Not sure if you guys use WAF around here, but in my Home Automation world, it's commonly used, and stands for Wife Acceptance Factor.

When I told my wife we were buying our first machine, she was pretty miffed about it. Mainly because I told her, not asked. There's a right and wrong way to gain a wife's excitement, and this wasn't it.

Either way, I had found out that my aunt had a really nice Rollercoaster Tycoon with a few minor gremlins that she had bought for $3,000, but wanted out of her house - so whoever wanted it could have it for $400. I was there THAT NIGHT.

When I brought it home I didn't know how to remove the glass. I didn't understand how the flippers flipped or the lights were wired. I had no idea there were circuit boards behind the top glass. I literally knew nothing about these things. That was one week ago.

Since then here's where I am...

- Figured out how to open the thing.
- Figured out after a long day, that the playfield could be propped up and back, vs. having a friend stand there holding it for hours while you tried to replace bulbs
- Replaced every bulb that was out
- Had a part that was removed and was sitting where the coin tray would have been. This turned out to be an Opto. Tested and found it to be bad. Ordered new receiver board for the opto and replaced. Tested good.
- Entire column of switches still not working, preventing the Extra Ball, MultiBall and half of the play modes from happening.
- Had no idea why this was, so as a neophyte I started testing continuity on the switches and wires that I could trace. Did this for far too long.
- Called Stern Tech Support on a whim, and I believe it was Chaz who answered. Low and behold he was super friendly, and gave me a MUCH better method for this testing. We pulled the two switch plugs from the CPU board (row and column) and started jumping pins with a wire. This showed me within seconds that I had an entire column down due to an issue on the board. I was somewhat relieved because that told me that the entire playfield was likely just fine, and that it wasn't an issue in the wiring.
- transistors all looked fine, and I didn't really have a way to test them, but given what I knew at that point, I had to assume the only common point of failure between the tested pins and the CPU were the individual transistors running those columns. Ordered 100 from Amazon next day air.
- I had never replaced a transistor, but it was pretty simple. Re-installed CPU board (also replaced the RAM chip with an NVRAM chip and removed batteries) and everything WORKED! What a great feeling to fix it yourself and not rely on a tech somewhere for hundreds of dollars when a $.41 part fixed it!

Now that I had everything working perfectly, 100% switches and lights, I started with the upgrades....

First - I clipped the wires to the 'sub' and extended them to below the machine, where I ran them into the high level inputs on a really nice Eclipse 8" home theater sub I had sitting around. WOW what a difference that made! Not too much bass to be muddy, but with the crossover set decently low, it rumbles your feet and really has a nice punch to the game!

Next I replaced all of the rubbers throughout and put in 4 new balls just for good measure.

Waxed the playfield with that #2 good stuff everyone uses. Can't remember the name. It picked up a lot of dirt and grime and really made the playfield look new. And smooth as a baby's butt. Awesome.

Had a plastic ramp ($200 to replace, not in stock ANYWHERE) that had a ramp diverter which had broken on both of its connection points, such that it wasn't reliably diverting the ball. I've always been a JB Weld expert, but found that they sell a 2 part nearly clear epoxy that dries in an hour. Used that to repair this piece and it's rock solid now. I dare say it feels as strong as if it had never broken (maybe more so as I was a little generous around the nuts that had broken. Only bad side is removal of the ramp will have to include that diverter because they are now one unit! Anyways, FIXED and works great.

Didn't like the black legs on this machine, so I ordered a set of yellow powder coated legs from Marco, along with new leg mounts, feet, bolts. Will refresh that whole setup.

Since I had the sub sounding so good I figured it would be a good idea to go ahead and swap out the two 4" main speakers, so they are on order from Flipper Fidelity. Not their sub, because I like mine better.

Ordered a replacement set of LEDs for the flashers / strobes. I think these will add nice pop, but I'm not convinced I want to replace the GI, etc with LED just yet.

Oh and I am expecting an updated CPU and Display ROM Monday to get it updated from the base version it's at now.

So... I think that's my story. One week with the machine and this is where I am. Addicted. And looking for number two. Although I don't expect to find another machine this nice for $400. I'm sure the next one will be 10x that :-/

And as far as the wife acceptance factor, she and I are playing it every night in 2 player tournaments and she has declared that she now wants the entire gameroom cleared and replaced with pinball machines. So that's a WIN!

Anyways, I appreciate everyone on this forum's support as I'm sure you have a lot of newbies come through asking the same dumb questions. Your patience is greatly appreciated and I will repay the favor as I see newbies come through with the same Qs.

Thanks for listening to my rambling. it's been an eventful and educational week!

Adam