(Topic ID: 225496)
Linked Games
Ali
Stern Electronics, 1980-
Big Game
Stern Electronics, 1980
-
Catacomb
Stern Electronics, 1981
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Cheetah
Stern Electronics, 1980
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Cosmic Princess
Stern Electronics, 1979
-
Dracula
Stern Electronics, 1979
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Dragonfist
Stern Electronics, 1981
-
Flight 2000
Stern Electronics, 1980
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Meriden, CT
Quoted from SuperPinball:nice to have a second one for reference when restoring. Sometimes pictures are worth 999 words but its the one missing word that you really need.
I have two complete games. 4 backglasses total and a spare full populated playfield and another apron on top of that.
Quoted from Shenanigander:Looking good Jim! You know you want a Tiger Rag!!!
P.S. Good recent interview on Slam Tilt (I think it was slam tilt, I listen to so many podcasts and interviews I lose track)
Good luck collecting all classic Sterns!
Thanks
Quoted from statictrance:+1 to everyone who pointed me in the direction for board replacements in Big Game. These we're pretty easy to install and light years easier than trying to rejigger the original metal brackets with new sockets. Plus, easy access going forward
[quoted image]
Good decision.
My big game last night needed some love
A485950F-47C8-4E82-BE19-32767D4B72FD (resized).jpegEB27CE66-B4B0-4E8B-AB2B-D751D5197FCE (resized).jpegQuoted from Shenanigander:That board is something else. Pretty sure my power board on my big game is just at toasty but I have a replacement board if needed when I bust out that project!
Yup. Put a new one in from Steve young last night. That was easy. Rewiring all those connectors was a nightmare.
Quoted from wiredoug:anyone got a viper playfield in the parts bin? or a turret mech?
mate here just found one with the turret motor mech missing. going to be quite a challenge to find it seems
Good luck on that! I have a pretty immaculate viper and keeping that much operational is a chore.
Quoted from wiredoug:yeah it will be a challenge .. next time you have it open can you see if the motor is a multi products one? the stern part number doesnt mean anything now but hopefully i can find what it really is and scratch build the rest
I’ll be there tonight throwing a big Christmas party. If I get a chance I’ll snap some pictures tonight. It’s a crazy mech with big sweeper arms. Almost like an EM stepper unit. A real pain to adjust.
Any of these help at all?
757A565A-8A70-41BE-9289-B5FC50A26DD7.jpeg58349DF1-C554-4DC4-8057-E95A0FBC979B.jpeg07E8F02D-5558-45B0-BC1B-411AB7B16649.jpeg4A8A9388-ED81-4D66-AC9E-08A7C54578BA.jpegBC460B7C-214C-47E2-9AFD-9A5334690795 (resized).jpeg81AD2DE4-C644-4BD1-88BA-D76B110CBB07.jpeg61FDEDE2-EFCB-4580-87AC-B7460885B400 (resized).jpeg44570FD2-DE6A-4AD6-A72B-63D2CC6EF14A (resized).jpegBDB36859-C25B-46EF-AE24-D6307157A9C3 (resized).jpeg9394E8E2-41B2-42B3-98E3-CF0AB7003896 (resized).jpeg58C9ECED-F204-473A-9732-EE2FA1AEB74D (resized).jpeg 1 week later
Yeah. The more you look the more you see missing. Q14 and on are all robbed too. I’ve got plenty of these boards kicking around anyways. It’s the one I’m least worried about.
Quoted from semicolin:Wow, yep, you're right. Missed that. The more I stare at it the more fun it looks to fix. Ship it North! I was just in Meriden last week, shame everything was closed.
In case anyone needs help finding 2N3440, you can use it or its brother, the 2N3439:
Digikey: https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/central-semiconductor-corp/2N3440/2N3440CS-ND/4806865
Marco: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/2N3440
GPE: https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=2N3439
Send me a message next time your in the area. I’m always willing to open up if I’m around.
Quoted from snyper2099:I have a speech board for lightning. PM me if it can help you.
Think I’ve got one now but will let you know if it doesn’t work.
Quoted from Shenanigander:Man you are on a roll!!!
Hot hand, dracula and seawitch playfield swap all in the queue right after!
Quoted from semicolin:Thanks! We were just down for a couple of days: 500 mile road trip to pick up a smartball table in East Haven, and to get our fix we stopped in at Barcade in New Haven. Our big mistake was staying at the Red Lion in Cromwell. What a disaster. Maybe my favourite CT moment: Ate my first hot buttered lobster roll ever at Sam the Clam - now that was something! I might come back just for that.
I work in Branford. Right next to east haven. Bummer we didn’t cross paths.
Quoted from Shenanigander:I learned something today that I thought I would share. I imagine some of you know this already but if you are using on altek board in a Stern 200 game you must change the clock setting jumpers over to the left side or else the machine does not play right. everything is slow. That was new to me and fixed my problem perfectly!
Ive switched over to using the weebly boards...
Quoted from statictrance:I ran into that trouble shooting an original MPU-200 with Split Second... Was switching the Altek in from a strikes n spares to test some functionality.
Also made the move to Weebly. Great product, better price, and great support. I had some weird sound issues with his MPU that he helped me shoot through
tl;dr - I originally ordered it for a Big Game, but ended up testing it in F2K... there was a trace that wasn't populated that is needed for voice on MPU-200 games, and he offered me full shipping costs to return the board for a new one or to help me do the trace. I said board work was no issue and he returned with detailed pictures/instructions anyone could have followed. Highly recommended, solid dude.
