(Topic ID: 86132)

Hook Club - Hook is back!

By winteriscoming

9 years ago


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  • 2,312 posts
  • 220 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 60 days ago by RGarriott
  • Topic is favorited by 84 Pinsiders

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There are 2,312 posts in this topic. You are on page 9 of 47.
#401 7 years ago

I was always annoyed with that...never knew for sure if I got a high score

#402 7 years ago

For those that are missing the gate, it is available at marco specialties. Tested in my machine and is perfect. It is soooo good not to have the ball fall under the skill shot/shooter lane anymore!!

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/535-5307-01

#403 7 years ago

I personally wouldn't rush out and a buy a gate. I'm sure Chad can find an inventive way to use that gap considering so many machines don't have it. There's a reason why.

#404 7 years ago

Beno, what did you have to do to install the gate? Does the ramp have to get removed?

Crash, for less than $15 bucks, I'm going for it. I'll skip 3 beers over the next week.... I can always remove the gate in the future if there's a reason.

#405 7 years ago

I hope so, I'm all for removing the gate for an inventive use of the gap, but the amount of times I would brick a shot to the right ramp and the ball would reflect down under the shooter lane. It bugged me after a while. I don't know if it bugged anyone else?

Larry - You do have to remove the skill shot plastic, I did this easily without removing any other ramps or plastics. (you do have to remove the diverter though) Luckily I had the bracket that the gate fits into already on the shooter lane. I'd say my machine would have had the gate initially, but had been removed at some stage. I can get a photo of this bracket if you like?

#406 7 years ago

My Hook has been down for a bit now ( I have the part, not the time) anyway so mine has the gate. Figured I'd throw my game in the ring.

I'm down if there is something cool that could happen with that by taking out the gate. I always look at the shooter lane as wasted space.

#407 7 years ago

Ben, a photo would be great, but don't go to any special effort, I'm sure I can work it out once I get under the hood.

#408 7 years ago

FINALLY got mine back online. Darn cold solder joints!!!! Also figured out why some of my GI (lights over the VUK) weren't lighting. Burnt GI connector.....really basic stuff I never looked at in the last year I got the game..ha.

Humming along nicely. Still a few quirks but playing!!

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#409 7 years ago

Nice pics/representation. I'm saving them

#410 7 years ago

Finally starting to show some interest! Looks like I'll be stopping tomorrow to buy a taller step stool.

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#411 7 years ago

Here's a pic of the gate under the skill shot (with skill shot ramp removed)

Also added a rubber tonight that I think was meant to be above the right Outlane.

So many things were removed on this hook and never put back. Just need to get my hands on a right ramp and a few new plastics and it'll be perfect.

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#412 7 years ago
Quoted from Mizzoo70:

I'll be stopping tomorrow to buy a taller step stool.

So cute. You realize that by the time you get home with the stool, she won't need it anymore. They grow so fast.

#413 7 years ago

Here's another Hook bug...

If you shoot the Skull and then right after the ball ejects from the Right Scoop, you immediately shoot the ball back into the Right Scoop... it will not collect the Scoop Award (Super Bumps, Fast Scoring, 10X, etc).

1 week later
#414 7 years ago

I don't know if it's been brought up or mentioned but what about adding a loop champ mode for the windcoaster ramp?

#415 7 years ago

I've been a member of the club since last September. I drove 2 hours for it each way and had never played it before. I knew it needed some love, but getting it home, I discovered just how much was needed. The 4th game in, the left flipper guts gave out and had to wait on new parts. Since rebuilding the flippers, I've texture painted the side rails and lockdown bar, new coin door, replaced diode on skill shot 3 lamp, and picked up a new translite, but haven't installed. Interestingly, I was told this was a reimport and my game's slingshot plastics were clear with only the black line art. I have since replaced the plastics with full color, but my outlane plastics with the skulls are also transparent with no color. I'm not sure if it was an early production run or if it had to do with something else. I completely love this game inside and out. The gameplay and music keep me coming back for more. The multiball jackpot music change gets me charged up and it's awesome. I'm so happy I bought the game over any other random purchase so far.

