Doing my first full restoration and play field swap on my FT. What do you guys recommend for the rubbers on this game? The original thick white ones? Green super bands? While I have everything torn apart do you guys have any other recommendations? Any coils work better in certain spots vs. what the manual recommends? Any parts that should definitely be replaced with new ones? Bryan_Kelly if you have any input after your awesome FT restore, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for your input. Craig

I really like Titan rubbers and colour of choice for that. I've used Super Bands for flipper bat rubbers and liked them, there is a slight difference to normal rubber (some argue it's HEAPS different) but i've since changed all my machines over to Titan rubbers all round

Hey Casters!

I keep running into issues with the Casters' Club Ball Popper Assembly D-11335-1.

The Dowel Pin (20-9314-7) keeps coming out. And I find myself having to reassemble this over and over.

Anyone have any good hacks or remedies for this issue.

Perhaps try next size up roll pin or try and open the gap slightly more on the one you have,good luck.

Anybody have a link to where these decals can be purchased?

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Anybody have a pic of where these plastics go?

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The fish are key chain holder I think.

Yes they are.

Thanks for the feedback on plastics. Here is another one that has me tripped up..the fisherman in red waders in the top right corner. What is the proper installation of this guy? Seen several pics of it installed at a funky angle that just looks unnatural and other pics where it looks like the plastic was trimmed to remove the top left "hook" that contains the screw hole. Can you guys take pics of how yours is installed? See pics of a couple different examples I found.

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Top left hook needs to be heated and bent if it's new plastic.

and then its installed at that funky ass 45 degree angle as shown in my first pic above? Thanks for the feedback.

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Excellent! Thank you. It's the metal support bracket with the 2 rivets that I'm missing. Making sense now. Any idea where that metal bracket can be purchased? Thank you! -- Craig

I think you could get some sheet metal from the hardware store and ball park it, if you have a rivet press. Probably won't be found anywhere unless someone is parting a game.

Just bought a rivet press today ironically. I'll give it a go. Thanks for the help brother. -- Craig

Doing my first full major restoration on a FT. New play fields, every part disassembled tumbled or polished, cabinet restored, all new rubber, ramp, coils, switches, reel motor and gear box, topper dome, apron, rails, lock bar, 3d translite, cab decals, etc, etc. Won't ever get my money out of this thing but, man, it has been fun and challenging. This makes me appreciate the genius of guys like High_End_Pins even more. Easily over 125 hours into this and a good ways to go still. Current progress pics below.

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Oh man! It makes me look forward doing mine as well. Got my cabinet decals and new playfield waiting...

Good job buddy!

Awesome! Great to see, looks like it's going to be a beauty!

Another little pic update on the restore. It is astonishing how much time this takes! Working on main cabinet now. I heard some prefer sanding off decals and others prefer heat gun. I did each method on one side...think I'm a heat gun guy but can see merits to both.

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Hey, anyone in here have a really nice Fish Tales they would sell? That way I can be apart of the club and everything...

I know it's not a super high score, but last night was a momentous occasion in our house as for the first time in 4 months of owning FT, I FINALLY achieved Super Jackpot (twice). Hardest Multiball IMO, that's why I love this game!

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NICE, I can't crack the 300 mil plateau. had 299.5 fer eff sakes. Also was at ball 2 running about 250 mil WITH EB laying in waiting. A bulb popped right out of the "Stretch Meter" landed in left lane, came straight down, blocked the switch in center drain when ball 2 finally drained. SO, i open door as carefully as I can to slide glass down to clear obstruction, my frickin' knee bumps the door, tilts and I have a fit.

The only way to score really big is to get the super jackpot. I will only score between 200-500 million on a good game without getting the super. One time I got the super and hit it about a dozen times and ended up with 1.7 billion. 100 million adds up fast. My fistales is setup pretty tough with the lightning flippers and I've only be able to do that once so far. It was pretty cool to hear the call out "Super, Super, Su, Supper... Jackpot"

I waited so long to hear "Super Jackpot!", and stupid me had the volume down because we were playing music in the background. Haha, oh well...

I want to eventually break into the Billions, good job, dude!

It's a great call out b/c when you hit it again it starts over so it's like he's trying to spit it out but can't b/c you keep hitting it. It's so hard to get there I guess I need to play better Like I said, I've only been able to do it once but it was awesome.

That's crappy luck!

My GF rarely gets over 100 million and she hates this game with a passion. After a bad first ball, she will walk away cursing and saying she quits! Haha! I have it set up with lightning flippers and factory ball save time.

We will have twin custom restored FTs for playing at the TPF. One is mine the other belongs to Marty at Pinball Side Mirrors. Stop by and play them. Both machines have the Williams lollypop side rails that will be sold at TPF on Saturday only. The FT rails have been powder coated over the base stainless steel.

My machine has the orange EL wire fishline mod while Marty's machine has a blue EL wire fishline.

Pictures?
Love to see this. Please post pics set up this weekend and close ups of the EL.