Is that trace only populated if you tell him it’s for a game with speech? Or was that something in the last that has changed?
Quoted from barakandl:I fixed this missing trace around June 2018, all boards past version eight or so will have this track and will work with Stern Speech. If you are unsure look by the J4 plug. If there is a pin silk screened labeled LAMP INT then it is ready for Stern games with speech. If the silk screen print LAMP INT is not by J4 then a jumper will need to be made for Stern Speech games.
When I originally did the board I saw "LAMP INTERRUPT" on the mpu200 schematic and though "huh, no reason the lamp board interrupts the MPU so I can leave this out". That was a mistake and the lamp interrupt is what triggers the speech card to read the lamp address/data to play speech. Only effected the few Stern games with speech.
Great to know. I think I’m around 16 classic sterns right now. Gotta be rocking 8-10 of these boards at this point. Keep 47 games going at The Sanctum too I’ve started keeping some of these on hand for quick swap outs
-Jim
Quoted from jkashani:I am having a problem with the right sling on my lightning pinball. It works in test but does not work during game play. Sometimes it may ghost work and activate when not struck by the ball. I am not a repair person and any information will be conveyed to my pinball repairman, so forgive me if I cant answer any questions as to what has been tried already but we believe that it may be a faulty cap.
Sounds like sling switch is gapped too close. Possibly touching. If a vibration happens(flipper etc) it causes the switch to open momentarily and fire again. Check that first. Check the switch edges in switch test.
barakandl Any chance of making SB-100 sound boards too? Always a pain.
Quoted from barakandl:Chances are good. Right now time to work on new projects is limited. I am hand assembling everything still and I can hardly keep up with what I am currently doing.
For the SB100 I finished the schematic about a year ago and did the board layout over 3-6 months back. It is a rough layout that needs tweaking for sure. Also pretty sure there is going to be some surprises and revisions needed. There was so many schematic errors in the original SB100 drawings I am not sure I have found them all.
For those taking notes... here at the errors on the SB100 schematic identified so far (some of these discovered by others and I thank them).
- Q1 emitter (top of C18) is connected to +5V VDD (schematic does not show any 5V connection)
- U6 Q output is pin 3, not pin 13 (the flip flop in the sound effect section)
- Pin 25 on the J1 connector (reset line) is not connected to anything (rev C-1)
- U19 (LM556) power pin is not connected to VCC, it's connected to +5V VDD (from the 78L05)
- R11 power is connected to +5V VDD
-inconsistent 5v labeling
-4013 U9A P6 "channel one set" not drawn anywhere. Probably gnd (yes?)
-U6 is connected to +VDD, not +VCC
-R3 and R7 are connected to +VDD
Rough board layout rendering attached...[quoted image]
This is great news to hear. If I can be of any help let me know. Plenty of test games here for that one.
Quoted from SuperPinball:John please make Magic Backglasses. There are so many of us that desperately need them.
I have a flawless magic glass and a flatbed scanner if needed for the art.
2 weeks later
Quoted from SuperPinball:I'm not a pro but i made up some graphics for a waterslide you are welcome to. Just paint the section over with the various colors, I recommend a good thick oil based cabinet paint like corrostop or even a rustoleum, then cut out waterslides and lay on top. Give it a shot or two of clear and you are good to go.[quoted image]
Great resource. Thanks for those! How do we get that flagged for a key post in here?
2 weeks later
1 week later
Need a picture of a lightning rectifier board connectors. Been tracing a vsu-100 speech problem and traced it to no gi power to board and it goes straight back to rectifier. Someone put the wire in they keying pin plug. No idea why. I believe it should be pin 11. Want a confirmation.
Also a note schematics show tp1 as +5v to2 as gnd and tp3 as -10v. Mine is not that way. Tp1 is gnd and tp2 is +5v
7455ABD1-2B9D-46EF-B2FF-09011EB8F497 (resized).jpeg84C68B2F-8371-43E4-8BB7-949572D2D1D6 (resized).jpegQuoted from LOTR_breath:I don't have a pic but I checked the schematic. Yes, J3 pin 11 is the GI bus, same electrically as J3 pin 10 and J1 pin 5.
Yeah that’s what I read but I figured I’d see if I could see a pic since the schematics already let me down once on this thing and made me waste two days 
Update to that lightning. Moved the gi wire over to pin 11. Got my speech going. Tilt wiring all jacked up so I fixed all of it. Still no working tilt switch. Would trigger coin chute #2. Pulled my hair tracing bad diodes or caps. Then traced schematics and return for tilt switch is suppose to be pin 15 on j3. It was plugged into pin 3.
I’ve never encountered multiple wires moved to wrong places in a connector like this before. Baffles me as to why anyone would of done this.
Slowly getting this thing back to its glory. It’s been a long journey. Boy was it nasty.
1 week later
Quoted from Tsskinne:Whoever bought the big game I may have a playfield for you. Feel free to reach out.
Hey didn’t I talk to you about that playfield awhile ago?
4 weeks later
3 weeks later
That’s the third lectronamo I’ve brought back to life this year. First one with the shorter cab. Other two were the same.
Quoted from Mitch:Crazy so mines not the only one.
Want to sell me the ali
Nope. Only 8 more sterns left to go...
But between a couple friends on myself we’ve found 3 Ali’sin the past couple weeks. One will be for sale at Allentown likely
1 week later
Quoted from dothedoo:I think I know someone who would like your Split Second glass if you're looking to sell any of it.
