What do you print the artwork on for the translight?

I thought telling 4 tales started feeding frenzy.

Edit: upon further review, once you catch 4 fish, that starts frenzy, and once you hit the spinner after the 4th fish to tell the tale, that starts rock the boat.

Has anyone added any other toys or anything to their playfield? I was looking at our game last night trying to think of where you could add some, but the playfield is already pretty packed. I was thinking it would be cool to add some realistic looking fishing lures but I'm not sure where to put them.

Here is one example of a cool lure you could add to the game somewhere: http://www.basspro.com/shop/en/livetarget-sunfish-hollow-body

Or maybe a frog: http://www.basspro.com/shop/en/lunkerhunt-lunker-frog

The hooks can be removed from those lures so that it just looks like a fish and not a lure as well if you want.

Yes I had thought of this as well because I know exactly what you are talking about. But the baits I linked are not scented with oils or anything, like worms and creature baits, just standard dry plastic.

Hard baits would definitely work as well.

Can anyone attest to these cab decals? They are the cheapest I've seen, but cheapest doesn't always mean best.

ebay.com link: FISH TALES Pinball Machine Cabinet Decals Limited QTY NEXT GEN LICENSED

Cosmo, where did you get new cab decals? Just picked up a new FT but the artwork is basically white now, so trying to decide on a decal, there are a couple different options out there.

Thanks, what are your thoughts on them? Good material, good coloring? Do you like them, love them, hate them? Any complaints?

Indeed, and I wasn't not taking your advise into consideration, just always good to have a second opinion.

Just started a tear down of my recent acquisition. I'm making a list of parts and other supplies I need to get this game looking and playing well again.

I've come to the lighting part. I'm going to go with LEDs but had a few questions. I figured some people here may have done their game so looking for any advice. I'm assuming natural white frosted for the GIs? What about inserts? I've come to find that yellow LEDs for yellow inserts doesn't work all that well, but what about the purple inserts? Should I color match those purple inserts?

Any other advice for lighting? And please don't say color lighting for the GI, I'm going with white, figuring natural white would be the best with all the cool colors in the game.

IMG_6341.JPG

IMG_6377.JPG

Stripped most of playfield
Cleaned and waxed playfield
Cleaned various playfield parts and plastics
Cleaned metal ball guides
Replaced broken pop bumper skirts
Leveled a few raised inserts
Replaced rubber
New balls
Replaced incandescent bulbs with LEDs
Probably forgetting a few other things

Still need to do a flipper rebuild with new bats, and fix the VUK. But after that it will be ready to go.

FT 1.JPGLittle dirty, previous owner apparently didn't clean it much, if at all
FT 2.JPGBit of a close up of the dirtiness. Check out the one lightning flipper and the one regular flipper
FT 3.JPGReady for the Novus
FT 4.JPGCould almost pass as a CPR. ("Total lie")
FT 5.JPGAs it sits right now. The LEDs look beautiful (this is in all lamp test mode.) I also replaced the "Stretch the Truth" lights with ice blue 1SMDs from Comet. I think the blue looks nice.
FT.gif

While giving the game a few test runs after the cleaning, I came to find the reel acting a bit weird. The reel works fine for locking balls, but when multiball starts after locking the third ball, it will release the first ball to the catapult, then do a complete 360 to the first hole. It won't stop to release the second ball in sequence immediately. It takes it a few tries to realize it has other balls in the reel and finally will release the second ball. And similar to the first ball, the reel will do a complete 360 to an empty reel hole instead of going to the third hole to release the third ball.

All the balls eventually fall out into the catapult but it takes them a while, and you can kind of see the game is a bit confused because the reel will kind of cycle until it's back in its proper position.

Any suggestions?

Yes @soulrider911, I have tested the reel in test menu and it works flawlessly, which is why I'm confused as to why it would act differently during actual gameplay. I should have time later today to check it and mess with it again.

Just sent you a PM with a list of my FT order from Comet.

However, please note that LEDs are really based off personal preference. Each person will have their own tastes and thoughts regarding LEDs, since there are just so many variables and differences when looking into LEDs. For example, personally I have found that the 1 LED bulbs (the cheapest ones they offer) work fine for inserts. I usually go with the clear flat top bulbs for the inserts. Color matching works great for inserts for most colors, but for yellow inserts, I'd suggest going with natural white. Yellow LEDs just aren't very bright.

