Ok, you did not say that you installed the 555 lamp boards from pinball replacement parts so I assume you still have original factory metal plates with the #44 bulb sockets in your Nine Ball.

Those metal plates get to be a pain with lousy connections. Could some of your sockets be corroding at those metal plates and be the problem?

If you have not installed a set of these I highly recommend you consider them.

https://pinballreplacementparts.com/products/stern-nine-ball-complete-set-of-boards-to-replace-metal-panel-sockets

Wow! Thanks will try the above mentioned resistors first and if that does not work than I will buy this. Thank you and all others who have chimed in.

I’d call Alltek. They should support their product.

If you do buy these boards you will also need to buy the black twist in sockets.

Edit - cotton found what I was thinking of.

MPU200 games with the increased clock speed start to update the feature lamps when the feature lamp bus voltage is lower than Bally games. Because of that lamps are much more likely to "flicker" from lack of latching in Stern MPU200 games.

There are many variables as to why you may see flickering in one game over another. Feature lamp bus voltage differences from transformer variances. Line cord voltage. CPU clock speed. Resistance in connectors. Resistance in lamp sockets. And finely not all SCRs are created equal, it even varies in a lot from part to part. Recently i have tested On semi, UTC, and a Chinese brand from LCSC SCRs. The cheapest Chinese brand SCRs actually had the best performance for being able to latch at a low current... go figure.
https://datasheet.lcsc.com/szlcsc/Changjiang-Electronics-Tech-CJ-MCR100-6_C77884.pdf

When I am testing these lamp boards I use Big Game software, 3mm red led with 1k ohm current limiting resistor and a 560 ohm load resistor. After letting the board get warmed up if every SCR latches at that point it should be safe to use in about any game.

If you have a MPU200 or other game with a replacement lamp driver yet a few lamps still flicker the easiest fix for you to do is to add more load by putting a resistor across the lamp socket. 470ohm to 1k ohm should be sufficient. Just right across the lamp leads on the playfield.

Thanks for the explanation. A few posts up I posted another pinside a suggestion to put 1.5k 1/4 watt resistors in the same fashion you suggested.

Never been a massive fan of it actually, never understood why everyone blows it so hard. Perhaps listening to the podcast will help me understand!

It’s got a wide open 3-spinner layout, lots of targets to hit, the unique slings and scoops and a great sound package. And of course, a great backglass.

I still think QS is the better game, but with Okaegi’s rules, or even better, Scott Charles’ rules it really shines.

I’m not familiar with either of these, how do I learn more?

Nah, that's not it

Thanks for talking about older games on a podcast. I like the other podcasts out there but as interesting as the latest JJP or Stern is there is a zero percent chance of me ever dropping 9 grand on a pin. There are so many great old games and most of the podcasts ignore them.

http://funwithbonus.com/slam-tilt-vs-stargazer/
https://funwithbonus.com/stargazer-with-new-code/

Yay, I'll finally be in the Stern club soon!
Bout time, considering how many of my boards are in your machines.

-Hans

Been doing a complete restore on my Dragonfist and have found a couple interesting surprises.
The coin door has a factory tag that says Viper.
When sanding the cabinet down the head reveals that it may have initially been intended for Catacomb (or some other green game). Base of the cabinet doesn't have the same greet base coat.
Wondering if they capped the run at 302 once they ran out of parts to scavenge..
IMG_20190719_131144 (resized).jpgIMG_20190730_213220 (resized).jpgIMG_20190730_215900 (resized).jpgIMG_20190730_104555 (resized).jpgBackglass (resized).jpg

Yes indeed. That looks like it was destined to be a Catacomb early on then scrapped it for DF.

Finally! Welcome aboard!

Would non ghosting LED's work?

God we wish!

probably not. I think the non ghosting ones have rectifier diodes and a capacitor inside of them, but nothing to add load.

If someone had LED lamps made with a built in resistor wired across the leads it could make the replacement LED boards with loading resistors not needed.

A software change to make the feature lamps update farther away from the zero cross point when the feature lamp voltage is higher would probably eliminate the need loading for resistors too. The original idea with incandescent was to turn on the lamps close to zero volts as possible to reduce wear on the lamp filaments... but that makes the LEDs not pull enough current to latch the SCR and you get flickering.

Some I have come across have the same issue: The match is grayed out so it won't show when back lit. I think this is in the minority of Quicksilvers though and maybe the ones with the grayed out are factory seconds.

But more likely as others have stated, it was for entry into markets where winning a game wasn't allowed.

If match is grayed out, I'd imagine it was for a geographical area that didn't allow you to win free games due to gambling laws.

The previous owner of Comet tried to develop an LED to do this, but he kept having issues with his supplier getting the design wrong, and eventually dropped the project. I think there was also concern with how LED's that had an internal load resistor would react to other machines.

-Hans

I have asked this question, in more detail in the catacomb thread but figured I would see if anyone here has an ideas for the issues I have.