Mayfair has them.
Quoted from getadam:Yup, but have triple checked the connecters. (and this is the only problem we're experiencing.)
Yes, the switch in the shooter lane registers with a ball but regardlessane, the coil keeps firing every 9 seconds regardless if there's a ball in shooter lane or not.
Any other ideas?
Shooter lane switch. When ball release fires of the shooter lane switch isn’t triggered it will try again....and again...
Check the switch in switch test and make sure a ball in the shooter lane actually closes the switch. Nineball trough, shooter lane and lock switches have to be exactly precise and dialed in or you’ll have all sorts of issues. The game is a chore for me to keep on location and in my tournaments for sure.
-Jim
1 week later
1 week later
Quoted from fisherdaman:I have a coworker with an Ali Pinball machine with a dirty playfield. Can he use Novus to clean the playfield or should he use something else?
Novus 1 for a basic wipe down. I then usually lightly magic eraser with isopropyl alcohol. After that to clean the magic eraser slurry I take a tiny buffer pad in a cordless drill with novus 2 and hit it good with that. Cleans the slurry and brings a nice sheen back to original lawyer finish. Finish off with quality 100% carnival wax.
2356CD73-852B-4A95-A64F-54D77630FE41 (resized).jpeg4284A3B2-A1C1-43F5-85F4-C86EE713B0A4 (resized).jpegD3443E07-368A-48DA-AD6A-9FFF88E566F5 (resized).jpegQuoted from Mitch:Novus 2 is fine, I never use magic eraser these games had almost no clear to begin, magic eraser will take what's left off and make it way easier for the paint to be damaged.
Don’t go to town with the magic eraser. Any tool is dangerous in the wrong hands. It’s great for getting out ground in stuff. I do this to every classic stern I’ve taken in and then they go to my location and get played every week. They stay in the same condition from that point forward with good balls and regular waxing on location.
Quoted from wolffcub:lol carnival wax..... it will be the best show you have even seen once you play your next game.
Haha. Silly autocorrect. Carnuba!!
Quoted from cottonm4:I just completed a mod on my Catacomb I"d like to share.
One of the items I do not like about my classic Sterns are the cabinet brackets the play field rests on. Whenever you need to lean the play field on onto the back box there is a lot of jerking it around in order to clear those brackets at the back.
I have been collecting cab brackets from the old Gottliebs when I get a chance.
They work like a charm. The play field lifts easily and slides back and forth smoothly. If you stumble onto any trashed Gottlieb cabs you might try to salvage these brackets and put them to good use.
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
That’s no catacomb playfield
Quoted from cottonm4:That Hot Hand play field is my hanger queen.
The Catacomb play field is at the beauty shop getting some 555 lamp boards from https://pinballreplacementparts.com/collections/all?page=3 installed. And my order of Comet LEDs just arrived yesterday. [quoted image]
Chris is a good guy. Great boards. So needed. Had the pleasure of working with him this summer teching st pinburgh/ReplayFx
Will people please stop perpetuating the myth that some random pitch number of 15.946 degrees makes their game mean and hard. Sure maybe the ball is faster rolling back. But it’s slower going up! And you lose all the side to side action so your drains on the outlanes decrease. It also makes the game easy to trap balls. There is a good medium and not enough pitch makes a game play like dog doo.
Quoted from Mitch:Going up slower is BS rebuild your flippers. As for it being harder it definitely is. I host league nights here with alot of really good players and nobody has rolled my meteor and everyone says how well it plays.
If your ever at replay fx the biggest and best tournament take a look at how they set up their leg levelers.
I tech for ReplayFx. I run a location with 50 games. My games play perfectly. Yeah my meteor can be rolled on occasion. That doesn’t mean it plays bad.
Quoted from dothedoo:I would agree with this on most games except Meteor. The playfield design has no side to side action and the single pop bumper provides no real benefit at any angle. If I didn’t tell you the angle on mine you’d just think it’s fast and that’s it.
On the other hand, people have told me to jack my Quicksilver up to 6.5 degrees. I tried that, but found the best play was when the slope was between 5.5 and 6 degrees.
I also tried Xenon at 7 degrees to make it harder, but found it too hard to make it up the ramp and the pop bumper action was not as good. 6-6.5 made it much better.
I have put a lot of science into where I set playfield slope.
Xenon proves the ball is slower. Too hard to go up the ramp. More pitch equals slowing down a rising ball.
My meteors somewhere around 6.5 and it is plenty fast. Sensitive slings give plenty of side to side action. No rubber posts on the outlanes. Center post rubber is in because pulling a Kirk post is blasphemy.
Quoted from cottonm4:Crap. i'm going blind. Maybe I should chance my name to Tommy
New count =29 Add the unit Vec-tor pointed out = 30.
I have one not listed anywhere. Too busy shopping and setting up games to keep my list up to date.
AD5EF0E7-D769-48DC-8F70-F9A87049FBF8 (resized).jpeg 1 week later
Quoted from Mitch:Sealed my ali backglass before it could get any worse.[quoted image][quoted image]
My Ali glass was sooooo bad. I sealed it until I could get a new one. Never seen triple thick bleed ink like this...
4C34DFB0-597F-4EEB-B2C8-591846B0FE6C (resized).jpegQuoted from vec-tor:Should have done a mist coat first....
Did. Glass was ruined anyways. The bleeding on the back didn’t affect the horrendous front that much
Just thought it was interesting. All the glasses I’ve sealed I’d never seen that before.
