That's what i thought. Next step is to figure out how to open the apron...

pull the 2 screws on the hooks on the front of the playfield, that apron itself has a couple tabs that hook into the steel wall at the front. you should be able to slide the apron forward after the screws are out and get it to release from the front. be careful not to scratch the hell out of the stainless

Well..... i've located the opto's and it seems that they are error-prone (see http://www.pinrepair.com/6803/#opto). Anybody any idea where i can find replacement boards?

Great Lakes modular. I believe you have to email them to order.. I don’t think they take orders online

http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/index.html?http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/products/pinball/6803tbs.html

I would like to try those inserts, but the field doesn't need a clear coat. I also have a spare playfield, and I am seriously beginning to contemplate stripping off the hardware that's still left on it and spray clearing it.

But that would be make work, not sure I want to go there yet. I removed the mylar from the actual game years ago. It actually came up fairly easily, except of course for the inserts. They're still readable, but they're not like they should be.

Nice job, and good effort. You're going all in on the restoration and your work to this point looks great.

Thanks. I've sent them an email but no response yet. In the meantime i've removed both PCB's from under the apron and checked them. And discovered that they were working normally when i tested them and kept working after i placed them back I think that just removing the PCB's and cleaning the pins of the connectors solved the issue. Been playing this machine a number of times in the past week without any issues other than a few lightbulbs which need to be replaced.

Wouldn’t hurt to change the pins in those connectors. I have as of yet to see some that are not completely tarnished and dull. Let’s be honest. They are 30 years old and pretty tired anyway. New pins will help keep good connection

+1 to that suggestion.

I am about 85% done with all connectors in my D&D, including the board mounts. The MPU is completely done, as is the sound card. I would like to find an aftermarket cable kit from the MPU to the displays. I am contemplating making a new harness, as I have yet to find such an aftermarket kit. Lot of work there, though. I still have the door connector and a couple of harness connectors to go. I am in no hurry to do the bigger connectors as per examination they look really good. The door connector, that one is next. It's going to be a PITA because it's so small.

What do you mean? The connector on the cable itself or the pins on the PCB?

The connector on the cable. Inside on each wire is a little pin that keeps tension on the header.

And on the 6803 power supply board. Board side. They're relatively easy to do if you have a working knowledge of soldering. It is relatively straightforward.

You can get the board side connectors at Great Lakes Electronics. Probably Digi-key and Mouser as well.

So if i understand you correctly the best solution would be to remove the connector and replace it with a new one. Including crimping new pins on the cable. I'll see if that is possible but the actual flatcable is not that long to 'just' replace the connector. Thanks for the suggestion though

Hi Guys,
I've just finished my D&D pin. I would like to share one thing.
If your playboard isn't horizontal like in the first picture. (red ellipse)
Just cut the corner of the upper flipper base and move the lamp wire from it's original position.
Rgds,

NGmod (resized).JPG

Right (resized).JPG

left (resized).JPG

I'm sorry but I'm wrong.
It will not horizontal. But you get more stable playfield.

With the funky cab, can these be loaded on an appliance dolly like any other pin? Or no because it won't fit on the small shelf?

To answer my own question: it's not ideal but can be done.

After inspecting it and getting it home I was disappointed to find insert and cabinet decals are hard to come by. Anybody have any leads?

From another 6803 thread I started about 14 months ago - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacement-capacitors-for-6803-mpu-sdb

Update:
Sent my 6803 MPU board to Eldorado Games. Talked to John yesterday, and was told that there is nothing wrong with the board. He also told me that SW1 on that board doesn't do anything. The board checked out good on the test bench, so it appears that my XPin displays just do not work with this particular version of the 6803 MPU.

So now, I'm "stuck" trying to find some newer displays that this MPU will be able to talk to. He said something about different versions of the 6803, so if that's true - and atm I have no reason to disbelieve that after my 14 month trek with this game and those newer displays, I'm hoping that there are some versions out there like Pinscore or Pinball Solutions that may resolve the issue. I've looked for replacement high voltage 14 digit displays, but those seem to almost as rare as a dinosaur.
I wonder if there is a way to get them to work. I wonder if anybody would even be willing to put the effort forth.
Any opinions? Any suggestions? Does anybody have a Dungeons & Dragons pin that is using XPin's? If so, what Revision of the displays are they? I have a pair of Revision A's.

Putting this post here, in hopes that I'll stir somebody up with a potential solution. Thanks in advance if anybody can help.

Cabinet decals are available out of Europe and the insert decals have a pdf file floating around this thread

Did anybody ever make the insert decals that include the diamond keylines?

Also, any tips to adjusting the magic saves to reduce flipper bounce? My left one lifts a lot higher than the right and is smoother. The little plastic above the flipper only adjusts so far to compensate for the lower lift height on the right. I don't know if its from coil wear or what but I'm going to go over the mech this evening if I get a chance.

