Fish Tales
Williams, 1992Quoted from tbaum:Thanks - We're moving in slowly over the week. I'm from Canada and our Thanksgiving is in October, so it's more just a chilled time for my wife and I to relax... and play pinball
Quoted from V_piscopo:I leave all my machines off when not in use. Any of you other guys have height and width measurements on hand?
On mine: Height is 83" to top of dome. Width is 28 3/4"
Quoted from tbaum:Thanks - We're moving in slowly over the week. I'm from Canada and our Thanksgiving is in October, so it's more just a chilled time for my wife and I to relax... and play pinball
Good one here......
https://twitter.com/jayanddan/status/1065654365581586432?s=21
Quoted from tbaum:So two other questions - I'm planning on giving the new machine a shop job and wax it. Are there any really good tutorials on this? Any Fish Tales specific ones?
Also, is it best to leave the machine on all the time, or turn it off at night/occasionally?
Dude, take piles, and piles of pics. Tear it down, the entire top of PF, you won't regret it, clean it all up nice. Swap out all the coil sleeves and toss in new rubber, it'll be lovely!
Quoted from Archieball:Hi guys! I am at the finishing stages of restoring a Fish Tales that has been sitting in storage for I don't know how many years. It has gone from being a rats nest of a sunfaded wreck to becoming a thing of beauty. Normally I would test it first, but it was in such a sorry state that I decided on addressing cabinet and playfield first before attempting to turn it on.
I was expecting problems, but this one I did not expect. No sound. I have confirmed that the sound pcb is working fine by swapping it into my BSD. I have vague speaker hum - but no bong and no sound. Volume adjustment does nothing. The game boots fine with no error messages. I have a new ribbon cable which runs from the PSU via the Fliptronics II. Any thoughts?
Did you happen to miss the ribbon cable by one pin on one side? It's easy to do and not easy to see a mistake. I did that this week and had zero sound, ended up feeling like a dumbass, but it was a lucky, easy fix.
Quoted from tbaum:So two other questions - I'm planning on giving the new machine a shop job and wax it. Are there any really good tutorials on this? Any Fish Tales specific ones?
Also, is it best to leave the machine on all the time, or turn it off at night/occasionally?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cleaning-and-waxing-pinball-machines-vids-guide
I turn my games off at night. No need to waste electricity or degrade parts over time (mostly due to heat) If they were in a commercial location requiring constant uptime I would put them on a commercial mechanical timer...in fact, we use one for our Comet in the company breakroom just to turn the game off at the end of the day should someone leave it on unintentionally.
Does anyone have any suggestions about LEDs or Rubber colors I could should get for my machine? I'm trying to get an order together to get over the $50 threshold from titan for their boxing day discount 
I tend to like my playfield looking pretty true to the original, but I wouldn't be against switching to LEDs for the same look and lower power usage.
Quoted from tbaum:Does anyone have any suggestions about LEDs or Rubber colors I could should get for my machine? I'm trying to get an order together to get over the $50 threshold from titan for their boxing day discount
I tend to like my playfield looking pretty true to the original, but I wouldn't be against switching to LEDs for the same look and lower power usage.
I used Titan green rubbers, warm white smd’s in the GI, with a few LED blinking bulbs for the lightning in the backglass. Then I used color matched non-ghosting in the inserts. IMO it looks very nice.
I used green Titans as well, but did the 2SMD frosted sunlight bulbs for all the GI. Wanted it a little brighter.
Quoted from tbaum:I tend to like my playfield looking pretty true to the original, but I wouldn't be against switching to LEDs for the same look and lower power usage.
If you want to stick more original I'd recommend just white runners. However I did light blue and they fit the theme amazingly. I also also agree 2smd warm white
28F55D77-5B6E-4917-96AB-B62570F986CA (resized).jpeg718C6FCF-C914-4264-8B08-DF34047DFA63 (resized).jpegQuoted from tbaum:Also, is it best to leave the machine on all the time, or turn it off at night/occasionally?
Off is best. Heat ages everything, and optical switch emitters get dimmer over their lifetime until finally they need to be replaced.
Quoted from squad8:I used Titan green rubbers, warm white smd’s in the GI, with a few LED blinking bulbs for the lightning in the backglass. Then I used color matched non-ghosting in the inserts. IMO it looks very nice.
THIS ^^^
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/71169
Have a set of my old plastics in good shape - lowered the price a couple times.