In a nutshell, every time a drop target bank is completed, the game adds 20000 points.

It also adds it in the bagatelle.

There isn't even anything in the game that awards 20000 points!

Any clues from anyone?

I realise it has done it the whole time I have owned it and for last owner, looking at their high score.

Thanks

All of the drop banks do this? Can you pull the roms out and verify them in a burner?

Maybe you have a different version of the roms than what's commonly available.

Yes, all 4 drop target banks.

Can't pull roms out - they have same numbers as whats out there.

The other odd thing is that there are 3 rollovers in each bagatelle lane. On 3 lanes it's the third rollover that triggers the extra 20000.

On the last lane, it's the second rollover that gives the extra 20000.

Maybe a hard wired fault?

My Catacomb has the letters, not numbers on the grid, if that makes any difference.

Thanks

WTF...makes no sense. 20K is MASSIVE!
No idea on this stuff but it's "gotta" be the ROMs

Roms pictured!

IMG_5763 (resized).jpg

IMG_5765 (resized).jpg

IMG_5766 (resized).jpg

Streamed both Stargazer and Quicksilver with Cloud7

Star Gazer https://www.twitch.tv/videos/464536445
Quicksilver https://www.twitch.tv/videos/439686003

We will be making a series of videos from games in my collection. If you favorite Turbografx7 on twitch, you’ll get notified when the next video comes out.

Picked up a Dracula recently and got it up and running - fun game i can't wait to shop out and get humming. I asked my son (7) what he thought of it after his first several plays and he said "yeah it's pretty fun i think i like the shots but what's 'dracula' about it?"

I think it's because it sounds like a space battle theme.

Setting complete historical purity aside for a moment - has anyone ever modded a stern of this era to play alternate sounds? I'm thinking about how cool it could be to replace the sounds with something more melodic, minor, and "Dracula" sounding. Using same lengths and triggers and true-to-era electronic sounds.

Anybody ever do this kind of thing?

Talk to drypaint . He did exactly this to his Stern Dracula using a WAV trigger board and an added speaker in the cabinet. Sounds great

I did it with a Bally projet couple years ago

https://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=13839&hilit=Lost#p116539

Someone converted a Flash Gordon into a custom Ghostbusters machine and used a similar approach to RedKetchup for custom sounds, here's the link:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ghostbusters-custom-pinball-inside-look#post-748212

Can an SB-300 be used in place of an SB-100?

Unfortunately, no. If it did, it would make me revisit some of the -100 games with wretched sound.

Jim

Anyone wants to convert some mpu100 games over to chimes LMK and I'll look at the software

New addition being picked up.

IMG_1875 (resized).jpg

Please look at Nugent for chimes.

Set up in the workshop. Time to truly learn the way of the Stern. Typical battery corrosion right of passage.

Going to take a big cleanup job, I’m convinced this thing has been sitting since the mid 80’s.

I’m going to have fun with this one.

CA12F0B2-A98E-47E5-937E-97BECFA2CFEE (resized).jpeg

Dracula, Trident and Wildfire could use the chime treatment.
So glad Stars was made with chimes instead of that glorified cash register MPU100 sound board

Did you buy that from my buddy James in Mass?

Yes. Cabinet has seen better days but the pf is very nice.

Anyone know how many Meteors were made with countersunk coin doors vs not or which one is more common? I have five Meteors now, three countersunk and two not. I also noticed the corners of the cabs are cut different based on coin door.

66BE58E6-4B4B-49D5-9363-F0333EDBC527 (resized).jpeg

EAD70350-7105-4183-95F6-16DEE5EDC589 (resized).jpeg

Check serial numbers... I believe that the counter sink games should be the earlier design.
( leftover cabinets from the E.M. games ) Chicago Coin Dynamics.

My Dracula cabinet, my Hot Hand cabinet, and my Meteor cabinet all have the the sunken doors. I don't know about Magic which was the last MPU-100 Stern produced.

I agree with vec-tor that this was a carry over from Chicago Coin cabinets. Eliminating the the sunken door design was about cutting unnecessary production costs. A sunken door will not make a pin play any better and nobody at the bar would notice, anyway

I wish my back glass was that nice.

With your machine, I can't say I blame you. That thing is phenomenal looking.
Unfortunately, since BGResto can't do mirrored glasses, and mine isn't good enough for CPR, I don't know what options are out there.
Tried to e-mail mayfair amusements, but the email bounced.

My plastics are actually near perfect though, so I'm supposed to send some photos to Stu tonight to see if CPR may be able to do new plastic sets at least.

-Hans

He might be able to if you supply the mirrored backglass itself. Apparently the paint can be stripped off them and then new paint put on.

I am being reunited with my Catacomb on Friday.

A7ABC89B-18B5-4257-AB41-004964F627B0 (resized).jpeg689920DF-F2B0-4DD3-9E11-4DCE6BB3FFC8 (resized).jpeg