Hello everybody !
I joined the Casters Club last Sunday.
100% original one, (very small) home use since 20 years, original topper, all the documents.
Just need a big cleaning, replacement of J120 and J121 connectors, Leds, new pinballs, separate battery, new rubber set, new yellow starposts.

The playfield is not perfect, 4 inserts need to be restored before 2K varnish.

I will do this when the machine will be available

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Recently while vacationing, a peaceful afternoon at the beach was disturbed by a jet-skier making a racket just offshore. After an hour or so my wife, who is one of the gentlest persons you’ll ever meet, said “too bad we can’t shoot him with a torpedo like in Fish Tales.”

haha, that's awesome.

Last time we were at the beach, my kid sat there "shooting" boats, wakeboarders, and jet skis as they drove by. I was so proud.

tomdotcom Did you have any luck with the machine, work out what was going on??

All the test points checked out fine as far as I can tell. TP 1,2,3,6,7,8. LED's all look in the proper state. Main fuse in cabinet is good as are the rest of them in the backbox. I have not sorted it out yet. I haven't put a ton of time into diagnosing it. I do have a spare MPU, so I may try that. I reseated some cables...etc.

TP 1 14.49
2= 4.99
3 =11.86
6 = 71.4
7 = 21
8 = 17

Just wanted to recommend the d-6 / l-6 rom.
I just got one and the Leds light totally different, in a very good way. Much better.
I was getting it for the Xtra BallE fix, but the lighting improvements is a must imo.

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Hmm ok, that's an odd one then. Sounds like the driver board is powered and fine but the MPU is either not getting power or something has gone awol on that board. I know that a faulty/loose ASIC chip can cause a machine to not boot too from what i've read although i've not run across that issue with my Bally/Williams 90's pins. Have you got another machine that uses the same MPU board? Could try swapping it over to see what happens with that machine although of course you will need to swap over the game roms.

I would re-insert all the connectors and test if all the screws that hold the boards on the backbox are correctly fastened.
Then all the fuses and the chips on the CPU board.

Where do you get the L6 version from?
IPDB has the L5 as the latest
Willing to share it?

IPDB used to have it but its gone now, I don't know why.
I wish I had a way to burn them, so I don't have the actual file to share. I got it from someone in Canada at pinballrom.com.

The way the Leds light now is so much better! It really is a must if anyone is using leds.

Thx for the help guys, I will be sure to let everyone know what I figure out. I have a few days off soon, might get a chance to fudge with it again

Found some info: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fish-tales-casters-club/page/56#post-5423179

and the file:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fish-tales-casters-club/page/46#post-4818110

Seems to have the extra ball text fixed and the LED ghosting Patch applied

Joined the club

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I just checked ipdb and the L6 ROM still isn't there, anyone know the reasoning behind this? Perhaps some problem with it?

I'm curious as I'm considering installing it to my game.

Cool, I've downloaded it now. Still can't burn it and already have it my my game. But thanks

If you're using leds or set to extra balls you won't regret.

Fish Tales is going to be a nice change of pace from the other pins I see lined up there. Super fast (with lightning flippers), and a rule set you can learn pretty easily. But putting up a whale of a score is tough!! Enjoy!!

So I’m finally replacing my power driver board and I notice that I have something plugged into j138, which the manual lists as n/c. J137 is the playfield lamps. J138 matches my photo and the sticky I have on the connector, so I’m assuming this was my issue all along.

With that said, I was going through the photos in this topic, and they all look like it’s in j138. Is the manual just wrong?

J137 and J138 are wired the same so you can put that connector on either.

From the generic WPC schematics page 6:

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With regards to my machine not turning on, I swapped in a new RocketCPU and all seems well again. I realize that's not a very exciting shotgun approach lol, but it's working again. So that's delightful

I also bought a LED ColorDMD for it today too. Woot!!! Fn expensive though.

But the ColorDMD is like getting a new game. So much cooler colors. More fun for those playing with me while my ball takes way longer to drain, LOL

Absolutely agree!

My pinball-lovin' wife flipped a couple games on our recently acquired FT, then said, "I'm not playing this again until you get a color dmd."

I did .. and now, she's happy!

Great to hear you got it going again Definitely means the issue is with the original CPU board and i'm still leaning towards the ASIC chip
It might only need re-seating too....Or i could be totally wrong and it's failed somewhere else

Had an odd issue on mine last night...my topper does not animate, so I usually have the coil harness unplugged. I am probably selling the game soon and want to get the topper working, so I plugged it in and played a game...well, I had the game reset to ball one twice during the game like I held the start button in to restart a game. Maybe it is unrelated, but the timing was odd. I unplugged the topper and put a few more games on it with no issues. Any ideas?