It costs me $20 to ship this stuff in the USA - so I just want them to go to a good home. If I don't sell them shortly I will pull them down from being on sale just because I will be traveling for almost a month and can't ship them so I would like to sell them soon.
Quoted from jawjaw:Anyone buy repro translite? Wondering what quality is like.
I bought the 3D version from Planetary. For what you pay for a repro, spend the extra for 3D. Everyone loves it. It looks so cool, vibrant colors!
Rumor has it, they may not be made much longer, if at all.
Quoted from GLSP3022:I bought the 3D version from Planetary. For what you pay for a repro, spend the extra for 3D. Everyone loves it. It looks so cool, vibrant colors!
Rumor has it, they may not be made much longer, if at all.
2nd that. Love my 3D Fish Tales.
Indeed buy them while you can. When there gone there gone.
Rick and the 3D guys have had a falling out this year and the 3D guys are not happy about it. 3 titles in the cue that never get any response from PPS. They have essentially thrown in the towel.
Quoted from northerndude:Marco spec has a FT coil sleeve kit. It’s inexpensive, PBL might also?
I just picked up a WPC lockbar for my FT from PBL for $49, it came out of the “seconds” run it had flaws as they say, but I came very nice
So this might be a dump question, but which of these are the coil sleeves:
Quoted from Badamack:Help!
When i turn on my fish tales and start a game the auto plunger just keeps kicking.
About once every 2 seconds.
Do i have some kind of short?
Where should i start troubleshooting?
Thanks again,
Adam.
The button could be stuck closed in handle.
Quoted from Ericpinballfan:2nd that. Love my 3D Fish Tales.
Indeed buy them while you can. When there gone there gone.
Rick and the 3D guys have had a falling out this year and the 3D guys are not happy about it. 3 titles in the cue that never get any response from PPS. They have essentially thrown in the towel.
Don't think I want the 3D version. It would be cool to have one frame on the wall but just prefer the stock look for my game.
Quoted from Badamack:When i turn on my fish tales and start a game the auto plunger just keeps kicking.
About once every 2 seconds.
Do i have some kind of short?
Where should i start troubleshooting?
Start with - What does the switch test show? Is the switch in the shooter lane OK, trough switches, etc? If you knock on the cabinet and playfield do you see any switches activating (other than the tilt).
If you look at those switches, so you see any issues like loose wires, etc?
Quoted from Ericpinballfan:Rick and the 3D guys have had a falling out this year and the 3D guys are not happy about it. 3 titles in the cue that never get any response from PPS. They have essentially thrown in the towel.
It's an absolute bloody shame too and i don't blame Mario and the 3D crew for that either 
Quoted from Badamack:Ill check button. Thanks.
Solenoids 9-16 all on fuse f104 i see
Have you checked that fuse? usually if a string of solenoids are effected it's most likely a blown fuse.
Quoted from Mancave:Have you checked that fuse? usually if a string of solenoids are effected it's most likely a blown fuse.
It’s most likely a blown fuse because one of the items in that string in shorted and blowing it.
Quoted from northerndude:It’s most likely a blown fuse because one of the items in that string in shorted and blowing it.
True, there will be a catalyst for the issue somewhere.
I put together another FT replacement cab if someone wants an easy way to deal with the cabinet fade...built from scratch, primed,painted,ground braided,heavy duty leg plates and decaled...cab is ready to drop your game in..the only thing I cant do (yet but its coming) is silkscreen the back box warning.
Right now I will not ship cabs, I have enough local buyers to not have to deal with shipping (some day in the future I may start shipping these) but if you are in the So Cal area and are interested shoot me a PM
Im selling these for $1,350
Better pics coming soon...
Also, I have a TOM ready...same price
Quoted from cosmokramer:Better pics coming soon...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fish-tales-replacement-cabinet#post-4706474
20181126_201442 (resized).jpg20181126_201433 (resized).jpg20181126_201921 (resized).jpg20181126_201520 (resized).jpg20181126_201855 (resized).jpgQuoted from V_piscopo:In the club!
[quoted image]
Congrats!
Quoted from V_piscopo:In the club!
Welcome!
FYI - It looks like your topper dome is missing the shell decal that hides the bulbs. Marco has that decal in stock.
The crazy solenoid behavior quit after i replaced the f104 fuse again and one of the 3/8 amp fuses on the display board that looked bad.
It played well for a few days, just an hour or so a day.
