So, I bought my first table. It is a 1976 Williams Space Odyssey.
I got it for a good price and I am really happy with it. I only had to drive about 7 miles to pick it up which was great.
The guy I bought it from got it at an estate sale and had done no work on it in the 12 months he had it. The person he bought it from told him that he had spent about 3 years working on it to make it work and that there was all new rubber on the machine.
I got it home and dove right in. I’m new to this, but little of it feels “over my head” and I have a buddy who worked in vending in the late 80s through the mid 90s. He worked on pinballs from EM to DMD, so he is going to be a huge help to me. On the other hand, I want to learn this for myself so I am going to try not to lean on him too much.
I have some (I would guess) basic questions about a few issues with the table, but first let’s look at the good points.
• The game turns on and plays pretty well in 1 and 2 player mode.
• All major playfield scoring elements work.
• Table seems to be in pretty decent shape for its age. Playfield is worn in some places but it is pretty minor with the exception of directly above the kickout holes where somebody repainted the gray without sanding and then just wrote 50 in sharpie marker (likely since they couldn’t match the original lettering). I’m not super happy about this but it wasn’t nearly enough to dissuade me from making the buy. You can see it in one of the pictures I posted.
This past weekend I tore down the playfield and gave the wood a good work-over with Novus 2. I swapped out all playfield rubber, cleaned all plastics with Novus 2 and changed out all bad light bulbs. I had a ton of fun doing all this and feel like I learned a few things already. For instance, the old owner had a lot of rubber in place on the playfield that was either sized wrong (always too big) or placed wrong or both. I was really happy when I fired the table back up after cleaning the playfield and changing out the rubber. It plays MUCH faster already. I actually readjusted the slope last night to give it a little more zip and I’m even happier now. Gonna move on to cleaning and sanding the pop bumpers next. If I can’t get them fixed up to my liking, I will just rebuild them.
Anyway, all these good things make me want to tackle the bad so here are my questions as a newbie to repairing EMs.
1. I have 2 issues with the Swinging Target Unit’s scoring:
• First of all, should this be resetting for each game? Meaning – should the bonus move back to the beginning of the A section as each new game starts OR does it just stay where it last was when a new game begins. The manual states that this unit DOES NOT have a reset coil, so I assume it just continues on each new single player game (and between players in a 2 player game).
• Secondly, the bonus awarded when hitting the target is out of sequence by one. It goes through the correct sequence in terms of 1000 point bonuses and 5000 point bonuses, but the entire sequence is shifted “one to the right” meaning that the first bonus on the left as the sequence begins (5000) is actually the one from the last light on the right (also 5000). So, as you progress from left to right you score:
5000, 5000, 1000, 1000, 5000, 1000, 1000, 5000, 1000, 1000
When you should be scoring:
5000, 1000, 1000, 5000, 1000, 1000, 5000, 1000, 1000, 5000
I hope this makes sense. I’d love to get that reset so it is in correct sequence. It always runs through the sequence exactly the same, it is just off by one.
2. My flippers are very “mushy”. Both work but they just feel a bit weak. I am strongly considering dropping the dough for a rebuild kit. Do you guys feel confident that I will see a significant change in flipper response if I do swap them out? From what my buddy Matt (vending/pinball repair guy) and I can tell, the flipper units ARE original, so I’m thinking that I will.
There really isn’t anything else I feel confused by on the table. Chime unit needs work, but I will just work off Clay Harrell’s instructions on his amazing site. The backglass is really in pretty bad shape, but CPR reproductions are out there and I intend to get one at some point this year. I really wish they’d do the playfield for this game, because I’d buy one. Maybe down the road I will get into repairing playfields, but there is just too much else to learn for now and I don’t want to scatter my focus too much. I was prepared to drop the $80.00 for new reproduction plastics, but mine are in AMAZING shape and I just don’t need to.
Thanks for reading and for any advice you want to give. Three days in and I’m hooked. Not sure how this will go over with the wife long term, but time will do the talking.
Cheers!
Backglass condition:
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Plastics look great!
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Playfield looking so much better after Novus 2. Going to start the process of waxing it tomorrow after work.
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Overall I think it looks pretty decent.
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Post edited by SilverBallKid: Edited for clarity.