Well I've been wanting one for a while, and never knew that my aunt (who I rarely see - I have a lot of them) had a machine she bought for her grandkids years and years ago. She said it was never really played and just sat in her room. I asked her what she paid - she said $3,000. She sent me a picture and it was a super nice Roller Coaster Tycoon. I asked her what she'd sell it for...

$400. Just come get the thing out of my house.

Ummmm. OK! I didn't have to think about that for long I also told her if I ever tired of it and decided to sell it I would split anything over $400 that I made on it. She said not to worry about it. Can't beat that!

Anyways - for the forum - I'm in the DFW area (DFW airport area to be more specific) and would like to have someone reputable go over the machine, replace the rubber bumpers and clean it up a bit inside. It all seems to work great. The LED and dot matrix tests are 100%, the sound is great and crisp and loud, and everything works as it should from what I can tell. I have about 3 lights on the playfield out, but that's all I can see. There are a few places where it looks like maybe something went, but isn't there, but with so much going on it's been hard to tell. I've also been unsuccessful finding a high resolution image of the playfield from which to compare it. Would love to find that somewhere if anyone has any hints!

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated! I went in and reset it to factory specs, to free play, and adjusted the volume. Otherwise all of the tests have been successful and it's a great deal of fun to play so far.

Thanks for your help with a noobie. I know how we can be.

Adam

Wow that was fast... I'm amazed at how active this board is, and how friendly the members are already. I've been a part of a lot of forums, and they're never this 'productive'. Thanks to Rush1169 for the perfect images, and everyone else for the assists! I ordered a full set of rubber components online and will tackle that as my 101 task. I am in the computer industry and also do a lot of woodworking, so I'm technical and love to tinker. This thing should be right up my alley.

I'm in Dallas / Fort Worth, so that Nickelrama meet up sounds ideal - and I've been remiss and haven't been out there yet. Will take my boys for a great day.

Thanks again everyone!

Hey thanks everyone! I cracked it open this morning, replaced some bulbs, soldered a wire which had come off of a solenoid, and realized that it had been done by someone on purpose. I think I can fix it though. (I have some GREAT craft beer, bourbon, whiskey and scotch for any DFW locals who want to take a look!)

Hey MustangPaul (and anyone else who has this unit) - I have a attached some crude notes on an image. First, the bumper / pop-up on the top left of the playfield comes up when the game starts, and drops correctly when I hit him - but if the ball comes from behind he does not drop. After a minute the unit resets all of the sensors and drops him down so play can proceed. The wire had been cut on that solenoid, and the bracket with the iR eyes had been removed. I reinstalled and hooked everything up (2 wire and 4 wire connectors) and see now why they did it. I believe that sensor board to be bad? One light (the left on) glows red, but the right does not glow at all. To be honest I didn't expect either would glow if it was a sensor to detect a circuit break when the ball passes? Do I need to replace this bracket and sensor assembly?

Second, the flying ghost flap appears to be stuck open / where I cannot see the flying ghost cover / flap. I'm not sure what this piece does or should do, but when a ball enters there it simply bounces back out.

Finally, and the easiest - where can I buy the little plastic lenses / reflectors circled in the picture? One of my bulbs is missing the reflector.

Otherwise the game plays awesome and we're having a great time with it!

Thank you guys again!
Adam

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also, please excuse my caveman terminology!

Thanks again guys! I'll go test the sensor on the drop target. And yes, I have all the keys for everything, as well as all of the original manuals (and French supplement?!?!?) It's totally complete. Which is a little redundant

I'll dig back into it tomorrow after I get some sleep and see what I can work out. It's a fun machine - but it's going to be hard to drop $3-$5k on another and feel like I got 10x the enjoyment... but I do see where the addiction comes in on this!!!

Have a good night (morning)

Here's a few shots of my boards and the backup battery. Everything looks pretty good from what I can tell? I just have a couple gremlins on the playfield to figure out, and some switches to test. It's a blast to play though!

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Thanks Frax... turns out the Opto was bad. I replaced it and it's working as expected now, but the other switches on that column (all towards the back of the unit, on the same wire) are not registering. I've heard it could be a transistor on the board that's common to them - trying to figure out if that's something I can test with a multi-meter.

Always something I guess!