Yes, pretty sure all the bookkeeping settings will get reset.....

I did the memory clear and reset the values. The 1,100,000 still does not add a credit. I don’t know if there’s a dip switch setting that is conflicting with this or not. Any other suggestions?

My understanding is the first level score works, the second does not? What about the third? One idea might be to switch the dip switches to a different game, set them. Then switch back.

Yes but I just found the issue. Dip switch 29 was off. If it’s off, only 1 credit per game will be added. I turned switch 29 to on so ALL credits will be added. There’s so many settings and switches this was an easy one to miss.

Woohoo! I was just reading the switch charts in the manual to see if I could find it....glad you got it.

Thanks!

I am having a hard time finding the clip type pop bumper bodies. I have talked to pinball resource. Looked on macro, pinball life, action pinball, and a bunch of others. Is there another source I need to look at? I am puzzled that I cannot find these things anywhere.

If you just need one replacement let me know. If you want a new set of shiny ones I can't help.

That is the blocking diode, not the capacitor.

In your photos it shows leads that were clipped. The cap was there, but it's missing now.

You need a .05 mfd cap there. if you can't find one you can use a .047 which is more common. The switch circuit uses very low voltage so you can get away with using a cap with a voltage rating of 10v or more.

I am restoring EBD playfield right now and looking to replace the coil sleeves while I have everything apart. Does anyone know is there a quick reference guide on what size sleeves I need to order, or a kit?

I had a crazy hard time finding them as well. But I picked up a set of 3 from Planetary Pinball a week ago. My LE needs a ton of work and I've had to order bits and pieces from all the major shops. (edit also, hi I'm new to the club. It took me a week to read the whole thread)

Welcome to club. Best SS out there IMO...

If you need the EBD "style" bumper bodies let me know. I have a good assortment of used without broken clips, and a few NOS. Prefer to trade for stuff, but PM me if you need 'em. We'll work something out.

Putting this post here too, I have it listed on trade your plastics thread as well.

Looking for NOS (Or VGC) White caps to mate with the NOS rings in the picture below used on early run Eight Ball Deluxe. Have a few rings, would trade for caps. If you have a few we both would end up with NOS sets! Steve Young, Planetary, and all the usual sources say there are no plans to reproduce these caps and rings in white.

Ring.jpg

Did anyone ever find a good source or home brew solution to build these metal brackets between the drops?

Anyone know where I can find a new playfield at?

Just missed one on eBay lol

I'm hoping for a hard top. Will be an easy day one purchase for me.

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CPR needs to start remaking these now..

Probably a dumb question but what is the difference as far as gameplay goes between the original eight ball deluxe and the other two that followed? I just picked up the 1981 version and the guy had two balls of the playfield of course game doesn't work so I'll be fixing it. Is this game a multiball game?

One ball only. Pull the other ball out. Congrats! You fixed it

No gameplay difference between the three versions. I also believe the playfield is the same between all three versions but on the '81, there are individual lamp sockets whereas on the '84 the lamps sockets are on PCBs. The LE had both I think. Backglass on the '84 is slightly smaller than the '81 and on hinged door.

lmao!!! I wish that was the only issue!! The board looks like it has some serious acid damage, so I'll probably replace it with an Altek board and hopefully that will get it booting for me..

Thanks for the info..

Hello 8BD world! I am brand new here and the proud new owner of an 8BD. Picked it up over the summer and it actually plays pretty well for being close to 40 years old. The game would cut out after about 8 games and just die while in mid game. Found some time to work on it and decided to start changing out the boards. Started with MPU, Solenoid, and Light Board. Ordered from Marco (but really All Tek) and it did not fix the problem. Still happy to change out the boards as they were terrible looking. Not afraid to put some money into this game. After a little more digging and some help (over the phone) from Dave at All Tek (really cool guy) the power board inside was FUBAR. Just put the board in today and now "All Systems Go". Next step is to switch over to LED lights which I have in hand now.

Question 1: Do other 8BD owners like the switch over to LED'S?
Question 2: What has been the life of the newer boards so far? Any major Issues?
Question 3: Since I am not sure if the boards were original that came with it do they hold any value? Should I have them redone for originality reasons
Question 4:Does anyone have a copy of the original owners manual I could purchase, get a copy of somehow?
Would love to be able to set the dip switches 1-32 in the right order. A pic of the right order would be awesome

Thanks! DigitalJB
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Welcome! EBD is by far my favorite machine...it'll never leave my gameroom.

I did switch to LEDs. I didn't go super bright and left it tasteful. I really like the look of the inserts with the LEDS.

I have an Alltek lamp board in mine and a Rottendog rectifier board....so far so good after 1.5 years. I used an Alltek MPU in it for the first few months while I repaired the original MPU, then put the original MPU back in once it was working. I now use the Alltek in my other Bally pins when I'm troubleshooting stuff. The original boards do hold value - do a search on eBay and you can see how much working and non-working ones sell for (provided there is no battery corrosion damage).

You can get the owner's manual here (PDF): https://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=eight+ball+deluxe&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#762

Have fun!