Quoted from Mitch:What's that one.
Wonder who can figure it out first...
Quoted from Xtraball:Cue! Where the hell you find that?
Out by the cape.
The lady who owned it brought it out here from Chicago. She bought it off a neighbor there years and years ago. Wish I knew who that neighbor was.
Quoted from Xtraball:I got all kinds o questions. Ever play one prior? How’d you find out the game was available...
Never played one before. (Who has?). It’s a crazy piece of history as I look at it. Still driving back with it. I’ll have to dive deeper on gameolay but my initial take is sorta like gottlieb doing the three back street level games this is sterns throwback to the wacky flipperless/real early EMs. It’s pretty much just a nudging game.
I think it’ll be a nice addition to The Sanctum for fun dollar games. So it’ll be in the public for everyone to play.
Quoted from cottonm4:You are going to be number 1 !
[quoted image]
Wonder how many of the 6 still exist?
Luckily this one is preserved beautifully.
Quoted from cottonm4:Good Question. The pics on Pinside Gallery had to come from somewhere. Pinball Owners website has none.
I’ll get new pictures for ipdb and such and a rom dump once I get this together and cleaned a little but it’s not going to take much.
2A6B9E60-3BCA-448A-B7C5-53B26391AF76 (resized).jpeg3CF872EB-0A60-4F99-BB4A-5999683E9E72 (resized).jpeg650D236F-6B40-4FB9-A932-5260B6FC8624 (resized).jpeg9882E308-B0FD-45F1-AE7D-D9575FE7290F (resized).jpegQuoted from Gott_Lieb:Wow! Nice pick up! Is that a magnet in the center of the PF?
Jim
Yes. Magnet randomly whips the ball around when it rolls over it.
Quoted from Mitch:Could you post a video on Facebook or you tube once you get it running?
Yeah. I’ll get a stream of it at some point. Next couple weeks are extremely busy with pintastic and rubbing the Stern Pro circuit event there.
Back on the road to get some more classic sterns!
Quoted from cottonm4:Is all of the wiring as clean looking as that J-1 connector wiring you are holding up?
Yup. Inside stuff squeaky clean.
Driving back with today’s haul now. Ive been on the road pretty much 23 hours straight at the moment. Had a 4 hour nap stop at home on between.
1C799F31-F805-463C-B023-2E02D39EBCA7 (resized).jpegQuoted from cottonm4:I see a Catacomb in your SUV. I know that green color from anywhere. What kind of shape is that in?
And .....how come these kinds of package deals never happen out here on the prairie? Where the buffalo used to roam.
SUV. Good one. GTI. Does way more work than most suvs on the road ever do.
Catacomb is great except one flaw....
8CB7BDF5-972A-4DF2-8409-B17D12B35318 (resized).jpeg 1 month later
Quoted from TheLaw:Get them out of there please! Is that a type 1 bushing ona type 2 flipper on the right?
Obviously it’s coming out. I’ll know exactly what they did when I pull it out.
3 weeks later
Quoted from Methos:New addition being picked up.[quoted image]
Did you buy that from my buddy James in Mass?
Quoted from HHaase:Lectronamo plastics are boxed up and heading to CPR this week, looks like mine were good enough to make the cut and get in the queue!
-Hans
If I knew they were needed I have 4 playfields and put together a couple perfect sets for a couple complete games. Would of gladly passed them to cpr.
Quoted from wolffcub:its interesting to see CPR interested in Lectronamo after i always got people joking with me as to why i resorted on when its such a non sought after game. My plastics are mint other than 2 minor scratches on 2 pieces. A back glass would be a cool thing to reproduce.
Agreed. Everyone grew an appreciation for it once they got to play my restored one I put in my location.
Even had some sweet Reese rails made for it.
1401C674-FD51-4FC7-A03D-BB5E343C9A97 (resized).jpegB1DA4B14-F36C-4015-A9AE-8FDB67F103C3 (resized).jpeg3A73C951-5A28-492A-8508-6B48A072452C (resized).jpeg 1 week later
Quoted from bluespin:I have a Nugent in storage that is missing the lockdown bar receiver. There is a local collector offering a free receiver, and thinks it’s for early classic Sterns but isn’t sure. Before I do the three hour round trip can someone confirm that the receiver in the picture will work in my Nugent? Thanks[quoted image]
Doesn’t look like a stern receiver to me.
Quoted from FalconPunch:I have a total project Stargazer that is going to get restored. I'm trying to minimise the cost of getting the cab done. And the guy who is going to do it is going to scan the cab to produce the stencils.
Its way cheaper if someone has the stencil file. Does anyone have one they can part with?
Please message me
Why not just buy the stencil kit so you known it’ll work perfect and easily?
Ali X
Big Game X
Catacomb X
Cheetah
Cue X
Dracula X
Dragonfist X
Flight 2000 X
Freefall
Galaxy X
Hot Hand X
Iron Maiden
Lectronamo X
Lightning X
Magic X
Memory Lane
Meteor X
Nine Ball X
Nugent
Orbitor 1
Pinball X
Quicksilver
Rawhide X
Seawitch X
Split Second X
Star Gazer
Stars X
Stingray X
Trident X
Viper X
Wild Fyre X
Check the mpu for the flashes first. Solid light/no light or x number of flashes starts the diagnostic path.
It honestly could be as simple as a blown 5 amp solenoid fuse not getting past the 6th flash
Quoted from HHaase:Out of curiosity, what is the voltage on your lamp power buss? Trying to see a correlation between things when the adapters aren’t quite completely working.