Same here! PICTURES PLEEEEEZE!!!!

Has somebody insert decal set in file?

OK, what are these? psychedelic coloured side rails? I must admit, my interest is piqued

Haha. Wish my wife had this same "passion" for pinball. She walks up to the games says "I don't get it" then walks away. Haha.

I love this game but have come to accept the fact that I'll never be as good as my 9 year old at playing it. Game is set on factory settings for 3 ball, with lightning flippers and tougher outlane gaps. I held the high score at 460,000,000(nothing special) for a while. He eventually surpassed it at 560,000,000. I came close a week ago and put up 520,000,000. The day after I did this, he left a voicemail on my phone while I was at work saying that he'd scored 820,000,000 and that he felt badly for me since I'd probably never beat that score.

2 nights ago while in the basement, he was playing it. I heard the music for deep sea fishing followed by spinner sounds and "Jackpot". I got up from my desk and went to see what was going on. When all was said and done....

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i still have a few more years then. my daughter is going on 5. she whoops my friends right now though .

I imagine he plays a lot, so get used to it.

1689 plays in 2 yrs on mine, and I have only visited the billionaires club once.

How many plays has everyone put on their FT? (bookkeeping 1 - #6)

9 years old?! Wow, hope he plays in local tournaments! That's super impressive!

Yeah, he just started to get into competitive playing recently. He finished in a tie for 10th in the Sanctum March Madness Double Elimination Bracket tournament out of 49 players and joined the New England Pinball League.

He just loves Fish Tales though and plays it when he gets home from school and before bed. Not sure if the game will ever leave. It's my go to game when I have less than 5 minutes to play a machine.

Insane FT seen at TPF show.

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Interesting Rail/Legs colour, is it gold coated? or yellow paint?

I'm just reposting these from the TPF thread, since it looked awesome. Someone commented in the thread that it belongs to the mirror blades guy. Looks like light green metallic to match the green topper.

It was a greenish/yellow metallic power coat that tied in perfect with the color of the game. This guy had two identical FT restorations in the booth. The lighting was also really impressive and they had done some custom painting on the playfield. Very cool stuff. Couple other pics posted here.

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That is one badass looking fish tales! One day I wish I could do that to mine

Anyone get a close shot of the apron? Looks neat custom fish!

Was contemplating for the longest time whether or not to get a color DMD for FT. Well, finally got one and holy moly does it look amazing! If you don't have one yet, it's definitely a great investment! Colors really pop!

Here's a shot of good ol' Russ

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I replaced the belt for the reel in my game today. Removed and installed it a total of 3 times. I'm much faster at taking it out of the game then I was this morning!

Try 1: Got reel out of machine, removed one screw from an opto board to finish taking apart mechanism to get at the pulleys. Put on new belt. Reinstalled almost everything. Tested. Failed. Motor turned and the pulley on the motor just slipped without moving belt.

Try 2. Got reel out of the machine. Futzed with belt, stretched it out a bit. Tested holding mechanism in my hand. Turned perfectly. Reinstalled almost everything. Tested. Passed. Put glass back on. Patted self on back. Then spotted "the screw". Yep the screw from the opto.

Try 3. Got reel out of machine. Reinstalled opto screw. Put everything back together. Works! Yay!

Thanks to the pinball ninja blog for the video on reel belt replacing. Attached is photo of the reel with the telltale missing opto screw. Don't let this happen to you!

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How do you get this?
Thought I had most current roms.

When you see the skeleton fish pass by on the screen press the cast button three or more times.
The person in the displays during the 10 point Fishbone bonus is someone named Russ who went to school with Dot Matrix artist Scott Slomiany. Reported to be an avid fisherman.

I'll post some pics of the FT apron later. Yes it's custom painted and cleared. The PF was also custom done.
I sold this unit. So we brought the other one back. We did two because one was mine and one is a friends.

The color is: Shocker Yellow

I'll post some pics of the FT apron later. Yes it's custom painted and cleared. The PF was also custom done.
I sold this unit. So we brought the other one back. We did two because one was mine and one is a friends.

I restored a FishTales for a good friend of mine.

While I was at it I did a pretty cool mod to light the speaker panel area.

Here's what was done to the FishTales:

1: Cab sanded, bondoed, and painted.
2: New side art, backbox art, and coindoor art.
3: New clear dome topper.
4: New side blade art.
5. Color changing Led's in topper.
6: Color matched non-ghosting led's in inserts.
7: Bright white led's in backbox
8: Sunlight white led's in GI
9: White led light strip in back and apron.
10: Powder coated caster/side rails/lock bar/legs.
11: Flame polished ramp.
12: New decals for fish inserts.
13: New boat ramp decal.
14: Backlit speaker mod with dimming remote.
15: New rubber kit.
16: Painted coin door.
17: Custom Fish Tales coin inserts.

Here is a video of the restore:

And here is a video about the speaker panel backlight mod:

And here are some pics:

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