#416 7 years ago

Hi everybody! New to Pinside, but not new to Hook. I bought mine in 99 from an auction and have loved it! I think it is much more fun than people give it credit. I just put in LED's and had it shopped out. It plays like a champ! Have some mirror blades coming and a spotlight and when it is done, I will add some pictures.

Are there any other mods that people have done to the game?

#417 7 years ago

First pin. Just bought a month ago for $900 (playable/home use for last decade/ clearly routed before that) and decided to go all out with the repairs/upgrades. Loved this machine in the 90s and never imagined having a pinball machine in my home. New topper, new glass, new translite, rebuilt flippers, led's throughout, led flipper buttons, speaker lights, new plastic for dmd, new flipper fidelity speakers, new knocker, replaced all rubber(black), new rottendog power, new rottendog play field power, new rottendog flipper board, pin sound upgrade, side mirrors, new yellow plastics, polished field, repaired ramps (Mylar/super glue/bondo), replaced several sockets, leg protectors, wire gate for skill shot area, replaced several coil bushings, replaced broken arm mech on skill shot, cliffy protectors, new post protectors at ramp entries (my mod to protect my fragile ramps), cleaned all plastics, and new John Williams Return to Neverland music after "what would the world be like without Captain Hook?". Could never sell for what I've got in it now, but learned so much from the experience. This one's never leaving the future collection. Previous owner wouldn't recognize it.

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#419 7 years ago

That is gorgeous. Nice job!

#420 7 years ago

Thanks. If only the rottendog and pin sound boards were more compatible, I'd be over the moon. I'm getting some sound cutout during multiball, but it's tolerable.

#421 7 years ago
Quoted from shicketmaster:

I'd be over the moon. I'm getting some sound cutout during multiball, but it's tolerable.

I believe there has been a few threads on this. Basically its an issue where Unreg and Reg 12v are crossed on the RD P/S. And I believe there are fixes. Look for Pinsound threads.

#422 7 years ago

Do the sound amps need a regulated +12v power supply? Having the same issue with an X-Pin power supply, Brett says to remove the regulator which turns the +12v regulated supply into an unregulated source. Had sound dropouts whenever the windcoaster rope lights flashed.

#423 7 years ago

I've sent a message to Rottendog. Everything on the forums seems to be about the DPS004 board. It appears to me that the newer DPS005 board has resistor in the jumper position to be unregulated without making any changes. I don't know if they made the change with their newer revision because of the problems that people were reporting with the DPS004. However, I can't say for certain that it is already set to unregulated because the schematic that they send with the DPS005 board is the DPS004 schematic and I can't find a DPS005 schematic.

#424 7 years ago
Quoted from ChadH:

Here's another Hook bug...
If you shoot the Skull and then right after the ball ejects from the Right Scoop, you immediately shoot the ball back into the Right Scoop... it will not collect the Scoop Award (Super Bumps, Fast Scoring, 10X, etc).

For people who are owning a prototype Hook with a spinning disk behind tinkerbell.......
The motor which drives the spinningdisk is controlled by solenoid 16 (Q23). The spinningdisc was removed when the game went onto production and the productionspftware doesn't drive sol16 (Q23) anymore. The disc should just stop in attractmode and run while playing a game. Is it possible to reintroduce this feature for my prototype Hook? (I modified my CPU; the spinningdisc is now controlled by the enable flipperrelais signal)

Marco

#425 7 years ago

Other troubleshooting issues. I'm open to any suggestions.

1) I initially installed a Rottendog MPU along with all of my other changes and the Pinsound board worked initially. Then after turning the machine off, it would only work randomly. It appears that the Rottendog MPU and the Pinsound board don't always communicate. I contacted PinSound and they are working on a firmware update to make the board more responsive to recognizing the Rottendog MPU each time since I wasn't the only person with this problem. So, I repaired my Data East MPU board and switched back for the interim. That board works with the PinSound board every time. So clearly there is a compatibility issue between the Rottendog MPU and the PinSound board based on that troubleshooting. Just mentioning that here in case anybody else runs into the same problem.