Yes mpu 200’s are hit and miss. On ali all greatest letters on left shot flicker still. On dragon fist it’s a few around the blue bonus inserts.
I probably have 30 of your adapter sets in my games at this point. Love them.
Yeah I only use 1snd warm white comets across the board in all my pins GI and inserts.
4 smd inserts seems blinding.
Quoted from canoncitypb:reposted here from the projects forum
Manufacturer: Stern
Game/Type:Rawhide
Cost: $25
Location: Charlottsville VA
Contact:https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2119061884865797/
Vintage pinball machine. Needs electrical work, does not work. Must be able to pick up.
Condition
Used - Fair
Like Colson always says... WIWC 25 bucks people!
Rawhide is a fun game. Enjoy mine.
Quoted from LOTR_breath:Found some competition video on Lightning, first I've seen. Too bad the spinner is borked but worth a watch.
Lightning’s in all our competitions. Will be in 24 hour final battle circuit event and possibly pintastic circuit event 2020.
I really enjoy the rules/how it plays. Huge joe joos jr fan.
Quoted from NeilMcRae:Has anyone done a play field for lightning?
No. I wish. These inserts don’t age well. Mines very cratery. Greatwich John does backglasses.
1 week later
Quoted from bluespin:I’m sure that it’s the second one that you need here:
http://jtamusements.com/store/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=tk68jmmab31r0h46vp25ipr504&keyword=Stern+lockdown+
Cheetah is widebody. That bar isn’t.
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:The Data East lockdown bars will work fine. Original Stern lockdowns are basically impossible to find. Use the DE one and pray one day an original will show up
How many widebody data east game were there? GNR, WWF and BF? Better grab this last one floating around there.....
2 weeks later
Quoted from RC_like_the_cola:Another weird thing. This is a pic of the Magic in display test. These all look bad. Not sure if out gassed or what. The weird thing is none of these displays do anything in my Harlem but my Harlem displays with perfect in the Magic. Is there some non compatibility about early Stern displays with Bally games?[quoted image]
Nope. Perfectly fine to swap. I would reflow all those header pins as a baseline and then see if you still have all those issues
Did you reflow the header pins yer?
If that doesn’t do anything most of those look likened out segments. Would need new glass.
I think it’s just burnt out segments on the glass at this point. No need to keep swapping displays between 3 games. Order some led replacements and be happy
1 week later
Quoted from dothedoo:That’s so that when you swing the coin door wide the coin plate doesn’t put a big old dent in the cabinet. Bally does the same thing.
Yeah. Bally one was bigger and hit the coin return button.
Quoted from NeilMcRae:got a altek board in my Quicksilver but can't get high scores to work all I see is this: tried changing the dip switches to no avail...
any ideas?
[quoted image]
Yeah. Clear the high scores in the menu. Clear all the audits to be safe and start fresh. Usually fixes that.
2 weeks later
1 week later
Yup. Pinball Life has the whole mech. Great value compared to buying a rebuild kit really. They will put whatever strength coil you want in them. Was a no brained for me as my whole mechs were swapped in from a bally.
Quoted from chuckwurt:Here’s to no bricking or having issues with them falling upon reset. Fingers crossed!
Using the same drops I rebuilt he lightning at 24 hour with. That playfields inserts blow but those drops were nice and smooth and consistent.
Quoted from Ronnie1114:Those Belong on a Bullseye 301[quoted image]
Nice catch. Anyone have a bullseye that needs pop caps. Should be harder to find than my catacomb ones
Quoted from TheLaw:Haha...wow you don't see that one everyday.
Then again you don't see too many flippers in backboxes so maybe it's factory
Surprisingly it’s holding well enough. Replaced it with another fresh assembly anyways.
1 week later
Quoted from rotordave:Let’s pull out the Cosmic Princess and get it working!
Good looking backglass ... lots of mirroring.
rd[quoted image]
Got any more down there you can send back to the states?
Quoted from rotordave:This looks a bit better .....
[quoted image]
And the good news ... it worked!
Solenoids were flakey so repinned the J3 connector and away she goes!
Now it is all stripped down, ready for a tidy up!
rd
[quoted image]
Get those flipper bats out of there!
2 weeks later
My buddy is cleaning up my catacomb mpu and was checking the rom revision. Looks like it’s a later revision that’s not documented anywhere (RA23 opposed to standard RA22). Does anyone have any info about this revision. He’s dissecting it currently but thinks it’s pretty different than RA22.
Quoted from slochar:It is, but it might just be shifted up about 15-17 bytes in most locations. As to if there's any minute differences between the roms, that's going to require a full disassembly and analysis of both.
Glad I’ve got men much smarter than me on this
Check that shooter lane switch. If it’s flakey it will never think that third ball is served hence the repeat firing of the coil every couple seconds. It’s one of the many quirks of nineball.
Yup. Sounds diode related. There must be other switches causing bad behavior. If you find other ones we can draw a box and pinpoint what 4 switches you need to examine the diodes on.
1 month later
Quoted from TheLaw:I've had a bunch like that in my __ Classic Stern
You can remove the “classic” part of that statement. All brand new sterns so this too. They fail like that immediately.
Quoted from jbovenzi:To the thread:
I had put some playfields for sale on the 2020 Golden State Pinball Festival, but it looks like Stern Wild Fyre might be available again. NOS, drilled and dimpled for $1000. Will bundle it with others for sale for a lower price.