If you are going to switch to LED bulbs, keep in mind that this era of Bally games has #555 lamp sockets. I have restored 3 EBD games and from my experience, the plastic bases on the LED lamps are not very compatible or user friendly with the LED lamp base. It takes a lot of effort to seat them in the sockets and sometimes the connections are flaky. If your game has the lamp board pcb's under the playfield, then it won't be as difficult. Also when switching to LED's you will see the lamps flicker or strobe. The reason for this is that the LED lamp doesn't draw enough current as the original 555 lamp and this causes switching issues on the lamp driver board, mostly all Bally and Sterns from late 70's to early 80's will do this. Luckily there solutions for this. The easiest is changing the original lamp driver and aux lamp driver to Alltek. They have a built in fix for this by running a jumper wire to the switched lamp bus wire.

Also make sure you get the correct manual for your game. Although very similar, there are slight differences in wiring and colors of the wires between the 81 version and the LE. Not sure about the Bally-Midway version though.

One way to tell if a board is original to the game is to match serial numbers from boards to the cabinet. This isn't always 100% because arcades back in the day may have had more than one particular game and sometimes the heads would get mixed up.

Yeah what’s the trick to getting LEDs to fit in these sockets without breaking the plastic socket? I have 555 comets frosted LEDs and they just don’t fit. Does someone sell thinner LEDs to fit this older game? I’ll buy the altek led board if I can get LEDs to fit.

They should just fit very snuggly. Some of them you have to hold from the bottom while pushing them in or they will flex. But you can buy new bayonets or sockets as needed.

I just did all comet 555s and didn’t have any issues other than a few dirty contacts. Using the original boards with the daughterboard kit Comet sells. There’s still a slight flicker, but I think it’ll stop once I redo all the connectors.

I also found Comet 555 leds to be very tight on my EBD. Frustrating. Even cracked a socket under the sling shots. Not sure if other brands fit easier. I emailed Comet about this last year. They sent me a different batch that they thought would fit better but they really don’t. There was a thread about this somewhere on this forum.

Yeah the comet ones I have just don’t fit right. Just too tight I did just break a socket trying to put one in.. There’s got to be a smaller led to fit these games.

I used Cointaker for 555's on a EBD. I like theirs because they have dual contacts on both sides of the base. They are still very tight and they only seem to seat when they are pushed in just right. There's no wiggle room at all and my fingers got sore after installing them. I wonder if bulb grease would help. Try applying a little on the sides of the lamp base. The 2 EBD's I restored after the first one got all new bayonet sockets. I only kept the 555 for the GI's to keep the top side of the PF looking original.

Some more custom cards by Mr_Tantrum. He customized the text for me. Great job. Thanks.

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I was hoping Cointakers would fit better but I guess they don’t. They will probably be at the York Show. I may ask them if they are aware of this.

Every micro-milli-miniscule variation in manufacturing/condition of both the sockets and the LEDs make a big difference. I used Cointaker's 555s on my EBD. Some combinations of them simply would not work no matter what I did. Others would fit like a glove as if the new LED was the 555 I just removed from that socket. Sometimes just by turning the LED around or trying another one of the "same" LEDs, I'd suddenly get the glove-fit slide-in that a previous one refused to do in the same socket.

Since I was doing several games at the time, I was buying the "bulk" packages of LEDs in various quantities and not packages/kits of LEDs created just for a specific game. So I always had a good number of extra LEDs laying around to try when one wouldn't fit. I also had to swap out a socket every now and then as it seemed sockets would take any 555, but none of my LEDs. Of course, I didn't have anywhere the same number of extra sockets as LEDs.

Thanks for the advice as I got a chance today to start changing out the 555's. I tackled the back box first and I did notice that the fit was a little tighter with the LED'S. My solution was to take a small flat head and just wiggle the socket inside a little and they fit perfectly. The appearance is definitely different compared to the old bulbs. I spent a little time working on the Playfield lights but didn't get too far. That's going to be a little more of a show so I was wondering if I should remove the Playfield to make this easier? Also, does it make sense to change the LED'S on the Playfield if I have plans to get the Playfield redone? I would do the Playfield now but they are hard to come by these days. Recently saw one on EBAY go for $1525.00

Pacman, just take a small flathead and barely open (pry) the female end inside the light bulb socket. Takes a little extra time but saves time in the long run.

Thanks for the helpful info and the link for the owners manual. I checked the boards and I didn't see any serial numbers that match my machine. I am going to just shelf the old boards for a rainy day for now. The new All Tek boards are working perfectly so I am very happy so far. Next up will be the Playfield. Any suggestions where to get a new one? Recently bid on one but it went for $1525 on EBAY. Crazy!!!

How could I get a set of those cards?

Ok, I wouldn't swap out the playfield lamps if you are planning on restoring it. It's too much work. But yes, removing the PF from the cab would make things easier. But you will need something to support the PF. If you have some 2x6's lying around make a box about a 1/2 wider on the inside dimension than the PF. Then nail some 1x2 lumber on the inside about a 1/2 down so that the PF can sit inside of it. Also be careful about spreading the contacts in the 555 sockets, this can weaken the connection, especially if you go back to standard bulbs.

