Hey all, just bought my first Fish Tales! I've had the same four pins for over a year now, so it's great to get another! Fishy will sit among Black Rose, Road Show, De jurassic park and Pinball Magic!

I'm slowly reading through this thread to get insight into owning a Fishy, one question I have right away is what is the latest ROM?
I played my Fishy before buying and noticed the weird extra balle text. Is it meant to have an e on the end of ball?
It seemed to fit odd on the screen also.
I am aware a rom alters this but not sure which and the difference. Anyone have a picture to compare?

Thanks!

Ok so what i can grasp from your replies, L-4 doesn't have the xtra balle issue, but L-5 does.

G-5 and D-5 fix it, and are more or less the same roms.

So my question now is where can I get a copy of D-5 or G-5? I have be ability to burn a rom so just need the file.

I notice on ipdb there's a patch for xtra balle and led fix but it's for pinmame, i guess that won't work?

Oh so that will work on a real pin? I assumed because it sai d pinmame it wouldn't!

Another question, Fishy isn't here yet... But i realised I may have an issue.
To get it where its needed I have to shark fin it, my other pins only just fit under the door frame but Fishy has a topper.

Is the topper easy to remove?

Or would it be easier to shark fin the pin without legs on and push it along the floor on a towel or something?

B/W back boxes won't fit through that doorway, even with door off. So i have to shark fin

Is the topper easily removed and uses standard screws?

Trust me to break the plastic with rivets..

Top right, next to slings with the old fisherman on.
How would I replace this?

Had mine nearly a week now... Few questions

The kickout for the saucer is very weak, occasionally it'll make it to the middle lane of LIE but mostly the right one (É)... Is that by design?
Very rare but sometimes the ball bounces out of the saucer and to the right orbit.

I also had issues with the trough kickout into the shooter lane, sometimes the ball would bounce back into the trough over and over but the autoplunger would keep firing... Odd considering I thought the ball had to sit on the switch before it fired?

Sometimes the ball would drain and autocast would come up "don't move" but no ball would launch and the end of ball bonus would come up.
(I seem to have eliminated that issue by reassembling the trough to shooter kicker arm but seems odd that would be related and the game just gives up giving you a new ball).

Should it be possible to backhand casters club?

I have my lightning flippers set so they are perfectly in like with the ball guides. I used a piece of straight wood to align them so the gap is even between the wood and flipper rubber. If that makes sense!

Thanks so much for all your replies!

Pretty close to the hole,, or should they go a little lower?

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Where would I find a new bracket? I'm assuming I can't use the one with rivets on?

Not yet no, I've stopped looking as I thought it's not too noticable for now.. But if you have a replacement I'll be interested.. Providing you can ship to UK? Unless you're already in the UK!

Didn't think of that! If I can't source a riveted replacement I'll try that.

Is it common for the ball to get stuck the switch slot on the top right orbit, below the saucer and above LIE?
I tried fiddling with the way the switch arm sits. To see if it doesn't let it sit there, or let's it roll back and no luck.

Also,
I installed a Afterglow nano (like ledocd) and I'm attract mode all the insert lamps get stuck on after a period of time... But then go back to working if you start a game, enter the operator menu, or restart the game.
I'm not sure if its the afterglow board or its a coincidence.
It seems odd how it works OK for a while then they eventually get stuck on and is solved easily

Any ideas appreciated

Not sure, i suppose I should plug it into my pc and see!

This might seem really ocd but when the balls are ejected from the reel, where are they supposed to hit? Mine hit the left ball guide and bounce over the flipper, often stdm 3 balls in a row unless I flip wildly!
And sometimes thet jump over the flipper even if you held it up.

Just wondering if they're intended to hit the metal guide or the flippers?

It doesn't appear like I can move the wire form much, the screw is at its furthest and there's no way of moving it any where else as the metal ball guide is in the way.

I thought it should hit the flipper! Hitting the metal guide seems so aggressive
I just can't see how I can adjust it, I'll take a look later and maybe post a photo or two for advice.

Mine has no room to move, it's right up against the ball guide and where the screw is means it doesn't move to the right.
Unless I made a new hole.

If anyone has a photo of theirs Id appreciate it

Here's mine
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So how did it come out of the factory and deliver the ball to the left flipper?
I don't understand how we have to make adjustments like that on a game from the 90s

Tried moving the ball guide yesterday, it doesn't have much adjustment, if any, just holes no slots.

Yours is crazy, I don't think it's supposed to be like that

I made a new hole and moved it further to the right, as far as it would go.

It still hits left of the flipper... I don't understand.

Is there a bend in the wire form I'm missing?
Any ideas at all?
Any comparison shots appreciated

I get the feeling the ball is falling off the wireform and hitting part of it causing it to spin left..
Could people compare this with theirs?