2) I've noticed that my rope lights don't work exactly as they should when I go into test mode or when the machine is running. They operate as OFF/OFF/1/2&3 SIMULTANEOUSLY instead of OFF/1/2/3. I've seen posts about this that talk about a short between two of the strands causing this problem in addition to posts about the driver board for those lights getting fried. However, this is the strange part. When the Rottendog MPU board was in the backbox, the rope lights worked exactly as they should OFF/1/2/3 without doing anything to the lights or to the special board for the rope lights. As soon as I went back to the Data East board, it was back to OFF/OFF/1/2&3 SIMULTANEOUSLY. That makes me think that there isn't a short or a problem with the special board but instead there is a problem in my Data East MPU board.

3) When I received the pin, the knocker had been disconnected and the coil was sitting in the bottom (without any of the rest of the knocker mechanism). The coil had a melted coil sleeve in it. I purchased a new knocker and installed it and it worked fine. Of course, I had already replaced my power supply with Rottendog and the playfield power supply with rottendog before I ever tried this new knocker. However, since I've been having the sound cutout problem with my pinsound board, I decided to put my old data east power supply back in to see if the cutout problem went away. This would tell me if there was the regulated/unregulated 12v issue causing my sound problems. However, with the old power supply back in, the knocker went crazy and started pounding away nonstop from the moment I hit the start button to try it all out. I turned the machine off and on and had the same problem again, so I just took the data east power supply out and put the rottendog back it and then the problem was gone.

What do you think?

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#426 7 years ago
Quoted from shicketmaster:

As soon as I went back to the Data East board, it was back to OFF/OFF/1/2&3 SIMULTANEOUSLY. That makes me think that there isn't a short or a problem with the special board but instead there is a problem in my Data East MPU board

The rope chase light module up in the top of the head is really only a rope 'buffer/driver' board. The real chase is done by code and the drivers for those signals are re-purposed alpha-numeric display drivers with the output off of the top right of the MPU board.

If you look at your MPU and at your prints, you will see how the DMD hooks up, and that the 'old' alpha numberic connector has 3(?) wires connected to it that go to the Chase Lamp Board.

Good change that at one time you had a rope short that ran itself far enough upstream to not old take out the chase board, but back to the MPU taking out that driver.

#427 7 years ago

I picked up a Hook a few weeks ago, Great game, shallow rules set, fun none the less, good pin, looks great LED'd Cliffy's are a must, at Skull and scoop.

#428 7 years ago

That sounds like a very logical answer. That will keep me from spending time fooling around with the buffer/driver board or with the rope lights. I don't think that the rope lights on there right now are the originals since the connectors from the rope to the coaster ramp aren't original. But, that might just mean that the coaster ramp was replaced before with the same old rope lights. Regardless, the fact that they were working with the new rottendog MPU makes me think there isn't a short there any longer. Let me know if you think differently.

Hopefully, pinsound can figure out the communication issue with the rottendog MPU and I can just switch back to the new board to solve the rope light problem.

If not, is there something on the original data east MPU board that I can replace to correct the problem?

#429 7 years ago

It's possible that your game ROM needs updated/replaced? I picked up a EATPM and it had 2 bad sound ROMs causing all kinds of sound problems, so I'm sure it's possible that the game ROMs can get zapped by static. All it takes is for the ROM to be off a little bit and things go haywire.

#430 7 years ago

I'm assuming Shick is swapping roms between boards, so they should be ok if they work in one.

If you had a logic probe or scope it would be easy to check the driver on the MPU for those alpha-numeric output pins. If your really good/comfortable with a soldering iron you could just pull and socket that chip.

#431 7 years ago

Yes, I've been swapping the roms between the boards. Unfortunately, no logic probe or scope. I'm okay soldering coils and lamp sockets, and I did solder a new battery box to the board, but I don't know that I've got the skills to pull and socket the chip. Hopefully, PinSound can correct the compatibility issue with the Rottendog MPU and then I'll have someone else take a look at the Data East board.

