(Topic ID: 65964)
Borne
Villejuif
Great thread for a GREAT machine! One of my first purchases that will be one of the last to go.
Anyone have thoughts about putting LEDs in the bonus bar? Any pics? I have not had to change one yet but I think I will dread it.
I like the idea of rebuilding sounds. It would be nice to give Medusa a female's voice too. 
Irvine, CA
Howdy-
A local Medusa-er turned me on to this thread. I've never contributed to a "owners' group" type thread before, but Medusa convinced me to do so. (Hmm, is there an equivalent Grand Lizard thread...?)
Picked one up several weeks ago. In great condition, w/ some character on the cabinet & a few issues to iron out:
1 - Shield of the Gods was snapped off. Got the last one from Marco--phew!
2 - Translucent red square center back target was canted--disassembly showed it snapped off at the neck & held on-ish w/ glue. Put a yellow opaque one in there for now. In the meantime, ordered these to swap in to see what looks & works best. This looks good as-is: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/B-14060-8 , but this is the correct color (but wrong shape) & could be cut down to look closer to stock: http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=03-9296-9
3 - Translucent green round back targets: 1 is opaque. Will try these out: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/500-5035-04. Also picked up these cheapos to use for donor parts or whatnot: http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=A-18605-2X+
4 - Is there any practical way to pull the playfield to access those back targets? My brother was in town & helped me last week, but now that I have more targets to swap, I haven't a clue how to manhandle the pf out & get it onto the forward set of posts! I see why it's so heavy--the PF is *full*--no empty space anywhere!
5 - Needed to do a cap kit to get the sound good--voice was booming, sound effects were all but muted. Big Daddy to the rescue.
6 - Settings & replays not saving consistently--found an oddball cap in the CPU PCB. Just put a proper rechargeable battery in there--haven't had time to confirm its efficacy yet.
7 -Was getting fierce shocks off of the game, even when turned off (& plugged in). Power cord plug was missing the ground pin, & ground strap from cabinet to head was broken. Fixed those & my cursing & twitching have decreased greatly.
8 - Still trying to figure out the rules--thanks for the rgp link.
9 - Tried the Marco red translucent super-bands on the red translucent flipper bats. They didn't stretch! I couldn't pull them over the bats! Ridiculous! I opted for dark-ish red normal bands. I did put some red bands on the little top flippers--not sure if I like them--they look too tall & look as if they're peeling up & off, but I don't think they are--they have a band that nests in the bat grooves where the O-rings are supposed to sit. Maybe red O-rings are the way to go...?
10 - Speaking of flipper bats, it's tough to adjust them to the perfect position & have them stay put--the bats' metal shafts are so gouged & chewed from the set screws that I picked up some replacements from Marco. Hope they stay put.
11 - After a few weeks of uneventful play, had the back-most fuse in the transformer assembly blow when my brother was having a fantastic game. Essentially froze the game. Put in a fresh fuse & no problems since. Weird. Any thoughts?
12 - Have been able to light 4 gorgons on my plunge several times, but never 5. Quite the challenge!
13 - Weird inlane posts instead of guides make for tricky nudging when the ball is dancing around that area. Quite the challenge!
14 - Is there any adjustment/shimming technique to getting the under-playfield display window sweetly coplanar to the wood PF? My Congo had several adjustable mount screws w/ rubber washers/rings to dial it in just right. I don't see a similar mechanism on Medusa. The ball seems to act just fine in gameplay, but the window is a hair recessed--I'd like to true it up to prevent wearing the wood around the window perimeter.
15 - Anybody try to put a female Xenon voice into their Medusa? She sounds so manly...
Thanks,
-Jason
Quoted from jasonbar:4 - Is there any practical way to pull the playfield to access those back targets? My brother was in town & helped me last week, but now that I have more targets to swap, I haven't a clue how to manhandle the pf out & get it onto the forward set of posts! I see why it's so heavy--the PF is
best way to change the back targets is to tilt the playfield up against the backbox and remove the 7 drop target bank they are mounted to. it even has a convenient connector to fully remove it from the machine. the 3 targets mount on the backside. 7 screws unplug and it is ready to remove from the machine. I would also suggest installing your leds or changing the 2 yellow arrow and 1-3 green insert lamps at this time much easier when the assembly is out.
Since you have it that far apart you might as well remove the 4 screws under the PF and change the bulbs that go behind the 3 stationary targets you are replacing.
Quoted from jasonbar:11 - After a few weeks of uneventful play, had the back-most fuse in the transformer assembly blow when my brother was having a fantastic game. Essentially froze the game. Put in a fresh fuse & no problems since. Weird. Any thoughts?
