The worst audio samples hands-down are voices when you lock balls. Seems like the audio might have been optimised to make the Daleks sound awesome (and they do!) at the expense of human voices? Even my Doctor Dude System 11 has better vocal sound quality.

http://www.pinsound.org/pinballs/wpc-fliptronics/doctor-who/

* Hear all the sounds/call outs on demand!
* Make a party tape
* Impress that special someone!
* Act NOW!!!!!

You need a userid/password, but it's free.
faz

This had me rolling, thought I'd share.

Brilliant ........... must subscribe.. thanks for sharing

Significant effort put into that. The costumes alone!!
Nice find
faz

I just watched the the "behind the scenes" making of this video.

You need to watch. Not only were NONE of the sets/locations real...it was all shot in California!

Amazing stuff. So much work! Shot over five days....had to take months to plan.
faz

Worth upgrading the speakers on DW?

IMO, the music is fun, the callouts are 'ok'....but it might be worth getting some good speakers for the Sonic Boom alone.

Speech compression issues notwithstanding, I would still say yes with a slight caveat.

Since my game room is a bit on the small side, I don't have the volume up very high so
the response from the large bass cabinet speaker is not as pronounced as it could be.
It gets impressive at higher volumes, but then I catch grief from the rest of the house.
And if I boost the bass from the supplied balance control (on the Flipper Fidelity system)
then the speech really suffers...

So I guess it becomes a judgement call depending on your particular situation. I do not
regret putting the speaker upgrade in, it is just not quite as 'impressive' as I might have hoped...
But considering the source material, there is only so much you can expect.

I keep looking toward the PinSound board once that gets more real, but the price concerns
me a bit, especially since the capabilities of the board would not be fully realized without new
source material.

So... For the 'long weekend' project I got my new TARDIS installed. A nice bit of shiny!
Then the next upgrade: Shaker motor!

new Tardis?

I think I will hold off for now on the speakers. Easy upgrade down the road.

Yes, the frequently discussed replacement with the shell from the 4 port TARDIS
USB hub. Very shiny! (in a cool way, not an overly glossy obnoxious way)

This morning I removed the standard size flipper bats that came installed on my DW when I bought it -- replaced them with some yellow lightning flippers from PPS (thanks to monsterbash for picking up a few extras for me).

lightning.jpg

Then proceeded to put up a new GC score. Seems like the "H" shot is easier to make with the lightning flippers, at least on my DW.

dwgc.jpg

EXTERMINATE!

100% agree. I find DW much easier to play with lightning flippers.

very cool. I hadn't seen that. I bought an extra original from someone and used kyrlon plastic paint to refinish mine. Did turn out nice but the USB port mod is really tempting..

And if you keep an eye out, they can be had pretty inexpensively these days. I got mine on a sale at 'ThinkGeek' and actually picked up a pair. One intact as a hub on the desk in my (home) office, and the other now in the pin.

The mod is really fairly easy with a couple of tools and a tad bit of patience. (which admittedly, I am frequently short of) I cut the opening around the ball track fairly tight, and it looks pretty good. (imho)

I've been debating printing a control room interior picture to place in it and then adding a color-changing LED below for illumination so it looks like there is activity inside. We'll see how that sorts out...

The sort of things you think of once the 'mod bug' bites!

Now that's got me thinking, My DW had lightning flippers and I thought the game was hard with a lot down the middle
drains. So I put on normal length flippers. Now that I have had it for a couple month's, wonder if I should go
back to the lightning flippers. Why do you think it plays easier? This pin still kicks my but

Super cheesy Dr Who parady

#t=91

Evidently, you have never seen Ultraman. I seem to recall LESS production quality in that 60s show than this fine you-tube epic!

I love his sonic "sword". Flute feature and all. But I must say, that given the actual DW series, the sonic screwdriver does appear to be getting bigger. Perhaps it's like a TARDIS and it get's bigger as it gets near end of life.

Still fun. Actually, I'm still exploring that other DW parody. Those women have done a lot of projects. They appear to have quite the nerd-herd following them.

faz

So, my Doctor Who has been with a buddy getting a clear coat over the diamon plated playfield and having it's inserts fixed and a couple broken plastics fixed and some other things. It returns to me today. Even this second it is on the road coming in from Dallas. Yay! I have missed it!

Really? Clear over the Diamond Plate! I would have thought you'd need to pull the Diamond Plate off first. What's the process? Scuff the DP to accept or does it bind directly to the DP?

faz

The clear is amazing. It looks like it bonded directly to the DP. Keith Holbrook did the work for me, I will post pictures of it Saturday.

finally on my DW cab!
attachment=1769002,258079]

To be honest, I thought it played easier with lightning flippers only because that is was I had on there most of the time and was used to it. But K3V's comment above — that he had standard flippers on there most of the time and after changing them to lightning flippers he found it easier — tells me that I was wrong, and that lightning flippers are indeed easier for DW.

Mostly it is to do with making the H shot easier to hit. I didn't find that centre drains were as common outlane drains, even with lightning flippers installed.

Where is everyone finding the dw cab decals? I've seen the head and the coin door area pop up, but what about the others?

Pretty sure Diamond plate is just auto clear, they will chemically bond.

It is, and it should if prepped right

I got mine from a guy I know in New Zealand who recreated the artwork himself. Not sure who has the decals in the US. It sucks that this stuff is always out there somewhere but can't be made visible because of copyright concerns. All we want is our games to look great again.

