Have you looked at Wolfpactech's displays? They come as a Kit, easy to build, but may come fully assembled as well.

Finished designing custom Secret Service apron cards for a customer, so thought I would offer them to the club. Price is $12 for the pair including US postage ($14 for orders outside of US). Please PM me if interested in purchasing.

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DB7FB381-4EC1-4519-8393-558716195E0D (resized).jpegPicked one up today. Doesn’t boot, some battery damage. But does have matching S/N boards and looks like a nice example under the dirt. Should clean up nicely. Anxious to get it running and see how it plays.

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My Secret Service seems to be resetting in a strange way. While playing, the score displays turn off and the flippers stop working, but the audio is working and it seems like I can score points using my fingers (but cant see display to know if it is actually registering). Turning off and on will fix the problem for a while but then happens again. From reading, I know its likely a power issue, but not sure where to start other than replacing all the fuses.

Any ideas on where to start searching?

Power supply board voltages and caps is where I would look first.

Also, battery damage and/or ROM sockets is always a fail point of this era DE. Your game software is crashing. If it's flaky power it will usually have "problems booting", and not problems "staying booted".

I have had a few DE crash after booting and the connectors heat up.

Thanks snyper2099 and gdonovan I have a rottendog MPU, a pinscore powerboar, and a pinballpcb flipper power board - all put in around 2013, so no original old boards (other than the sound board) and no battery damage. Theyve worked fine for a few years now. I will check each of the connectors, but if they don't look black from burn what can I look for? voltage test somehow?

For the ROM sockets, what can I do other than pushing them back in?

Thanks

That’s good that you have new boards. When the display goes out can you please confirm if the playfield feature lamps still work when you say, make a standup target? If lamps still light after target registers, you could just have a bad display.

Does anyone know what the proper spring is to use for the ball eater? Is there something that Marcos sells as I have a friend putting in an order. Any assistance would be appreciated.

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Thanks!

Looks like the p/n is 265-5007-00
the only place i find that number is https://www.ministryofpinball.com/en/spring%20265-5007-00.html
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Thanks @snyper2099, when the "freeze" happens, its not a full reset, the GI stays on but all the controlled lights go out (even those that were on during the game). I can not score points (or make sound effects from targets) and the flippers are frozen (aka don't respond to buttons, but LED "ok" light on the flipper board is on) and the display is blank (but the green D1 led on the Pinscore display is on). But the music is still on but the mode never ends, and the machine doesn't recognize when the ball goes out and into the trough.

So I think its the MPU somewhere? After a "freeze" the MPU has +5v LED on but the PIA or BLANK leds are not on. "Blank" one is usually on when its running normally. And when its a more "typical" reset during the game everything still works, it just goes back to attract cycle as if the game was never going and the "BLANK" led stays on. I think the Blanking LED being off means that the program isn't running which makes sense, could it be the ROM? The ROMs are original.

Anyone have this kind of problem with the LED OCD? Its been in the machine several months and this started much after, but its the only real change I can think of. And I guess the LED OCD must be a part of the BLANKING circuit, right?

gdonovan sorry to be a noob, but how does one check the capacitors on the power board? Can I do it with a multimeter? Its a new-ish (2012) PinScore power board, not the original, and all 6 leds are on (which is the same as when its not "frozen").

Thanks everyone!

In da club! Loving it so far!

Huh, 2013 you say. Boards that are 10 years old can certainly have light surface corrosion on the socket pins, especially if they were manufactured in China.

Not saying it's a certainty but your symptoms point to an intermittent issue with either power (caused by connector corrosion or failed components) or ROM/CPU sockets caused by corrosion.
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I have a test for you. Boot the game and put it into game mode so there is a ball in the shooter lane and confirm it's running 100%.

step 1:
Gently wiggle evenry single plug in the head until it crashes. No crash? Go to next step.

step 2:
Now, gently tap the plastic end of a screwdriver on ALL socket chips on the MPU board until it crashes. No crash? Go to next step.

step 3:
If you still can't get it to crash, take your open hand and smack the backbox directly in the middle (on the back) to see if it crashes.

step 4: leave the game in game mode with ball in shooter lane and go make some tea or coffee... set a timer on your smartphone and come back every so often to see if it crashes. At what time did it crash?

Report where/if it fails here.

What we are doing is trying to see if this is an intermittent power issue or an intermittent corrosion issue. Both are VERY common with vintage Data East pins.

Fair enough, thanks for the plan. Ill report back soon.

