Yep, found the issue under the insulation. With the beating these wires take being spun back and forth, it is amazing to me that simply removing the head was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I repaired the wires with connectors and am hopeful they will last. I’m new to repairs and not certain if these connectors or soldering the wires would be better. They seem quite secure now. Thoughts are appreciated! Thanks!!!

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I ended up removing the connectors and soldering the wires. The Captain is back in place and his jaw is working too. We’ll see how long he lasts. Here is a picture of my preciously faded orange Captain head colored with a Red Sharpie. He also had some dental work courtesy of White Out.

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So the jaw is not working on my machine and it was disconnected, I'm thinking about trying to repair the jaw so it works correctly but my concern is that the rubber head will fall apart or get destroyed if I do this fix. Are there issues with that happening?

You should be ok its the paint that wears off mostly from cleaning it wrong, just rinse it in warm soapy water to clean it. Repaint it with acrylic paint, enamel paint will never dry on rubber.

Cleaning it would have made sense! If I ever do it again, I will take that suggestion and repaint with acrylic. The head was not brittle and did not rip when removing it. You just need to take a little care when getting it over the jaw mechanism. Pushing the jaw up May aid with the removal.

Hello! I’m new to pinside and have my first pin: Party Zone! It seems to be in good working order. Played Party Zone a lot when it was new (many years ago) and am really familiar with the game play so it seemed to be the right choice when I decided to buy something.

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Hey I'm with you man PZ is my only pin too and it looks like you got a nice original one there. Yours must have factory decal-ed side art and that seems to only be on the fliptronics versions you should have a mini board in the top left of the head.

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I also had the problem with the ball flying off the left ramp. This is what solved the problem for me:

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I have a few questions:

1. Can you erase the top scores (1-4) without erasing the grand champion score?

2. Sometimes the ball ejector on the right side doesn’t hit the ball hard enough to hit it up to the ramp. So it drops back down and tries until it makes it. Is this an issue with the coil itself needing replacement or is there some other kind of adjustment than can be made. It works most of the time.

3. The Request Time/B Merry hole has a metal deflector behind it. It bends very easy. I bought a new deflector and it started to bend after 2 days. I thought about putting a rubber bumper pad to absorb the shock from the ball smacking it. Anyone have this problem and if so have you found a solution?

Ok lets see..

1. Not sure about the grand champion I'd leave it alone I think you will most likelly erase all 4 scores

2. If your talking about the ball troff under the apron there's a trap wire that keeps the ball from bouncing back into the hole you may be missing that.

3. got you covered go threw the previous pages in this thread and I listed the Marco replacement part for that saucer hole, I wouldn't use the rubber it may make it be more bouncy its already a tough shot.

I used a velcro mounting square. The fuzzy side to snub the ball bit. Worked pretty well.

Is anyone able to tell me the number of bulbs in the red GI string, and what type they are, off hand?

Was thinking of buying a mix of frosted red and purple LEDs to experiment.

There's exactly 18

For wires that flex a lot, crimps last longer than solder... the solder makes the wire stiff and creates a point of stress right where the solder ends... which will break. The crimps let the wire flex a bit and last longer. What I have done is replaced the crappy wire that they used with highly flexible wire from an old set of volt-ohm meter test leads... these are rated to flex for thousands of cycles and not break. Not so for cheap wire that they used on these games.

Something to consider when it breaks again Mac

Thanks. What's the type? #44 or #555?

I am having a very difficult time with the ozone bonus switch. This switch is at the end/exit of the left ramp(behind back panel). I can not get it to consistently register during gameplay. The worst part about this switch is that it is next to impossible to work on without removing the playfield from the cabinet.

Some slow rolls up the ramp will register but all strong flipper shots will not register. I have tried several different style microswitches & bent actuators but all have failed. I *think* the main issue is that the way the switch is originally mounted, the ball is able to blow past the switch due to the switch not being exactly centered at the exit of the ramp.

Right now, I am back to square one and have a new left ramp installed with a brand new original style switch. Just got it all reassembled and it's still not working right. My next plan is to try and center the switch but figured I would ask here first if anyone else has encountered this issue.