As far as I know no one did a set of keyline diamonds BECAUSE they are not all the same size. Did a full restore on one a few years back and made a template for the keylines. It works for about half of the inserts then you get to double digits and they start stretching the side out. Almost all of the art back then was hand drawn so fixing it isn't that hard. Just keep your lines small and go over them a couple times to get them wider if you need to. Perfect is not what was on the playfield originally, you the only one who will be able to tell when your done.

As far as the magic save, there is not a return spring on the coil, the lane itself is the spring. You can adjust it just like a flipper and have the arm turned back a little to get it to travel a little less you turn it forward to push it up more. The biggest problem is the set screws digging into the arm you might need to take a file to it and file it down a bit to clean up the groove and get the arm to stay in the new position. They have not been reproduced you be careful.

So...I just hand painted everything. The shots of the playfield touchups are on the second page.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dungeons-and-dragons-rebuild

What should be the price of a minty dungeons and dragons with a topper be?I've noticed most of the dungeons on pinside that we're for sale usually don't seem to have a topper...why is topper so hard to come by and in my opinion.... I wouldn't want the game without it....it's an important part of the pin and a beautiful topper

That's a great question, its also a hard question to answer. "Minty" can mean so many different things. I don't see $3000 for a fully restored machine being out of the question. I have also seen most of them go in the $1500-2000 range. It would depend on how bad you want one. I would throw $2000-2500 at a nice example (factory mylar, top side tear down, LEDed, new rubber, cabinet touched up, powder coated legs and armor, etc).

As far as the topper goes, there are 2 rumors and one I know is true and both are probably true. the first is the whole 80's epilepsy thing where the combination of the dark arcade and the strobe light of the topper were causing kids to have fits so the arcades were making the operators remove them for "legal" reasons. Once they were off, the operators either lost them or threw them away for storage reasons. Local operator here had one on route and that's what he told me was the reason its was off. The second reason is the headroom of the game. There was no room in some arcades for the head to be raised with the topper on (same with Williams Big Guns) so they removed the topper to get it in the arcade with the same results of the topper getting lost and or thrown away.

Why is it sometimes after locking a ball doing a full plunge results in multiball / 2x and sometimes it's just a missed skill shot. Is it because the upper gate isnt registering or something?

There is a second gate exiting the blue circle ramp going thru the backbox. you shouldn't get multiball off a plunge. I would take a look at the switch matrix and baring that maybe double check the ball trough optos. loss of ball count can do the same thing.

Gratuitous repeat: anybody using newer displays, specifically in a D&D?

Anyway, thanks for that rumor info on the toppers. I got my D&D off an e-bay sale back in the spring of 2007, $900, plus $300 to NAVL to get it shipped to me. I wish the artwork were of the painted variety, instead of the decal style. My wife hated this game, until she realized she loved it. Kept trying to get me to sell it because it was taking up space.

Now, it would take the National Guard to get it out of the house. And I'm good with that. I told her she would end up liking it. The problem was my Fireball II restoration project, but more importantly, a like NIB Lord of the Rings that arrived the same day as the D&D showed up. That was a great day, two pins in one delivery.

Not sure if anyone's interested, but saw this on CPR's website- a D&D "Topper" (so your topper can have a topper?) https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-toppers/dnd/

It's toppers all the way down, I guess. Hopefully they'll work on a Playfield next!

Hello! Does anyone have any tweaks to make the game play less brutal? I've fiddled with the auto save and other settings but it's not satisfying. I've heard of people (on other games) changing post positions and bending parts but that seems too destructive. I love a challenging game but I want a little more balance.

Thanks!

Tuning up your flippers and aligning the inlanes to eliminate hop will help a lot. Other than that max out all your auto save settings, maybe take out the sling switches a bit to make them less touchy.

Updated news on a CPR D&D playfield! From a CPR FB post...

IMG_1240 (resized).jpeg

Yes!!!

I love this game I'll probably have to get a playfield and put it in the queue with all my other projects I'll never get to.

I'm having a real hard time with this guys. Are you absolutely positive you're not supposed to get your multiball balls released when you have them locked and do a full plunge around the 'summon help' ramp? All my switches are working (I get 3 flashes on the left when going up the ramp) and the multiplier is applied and multiball starts most of the time. I think the times it doesnt start is the times that the "teleport" is set to happen. If there is a ball set to lock or both balls are locked it gives multiball on the plunge after the ball is locked.

Both switches in the lock mechs are supposed to be closed when a ball is locked, correct? What am I missing?

Also is there a way to tell whether a shot will perform a lock or teleport or do you just have to have the software memorized?

