I don't know the details, just what Dave recounts in several excellent interviews which are on youtube, he was there at the ground floor of Data East. Stern had rights to the hardware due to the purchase of Williams at one time. How they transferred to Gary Stern I don't have that information. The fact that Williams didn't sue the hell out of Data East for hardware infringement lends some credence to the story. Dave was emphatic that the software had to be developed "clean room" because Williams was so litigious.

For all we know it could be something as innocuous as a "pop bumper" and some court ruled that was "hardware" and thus displays, power boards, mpus qualified but clearly software did not.

I don't know.

Data East lawyer. "no no, it's not a copy of a williams board, see we used a blue solder mask instead of green and see that resistor is 1.2k instead of 1.5k and it's turned 90 degrees. Original works"

Think that would have worked? Doubtful. The Stern/Bally boards are visually different to the untrained eye to some degree and there is differences in mpu speed and memory.

If Williams is going to go after DE for use of the term "multi-ball" it's pretty much anything goes in court with a bar that low.

Small necro reply I guess.

I haven't shopped a game in about 11 years. Before this, my tools of choice were a wirewheel on a bench grinder, #0 Steel Wool, Toothbrush, Ivory Dish Soap, and water.

I would use the wire wheel for EVERYTHING metal. If I couldn't make it perfectly shine, I considered it old age on the game. Sitting down for hours cleaning metal posts, plastic posts with a toothbrush, and soapy water.

So I was just thrown for a loop with "how in the hell do I get rid of this crap on this lockdown bar receiver?". I got rid of my wirewheel when I moved and got married. I just got an ultrasonic cleaner, and a rotary tumbler, and OOMMGG, what a difference. For the receiver, I just used a scotchbrite attachment for a dremel, and some 320 grit sandpaper to try to scuff it up a bit for painting. My thought process was always "I will try to make metal things look brand new, but if there are a few scratches, or small discoloration on it, I think it makes the game look vintage." I never liked BRIGHT WHITE paint, SHINY SHINY CHROME, and things like that on pinball machines. I grew up in the 70s-80s era, and things got damaged, and as long as the game worked great, I didn't care.
So I try to clean, but not obnoxiously so. Don't get me wrong, HEP restored, and Herb restored games look beautiful, but they just aren't my cup of tea in my gameroom.

Quoting the pipe, I made a 36in long 4in diameter PVC tube. I put vinegar in it, throw my pinball legs in there, and wait 24-48 hours or so. (This is not scientific by any means). I can then bring the legs into the shower, rinse them off and use some #0 steel wool to get rid of the crusty stuff on them (it just falls right off), and it's pretty amazing. I cleaned quite a few about 8 years ago, and haven't unpacked the legs yet. I'll post a response to see if they've rusted up again.

On this factoid above: At the distributor show, Data East wanted compatibility with the most
----- common pinball electronics at the time. Williams ruled the world.. So, make boards that
----- the operators know.
----- A Williams power supply can be used to fix a Data East game, same for the system 11
----- mother board.
----- Software was a different issue. That is why Williams sued Data East over video mode..etc.

Right. Copyright law was slow in stopping the circuit board copies. With pinballs you had some time to file a suit and make it worth it. Video games were a whole 'nother world. By the time your lawsuit got started the game was history and the profits were done. How many Pac-Man "copies" can you name? Plus the manufacturers had to be a little careful. Sue a competitor but piss off the operators and you're in trouble.

The answer is that the word Stern (Sterne) in German means Star.

The number of bootleg(unauthorized reproduction) Arcade games is crazy rolling through the complete MAME list. That's probably not even all of them.

Palette swap, new name, new game.

Krazy Kong

well today is a sad day, left spinner on Quicksilver broke clean off. does anyone has a spare stern mpu200 spinner they are willing to sell?

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Don’t toss it. It can be repaired or turned into a needed Nine Ball spinner.

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Here's a thread on bending new wire for old spinners:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-there-a-way-to-add-wire-on-spinner

I believe this is the same spinner, but the "S" is reversed compared to yours. PM me if it matches what you need.

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which game has the duck?

It’s a broken spinner I had in a box of parts. Originally off Fun Land.

Interesting, so a off set Stern spinner on an GTB EM?

By part # Gottlieb
A-11254
1968
Fun Land, Fun Fair, or Fun Park.

This

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/M-1534-1A

image (resized).jpeg

or these. although they will probably weigh more and the shaft will probably be the larger diameter.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-3460

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-7861

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-7861-U

The "S" led me to think it's a stern spinner.

Sure looks like a Stern spinner logo to me, too. But what Stern would use a blue "S"? And other than Nine Ball, what other Stern would use the offset?

Strange.

ohhh i may just try to use that to repair my Stern spinner, i don't think bending my own piano wire is where i want to go

I did talk to a customer rep at Marco to ask if Marco would have its producer of these universal spinners produce with longer wires so Nine Ball spinners could be made from this shelf item. She said she would present my request to the product development team, but I feel like she was just blowing me off.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-7861-U

image (resized).jpeg

Squeaky wheels get the grease. So, how about everybody giving Marco a call and elevate this.