I will add this to the Playfields for sale thread, but thought that I would post it here first. Thanks.[quoted image][quoted image]
I’d love to grab that and do the swap but can’t swallow that 1k pill for a 600$ game
They go below the nylon spacer you pointed out that he’s missing. They raise the whole body ever so slightly so the skirt is a little higher than the playfield for better sensitivity.
Quoted from TheLaw:[quoted image]
Just buy new coil sleeves. Don’t be tumbling those old ass aluminum ones fool!
I know they are drop reset sleeves. They are 40 year old wear and tear parts at this point. It’s a $.30 part and you need a max of like 4 for any game possible. Trust me I tumble this shit outta everything I have. Those get tossed for sure.
Anyone here need a stargazer playfield and Backglass? I’m staring at my pile of playfield swaps I need to do and looking at my stargazer and it’s really not bad at all. It’ll be a long before I get to it. Hate letting shit collect dust.
1 week later
Quoted from cottonm4:My question is why do the Bally targets so hard to drop? I have noticed any Bally I have played to have lousy working drop targets.
Their nickname is Bally Bricks
My theory is with the landing spot higher you have less leverage as it’s shorter from the “pivot point”. Sterns is longer from the landing allowing for more leverage. Also the land is skinnier on a stern. Less metal to plastic contact. Less friction. Less force needed to move it off.
Quoted from cottonm4:I have been very happy with the play action I get with my PBR drop targets.
What do you mean when you say "correct"? What is the difference between a "correct" drop target and the one that Steve at PBR sells?
For one the height is wrong. They are shorter and don’t sit flush with the playfield when they are in the down position. I have to lay target foam across the bottom of the bank and it is about right for the height and then adjust the switches accordingly for new drop location.
Quoted from Completist:Does anyone know of a source for new classic stern coil wraps?
I print on staples sticker paper. Cut and peel. Works great.
Quoted from Inkochnito:A heads up for the people in this group.....
I've added Tech Charts for ALL Stern Electronics games to my website http://www.inkochnito.nl
Look in the Stern Electronics section or the Tech Chart section.
If you find any errors on these charts, please let me know and I will correct them.
I could still need some help getting the lamp wires for Viper correct.
Peter
http://www.inkochnito.nl
I swear I’ll get the viper stuff checked for you. Just haven’t been able to get to my game with all the government orders.
I’m getting through these games that have been stacking up finally. Finished hot hand After seawitch swap Now I’m onto wild fyre. Still to bring back from dead are trident, galaxy, nugent and dracula waiting in the back.
918B867F-FE7B-43DA-89B1-90B0BA005326 (resized).jpeg13F97E61-2D80-4DC2-9B9C-BB3F0ADA5B00 (resized).jpeg8F33151F-93BB-4AEF-AC2A-0616BC488E09 (resized).jpegQuoted from LOTR_breath:Of all the classic Sterns I have played, I enjoyed Hot Hand the least. I've played 3 different ones. Just didn't like it. Trident, Galaxy, and Dracula are sweet. Still haven't played Nugent.
What about hot hand didn’t you like?
Here’s the run down on the rules. You have the 4 suits in the grid of bonus. Ace, king, queen, jack, ten. Different switches and pops/slings rotated through current selected suit. To spot a card in the lit suit you have several options. Hit the standup on playfield that lights that specific card. Or land in one of the saucers by big flipper that spots said card or snipe one of the drops in the bank. Each drop represents one card. All of the cards can be done one of those three ways besides the ace. The Ace can only be spotted from the center drop target. 10’s have a few extra spots to be spotted like extra saucers so that ones the easiest to collect.
Everything in the game opens up and is worth more based on the hands you collect. If you get a pair of anything you get 2x bonus. If you get 3 of a kind it’s 3x bonus. 4 of a kind is 4x. 5x is lit from a flush. Every lit card is worth 1k in bonus.
Now each straight flush on the different suits lights a playfield feature for more valuable points. Often 10x value. I think spades likes your spinner for 2k a spin. Hearts might light the stands ups that are normally 1k a bit for 10k. Clubs I believe Lights the big flipper area for 10x(more on that below) And diamonds is possibly lighting special/extra ball(which can be turned on for points). Also any time you have all 4 of a suit that drop target card normally worth 500 points is now lit for 4x value. If you have all 4 aces that drop target is 10x
The big flipper area. Each saucer lights a card. Two saucers are Kings. Two are queens. Two are Jacks and 4 are 10’s. When a ball lands in one it spots the card and counts up rapidly in 100 point increments until the rotating flipper knocks it out. If it’s lit for 10x it’s counting up in 1k increments rapidly until knocked out.
That’s a much deeper rule set than most anything of that era. You can type out seawitch rules in a quick paragraph and that’s the end. The layout is good. Pops keep you on your toes. Drops are placed nicely to pick off what you need. All cleaned up and rebuilt it plays pretty fast with the big open layout. If your just shooting away and not paying attention to what you need to be picking off and completing drop bank at right time to reset so you can catch the ace you need you’ll be going no where fast.
Oh yeah even forgot the joker super bonus. If you fill the grid after you drain you can start filling another grid on another ball.
I could see that upper right single standup originally being designed for a spot ace. Also agree you pretty much always can get the 4x bonus off tens. But like Scott said it’s an easy carrot but you realize just that isn’t leading to big points easily.
Quoted from Rondogg:Something tells me an All Classic Stern Tournament is in the works? Sounds incredible!