Im assuming you are talking about the 5A fuse 12V unregulated fuse for the 5 volt logic supply if this is blowing its either the 4 large diodes on the rectifier board check for burning on the board under these . and/or the TO-3 5v regulator lm-323 on the sol. control board Ide replace them both and the 15000uf regulator capacitor.
Quoted from jasonbar:14 - Is there any adjustment/shimming technique to getting the under-playfield display window sweetly coplanar to the wood PF?
Bally installed the angle brackets to optimize the players view of the display without the angle it dont look right.
and if its tight against the window it can damage the art on the unabtainable pf window..
But i might suggest doing this remove the window and remove the red film color on the window the red has fogged up and gotten hazy looking like crap. then add transparent red vinyl to the display glass itself. pics dont show it right becouse of exposure but is nice clear and sharp after this.
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Managed to wrangle the big back drop targets/etc. assembly out of Medusa last night. I tilted up the PF as far as it would go, used my head to hold it up b/c it doesn't swing up far enough to stay on its own, undid the big electrical connector (hadn't noticed that before--thanks for pointing it out!), & removed the 7 screws (& 3 disappeared in the process...).
Here's an original transparent green target & the Marco replacement that I'm using. I disassembled both target assemblies so that I could swap just the plastic target part & not the whole assembly (to skip the desoldering/soldering/etc.).
For the center target, I'm going to use the amber assembly from Marco ( http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/B-14060-8 ), but the sandwich is riveted together, so I'll drill those rivets out & swap just the target portion into the existing target assembly.
I'm not sure how I'll singlehandedly reinstall this assembly into the PF--that will probably require another set of hands. The prop rod doesn't hold the PF up very far when poked into either of the 2 counterbores on the underside of the PF--I did discover that, with just a little sideways deflection of the prop rod, you can instead poke it into one of the many holes on the big steel housing that surrounds the right bank of 4 drop targets. I am prepared to receive criticisms for doing something dumb and/or compliments for being a genius & thinking of this.
Settings seem to be saving fine now that I replaced a wimpy capacitor w/ a proper NiCad battery on the CPU PCB.
My friend's semi-working Medusa is somehow on free play. I didn't see a way to set that up in the manual that I downloaded from ipdb. Is there something that I missed?
Replaced the transparent red bats w/ new ones from Marco, as the old ones' shafts were so gouged & chewed from the set screws that I couldn't get them to align properly.
Noticed that only 1 screw was holding the speaker into the cab. Yikes. One *loose* screw. Got the speaker affixed securely now. Yay.
Thanks,
-Jason
2013-11-13 21.59.59.jpg
2013-11-13 22.00.04.jpgMedusa progress!
Took the 3D deep amber target, snipped & filed to make it pretty flat. Pics 1 & 2 show the original broken target, the amber replacement after trimming, & a transparent red 3D deep target that was as deep as the amber one before trimming.
Held up in place, the amber target looks different from the stock red target, but it's close enough. Pic 3.
Installed, all 3 replacement targets look fab to me & work just great. Pics 4 & 5. (Hey, these pics are out of order...)
All that remains is to trudge through the menus/settings again, now that my battery backup is working.
Time to get my Meduson!
Thanks,
-Jason
Quoted from jasonbar:I'm not sure how I'll singlehandedly reinstall this assembly into the PF--that will probably require another set of hands. The prop rod doesn't hold the PF up very far when poked into either of the 2 counterbores on the underside of the PF--I did discover that, with just a little sideways deflection of the prop rod, you can instead poke it into one of the many holes on the big steel housing that surrounds the right bank of 4 drop targets. I am prepared to receive criticisms for doing something dumb and/or compliments for being a genius & thinking of this.
You realize on these machines Fathom, Centaur, Medusa ect this is why there are second PF hinges on the inside of the cabinets stand playfield strait up then lift the playfield up off the rear hing brackets then move playfield to the hing mounts in the center of the cabinet the you can tilt the playield against the backbox and it will stay there to work on it with ease. Just slide the hing pins into the front mounts when you move playfield.
Quoted from Hellfire:You realize on these machines Fathom, Centaur, Medusa ect this is why there are second PF hinges on the inside of the cabinets stand playfield strait up then lift the playfield up off the rear hing brackets then move playfield to the hing mounts in the center of the cabinet the you can tilt the playield against the backbox and it will stay there to work on it with ease. Just slide the hing pins into the front mounts when you move playfield.
Holy crap I didn't know that ... I had put pipe insulation on the forward edge of the head, then used squeeze clamps to keep the pf up. Must now go in the shop and check this out. Thanks!
Brian
Anyone have a picture of the back drop target bank and switch wiring? I'm working through the schematics, but a visual reference would be great.
Let's just say that now I know why my center target wasn't working. Looks like several bad hack jobs back there.