Call 1-803-957-5500 and ask if spinner A-7861-U could be made with longer wires. It certainly would not cost much more than a couple of pennies to add some extra wire.

I pried one of these wires out on a junk Bally spinner. It was not hard to do, but Bally spinners use a larger diameter wire than Stern and this might cause you problems.

This is the one I would go for if you guys can make a deal.

But you could do this spinner

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-7861-U

And this decal.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/14A-7-13-D

image (resized).jpeg

If you go this route, I have some off-brand spray paint that matches the decal color perfectly.

I'm working on doing this but it is tricky and I have not achieved success yet. You have to know about something called "bend allowance" and I don't have the formula.

I have a spinner with one leg broken off that I was thinking of bending the other leg into a ring and using it as a keychain, but I had no idea you could rewire a spinner! Is the wire actually loose inside them?

i miss the australian guys decal, Marcos Stern decal looks like sh#t... Well, if someone want to offer paid service to rewire spinner i got 2 broken Stern spinners that could use some tlc

I got my decals from TractorDoc. He does not post much anymore and I think he is busy with his Vetrinary clinic.

Clearing up the confusion on my pics above -- the duck Fun Land spinner (my "repro") is on top in both pictures. The bottom spinner with the blue S is off my Nine Ball and is a true Nine Ball long arm spinner.

If you look closely, you'll see that the wire doesn't actually go through the spinner, but around - in a groove.

I'm in a Stingray!

She's busted already though. In the middle of a game the solenoids started firing weird. Now I just get this on boot up (audio is kind of loud when solenoids fire)

It's real preatty though...
stingray (resized).jpeg

Congrats! Here's another Stingray I recently saw on TV (the custom fish tank build show "Tanked!" on Animal Planet). This guy took the aquatic theme a little too far....

Tanked Stingray 06 (resized).jpg

I saw this show a gew years ago. I thought this one with the side tanks was idiotic.

Yeah agree. Lose the side tanks and it'd be pretty sweet.

Bad connection at either end of the Red-White wire coming from the MPU board at connector J4 pin 1 to the solenoid driver board at J4 pin 3.

Thank you! I wiggled the connector at j4 and we are back in action. Really appreciate the help.

When I bought the machine the owner mentioned this! Ha!

I saw it as well. I remember them breaking the backglass and having to find a replacement.

HELP

I just got my Big game up and running yesterday after a long period of it being down.

It is playing like a dream. But today I have something happen that I have not seen or heard about before.

Brief intro: I am playing with a different MPU that is working but "untested" so to speak.

The way Big Game is supposed to work is when the ball drains all of lit bingo lights go through the ball drain bonus. After the bonus is counted, the next ball comes into play. All of the lit bingo lights stay lit until a new game is started.

Mine started acting up today. After the ball drains, and the bonus countdown completes, instead of remaining lit, the bingo lights go dark and I have to start all over for the next ball. It is not supposed to do this.

Anybody have and idea where I should look?

Here is a short video. You can see after the bonus countdown, the bingo lights go dark. This is not correct action. I am clueless on this one. Has anybody ( i hope) had an issue on any Stern with feature lights that are not working properly?

Thanks

Set the dips right if you have the custom software in there. Resetting the bonus was one of the options added.

Since you're using a "new" mpu to the game, it's probably a dip switch setting. For example you can set a dip switch setting to have two or three bingo cards lit at the same time. I can't access the manual on ipdb right now. Do you have a copy of the manual?

Dip switch #16 on the slochar ROMs. I'm not sure how I missed that. I have the instructions. Thanks much.

Does anyone make a stencil for Wild Fyre? I already tried Pinball pimp.

anyone with a stars able to help me out? I have a white/grey? Wire in the backbox that’s folded up and tucked away near the solenoid driver J2 plug area. Can someone help me find where it goes? Also it looks like I’m missing the chime that’s on the far left side. Almost wondering if that’s all connected.

i have a weird one on a Stern Stars on location. One of the Stars light (at the stand up and at the spinner) only lights during test mode but does not work during attract mode or during the game, yet the switch registers and work just fine (spinner scores more).

Clearly the wiring is good since it test fine during test mode and i change the LED light bulb for good measure but that didn't do much. Is it an issue with the Alltek repro light board? or a bug on the Alltek repro MPU software? weird...

This can happen when the wire is connected to the wrong location at the lamp driver board.
Lamp connector positions at the lamp driver board that aren't assigned for the game will still 'flash' during lamp test mode if a lamp is hooked up.

Is the wire connected to anything? Can you post a picture?

ohhhhh good one! i'll check that for sure-

It’s not. It’s just tucked into the wire harness. I can try to get a picture soon

https://www.ipdb.org/files/2366/Stern_1978_Stars_Manual.pdf

The only white/ gray wire I see in the drawing is connector J-3, pin 11, on the Lamp Driver Schematic. Right hand column. It looks like the W/Grey wire feeds the 8K Bonus on the play field.

If everything else checks out for you, maybe you get lucky and this wire was just stored in your back box.

ding ding, a few wire were mixed up and the one star was on a pin unused for this game, all good now!

I was able to snag a few pics of my mystery wire. It looks like it could be white/green?

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