#432 7 years ago
Quoted from shicketmaster:

However, with the old power supply back in, the knocker went crazy and started pounding away nonstop

For what it's worth, I had an out-of-control knocker when one of the fuses blew on my power supply, so that's something to check.

#433 7 years ago

Hmmmm I posted a big post but Pinside chopped it in half. Will repost in a bit.

#434 7 years ago

New product for Batman, Checkpoint, Hook, Star Trek 25th Anniversary, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Replaces Data East Display P/N 520-5042-00

128x16 LED DE displays are now available.
http://bostonpinballcompany.com/Data_East_Displays.htm

Xpin's 128x16 LED DE displays due out in the summer 2016
http://xpinpinball.com/product/xp-dmd2048/

#435 7 years ago

A guy in the UK is doing a pretty impressive Hook restoration and showing pics of the progress. Really cool thread

http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/hook-the-restoration-youve-been-waiting-for.19738/

#436 7 years ago
Quoted from PinballManiac40:

New product for Batman, Checkpoint, Hook, Star Trek 25th Anniversary, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Replaces Data East Display P/N 520-5042-00
128x16 LED DE displays are now available.
http://bostonpinballcompany.com/Data_East_Displays.htm
Xpin's 128x16 LED DE displays due out in the summer 2016
http://xpinpinball.com/product/xp-dmd2048/

Dang, a couple of new options there for 128x16! Fantastic. The Boston Pinball one looks pretty promising, maybe a monolithic LED panel (no blocks/segments)? It looks great and the decision to use through hole component design is significant. The X-Pin one, not sure. It's awful expensive for using 8x8 modules that would likely show grid lines, and uses surface mount technology in contrast.

#437 7 years ago

Let's talk about the Left Ramp and the Drop Targets for a little bit.

Here is my frustration with these two parts of the game and how I perceive most people also feel.

The Drop Targets are completely under utilized in this game. The only time you ever even care about hitting them is during the last ball when the Pirate Bonus pops up. Is there any other time in this game when you even think about them? The Drop Targets also advance the Left Ramp Value by two lamps but ONLY when you drop all four of them.

The Left Ramp during regular gameplay... many of the more skilled players seem to focus on this shot over, and over, and over, and over. Really... watch that PAPA Hook video. The guy is just hitting it constantly. I know he is doing it because you can quickly get it up to 3M per shot and if you just loop it then you get a lot of points.

I hate it when a game has this. What is the fun in shooting the same thing over and over and over?

So, I've been thinking about it... and was wondering... what if hitting the Left Ramp ONLY collected the Ramp Value but did NOT advance the Ramp Value? What if the Drop Targets were the ONLY way to advance the Ramp Value?

Think about it. This would open up those Drop Targets and make you WANT to shoot for them. This also still follows the rules described on the playfield that states "Drop Targets Score And Advance Ramp Value". No where on the playfield does it mention that the Ramp also advances Ramp Value.

Also, what if the Left Ramp Value was no longer capped at 3M? What if it could be increased to 10M or 15M? The insert on the playfield states "3 MILLION PLUS" so no rule would be broken there. What if after you collected the Ramp Value and/or after you drain, the Ramp Value reset to 250K? Maybe even make it so when you first collect the Ramp Value, it does not reset for 5 to 10 seconds... this would give the player a chance to try to loop it multiple times in that short time frame for even bigger points.

I think this would open up a whole new strategy to the regular gameplay part of Hook. It would add the Risk/Reward of trying to figure out when the "cash in" on the Ramp Value points.

Think about it for a little bit and let me know your thoughts.

#438 7 years ago

I like all of the suggestions above Chad.

#439 7 years ago

My thoughts exactly. I'm getting the impression this is how Tim Seckel originally designed it given how much sense this makes and the text on the playfield.

#440 7 years ago

Yeah. That sounds exciting! Plus, one of my technique is clock shots so that would add the fun of a limited points shot (like clocks) to the ramp. Cool!!

#441 7 years ago

Sounds well thought out and within all the rules of the play field. Super excited to see all of these changes.

#442 7 years ago

Just do it

#443 7 years ago

That sounds fantastic!

#444 7 years ago

Sounds like a good rules update to me.