STEP 1: no crash...did this a few different times.

STEP 2: no crash...I did this on three different days - never felt like anything moved.

STEP 3: Smacking didn't do anything either.

STEP 4: The longest, in game but not playing test was 90mins and it didn't crash.

So im starting to suspect its some strange combo of hitting a flipper button (high power circuit) and being in a specific mode and something else happening - like triggering a multiball or a target bank reset or somethign. Ill have to start writing down what I was doing when the crash happens.

Any further thoughts snyper2099 ?

Appreciate the help!!

Unplug the two feature lamp plugs (or remove the fuse) and see if you can still get it to crash. If not, you have something touching one of the lamp strings, causing a crash. I hope that is not it because it takes serious patience to track problems like that down.

Just checking to see what pitch everyone has their game set at? I am having an issue getting the top flipper to get it up the ramp, seems like it wants to launch off the ramp airborne, same with the shooter if I try to plunge too fast. Have mine at 6.5 degrees and I wonder if that's too steep for this game.

Might be getting one fingers crossed. It's beat up but plays. Going to try and test out all the features before purchase. OK so my real question: there is also a high speed available near me and I see it's ranking as wayyyyyy higher and everybody says how great it is even though the games are similar. In my opinion secret service seems like it has way more going on and is therefore more fun. What say you? Why is one better over the other? Especially answer if you own both or have played both. Just curious thanks guys.

I've had three of each. YES, 3 of each. They are both fine games and both are fun. A couple things, High Speed is going to be a LOT easier to sell if you don't like it since it's a lot more popular... a Williams Steven Ritchie classic too. As far as "a lot more going on" the two major differences are the super spinner challenge and the fact that you can start a two OR a three ball multiball in SecSer. The rest of the game rules are very similar. Although there is a bigger variety of music in SecSer, I actually like the High Speed soundtrack more. SecSer has a cool ball eater and the sound made when hitting the standup behind it makes me laugh outloud every time I nail it (doorbell sound). SecSer is one of the most ridiculous backglasses in all of pinball.

The innovations in High Speed are probably (no make that definitely) lost on the current, new generation of pinball enthusiasts. Not me though. What was the first game with a wireform or a full song or an error report? What game had the first progressive jackpot or a ball search? There are so many innovations in HS that are taken for granted these days. High Speed is the first game that had a ramp return the ball to a flipper (unless you count Devil Riders) and the first game with a loopable ramp shot! People just assume these things always existed. Now, do those things make it a way better game than SecSer? Well, maybe not in every case but in my mind, HS is a classic Williams game and Secret Service is just a rip off that did very little to dramatically improve upon HS. I could be all alone with my opinion since this is the club thread but has anyone else with an opinion beyond "it's just better" owned 3 of each?

If both games are say $2500-$3K ? I would probably pick HS, especially if it's very nice. If HS is $2500 and (very beat up) SecSer is $1500, I would probably still but the HS. I bought every HS and SS I have owned for well under these prices many years ago. My threshold for actually buying a "beat up" SecSer would probably be $1K these days. I doubt you could find a complete High Speed in good shape (that is well advertised) for under $2 these days. If so, buy it every time!

Secret Service is better, I own both.

Resale on HS is higher, but a lot have blown out playfields.

Thank you soooo much for the info and thanks so much for spelling it all out. By more going on I meant the ball eater and that building on the left side that shakes and ya more music and more pictures and artwork and all the gimmicky stuff. But I definitely see all your points.
It does sound to me that the reason High Speed is ranked so high is because all the nostalgia and because it STARTED it all! it was the beginning, it was creative and innovative and it did all the FIRSTS. But my question is if you where to magically ignore allllll the cool stuff that it created and how it changed the game and you just showed up one day and played one and then played the other which one would be more fun and keep you entertained longer?
And which one feels better like when you press those flippers...or do they basically feel the same?

better because why? resale value is pretty similar atleast if you check median asking price on this website, now ranking is like 88 vs 288 or something like that.

follow up question... both playfields are good so no need to worry about that, but how would you say the flippers feel when you hit it you know.. like when you play a new stern or something fancy the hitting of the ball is super nice and when you play a super old school one or like a kidish home version cabinet the hitting of the ball feels plasticy and just not good. Where would you say these two games rank, does one feel better or more plasticy or clunky?

I owned both still have High Speed. Flippers were supper strong on Secret Service felt fine on both though.

any particular reason you kept high speed, but sold off secret service?