Does the start button seem OK in the switch test? Any change in switch test with the topper connected?

Odd switch issues are often related to battery leakage. Any sign of leakage or stains from past leakage?

Anbody know what size post goes here? It holds up the boat plastic ramp. Mine is missing, thanks

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You mean here @mzhulk?

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I don't see anything missing, maybe just the wrong sized rubber ring. Unless you mean the hex standoff. LOL, and after taking the picture I see I am missing the donut ring.

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Looks fine. A long hex spacer goes on top of that to hold down the plastic and support the ramp. You can see the how the hex spacer supports the ramp in the previous post by @golgotha. Don't forget the 2nd rubber on the posts facing the pops like shown in my photos.

maybe this hex spacer is the right length?? (I didn't measure)
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/02-4252-40

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I purchased a 3 1/2 inch hex spacer that I can cut down if it is too long. A 2 1/2 is to short.

My first ColorDMD (LED version), price/shipping/customs charge was ridic, but it does looks nice.

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It's the mutts nuts for Fish Tales. Wait for the fish on the drumset! Congrats, and enjoy!!

My fave is the bright red lobster

Makes a world of difference doesn't it?

I like the target practice shooting skiers and boaters. Hit 15 and the "EB" shows up. Shoot it for an extra ball!

I'm excited to be back in the club! I picked up my 3rd FT about two weeks ago at an estate sale. My first FT was in 2007, second was in 2008, and my brother has had one since 2019.

Topper present, and everything is pretty clean under the playfield. Cab and head have a few small dings, but the colors are good. Batteries were leaking alkaline, so that's getting cleaned up (notice I didn't say acid ; ). No switch errors, but corrosion all the way down to the switch connectors. Adding NVRAM.

I'll also be adding LEDs, ColorDMD, new plastic set, plastic protectors, new plastic posts, new rubbers, new lightning flippers, new reel pulleys and belt, and a few other things. I started the tear down about a week ago.

My pics aren't loading, so I'll try from my phone or another pc.

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Still having problem, but the situation evolved.
Now the bulbs of the column 4 are lighting, but #41 and #42 are less powerful. I changed bulbs with some less good (read Chinese - only for testing, then Comet bulbs in again). It seems they receive too less electricity. But if I connect the bulbs directly to the cables, the light is good. Could someone confirm me the resistor on the board is a 2,2 kohm (Red, Red, Red, Gold stripes) ?
And more? Why a resistor there ? I think there must be a simple connection like the other fake resistor.
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I don't think there should be a resistor there - the W2 designation indicates that it is a wire and not a resistor (just like W1).

Thank you Zigzagzag for confirming.
Problem is now solved.
All bulbs are lighting perfectly.

Hey Guys, I just bought my first Williams game and was wondering about the lockbar receiver. Their seems to be no spring attached to the lockbar handle ? Is this correct? Or am I just missing the spring? I saw some William receivers online. They seem to have a spring ... but not sure about Fish Tales and not sure where to attach the spring. On the picture it seems to connect to a hole in de handle .... (havent seen one on my FT) ... Anybody?

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My fish tails doesn't have a spring but my jjp GNR does and it seems to be the same setup .

W/B didn't start using the springs until 1994 & WPC-S with the high-voltage interlock switch. Personally, I hate the spring, you need 3 hands to lock the damn bar down!

Yes correct, mine Is without spring.

But I'm going to mount It

Ah ok thx Guys!

I figured out how to hook the PIN2DMD to my Fishy with minimal invasive changes. I made a video on it.

Every game I have bought the first upgrade is to install a ColorDMD. www.colordmd.com I am interested what the cost difference is comparing the two turnkey solutions. My Fishtales has the ColorDMD and its bulletproof. Installs in under 15 minutes.

Great Video! (thx for mentioning my fishing rod as a mod LOL. I was planning to add a pin2DMD aswell, so perfect timing. Crimping the wires together seems like a irreversible step though. Is it also possible to connect an external 12v 5 amp power supply to the DMD running of the transformer?

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The wire jumper is removable. (Love the rod mod). As far as you question on the transformer, I reckon that would work. Glad you liked the vid.

I have wanted a Fish Tales for YEARS. Either games came up when I had other obligations, or the condition didn’t justify the price (to me).

Well the stars or pinball gods or karma or whatever the hell makes deals happen did it’s magic and not this is coming to my house.

An absolutely huge shout out to EagleTG - he drove 2 hours each way to pick this up for me. The seller needed it out of his garage and I couldn't make the trip on his timeline. EagleTG to the rescue. We've been friends for years and have had many pinball adventures. You couldn't ask for a better dude.

Thanks also to JodyG for selling me this awesome piece of machinery!

It still at my friends house but I hope to have it home in Friday if all works out.

Chris
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