Quoted from DBLM:

A guy in the UK is doing a pretty impressive Hook restoration and showing pics of the progress. Really cool thread

Holy shiznits, that machine is gorgeous. I was amused by all the discussion about the use of the safety chain. It's a goofy setup, but it works. Although I'd prefer a prop rod, too (and I've just noticed the manual implies there is one - "Support the playfield by inserting the support bar into the countersunk notch on the bottom side." page 2, item 12).

BRB, going to add a translucent-red-knobbed shooter rod to my cart at Marco ...

#445 7 years ago
Quoted from LarryMac:

Sounds like a good rules update to me.

Holy shiznits, that machine is gorgeous. I was amused by all the discussion about the use of the safety chain. It's a goofy setup, but it works. Although I'd prefer a prop rod, too (and I've just noticed the manual implies there is one - "Support the playfield by inserting the support bar into the countersunk notch on the bottom side." page 2, item 12).
BRB, going to add a translucent-red-knobbed shooter rod to my cart at Marco ...

Yeah, this guy is giving me major envy. My playfield and plastics are all in great shape, and the cabinet is not bad at all either. Just shopped it out and did the LEDs, which make this game look awesome. I have mirror blades coming in on Monday as well as a playfield spotlight that I am going to put in. Once I have those, I will post pics. Have some red gel filter coming in today so I am going to do his trick with the DMD. If I don't like it, I am going to get the new red DMD that Boston pinball has.

Don't know about the red shooter rod. I kind of like the black...

#446 7 years ago

New bug and/or theory for why the mysterious gate should be in place:

I got the pity multiball on my 3rd ball, and in the course of play, one of the balls dropped under the skill shot area. During regular play, a ball that drops in there gets kicked out, but this one just sat there. After the other ball drained, I had to wait for ball search before the ball finally got kicked out. I'm pretty sure I heard the "shoot it!" call out while I was waiting, which seemed out of place. I suppose there could be a wonky switch, but I don't recall ever having the kickout not occur except in this situation.

#447 7 years ago

Advice? It appears that when the correct rope light strand is supposed to light that the output for that pin from the MPU board changes from 5v to .1v

My pins do this:

Off: 5v, 5v, 5v
Strand 1 logic: .4v, .4v, 5v causing strands 1 and 2 to light
Strand 2 logic: .4v, .4v, 5v causing strands 1 and 2 to light
Strand 3 logic: 5v, 5v, 0.1v causing strand 3 to light correctly

I traced this back across capacitors and RA3 back to pins 10,11,12 on the 7segment PIA chip which is putting out the same erroneous voltages during strand 1 and 2 logic

I put a new 7 segment PIA chip in and have same problem. Not sure how to trace further back from here.

#448 7 years ago
Quoted from LarryMac:

New bug and/or theory for why the mysterious gate should be in place:
I got the pity multiball on my 3rd ball, and in the course of play, one of the balls dropped under the skill shot area. During regular play, a ball that drops in there gets kicked out, but this one just sat there. After the other ball drained, I had to wait for ball search before the ball finally got kicked out. I'm pretty sure I heard the "shoot it!" call out while I was waiting, which seemed out of place. I suppose there could be a wonky switch, but I don't recall ever having the kickout not occur except in this situation.

Actually, just thinking about this, this also happened on mine before I had the gate. I remember thinking at the time, that I must fix that. Since I have had the gate, I almost forgot this even happened.

#449 7 years ago
Quoted from LarryMac:

I suppose there could be a wonky switch, but I don't recall ever having the kickout not occur except in this situation.

It's not a bad switch. It's (yet another!) bug with the code.

#450 7 years ago

What do you all think about the Skull shot?

This shot currently serves these purposes:
1) It will spot a Top Lane (to help build your Bonus Multiplier)
2) If the Right Scoop is not lit, it will relight the Right Scoop.
3) It collects the 20 Million Skull shot during that mode.
4) It collects Extra Ball when lit.
5) It is one of several shots you can shoot during Bangarang to build the Bangarang bonus.

Does this seem to be enough? Should it do anything else?

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