Thanks,
Brian
Quoted from Hellfire:You realize on these machines Fathom, Centaur, Medusa ect this is why there are second PF hinges on the inside of the cabinets stand playfield strait up then lift the playfield up off the rear hing brackets then move playfield to the hing mounts in the center of the cabinet the you can tilt the playield against the backbox and it will stay there to work on it with ease. Just slide the hing pins into the front mounts when you move playfield.
You realize that I noticed those extra hinge pins but that I can't even manage to budge that PF upward vertically a little because I'm a weakling? It took me & my brother much grunting to do it together when he visited a few weeks ago. This PF is *full*! I can lift my Meteor PF up & out quite easily, but I don't have a prayer of lifting Medusa's.
Like pinster68, I flipped her up as far as I could & then used a short length of stout bungee cord to hold the PF up near-vertical when I reinstalled the rear drops assembly.
Thanks,
-Jason
Quoted from Hellfire:Your lucky i have an extra drop target bank for one out atm. but i did steal a switch or so to replace some of mine but the ground wire in the back does connect all seven target switches together and the 2 missing wires have a orange and brown going to them
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Perfect, thanks. Turns out I was able to get it working with the schematics as a guide. Sure enough it was mis-wired. Actually the center target was missing a wire altogether. All fixed now.
Quoted from BumperMcBaulhogh:The replacement targets you found look nice installed!
Hurry up & install yours!
Quoted from jasonbar:You realize that I noticed those extra hinge pins but that I can't even manage to budge that PF upward vertically a little because I'm a weakling? It took me & my brother much grunting to do it together when he visited a few weeks ago. This PF is *full*! I can lift my Meteor PF up & out quite easily, but I don't have a prayer of lifting Medusa's.
Like pinster68, I flipped her up as far as I could & then used a short length of stout bungee cord to hold the PF up near-vertical when I reinstalled the rear drops assembly.
Thanks,
-Jason
I was able to get mine on the from lugs today, but it takes a bit of a hoofing. Lots of little things can get hung up while your bent over managing an awkward ~40 pounds of playfield.
What is nice is that on the front lugs you can work on the very back of the playfield. Granted I was working with a mirror and soldering wires till basically upside down and backwards.
Today was a good Medusa day. Fixed the drop target wiring, did a bit of fine-tuning, and completely cleaned up my spinner target. I highly recommend taking your spinner to a buff polisher to clean the end lugs (not the faces), do the same to the connecting rod that passes below the playfield, then reassemble and put a teensy bit of thin oil on the three points where the spinner contacts metal (the two edges and the connecting rod). I used a wire thin applicator with a microscopic bit of super lube on it and just barely tapped the connecting points. Anyhoo, shots up center through the spinner are now awesome ... spinner goes like mad.
Quoted from stevevt:You can also see a very detailed breakdown of all the rules in the Pinball Arcade version (IOS, Android, PS3, etc.).
Huh? It's not on TPA... unless you know something I don't (and I hope you do!) I'd love to play this on TPA!
Quoted from callmesteam:Huh? It's not on TPA... unless you know something I don't (and I hope you do!) I'd love to play this on TPA!
Yeah. I don't know what I was thinking, except maybe confusing it with Centaur. I'd really like to know more about the drop targets on the upper playfield.
Quoted from jasonbar:You realize that I noticed those extra hinge pins but that I can't even manage to budge that PF upward vertically a little because I'm a weakling? It took me & my brother much grunting to do it together when he visited a few weeks ago. This PF is *full*! I can lift my Meteor PF up & out quite easily, but I don't have a prayer of lifting Medusa's.
Its not that heavy its just a matter of lifting the PF up strait as not to bind on the insides of the cabinet.
Quoted from bigduke6:Yea, I watched Hellfire toss games around by himself without an effort. I wouldnt attempt it on my best day.
These ballys are light its just a matter of having the right technique but who knows the guys in michigan cant believe the way i move around and set them up alone either. lol
Quoted from stevevt:Yeah. I don't know what I was thinking, except maybe confusing it with Centaur. I'd really like to know more about the drop targets on the upper playfield.
Drop targets keep changing until you get all 7 up to conquer Mt. olympus if you hit the green targets it adds zipper flipper closed time the red target subtracts time. Honestly i think the game play and objectives are better than Centaur. centaur get systematic after awhile. it dosnt have the more complex rules or time limits like Medusa.
Zod, I'm worried that more "cookie cutter collectors" are going to learn what you learned!
I love it when there is a new title announcement that folks get excited about. It makes this nice equation come to mind...
"How many nice (insert cool SS title here) are going to get sold so that folks can buy their new (insert new pin announce here)??"
Here is a clarification I need - how many banks of upper drop targets do you need to complete (and collect) in order to get Last Ball Extended Play?
Quoted from BumperMcBaulhogh:Zod, I'm worried that more "cookie cutter collectors" are going to learn what you learned!