Over $1500 for an EBD PF is ludicrous!! CPR just did them 3 years ago for the second time so I wouldn't wait for them. Keep your eye on Outside Edge because they may do a hardtop for EBD.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/official-hardtops-thread

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/prototyping-a-hardtop-high-speed

Send a PM to Mr_tantrum for the custom apron cards. He can set the game award score to your taste and he works fast. No BS!

Waiting for a hardtop, myself. My cab isn't nearly nice enough to justify a full playfield swap. But a hardtop.... Easy day one purchase.

Strange Tech Issue Occurring During Lamp Test...

I had my 1981 8BD near 100% working, but there was one or two feature lights acting up. I put the game in the diagnostic lamp test so that I could see which ones were not lighting. I left it in the lamp test mode as I was tracing the two lights that were acting up through the schematics when I heard my machine make a funny noise. Something happened while it was flashing the lights on and off in lamp test mode and the result was that the feature lights all turned off and the game would not respond to the diagnostic button, but was stuck in its current state. I turned the game off and back on again, and found the game was not able to restart and it appears that the MPU flash test only gets through four or five flashes before it stops and the game freezes in the same state as it was in when it went crazy during the lamp diagnostic test. I checked the f1 and f4 fuses in case either of those were causing this, but they were both fine. I'm not sure what else to check regarding this issue. I had just installed a brand new NVRAM.Weebly MPU board, as well as new lamp board, new auxilliary lamp board, and new rectifier (power) board within the past two weeks which helped with the progression toward having the game working well, so, this adds to my confusion as to what caused this.

Any help to guide me toward what to check would be appreciated. Thanks.

Is it the 4th or 5th flash? I'm not familiar with the Weebly MPU, but for the original Bally 2518 (from http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/ballyss/rep/index2.htm#flash):

Fourth Flash:
The Fakers Guide: no fourth flash means U10 (6821 PIA) is bad.

Techno Guide: The U9 CPU chip now tests the first 6821 PIA chip. There are two of these chips on the MPU board, which are identical and interchangable. The test for both is the same.

To determine if a PIA chip is good, the U9 CPU does the following:

- The CPU accesses, by means of input RS0, RS1, CS0, CS1 and CS2 each of the two full byte registers used to store the port initialization information. If does this, one register at a time. After it completes the first register, it repeats for the second. It goes through 256 tests similar to that used to check each byte in U7 (second flash). If each time the CPU writes a word into the register, it can read the same word back, it continues to test until completion.
- The CPU accesses, by means of input RS0, RS1, CS0, CS1 and CS2, each of two full byte registers used as data output registers when PA0 to PA7 and PB0 to PB7 are used as outputs. It does the same type of test on each register as described just above. Again if no faults are found, the test is continued until completion.
- The CPU then accesses, by means of input RS0, RS1, CS0, CS1 and CS2, the two ports CA2 and CB2. The port is initialized as an output. The port is then written into to see if it can store a "1" and then a "0".
- A total of 4 x 256 + 4 (=1028) test steps are required to test the PIA chip. However, there are internal buffer amplifiers used with the PB0 to PB7 output registers and CB2 port register which can not be tested by the CPU. Access is only to the register; if the buffer is open, it does not interfere with the registers ability to be written into and read from by the CPU. It is this uncertainity that reduces the accuracy of these test to 99.5%.

Fifth Flash:
The Fakers Guide: no fifth flash means U11 (6821 PIA) is bad.

Techno Guide: Same test is performed on U11 as was performed on U10. See above.

My 8BD has 4 lights out on Playfield, 3 near drop targets (The first three stripe balls) and then on the left ramp the extra ball lamp is out. Any suggestions on how to pinpoint the break???? There is a pretty ugly hack at the aux light board where they wire nutted 3 wires and then soldered across the three connections on pins that hook into board. Could it possibly be the hack from the previous owner on the aux light board? How could I get a new pin connector that would plug into board? I have a new aux board but need to fix hack before I install it.

Thanks!

So, what I am being told is that the brand new reproduction MPU that has been in the machine for a week is bad?

Big Daddy Enterprises or Great Plains Electronics. You need .156 header pins. You will need a decent de-soldering tool to remove the old header. Be careful not to damage the pads or traces on the board. The aux lamp driver has a weak ground. I think I read earlier in this thread about it. I think there's an extra pin or 2 that Bally didn't use so there's room for a ground mod?

Anything can happen in pinball! When you were checking the lamps, did you inadvertently move anything that could have caused a short? Otherwise if you have an Alltek or Weebly MPU, both have great customer service to help you.

I had the game in lamp test mode with all lights flashing and was reviewing the manual to find the wire and connector that ran the light that was not working. Was about five feet from the machine when I heard a strange noise and saw lamps were no longer flashing and game had frozen with just GI lights on. Turned the game off and on again and saw that the MPU flashes stopped after four or five. Since I was not near the game, I don’t think I did anything to cause this to happen. I will contact the person I bought the board from. I also have a backup original MPU and I am going to put that in the game this weekend or sooner. If that corrects the startup problem then it seems like that would confirm the new MPU board that I bought was the problem.