(Topic ID: 186391)

Solar Fire Club - Aliens need not apply

By ZEN

6 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 78 posts
  • 29 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 54 days ago by vec-tor
  • Topic is favorited by 17 Pinsiders

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#13 6 years ago

I've had BK and Pharaoh, liked them both, but like Solar Fire way better for whatever reason. I let the other two go and kept this one!

It belonged to a buddy of mine for a while and I'd been pestering him to sell it to me since the rest of his collection was mostly newer games (WPC+ and a few Sys11) - he finally relented, AFTER I moved over 900 miles away! No biggie; I arranged to head out there on another mission (picking up a car from an auction) and combined the trip.

When I got there to break the machine down and load it, we found out someone had crossthreaded a couple of the backbox bolts, and that in turn ripped the tangs out from the t-nuts and they were just spinning. With a very long trip ahead of me there was no way I was transporting it with the backbox in place, especially not with it flopping around with two bolts that couldn't be tightened (or removed.)

So we carefully took off the legs, sat it down on the floor, and pulled the playfields. I then crawled into the cabinet with the idea of grabbing the backside of the t-nuts with vise grips while he removed the bolts. Couldn't quite wrangle my arm up in there. While changing positions, I put my weight on one hand on the bottom of the cabinet, which just happened to find one of those pointy nail-style screws holding the speaker in. It went ALL THE WAY into my hand. I didn't yell or scream, just told my buddy, hey could you get a paper towel because I don't wanna bleed all over your floor...so yeah, after that we did manage to get the bolts out, backbox off, game wrapped and loaded.

Before he got the game someone had installed NOS playfields. Where they got them I have no idea! The plastics and backglass are pretty nice, too. Only real downside is the cabinet is kinda beat. Not terrible but not great. I spent a good amount of time repairing the boardset, which had already been sent out for "professional" repair by a known company; previous owner had plugged the playfield in wrong and zapped 'em. The repairs were substandard and I had to go over everything. Now the game works great other than it still seems to give me more switch-related problems than any other classic Williams title I've owned, and that includes Firepowers with the leafs assembled backwards! Right now it's sitting there with a ball in the left lock that it refuses to recognize; I'll deal with it later.

Some crummy size pics from forever ago...one of them with Barracora and Time Fantasy, two other classics I never shoulda let go!

Richard

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#16 6 years ago
Quoted from BobLangelius:

If you ever want to sell that, let me know.
Great looking game.

Thanks! I wish the cabinet was more solid. I doubt it's bad enough to ever get me to restore it though; would rather leave it original.

Unlikely I will sell this game! Don't you already have one? Or were you the one with the SF for sale on Mr.Pin a while back? I was trying to convince a buddy of mine up there to go buy it but he's a dummy and skipped it.

Richard

#18 6 years ago

Mine were installed as-is, no clearcoat. I don't put a ton of play on it so I feel reasonably safe keeping it waxed and being sure I don't run rusty/pitted balls through it (or any of my games.)

I will say that the ink looks thin on the inserts, as if they were using the minimum amount of ink possible while screening the black. There's literally no wear on my playfields, the factory clear is there and very shiny - just they skimped on the ink. If I were to tear this game down and clearcoat the playfields, there would need to be a good amount of touch-up done on the inserts before I think it would be worth it to clearcoat. Mind you, the rest of the artwork looks spectacular so I'm not complaining!

Richard

1 year later
#32 5 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

Is Solar Fire supposed to make a loud buzz from the speaker when you activate the magnets? Assuming I have a sound board issue but want to make sure just in case...
Also, can anyone send me a picture of this area below the SOLAR target? Something seems wrong there to me. That red post has a corner missing so that it can fit so close to the metal guide, and then there's this little dot near the yellow post which looks like where another post should go?
[quoted image]

The speaker shouldn't buzz on magnet activation; I would start with going over all your grounds. Make sure the boardset has all its mounting screws into the metal backplane and that the ground straps/wires are in place at the wing nut in the backbox and that the straps/wires are intact.

You're missing the elevated wireform on the right side; the front end of it is what goes in that "dot" on the playfield.

That red post is not in its original spot; that's why they chipped a piece of it away so that bracket could go where it needs to. Looks like they put the red post up front like that so they could stretch a rubber to attempt taking place of the missing ball guide wireform.

Sorry for the crummy pic; don't have a chance at the moment to slide the glass off.

Richard

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#34 5 years ago

No need for measurements; making one is easy. Just get some mechanic's wire which is easy to work with, and mock one up. Once you have the size right, use it as a pattern to cut and bend the final guide out of the correct stock.

A few pics attached of doing exactly this on one missing from Pharaoh...

Richard

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2 months later
#38 4 years ago
Quoted from vec-tor:

I believe the micro switch had a plastic actuator.
I think you can use a flat blade micro switch, and have it have a round bump
at the point where the ball hits hit... A "J" type hook.

Correct; it's plastic. However I doubt you can replace it with a switch that has the regular metal actuator, as the ball will likely stick to it. Pretty sure that's why the original has the plastic actuator. Pic attached; it's not the greatest as it's on an assembled game but it does clearly show the shape of it.

Richard

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#40 4 years ago

An opto setup would probably work but since my switch actuator is unbroken I'm reluctant to hack on the game. However, I suspect the switch itself is bad as the feature does not function 100% correctly. The ball gets "stuck" - not to the switch, but in one position instead of rapidly moving back and forth, so I suspect the switch isn't registering properly so the magnet isn't pulsing as it should...cheating me out of Solar Gun scoring! One of these days I'll get around to messing with it. :/

Richard

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