Yup. It looks amazing clear coated. Will post pics Saturday. From my brief inspection today I saw no issues.

I agree with the H being easier to hit with lightning flippers by the way, but center drains on DW are a big problem especially coming off the orbit if you don't make it around or center target of the time expander.

Oh yes, that one-way gate at the end of the orbit doesn't go a perfect job of keeping balls from hitting a bumper and existing back out the orbit and SDTM! The orbit seems like it should be a safe shot but balls exiting back out, or being ejected out the side of the bumper area and becoming out of control, make it about 50/50 in my opinion.

The orbit is a good shot: earning transmat, spot ESCAPE and start video modes for more doctors and EBs. My go-to strategy was to earn ESCAPE via the orbit on ball one, and if I fail that then switch to a Sonic Booms All Day and Multiball strategy. If, while flailing around I managed to also get ESCAPE then I'd go for the video mode EB and All Doctors bonus.

Such a damn fine game. Of all the games I have sold I miss DW the most.

PM Ballypinball he can put you on the right track

Thank you!

Now does anyone have nos or used translite in good shape they want to sell??

I saw this one on ebay this morning:

ebay.com link: DOCTOR WHO PINBALL BACK GLASS MYLAR

Looks like a small blemish in a solid red area...s/b fixable with some finesse.
faz

Thanks! But I got a nos (or repro, I don't know) with the help of a few friends from baa

I just recently joined the club and in the process of doing a fairly expensive shop job on my DW. Hoping to finish in the next week and will post some before and after pics.

Quick question. Does anyone know where I can buy replacement clear plastics that go over the ramps? I know Pinbits typically carries them but they are out. I was able to flame polish clean my ramps to be crystal clear but the yellowed covers stand out and look terrible! thanks.

You can get them from Joe at Lasserific.
Check them out here.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/need-help-making-a-cad-file

Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. I just sent Joe an email.

Does anyone have any detailed shop out pictures for Doctor Who or know where these 2 little metal brackets fit? I'm just finishing up a shop job on mine but didn't take a good picture of the area. From memory, I'm thinking that they are used underneath the playfield where the ramp/subway attaches to the playfield but not exactly sure? thanks!

The only issue I'm having with mine is that the two outside optos on my mini-playfield don't work when installed in the game. I pulled the opto board/switch portion out of the mini playfield and tested it outside of the mini-playfield and all 5 optos work perfectly, but if I block the ends of the board (like is done when you install the board in the MPF) with my hand or a piece of cardboard then the two outside optos stop working. I just got the game about a month ago and this was acting similar back then but I installed brand new opto boards from GLM and thought it would take care of it but it didn't. I may try to fabricate a new cardboard shield to see if that makes a difference. It must have something to do with how much light is allowed in. Common sense would make you think that less light would be better, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

DWparts.jpg

You can either use tape or get some construction paper and make a new shield. I had to make a new shield for mine (I got the paper at the local crafts store for around a buck), traced the old shield, and made it. It fixed the opto issues I was having.

Thanks. I'll make a new shield out of construction paper and give it a try. It's weird because I tried wrapping my current shield in electrical tape (to make it darker) but it didn't seem to make any difference. Is the paper shield supposed to cover the ends?-my original one didn't.

Yup, the ends should be covered. If they are not, that is most likely what is causing the issue, as it lets the light in. If you try to repair the old one, it is not covering the existing shield that helps, you need to tape over and cracks or joints where light can come in.

Yep, dsuperbee is correct.

Thanks guys! I'll make sure the new shield covers all the sides including the ends. I think what's been throwing me off is that it actually works when I DON'T block off the side allowing light to come in on the ends. When I used electrical tape to block out all light and cover everything including the ends it stopped working.

I just picked up a used DW playfield today. Not certain that I can get it better than the one I have, but there's a good chance. I've never restored a playfield before, so may definitely ask some questions along the way. Goal is to clean and restore up to a better than current playfield status and then get a buddy of mine to auto clear it.

the shield I made
IMG_9256.JPG
IMG_9283.JPG

I used something a little heavier but got it at an art store. It is a little thicker than the original.

I don't think Chris(HEP) has done one but I am pretty sure he has one in his extensive queue. It has been a fun project but it has been hard to find parts.

My son is really into Doctor Who and loves pinball also.
Anyone want to get out of the club and sell me one?
Somewhere near Omaha would be even better.

Thanks for the info on the paper. Lack of a repro main playfield/translite/plastics does make it a more difficult game to restore. I was able to find a 4 piece plastic set but everything else seems hard to come by. It sounds like the licensing costs are high which is why some of the parts are likely not being made. I'm guessing that the reason that the ramps, mini-pf, and time expander cover were made was because they didn't feature licensed content or pictures of the actors? Hopefully HEP gets to his DW soon as I would love to see the pics.

The optos on the ends are pretty close to the end so possibly whatever you're using to cover the ends is bowing inward and blocking the optos? This was happening to me with the original cover, the paper had bowed inward. I covered the ends with tape and this also bowed inward and blocked the optos. So I made a new cover out of card and it worked a treat.

photo (8).JPG

Here's the playfield I picked up yesterday. Did a quick pass with Novus 2 to just clean it up. I think it might have some potential -- considering sending to Chris. I'd love a beautifully restored DW playfield as it's def a keeper game for me.