Someday I’ll be hosting the Classic Stern World Championships. Mark my words. Getting real close.
1 week later
1 week later
Quoted from slochar:I remember arguing years ago about this popular replacement back then - people didn't have the patience to source the correct parts to fix the original mechs properly, and yup, williams flippers just aren't correct in classic stern games.
I wish the artwork was better on Nugent. It's too Fangango-y.
I’ll say The lectronamo layout uses the rule set better than Nugent. Definitely a fan of Lectronamo. It’s fun to see which game uses the shared rom better than the other. Clearly a winner in each sharing.
Quoted from Chalkey:When you guys are doing swaps / restorations how do you clean the rough under apron metals too big for the tumbler? Just rubbing alcohol the gunk off or anything to further clean / shine /smooth?
You clearly don’t have a big enough tumbler
But Brasso with a microfiber cloth will do the trick too. I use a lot of it on every restore/rehab.
1 week later
Quoted from Tsskinne:Has anyone out there vectorized or made for a vinyl cutter the stern apron art? Specifically for the star gazer era of apron art.
1 week later
Quoted from slochar:Do the replacement drops have the rib on them or just the shelf right below the target face? Rib is correct for Memory Lane, and 'chichlet' style (no hood).
The ones that are shelfs are Bally style drops and they brick exactly as you are describing.
Since the drop bank is straight on they will tend to brick a little bit, Lightning's center bank is terrible this way and ML is likely similar. You can try and move the entire bank forward as much as you can and people have tried stiffening the drop to help its downing, but it tends to be a losing battle - it's endemic to the game because of the angle. Gottlieb drops are the only ones that don't brick straight on.
Higher flipper strength doesn't help either.... someone a long time ago did a slo-mo video of drops that wouldn't drop and the reason they don't is that the target flexes and hits the back of the slot with such force that it comes back front onto its shelf rather than dropping. Stronger springs help but then they don't reset properly.
If you look on rec.games.pinball there's a lot of threads where people played around with this, as well as likely here on pinside.
If only we could get all the different stern drops reproed properly it would be a magical day.
Quoted from cottonm4:When you load your pictures, pinside gives you the tools to rotate them into upright position. Those small curves arrows make it possible.
This sideways business is fairly new to me. It used to be I could load my pics and not think about it. But now every pic I load needs to be rotated. It is a PIA but doable.
[quoted image]
Rotate feature wasn’t working so I said f it.
Quoted from akm:Thanks for the tips guys.
They are the chicklet style. I honestly don't mind the bricking so much as I do the targets often not staying in place. In Memory Lane, the target bank locks to a certain value/reward when hit. Sometimes you want to hit it, other times you don't, so a target falling down on its own kills the flow of the game. But yeah, like was mentioned, hard hits tend to reject, while slow ones are fine.
I'll look at the mechs under the playfield again with these tips in mind.
[quoted image]
Something doesn’t seem right there. Those drops seems to be sitting very low. It looks like the tops of them are just at the rubber ring height? If so the ball is hitting the top of the targets. That’ll make more flex.
1 week later
Quoted from Inkochnito:Anybody here with a Lightning game?
I'm looking for the instruction cards.
I have one black on white card and one white on black card.
Any cards would help.
Please help me to help others.
Peter
http://www.inkochnito.nl
I do but it’s at my location and I haven’t seen it in months.
2 weeks later
Quoted from embryonjohn:I’m in
[quoted image][quoted image]
Magic is a super underrated game.
3 months later
Quoted from cottonm4:The turning point is at Magic/Meteor. Everything up to and including Magic are MPU-100 Sterns.
Everything from Meteor on are the MPU-200 pins. I cannot speak to Cue or Orbitor 1. The MPU-200s are the ones being talked about when classic Sterns are the subject of conversation.
Cue is MPU-200.
FCBA5F6C-29FD-4B41-B6E8-8D560D3F3B2B (resized).jpeg 1 week later
Most targets just have the tiny contact point. The big ones are for high power contacts like flipper buttons, Slingshots etc
1 week later
Quoted from slochar:Depends on the game. Flipper alignment is one of those things that you can tweak on a game to your individual liking. As long as the shots are in your sweet spot it's all good.
The only classic stern to me that has the droop is stargazer, and it's really intentional on that game as you shouldn't be able to cradle the ball. The rest of them seem ok on the pins.
Viper has a lot of droop too and it’s needed. If you don’t have droop when I designer intended you get really hard shots on the end of the flippers that shouldn’t be or way too weak. Only stern I think needs droop added that isn’t very prevelant from the factory is nugent. The flipper angles are all off on that game. 75% of the shots off a flipper just hit the pops up the middle. . The spinner shot is way off the very tip of the flipper and it barely has enough power to make it to top lanes.
Quoted from Tsskinne:Game boots. If I press start button game starts, but immediately a credit is added (so coin switch is registering), trough kicks ball to shooter lane and points just start scrolling up.
If I go into test mode all lights work, displays work as they should, and coils fire as they should. If I press the button to go over to lowest switch registering, 10 is registering...but when I check the switch physically it looks correct according to schematic and Shawn's instructions and is in fact not touching. If I press switches below 10 like the start button or the tilt bob they register. Also when I lift the playfield to inspect it my spinners register correctly as switches 4/5/9. I will need to investigate closer to see if all of the switches under 10 register or not. It was around 1 AM when I finally got the whole thing together and trouble shot until about 2AM before calling it quits.
