Great game. Welcome back to the addiction !

LTG : )

Nice! Had one for years. A very early Ritchie designed pin. Have fun... the sounds alone are worth it!~ SpOoKy

I love the game. It's still one of my favorites. It's simple, yes, but there are some differing strategies and some very satisfying shots. Very good choice. Mine's pretty beat, but I love it.

You can't go wrong with Flash. A Classic! Congrats!

Hey,

First working machine I bought (I had a Gottlieb World Fair that never got as "repaired" as I wanted it to). It's still sitting in the living room; I need to fix the drops and replace a flipper coil on it. The spinner shot from the left flipper is such a satisfying one to make. Took me a pretty long time to roll the score over. Congrats!

Luke

Nice score, Milton!

If I can get a firepower in my Nissan versa sedan, you'll have no trouble getting the flash in your blazer!

Very cool pin.

Enjoy!

cool game - best of luck

Congrats on the Flash pickup!!

Err... yeah.. I totally rolled the score, too....

I have owned Flash a few times...classic game.

Check those batteries at pickup time....any corrosion is a concern.

Also be aware these old Williams do not have fold down heads so be prepared to transport accordingly. You can "unbolt" the head and lay it on body but you either have to remove all the connectors (alot) or tie the head to prevent it from moving and pulling the wires.

Have fun

Flash is awesome! Your are not really getting good at till you roll it over twice in one game!

Do NOT transport with the head erect.

Bring a socket set, and lay head down on blanket, wrap with stretch wrap.

Also, take the back glass out and transport carefully.

You don't have to remove all the connectors to take the head off. Just follow the bundle (or pull the wire loom up into the head if there is enough slack) of wires into the cab just below the head, and you will find 2 master plugs, one white and one black. Just unplug those, and take the ground wire off of its lug (held on with a wing nut in the bottom of the head) and you can remove the backbox without any problems. Very easy. For those of you that remove all the connectors look in your game and see the 2 big plugs, you will be kicking yourself for not noticing them before.

+1 to what vid said. Only thing I'll add is if you're moving it by yourself its easier if you separate the head from the cab especially if you have any stairs to navigate. But if you have help or are NFL linebacker sized, just pallet wrap the head to the cab.

viperrwk

Congrats. Very fun machine to play. Drop targets can be problems at time. You need to keep them clean.

Head removal very easy. 2 bolts (9/16), slide out from groove behind neck after disconnecting 5 bundle connectors, 1 ground braid from the wing nut and one ot two connectors in from right side r boards. Very easy, definately dont transport with head attached.

The Blue drop targets are surprisingly hard to find. All of the plastics are now available by CPR, so not a whole lot to be worried about there.

The plastic lane guides at the top of the playfield seem to get broken pretty easily and I have not been able to find replacements that match the originals. I have only been looking for them for about 15 years though...

Maybe - they are a transparent blue color. Can you 3D print in transparent colors? All the 3d printed items I have seen are opaque or translucent, not transparent.

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2301

Aren't these correct?

They look correct in the picture, but I am pretty sure I have ordered them only to find they are a light blue color which looks terrible on the game. The originals were a deep blue color - just like those in the picture.

I had reds on mine and swapped them out for the blue ones I linked. I think they look pretty good, I found this pic on my phone.

photo_(6).JPG

Did an informal poll on RGP earlier and it seemed that those machines with the blue posts/lane guides were System 4 machines and the ones with red posts/lane guides were System 6 machines.

And there are four bolts that hold the head on. The ones in the back are especially a PITA to get out. Have to use an open-end wrench to loosen the bolts and remove a couple of connectors from the driver board to pull it out.