I love it when there is a new title announcement that folks get excited about. It makes this nice equation come to mind...
"How many nice (insert cool SS title here) are going to get sold so that folks can buy their new (insert new pin announce here)??"
Here is a clarification I need - how many banks of upper drop targets do you need to complete (and collect) in order to get Last Ball Extended Play?
I don't think you have anything to worry about, while I do like the play I'm only interested in the dark themed SS pins as almost more art than a great playing pin. Medusa, Gorgar, Sorcerer, Centaur are the 4 that I'm interested in. Maybe Catacomb, Pharaoh but not much else. Most guy's I know would be extremely bored playing these pins and will always like W/B 90's and new Stern pins better. As for "cookie cutter collector's" I don't know what that means but I've owned and sold lots of pin's. Anyway sell me you're Centaur if you have one that's all I care about.
Quoted from jasonbar:Medusa question of the day: What are the "1 2 3" green lights for, just in front of the 7 back drops? It seems that my "3" is always lit & "1 2" are never lit...
-Jason
I actually have the same question. Though I have noticed the lights change...
For some info on the Rules for Medusa go to http://tinyurl.com/k3ycbvm also for a little more on the game you can watch TNT's video of the game on YouTube
Quoted from jasonbar:Already studied those two resources. Didn't see anything about 1 2 3 lights up top... :\
Yeah cant find anything on this in the manual or elsewhere. Put a post up for this to see if anyone can assist!
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/medusa-what-is-the-purposefunction-of-the-123-lights-atop-the-playfield
2 weeks later
On another post http://tinyurl.com/l344tda another Pinsider posted some of the rules related to Medusa.
1 week later
Quoted from jasonbar:Medusa question of the day: What are the "1 2 3" green lights for, just in front of the 7 back drops? It seems that my "3" is always lit & "1 2" are never lit...
-Jason
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the 1-2-3 shows how many threshold lites you get when you knock down the 7 bank progressive targets. I think it is a dip switch setting in the back box. Mine do cycle from 3 down to 1 as you keep completing the progressive 7 bank targets to concur Olympus.
Not taking "orders", we are taking Requests......
Quoted from pinster68:Fantastic news Medusa fans ... CPR is taking orders for playfields!
Quoted from Stu:Not taking "orders", we are taking Requests......
Noted. Corrected.
Me either!....I can't wait to restore my Medusa with a new CPR Playfield!....Jim Heck does an awesome job on the artwork (Jim also did the Flash Gordon PF Artwork) so I can't wait to see his artwork for Medusa....
Quoted from Hellfire:I can happily say i dont have to restore my playfield now
Eventualy ill get around to restoring the nice playfield i currently have in my medusa the second headless medusa i have well I kinda gave up on it seems backboxes arent that easy to come by lol so i said the hell with trying to salvage the second medusa
Quoted from Hellfire:Eventualy ill get around to restoring the nice playfield i currently have in my medusa the second headless medusa i have well I kinda gave up on it seems backboxes arent that easy to come by lol so i said the hell with trying to salvage the second medusa
"Headless Medusa" I see what you did there. 
.
I got mine the same time I got my ELEKTRA and SWE1. I haven't started on it yet but I think this one will be my favorite out of the three I own.
I couldn't resist any longer. After I checked and replaced a few of the Fuses I powered up my medusa. She works but the lower right pop would fire intermittently. I checked to see if the switch was closing with vibration, but that wasn't it. Now it doesn't work at all. Any ideas?? The plunger of the coil moves freely in the sleeve so I think it's fine.
Again I'm new to this hobby so I'm hoping it's an easy fix.
Quoted from 5280wzrd:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the 1-2-3 shows how many threshold lites you get when you knock down the 7 bank progressive targets. I think it is a dip switch setting in the back box. Mine do cycle from 3 down to 1 as you keep completing the progressive 7 bank targets to concur Olympus.
Spoiler alerts
You are correct if by "threshold lights" you mean the lights on the bonus bar. (red bar of lights just under the head) Yes, you can adjust the progression of your bonus. That number tells you how many bonus lights you will go up if you complete the set of drops that popped up at that time. Hitting the center RED target - "Dhoooooww" takes away from that bonus bar. (personal favorite feature - I call it the "Medusa Target")
Completing the bonus bar awards an extra ball. Completing all the rounds of back drop targets (7 rounds?!) then will light the scoop so you can collect the "Last Ball Extended Play" - The yellow/green targets on either side of the "Medusa Target" throughout the game adds to your time for the LBEP and is displayed on the left hand side of the display in the playfield.
My strategy is to try and get that time high enough on LBEP where I can plunge a few times to get maximum Gorgons. Once I light 4 or 5 Gorgons, I let the ball play and go for that spinner for the big money.
Sorry, I meant to answer just one question but all the rules work together so nicely!
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