I did convert a Stern Pinball for this project, but I completely rewired the coin door. I suspected that was what I messed up, but then I tried another Stern coin door, this one from a Big Game, and had the same issues. At that point I called it a night. [quoted image]
Check every switch in that row and column as switch 10. Check all the diodes on the switches as well. Make sure nothing is bent or touching. Sounds like a possible switch matrix short. See if you can find another switch in game that does not register perhaps? If we have two malfunctioning switches we know if we can narrow it down to two other switches being the culprit.
Quoted from Tsskinne:If I start a game several are registering incorrectly but I can’t tell what they are registering as. In test I can’t test anything above switch 10 because of how stern diagnostics work. I’ll test hitting the playfield but I do suspect a short somewhere sadly.
If you disconnect switch 10 it’s still registering correct? Are the switches provided with the wiring harness or did you have to supply and install them yourself?
Quoted from slochar:Sounds like there's a diode shorted or backwards.
Exactly my thoughts. Shorted/reversed diode and the whole matrix is off wack. Were the diodes put on the switches by you or from PBL? Could have the wrong wire on the wrong lugs possibly.
3 weeks later
Quoted from cottonm4:Vec-Tor, I must thank you for offering this info. I replaced my coil and the sticking flipper issue went away---for a few games. A couple of days ago this flipper started sticking in the up position again. As soon as I pressed the credit button the flipper went into "locked up" position. I mean it was locked hard; I could not manually break the lock.
So, I replaced the plunger and coil stop. Like magic. No more problems. If you had not given this info. I would still be racking my brain with this issue.
Interesting in that the end of the plunger and the the button on the coil stop have matching marks that looks like they were trying to weld theirselves together. I don't think I can get a decent picture of these marks.
Thanks again.
=======================================================================
EDIT: Well, the problem came back again. I have a new solenoid coil, new plunger, and a new coil stop. I was playing ng a few highly spirited games and the flipper locked up again. Turn the pin off and back on. Flipper locks up. Finally I disconnected the flipper wire connector on the SDU to disable the flippers. I fired the pin up and hot plugged the flipper wire connector at the SDU. The flipper returned to behaving normally. I don't know for how long it will behave.
I'll keep you all posted.
Check you cabinet switches. I’ve seen them get pitted to the point the get stuck together after a flip but not always and can come apart with vibration sometimes too.
1 week later
Let’s stop destroying wonderful stern games to make all these frankenmeched other games. Leave that drop bank in your meteor and flight 2000 and trident and memory lane. These are wonderful games!
Quoted from Agent_Hero:Those games will eventually be hard to find, but we'll have tons of scratch-built Quicksilver's for $7,500.
I’ll be honest too. I’ve played a few scratch built quicksilvers and stargazers now and none of them have played right or felt right. You can definitely tell they are scratch built yet they exchange hands for big bucks. I guess when your paying that kinda scratch for a game you aren’t actually playing it anyways!
4 weeks later
Quoted from hisokajp:Any chance someone has a spare/used Upper left corner plastic for Stern Lightning?
That's the only broken one and i'd rather bot buy a whole set...
Picture? I have a whole old set. Put cpr set on my game.
1 year later
Anyone have a set of ball guides by the flippers for a memory lane? The one I’m tearing down right now had some gnarly ones bent already as replacements. Not even close. This is the two piece style one short straight one along inlane switch and then the curved one to the flipper. Need both sides. Anyone have a parts playfield lying around? All my spares are of the full length style.
Quoted from bigguybbr:So your inlane guide is in 2 parts? I’m wondering if that was a previous hack. The pictures I’ve found on here and ipdb only show it as a single piece unless I’m misunderstanding what you are describing.
If you want to remake it, you might need to go the route of custom bending your own replacements. Otherwise I would go back to using the full length guides and fill in the extra holes.
Thread on making guides: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tutorial-for-marco-s-wire-bending-jig
[quoted image]
I’ve bent piano wire for a few others before. Figured I’d see if any were out there before I pulled my jig out again.
Quoted from bigguybbr:Interesting that they would have changed it up, but hey the late 70s were wild times from what I've heard. The ones in the picture look identical to Meteor, so you would think they would pull from the same parts bin if they had the option.
It almost looks like they are 2 different gauge wires though. Maybe it's a trick of the light.
I would think that would be the easier solution. The first post made it sound like he already has the single piece handy.
*Off Topic Whridlsoncestood - Is the Sanctum a place that anyone can drop by? I'm in CT from Christmas to New Years and might have some free time.
Yeah we are open every Monday from 7-midnight. 50+ games on freeplay. 20$ to get in. Dec 20th is our Christmas party bash. Godzilla launch party and 3 strike tournament too.
3 months later
Quoted from cottonm4:fluttering flipper blues.
The left flipper on my Catacomb just started fluttering. OK. I know about breaks in the coil hold wire. MY problem is I just replaced the same left flipper coil two weeks ago that came up with the fluttering issue. The one you see now is its replacement.Here is the first coil that went bad. I hooked up the DMM and I have no continuity between the hold wire lugs. But I see no visible breaks in the wire.
[quoted image]
And now a 2nd coil has been shot dead.
Is there something on the circuit boards making something bad happen to this left coil? Or am I just experiencing the luck of the draw?
I mean, I will replace this 2nd fluttering coil but I don't want this to start becoming a regular occurrence.
Anything special I need to consider?
Usually the break happens close to the lugs. Just unwind the wire one wrap. Clean the enamel off the end and solder it back on.
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