I didn't like the stock bumper caps and replaced them with clear red caps and blue skirts - makes the game look much better IMHO.

http://s1244.beta.photobucket.com/user/traderonev10/media/Flash%20Pinball%20For%20Sale/flash4sale072_zpsa03221a9.jpg.html?sort=2&o=1

viperrwk

I've had it for 4 years now. Some people have trouble with the 40 pin board connector on the Williams dual boards of this era. After a few problems with it booting up to audit mode (I think it showed a 481 in player 1's score when attempting to start), I finally replaced the MPU & driver board with Rottendogs MPU327 and it has worked perfect since. I did this to eliminate any $100+ future repair calls.
Here is a picture of the horseshoe part I was talking about:
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-7615
The two tips of the horseshoe slide up & down on a printed circuit type of board and they dont always complete the circuit because of misalignment or dirt so when the target is hit and drops, it doesn't score properly. In some cases, if the machine doesn't properly sense an 'all down' condition, it doesn't know to pop them back up.

I used these:
http://www.actionpinball.com/pics/03-7034-10.gif
They matched what I already had but I dont know if they were original or not.
You can find them here a little over half way down the page:
http://www.actionpinball.com/partsgen.htm
The blue ones are part # 03-7034-10
I believe Flash was made with both red and blue lane guides. Mine came with red but after seeing many old pictures with blue, I changed mine to blue. (viperrwk mine was a System 6)

The ones from action pinball look like the ones I bought. Not nearly as deep of blue color as the originals on my game.

I bought new lane guides from Steve Young:

http://pbresource.com/rollover.htm

They did not match exactly the originals that were there. I don't think anyone sells lane guides that are as deep a blue as the originals.If I could find my originals I would take a pic.

Steve also doesn't sell the single-sided guides that go on the ends (I don't think anyone does) so you have to cut one side off a double-sided one. Regardless if you go with blue or red you should buy and replace them as a set otherwise you'll have a hard time matching them up.

IMHO I think the blue guides look better than the red especially if you have the red flipper rubber. Mine is a Sys4 and originally came with blue. So to Bamaro and Deaconblooze, cheers to you for going blue!

viperrwk

You mention single-sided guides. The ones I removed were all double-sided so I installed all 5 with double-sided guides and there is no issue on the ends with fitment.

There should be, or someone had the wrong rubber installed. Take a look at the picture I have attached above. There are two rubbers that extend from the bottom starpost of each of those end lane guides, across the switch, and down to another starpost near the pops.

Interesting. Mine were single sided on the ends. The manuals for the machine make no reference to them (as far as I can tell) and the parts manual simply says:

"When ordering these parts specify the following:
Color (specify whether translucent or opaque)
Double sided or single sided
Size (overall length)
Name of game"

It doesn't say which type go where for each machine.

It was easy enough to remove one side with an xacto knife. Could have left it double-sided since as you said it seemed to work but wanted it to be the same as what I took out.

viperrwk

Mine is setup now where the rubber runs on the outside of the left guide between the guide and the upper post on the left. Thats the way it was setup with the old guides when I bought the machine. FWIW, the red guides that I removed have a part number A-9394 molded on the underneath just above the screw hole.

The blue will change from batch to batch.

The current crop of clear blue pop covers seen especially crappy lately from everybody - very light in color.

The ones I have from a few years ago are very dark blue.

Another reason if you're buying now you should buy a whole set that matches.

viperrwk

Very true!

I found Flash to be a challenging game. Background sound, despite recognizing it's importance in pinball history, is still a bit annoying. Good fun all the same.

I connected Star Post Lights from GLM to the three pop bumpers for extra 'flash'.

Cool - nice mod that makes sense for the game and gives it a more modern feel.

And another +1 agreeing with you on the sound! There's a reason why the background sound default was off.

viperrwk

Love my Flash! Watch those center drop targets...Suicide!

The background sound can be easily turned off from the coin door buttons.

That is a very cool mod!

A few years ago. I needed Flash to complete my collection of the Williams "Top Four" in my basement. I found a nice one. Like the OP stated.. I also pumped a ton of quarters in the game when I was a kid. So I set up the game, put it right next to my Gorgar. Played a few and couldn't take how Cheesy the sound was now.. .. sold it a few days later. The lady who bought it from me was ecstatic so I am glad it went to a good home. Now I see them all the time on CL. They usually all have the same wear spots. right in the middle just above the flippers. It was fun to have again but. As the saying goes...been there done that! Anyways enjoy it. Still a cool game.

Strange that you didn't keep it very long.