitely know it when you hit it with that sound effect.

Have you found something yet? Friend has the same request and i started to convert the pinsound files but it takes ages.

I looked at converting the files but, as you say, it's a slow process. Also, my DM is in storage awaiting the reopening of Pinball Republic so I can't do anything with it at the moment. I hope you manage to get something done because it seems like a worthwhile project.
mike.

Hi all! Just got my first pin - Demolition Man! Excited to finally join the club. I've seen the restorations & mods on this thread. There's some beautiful work here, and it makes me want to make my DM the best it can be!

I love the "three seashells" mod that some of you have. Anyone know where I can get it?

Color DMD would be my first upgrade.

Why the color DMD?

Brings the game to look 20 years newer.

Agreed. There's no going back once you've had the color dmd.

I want to do LEDs and clean and restore the playfield too. Anyone know where to get the three seashells mod? It looked like it was just seashell screws or screw covers, but I can't find it anywhere.

Congrats and welcome to the club

Also agree, the color screen makes a huge difference and may be the #1 mod. I would also highly recommend a PinSound board to expand the audio side of things as it can enhance the game experience. As far as toppers, I only know of one topper that is sold and it is a simple edge lit acrylic. Everything else that you see will be a customer topper that someone made. This game is very under-rated due to the movie not being well received by some and the playfield art being a little bland... but this is one of the "flow champions" and although the game isn't very deep, it is always just very FUN to play. The widebody design I think is pretty cool and although the car crash can be tricky, and perhaps should have been drop down targets, I like the risk as it keeps you on your toes. The 2 main goals are to get to Cryoprison Multiball and to get to Demolition Time. They are both not that difficult but are always rewarding. If you plan to install LEDs, think about if you might ever get the OCD mods because if you do, you don't want to get non-ghosting.

Thanks! Any idea what I should do about this?

playfield damage (resized).jpeg

I would ignore it and maybe put a little Mylar over it. Properly fixing something like that is an exhaustive, detailed, technical process. If the playfield is in that rough of shape a little paint wouldn't hurt before the mylar I suppose.

Depends on your budget and artistic skills.

You could touch up with paint.

You could buy decals.
https://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts-by-game/demolition-man/10274/insert-decals-for-demolition-man

Just play it!