What Rom version do you all prefer L-1 or L-3? I just switched from L-1 to L-3. Not sure which I like better. I’m more used to L-3 but L-1 had a few scoring advantages.

I finally broke the billion mark:

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It is a real bitch to do...but just replace the switch. I would have surely lost my mind by now trying to fix it. Just replace it and be done with it.

What type is it, and should it be replaced with the same one, or is there a better later design?

I did replace the switch with a new one but the issue was still present. I ended up modifying another bracket I had and added a spacer so that the switch is now centered in the ramp exit.

Unfortunately this still was not enough and I had to bend the actuator some to get consistent contact. I have played roughly 20 games since and only had one shot not register.

I will continue to test but I am completely open to any other options out there.

I had troubles with that switch a couple years back - it started exhibiting misses while I had it at the Allentown show. I futzed with trying to align the switch and (of course) broke it. Replacement still had problems; it turned out to be battery damage on the MPU was the root cause. That same replacement switch is in there working fine today.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for my Pinball 2000 H+V video sync combiner kit
-check out my Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2111218102/pinball-pyramid?ref=bcsjqr

I did not even think about that. The MPU in my PZ did suffer from alkaline damage. I had previously removed the damaged components and neutralized the board. I replaced all of the damaged components and it appears to have been running fine. I will need to pull the board and check it out.

Like mentioned in my last post, the switch has been functioning just fine during game play. I will continue to monitor it as well as check the MPU again.

Mine had alkaline damage too...lol. I just replaced the whole mpu after a failed repair. That switch did not work after replacement mpu. I tried adjusting with no luck so replaced it and zero issues since. It has never not worked since replacement.

I've been getting frustrated ever since I got my Party Zone because of the amount of time the ball zooms to the outlane and nudging didn't seem to help. I decided to change out the post from the sleeve to the more traditional post and rubber and its been 100 percent improvement. Just throwing this out there for fellow Party Zoners

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Can you tell me exactly what two posts you put in?

Which ring did you use? I've seen it stated by BriteMods (their EVO rings) *NOT* to use it in the PZ Cosmic Cottage, as it's 12V.

I assume the GI you've connected it to is instead 6.3V?

So I wanted to post a horror story about PZ. Well not a horror story, but something stupid for those that love the game as much as I do. This was my first pin ever and I love it. I love the toys, but also that they don't over power the playfield. The ramps are wacky and I love it. I've had the machine for about 6 months and the most I've scored is 46 million.

So I am playing the best game I've ever played on this machine, first ball and I'm at 20 million. Every shot I am going for makes it. Eat Drink and Play, Party Saver, then I activate multiball. I shoot 2 consecutive shots to the "Robotic Comic" part and both balls simultaneously come back, each one going up the rocket for 7 million, and the second one goes into the back before the first one has a chance to shoot out and they both get stuck and one falls inside the machine and I couldn't finish my game. I think I had 30 million on the first ball and I couldn't finish my game.

I still can't believe how some people score so many points on this game without adjusting factory settings dramatically.

I've never had one of the balls fall into the machine from the rocket ramp. That is a horror story!

As far as getting a higher score, the big bang max in 99 million & locking the first ball in order to get the big bang is worth 10 million so that is a great start.

But I do something else (rather than the big bang) to get high scoring games. I shoot for the way out of control (WOOC) payoff lane. Getting the four WOOC squares lit first gives you a payoff of 5 million the first time. The next time it's boppers 1 million. This is where you can really rack up points, especially during multi ball or even after one of the ball drains and the playfield scores are doubled (2 million per bop). When you get this far, try to get the WOOC payoff a third time for 10X playfield. If you do this AT THE SAME TIME as boppers 1 million then boppers are now worth 10 million per bop! Also, during playfield 10X shoot the WOOC payoff lane and instead of 1 million its 10 million. Each time you hit this it goes up by 1 million. Also, once you get playfield 10x, the next WOOC payoff is extra special special, which is worth 50 million! You can only get it once per game and you have to have this set in the settings to give you points, otherwise it will give you free games (which you don't need).