Can't wait to see what playfield mods you have done.

Everything he just said. You think it's fast, wait til you do a complete flipper rebuild....

T minus five for launch, Houston

Can anybody explain why sometimes a ball is locked and sometimes it is teleported, or how to make a ball lock instead of teleport?

I found a super nice D&D with topper that Ill get February 9th. I have never transported this pin and it has a different cab then others. Is there anything I should note? I have to take it down stairs, does it fit flat on a dolly like my other pins?

Thanks!

My D&D machine stopped working a few weeks ago. Last weekend i had the time to look into this and found out that FU3 was burned out so no 5V on the board. Before ireplace that 3AG fuse i ave to be clear on what kind of fuse it is: slow blow or fast blow. On pinrepair it's mentioned as a 6A SB but on the techsheet i have it's just a regular 6A so i assume a Fast Blow. On the actual schematics-booklet it´s a ´6AMP 3AG FUSE´ so no mention of FB vs SB.. What is recommended?

And i have no clue why that fuse blew. Are there things to check before i just replace the fuse and turn the machine on? I already checked the diodes D1-D4 and they are fine.

You might want to check the connectors on the board. Without knowing anything about your game, look for brown spots, signs of over-heating on the SDB, if you already have not done that. It could just be an old fuse. Did it stop working while you were playing it, or did you power it up and no 5v?

The tech chart I have just says 6A 250v for F3.

A recent fuse story from here: I swapped out some inserts from my spare playfield to the active playfield, and although I was extremely careful pulling out, and then putting the new ones in, somehow I ended up blowing the fuse under my playfield. Didn't bang anything, no blunt force trauma, just up and died. I have no idea how old it was, but it was on the game playfield when I got my D&D in 2007.

It may have just given up the ghost. I would check all of your fuses for continuity, while you're in there. Can't hurt, and it doesn't take that long.

This particular machine hasn't been used for 20 years when i bought it. So after moving it to my place and using it for a few weeks was the first action it had in years. It stopped during a game: lamps stayed on but everything else went dead. There was also a faint burned smell before i turned it off.

FYI: last week i opened the backbox and checked all fuses and the rest was ok except the F3.

It also seems there is a difference between slow-blow fuses from the US and European slow-blow variants (in dutch "traag").

You really might want to look at the back of that SDB board and see if any of the solder connections on the back are bad. I had one do that, and while I didn't blow fuses, I got flaky behavior from time to time, specifically one that identified a blown Fuse alert on the displays, FU3 to be exact.

I ended up replacing every connector in the backbox (harness side) and every soldered connector on the SDB. I would pull that SDB out and check those connections on the back. Bad connectors can cause a lot of bad - and wierd - problems.

edit to add:

With an old game like this, that wasn't used for that long, you also might want to consider replacing the capacitors on all of your boards. It's not hard to do.

I don't know your level of experience and don't want to assume one way or the other.

This is a thread I started over a year ago, and it dealt with trying to solve issues not completely unrelated to yours, but it should or could help you track down the problem.

Capacitors, connectors and cleaning are the best maintenance over time for pinball machines.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacement-capacitors-for-6803-mpu-sdb

Uhm..Noob question: what is the SDB board? Sound Deluxe Board? If so why would that have to be checked? I would expect the power board or such..

Solenoid Driver Board, the board that had the blown fuse. The bottom board.

027 (resized).JPG

That picture was taken after I replaced the capacitors, but before I had to rebuild the high voltage section and before I replaced the board side connectors. Check that 12 pin connector on the left middle side of the board. That could be where some of your problems are originating, or it could be the conduit.

Sorry for the quality of some of these pictures. This is a BGRESTO backglass restoration. I especially like the reinforcement around the edges, using Gorilla fixit tape. The restoration artwork colors are much richer and deeper. I had to play around with several new bulbs to get it to look the way we liked when the game is on.

backglass1 (resized).jpg

backglass2 (resized).jpg

backglass3 (resized).jpg

backglass4 (resized).jpg

I've checked a *lot* of connectors on the powerboard and all the voltages were within the limits. I also checked all the coils and measured them and that also was within the expected range. When the 6A fuse arrived i first disconnected all connectors but J5, installed the fuse and turned it on. Nothing happened Then i connected all the rest (J1 -J4) and switched it on after each new connection. In the end nothing happened and until now it's looking good. I haven't played a real game yet because i am cleaning all the playfield parts but a manual run-through showed all bumpers, flashers etc were working.

I did notice that the score-display is 'bleeding' (see attached image) that wasn't there before. Could lowering the voltage on T2 from 190V to 170V help? This was suggested on another forum..

numeric (resized).jpg

I do LOVE my BGRESTO D&D backglass, but I still hold out hope that CPR will do a bag with mirroring!