Similar games, actually hated Secret Service when I had it. Sold to a friend and it grew on me when playing it there.
Don't think you could go wrong either way but for me something about High Speed feels better.

Just checking to see what pitch everyone has their game set at? I am having an issue getting the top flipper to get it up the ramp, seems like it wants to launch off the ramp airborne, same with the shooter if I try to plunge too fast. Have mine at 6.5 degrees and I wonder if that's too steep for this game. The original owner had it pitched much lower but I don't want it to be floaty.

I have nostalgia for either title so go in with a fresh eye, I just find Secret Service more fun and sounds better. HS feels like there is much less to do and the playfield has fewer features.

It’s on purpose. Better design means better flow. Repeatable on the fly orbit loops, repeatable on the fly ramp loops. Certainly not for everyone but I like.

Only somewhat loopable shot in SecSer is Super Spinner and it just does not have the same "feel" as 5 or 6 loops in a row on HS.

Neither one would keep me entertained longer than the other. For me, it does not really work like you are suggesting. I think you are asking questions here that only YOU can answer.

Flippers? You could be overthinking things here. But, you CAN change the flippers so many ways these days it's nuts. Metal flipper bats, 50 different types of rubber, it goes on and on now... The powerful flippers in a DE game are desired by some, and some don't seem to notice or care. They are stronger and do have a slight tendency to break plastics and other things like standup targets more often than Williams.

Rebuilding either one makes both DE and Williams games play a lot better so, maybe keep that in mind. If both game's flippers need rebuilt anyway, it's a non-issue. Both games will play equally well (flipper wise) with rebuilt parts/arms/sleeves. There is a stop and go shot and feel to both games so I would not get too hung up on game details. I would maybe consider buying the game that is in better shape (or even closer?) as long as it's for fair market value.

I have swaped playfields on both games. if you have any technical game issues after you buy one, feel free to reach out.

Out of the box the Data East flippers are better, every Williams title I have the flippers needed extra attention including hotter coils for Space Shuttle.

Dont know if this helps you at all but I have my maverick set to 6.5 as well and it works great.

Wow I had no idea that you could change the flippers is so many ways, it didnt even cross my mind to use different rubbers then whatever some pinball site reccommends specifically for that game and i had no idea about installing metal flipper bats, this does CHANGE EVERYTHING and certainly makes it a non issue, my biggest fear with any older pinball machine is now gone ha ha, thank you so much.

Both pins have the exact same looping shot so hard to be critical of one and praise the other no?

Well, it's a decent thought but unfortunately, incorrect. Pinball owners are much more critical of much less IMHO.

Does HS make you feel like you are trying to get away from the police any more than SecSer makes you feel like a spy? Rhetorical. No response required. Nothing with pinball is that exact... all three (well six) of mine played a bit different and I kept the ones that played the best the longest. One had a good return and loop for super spinner so I hung on to it.

People claim its a clone of High Speed and then make the argument it doesn't loop like high speed even though is has the exact same basic layout.

I think the horse has been beat at this point.

Actually in my bad old days I HAVE been chased by police. Damn kids with their hot rods!

Clone? Not even close. All I can tell you is that imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

Just got a SS in for repairs. Nice couple owned since the 90,s. It's missing the topper. I supposed I could make one. Perhaps someone has one around?

For anyone that has installed Led flashers on this game. Do some resistors need changing? I don't see any on this game like Pinbot has.

I removed the warming resistors on my lower board(under and in the back of the playfield-BRB?), however I suggest keeping the original flashers...the led ones are too bright for my taste...

So this is like a System 11 you have to remove the warming resistors if you want LED's to flash? At least on a Secret Service they are all on one board - so you removed them all? Just clipped them?

Curious - since that is all the board is for inthe back seems crzy to just cur them all off. Can I see a pic?

I have a full set of the topper lenses...if anyone needs a set...reach out...they are used with typical minor scratches etc...

spoken for

I'm restoring a Secret Service currently, and it looks to me like the arrangement of posts between the front pop bumper and the drop targets is probably…not stock.

Can anybody verify what the intended factory configuration of posts here is supposed to look like?

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If your talking about the ones under the capitol building (those 2 @ that front pop)Mine looks the same as your picture

6 posts with rubber connecting the rear ones? Wow that's a lot of holes, lol. But if it's stock I will install it that way.

Yes thats correct...the rings pictured look too large, I replaced the center posts with machine screws..otherwise correct