I have a youtube video where I get 588 million. I use the technique I just described (boppers 1 million & 10x playfield at the same time) to go from 59 million to 480 million in less than one minute! It takes many MANY tries to get to into this position but it is possible. I'm working on a video where I get 1 billion but I've never been able to do it with the camera on.

Keep trying!

That has happened to me as well, ball got stuck and then dropped down inside the cabinet but it's only happened once.

I'm currently trying to figure out my ground short error on row 4 white - yellow. I found a screw fell into the pop bumper and I hope that's what caused the issue so I'm waiting on a new u20 and u14 IC and I think this may have happened before because both of those chips are socketed. Unless that's normal for this machine.

... and each 1M bopper hit is accompanied by a pretty cool sound effect as well when this is active. I thought that mode was time-limited like bop-till-you-drop - maybe I'm wrong there.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets, for my Pinball Pyramid bracket, or for the Pinball 2000 H+V video sync combiner kit

So I was having issues with Captain Bizarre's head not fully working, when I took it apart I saw the bottom jaw mech was not connected so now everything is put back together I'm wondering how I'm supposed to get his rubber head over the metal jaw and in the correct place. Opto #2 is not working but new optos are on the way...

Thanks!

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Fold the jaw mechanism up so that it is flat against the vertical piece. Slide Captain B's head over both pieces and manipulate the metal jaw piece into the rubber jaw when doing so.

Thanks. That's my issue, the flap will not fold upward when the jaw actuator rod is connected. Maybe it's too short and I'll have to make a new one?

Alright, done and fixed, thanks for the help!

So far I've...

Replaced the 3 standup targets to the original 3d targets
Comet LED and Flashers throughout
Titian color matched rubber throughout
Green start button
Touched up PF (sloppy attempt but I will redo)
Fixed Captain Bizarre's jaw
Replaced eject hole deflector with proper part
Put Red LED back on the GI string
Replaced DMD
Repaired failing dot matrix controller board
Replaced U20 and U14 chips

Still to do...

Opto #2
Crash test dummy legs replaced
More PF touch ups
Find right ramp!

This has been more work than I expected but it's been a fun project and I like the silly simple play style of the game. The colors and artwork are nice and my guests seems to be drawn to the game, they certainly don't mind the lack of "depth".

Before:

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After:

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I had a chance to build a pinduino with a buddy for his Party Zone. Love the ramps on this game!

Code is available (open source): https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/PartyZone

Very cool! Nice work

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/partyzone-1/page/5#postbox
Take my money, please. I want this.

Take my money. I want this. Where can I buy a kit?

Wait is the jaw supposed to work on these? What did I miss?

Yes, it supposed to move up and down; mine was disconnected because this part was missing and the previous owner/owners didn't feel like messing around with it...

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/12-6987-1

Things are looking promising for the 'Dancing Dummy' guys

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2659861

I changed those out lane post bumpers too. It still drains a lot, but better.

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Hi guys,someone here maybe with a backup/new/used/bad cosmic cottage base,I want to finish this machine and this part is missing
Thanks

Finally I finished me second PZ

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Because I can't find Bally sign, made a copy.
Also start colourisation for pin2dmd.
What man can do just to listen pinball Wizard.

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Wow, NICE !

ColorDMD better get busy or pin2dmd is going to win the race on PZ ......

Looks very nice! The display look great too... I was wondering how it would colorized so thanks for posting!

I don't think it's race. Colordmd is company, and pin2dmd is community. Group of people they are willing to share.
When file complete it will be free to download.

I just posted in a thread about "no big bang" award but I figured I would link it here as well to try to get a few extra eyes on my hypothesis and perhaps suggested remedies:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/party-zoneno-big-bang#post-4469066

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for my Pinball 2000 H+V video sync combiner kit

I no longer have a pz, but my guess is that both switches in the back need to be held closed when both balls are back there. If a ball is ejected from the up kicker (during normal play), i assume the 1st lock switch is working and the problem is the 2nd lock switch. The switches may work when a ball rolls over them , but make sure the ball keeps them closed at rest. Confirm in switch test.