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Yours is bent to the right a bit, that must be it!

I'm seeing so many variations of the wireforms.
I don't know what else to check, considering it's supposed to be straight and many have no issues.

No idea what to check, it's level so it's not that (I even got a new digital level).

Please share your findings. I even tried making a new hole and moving it as far right as it can go and still no luck!

I do wonder if the lateral position of the wireform has a bigger impact than we realise.
ie, if you bend the bracket holding it

If you nudge and get a tilt warning when your ball is in the trough does it launch the ball? Mine does... Seems weird!

Also I was playing the other day, hit the cast button before the ball had settled and it only went half way up the shooter lane, then when I pressed it again the game restarted

Been unable to reproduce it since.

It only does it on the first ball, then I get a credit dot for the cast button. Checked the switch matrix and no issues.

The restart might be because Q2 seems damaged from C2

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I know, reminds me of when a battery leaks, or when you get one of those magnets with all the little metal bits you can play with... If this is a real memory

I've ordered a new cap and voltage regulator. So will take a proper look at the weekend. Hopefully it's not too bad.
It's only restarted once so hopefully early days

Any tips on cleaning it up and being sure the damage is rectified?

They multiply your bonus after each ball. Bonus is built from fish caught and other stuff you don't really notice. A common thing in all pinball machines

Seems to be one of those strange quirks! I'd love to know if it happens on other wpc-89 games with auto shooters, like HS2

Had an issue twice this evening that I've never had before.

First time, I got an extra ball via replay score on bonus. It served the ball into the shooter lane and it made the noise as It you've shot the ball but it stayed in the shooter lane. Pressing the cast button did nothing and the ball stayed in the shooter lane.

Second time, same thing happened but it was ball 3, gave me the ball but I couldn't fire it.

In 100s of games I've never had this happen before then twice in 20minutes

I left it to see if it would do a ball search and it didn't, maybe I didn't wait long enough
Next game it worked fine and switch worked in test, but then it did it again on a later game.

I haven't tried it today but will have a look tomorrow

Did it in a few games tonight. The ball enters the shooter lane, you hear the noise as if the ball has fired but nothing happens.
Jumped straight into switch test and both shooter lane and cast button work. Its like the coil isn't firing for that one instance but it works fine next time

Your suspicions were correct. I had considered this at first and checked the connection, then left it assuming the coil was okay because it worked the next game.

It happened again, then wouldn't fire in test or a new game. I lifted the pf and it fired!
Tried the coil test and noticed a spark on one of the coil lugs, it had a black bit and was arcing.
Some solder to bridge the gap has fixed it.

See above, definitely check the coil lugs, mine somehow was damaged and getting worse but the actual wire and solder looked good.

My fishy provides a lot of airballs, is this common ? I've had the ball fly up onto the wireforms before!

Another query, can you turn off Big score in video mode but keep extra balls off?
I was watching a JDL pinball stream last week and fish tales was being played. They said they had turned big score off but I have no idea how.
If I can I'd like to turn that off as I find it the only unbalanced thing about fish tales scoring.

I might have explained it badly. It wasn't the coil wire, it looked like the lug was damaged, like it had got bent. I'd need to check it again to be sure.

I noticed the display lags if you get extra ball or big score while the fish is flapping about.

Hey all, on your Fish Tales can you often live catch from plunge/orbit? I try over and over and the ball just bounces. I wonder if I need to adjust the ball guide to get the ball to feed to later in the flipper.

Any thoughts?

I've got a load of Afterglows also. They come with the wires made up now

I am planning on doing my first ever pf swap on a Diner later in the year (most likely next year) but in preparation I've done just that, I added connectors to all the major mechs and coils to make swapping a tiny bit easier.
Plus it'll make swapping coils and bits easier in future.

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I wonder if anyone has ever tested this but I often wonder if having outlanes more open on some games makes it easier to save the ball.

When the lane is more open there's more room to bounce the ball on the post. Also the ball has more room to exit the outlane when it hits the side wall. With mine on the lowest slot the ball can fly into the outlane hit the wall and die without bouncing. With the post in the middle slot or higher I swear it flies out more.

On a similar subject. I jacked my game up to past 7 degrees and waxed it. It plays better and in some ways easier.
Anyone found this?

I wonder if it's because a shallower game creates more left to right movement (think early solid states and EMs) whereas a faster one the ball moves up and down more. The slings on ft are evil and I think with faster up down movement they are less effective at slamming it into the outlanes.

I must admit FT is the hardest game I have but the one I play the most. It's incredibly hard to dial in and every one I've played has played dramatically different.