Now I’m getting weird behavior again on those pops, shooter, and slings that are on the f104 fuse.
Does this sound like a board problem? Or some other type of short?
Any thoughts / recommendations are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Adam.
Quoted from Badamack:The crazy solenoid behavior quit after i replaced the f104 fuse again and one of the 3/8 amp fuses on the display board that looked bad.
It played well for a few days, just an hour or so a day.
Now I’m getting weird behavior again on those pops, shooter, and slings that are on the f104 fuse.
Does this sound like a board problem? Or some other type of short?
Any thoughts / recommendations are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Adam.
Sounds like a board problem. Something in the logic section going wonky that ends up sending signals to the solenoid driver circuits. You'll need to examine it with a scope or logic probe.
Quoted from Badamack:The crazy solenoid behavior quit after i replaced the f104 fuse again and one of the 3/8 amp fuses on the display board that looked bad.
It played well for a few days, just an hour or so a day.
Now I’m getting weird behavior again on those pops, shooter, and slings that are on the f104 fuse.
Does this sound like a board problem? Or some other type of short?
Have you reseated the ribbon cables between the driver and CPU board? An intermittent issue is likely a connection problem.
I bought my dirty dirty FT right before TPF last year. At TPF I bought a semi populated $25 playfield that looked exactly how you would expect a $25 playfield to look and I took it on a Route 66 roadtrip with me. Figuring I had nothing to lose I set out to experiment using only brush touch ups instead of airbrush work (that I usually do) add some custom touches, then clear it. It was intended to be wall art but, not gonna lie, it’s not a perfect restoration but I think it looks damn good (for $25!) and much better than my worn to the wood original. So I started the playfield swap process yesterday
First swap question. On the nasty playfield tear down pic below, see the “flat” metal plate that comes out from under the ball guide, just to the right of the “E” (LIE) insert? I figure it’s not stock, but why is it there? It seems to be bent up enough to divert a slow orbit shot down in to the pops but why go through the trouble?
I’ve also included the only shot I have on my phone of the playfield going in to the game. It was gouged up from improper storage and missing several insert decals from improper Mylar removal. I repainted the four big fish using metallic paint (again, was going to be wall art. No decals used)
3C290C9E-007A-47EC-A270-AAD6428D5795 (resized).jpeg5884087C-5167-4651-B54C-790B41F0759D (resized).jpegQuoted from MrArt2u:On the nasty playfield tear down pic below, see the “flat” metal plate that comes out from under the ball guide, just to the right of the “E” (LIE) insert? I figure it’s not stock, but why is it there?
Balls get hung up on that switch all the time, my guess is that's someone's handy work to remedy that issue. Personally, the hang ups aren't terribly annoying. One good shake and the ball usually frees itself.
Looking at the switch slot placement in relation to the ball guides, I can totally see the ball hang potential. Had I known about that earlier I could have relocated that switch a little “downstream.”
I don’t have enough playtime on this game to know if that flat piece was worth the effort.
Quoted from MrArt2u:Looking at the switch slot placement in relation to the ball guides, I can totally see the ball hang potential. Had I known about that earlier I could have relocated that switch a little “downstream.”
I don’t have enough playtime on this game to know if that flat piece was worth the effort.
I had to use a cliffy slot protector to stop ball hang ups...worked great
Quoted from MrArt2u:Quick question, was that Cliffy slot protector easy to install once the playfield was assembled or should I patiently await for its arrival in the mail and install it first?
It was easy to install in the fully populated playfield
Hoping someone can give me a bit of help here. Just got my first machine and did a full shop job (took everything apart and cleaned it and put it all back together). Thought I did a good job of taking photos and putting things into tupperware containers, but apparently not perfect. I have a few pieces that aren't complete and I'm hoping for some help.
I have one 03-8319-9 Star Post #8 left over and I think it goes here, but wanted to check (I couldn't find their locations in the manual) https://photos.app.goo.gl/JjXx6cxBNeHqaUrZ6
I also seem to have mixed up two screws and am hoping someone can tell me which ones I need. The first is for this Star Post just above the right outlane (above the Special light) https://photos.app.goo.gl/3DGJCgtgv2DUcJoV6
The other is a long screw that goes through the plastic on the right side (just above and right of the Star Post in this image) https://photos.app.goo.gl/BAGpiepzCKx5hZQd9
Any help would be greatly appreciated... the machine is cleaned and waxed and I can't wait to start playing it again!
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Santa Clarita, CA