Another example of personal preference is I color matched the 4 stringer fish, even though the inserts themselves are white. I also used the "ice blue" frosted bulbs for the "Stretch the Truth" board. I believe stock they are regular 555 bulbs with yellow bulb condoms on them. I chose the ice blue based on the color of the plastic, which matched nicely.

I also used 1 SMD frosted sunlight for the GIs. I have not yet tried 2 SMD bulbs, but I can say that the 1 SMD bulbs work great. The few pictures I posted just above a few days ago have all the LEDs I bought on that list installed, so you can see how much light they give off.

One last thing, the regular LEDs will have that "ghosting" effect. To be honest you hardly see it during normal game play. It doesn't really bother me but I'm sure there are people who will be bothered by it. You can just as easily purchase the non ghosting bulbs, but that will pretty much double your cost.

I came to find that the catapult switch was registering intermittently. Lifted the playfield and saw that the diode on that switch wasn't soldered on, one end was just pushed through the hole so it wasn't making solid contact. All fixed now with just a bit of solder.

I was finally able to log some super jackpots last night. Multiball is so fun on this game, yet so frustrating at the same time. Once you get to the super jackpot round, it's intense. I haven't even begun to get around to a 2nd or 3rd multiball where the supers are 200 million and 300 million respectively.

Hey FT club members. Since The Pinball Arcade is having to remove their Bally & Williams games, I took screenshots of all the FT instructions before it goes bye bye. Their instructions are too valuable to waste so I am hoping to preserve them this way. Below is a link to the Google Photos album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FLsdDshjv9uMFlMr1

I'm also doing the same thing with other games over on another thread if you want to check it out.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-pinball-arcade-instructions

Yes but I don't own the digital copy. I'm not a huge fan of digital pinball but love their instructions.

I pretty much know all the rules but perhaps future owners, or future generations won't so this will hopefully help them.

Looks like they were thinking about some kind of cumulative jackpot, like in Jokerz. Look at the right side of the backglass, seems like some kind of increasing score meter maybe.

Maybe I am misunderstanding your quote here, but that's not how the super jackpot scoring works. I'll list out my knowledge on how the scoring works.

Once you start your first multiball and score the tropical, fresh water, and deep sea jackpots, the super jackpot scoring round starts. The first round of super jackpots is valued at 100 million. The player can collect this jackpot as many times as they can, and each hit will be worth 100 million only. Example, if the player hits the captive ball once, the player scores 100 million. If they hit it again, the score is still only 100 million. If the multiball ends and they were able to hit the captive ball 5 times, they had scored 500 million worth of super jackpots.

When the player activates a second multiball and again scores the 3 regular jackpots, the super round starts out at 200 million. On the third multiball, the supers start at 300 million. On the fourth multiball the supers are 400 million, etc...

So it's not necessarily the amount of times you hit the captive ball, it's the amount of multiballs you've played while getting to the super jackpot round.

If you have time, you can watch Keith Elwin put on a clinic of scoring super jackpots, and how the scoring progression works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=221&v=2uWFRAK2SQw

Now that you mention it, during regular multiball while going for the three regular jackpots, if you have all three balls still in play you can double a jackpot. First you have to put one of the balls in the casters club to light the jackpot (of course). After putting one ball in the casters club, it shoots over and gets stored in the reel. Now imagine at this point you have both balls cradled on each flipper; you have two options. You can either collect the jackpot in the top right saucer, or shoot a second ball into the casters club.

Back to our theoretical ball on each flipper cradle scenario. You use the left flipper and shoot into the casters club again. Now the regular jackpot has been doubled and you then immediately shoot the top right saucer for a double jackpot. The tropical jackpot (normally about 20 million) is awarded at 40 instead.

I'm not sure if this works during the super jackpot round. Usually if I get to the super round, I'm not even looking at anything else other than the captive ball. I wonder if you park a ball (or two) in the casters club if you can double the super...? Hmmmm very interesting, this might be something I check out tomorrow if I have time.

Damn, didn't even think about that either. Now I am really curious and will try to do some detective work tonight.

These are nice.

http://www.pinballcards.com/Pinball-Cards/Fish-Tales-V1
http://www.pinballcards.com/Pinball-Cards/Fish-Tales-V2

Oh yeah, forgot about those. I like those the best actually.

Install an NVRAM and never have that issue ever again.

Care to share with the rest of us?