I shorted out my right GI (blew a fuse, no real damage) trying to install my blue trough lighting. Whoops. Guess I should go install that while my boards are off being completely rebuilt and bulletproofed.

I like how this game looks with blue GI lighting. I know purists hate it but this is one of a few games where I feel it plays pretty well. My saucers are pink but otherwise our schemes are roughly the same.

Here is the full article from Dec 1984 Williams Space Shuttle

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Cool history.
Interesting that Barry Oursler is not mentioned.
The comments about video games "Aeroboto" and "Turkey Shoot" being built are interesting. Don't think I have seen or heard of either one.
I do wish they had built a few more "Starlite" pins, but you can understand building Space Shuttle instead.

There is a list of top arcade and pins in the magazine based off reported November takes. I’ll post if interested.

Thanks for sharing, interesting to see authentic shuttle history.

That'd be correct. My new ROMS just arrived for my new (to me) Rottendog MPU & the spare playfield in my woodshop has been sanded to a white wood & the shooter lane has its first coat of clear on in prep for the hard top I bought. Oh, and I've dropped new Xpin displays in it since I got it from you.

Since I know someone will mention it, the playfield in my machine isn't perfect, but not the worst SS playfield I've seen either. I'm using a spare playfield that was completely toasted for the hard top and bought it specifically for this reason. I'll probably turn the current playfield into wall art when I do the swap.

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Getting a Space Shuttle delivered in a couple of days. Marking this thread so I can read through everything. I've got some catching up to do!

Thanks,
-Jason

Welcome to the club, you're in for a fun ride.

Space Shuttle docked! Came a few days ago--took me until today to finish going over it before actually playing.

Shooter lane switch needed adjustment. If that's the only thing needs attention on a "new" 35-year-old game, then I'm delighted.

1 question. See attached--the lower & right displays are shifted a little low & left relative to the glass windows. Displays don't line up quite correctly with backglass. What's the trick to adjusting? Move the displays? Shim the backglass? Glass doesn't seem to have any play.

Just played a few games w/ my 7yo boy. He beat me every game. What a gas!

Thanks,
-Jason

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Might be an illusion, but it looks like the right side of the backglass is up a bit.
Is metal lift channel fully seated on the glass? Is it seated evenly in the head?

the backglass doesn't go down enough. you can tell by looking at lift trim in the speaker channel.

A Pinsider a few years ago said he made these (I think it was this design) in his machine shop on a cnc machine. If I were you I'd just get clear colored spacers and cut them down to the right size.

My boards are back and I'm back in business!

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Sounds like Starship fantasy is ready to reproduce the shuttle ramps , but is having a rough time finding a donor ramp to write the program. Would prefer NOS but if you had an NOS ramp you probably wouldn't be in the market for a new one anyway. Check out Post Number 175 on his feed for more details

I'm in need of some advice concerning my Space Shuttle. My machine is grounded. The lights for the scores and credits along with all the back panel started to dim and then I lost all lights on the back panel. I checked all fuses, they were all good but I'm not sure where to start checking voltages. The LED diagnostic display showed no problem but after I metered the voltages, the LED test display went dark. I've been looking for a local repair person but no luck yet. Any help would be appreciated.

I would check the voltages out of the power supply board first. The power supply board could probably use a rebuild and cap kit. I had similar issues and rebuilt the power supply board and that fixed the problem.

Instigated last night.
No looseness in glass or channels.

Light/display panel has too much sag at the hinges. Need to lift it a little to swing it out over the speaker panel.
Nudged it by loosening the board mount screws, pushing, then retightening screws. Inadequate.
Need to work out some shim scheme...later...having too much fun playing it right now. Minor enough to address later.

Edit: will also double-check the speaker panel channel (debris?) to be sure that the glass carrier won't settle in any lower.

Thanks,
Jason

So, I'm wondering about some part numbers. Specifically, the tall posts that are threaded internally under the shuttle ramp that secure it. More specifically, the one just above the right pop bumper and the one uppermost right under the shuttle ramp. Just can't seem to find these in the manual anywhere. I'm trying to get replacement parts together before I do a hardtop install in the spring. Any help would be appreciated.

Hello crew, Picked up my machine last week and while removing all the playfield items for cleaning I noticed the wire, I'm assuming its a bent wire, is missing from the under the spacecraft that activates the switch. Can someone send the part link from Marcos to me?
Thanks and standing by,,,,,

If its the actual metal gate you are looking for then unfortunately you may be out of luck. If I'm not mistaken that was a proprietary piece that was actually part of the shuttle toy itself. Is the mini cherry switch still installed inside the shuttle? Its just the wire gate that's missing? If so and the little grommets are still resent in the shuttle plastic to hold the gate, then you could try bending your own, although if the gate is missing then its probably because the area where the gate engages the plastic on the shuttle is cracked and the original gate fell out. This was the case on my SS. I ended up installing a photodiode/IR-LED inside the shuttle to replace the missing gate. It was a lot of wiring and coding but works great and cost about $20.

The spacecraft on my machine looks like it only got ran over twice. I believe I found the gate and switch and the bracket that holds the gate I can fab that.
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Starship fantasy has the replacement shuttle if you're looking. Good luck, and welcome to the club.

My bad, ,I had no idea they made aftermarket shuttles. Nice!!!

They didn't back in the old days, before the internet. So I built my own from a modified Revell model kit and still holds up to this day

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rules questions here:

When lit the side drains "score shuttle value", what exactly is that value? I assume it's the last value of the shuttle ramp (random) score achieved? What if the ramp shot was not acheived during that particular game?

Also, what activity during game play actually adds points to what you receive at the end- of - ball bonus (which is the value the bonus multiplier affects)?

There’s some good videos out there, but I’ve found shooting the spinner, getting the drops and upping multipliers with the USA lanes is the way to go. It’s hard. Only once or twice I’ve gotten to 7 times with the spinner at max value. I have no idea how multi-ball jackpot increases.

Yeah, I love the sweep! Hot dogs blink and I think a little bell action!

Thanks for the replies. I love Taxi as my all-time but this game, after only having it for 3 months, is quickly becoming my favorite pin! Out of my eight it's the only one the wife actually requests to play lol (she got hooked on the Wii version years ago, along with taxi, black knight and pinbot, but for some reason this is the only one she likes playing in reality, and I can see why). The rules are mostly typical but with some uniqueness that makes it so much fun, and that oddly placed drop target bank.... awesome. Swiping that on a good shot is just... nothing beats it

I'm debating selling mine to make room. You aren't helping. Yes it does have a unique draw.

This could be over my ability. Other parts of the playfield I can handle but this one I just don't know. It's even depressed a bit. Any tips? Maybe I should read some of Vid's stuff.

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How bad is the rest? Bad enough to go with a Hardtop?
If not, check Vid's guide.

If you plan on keeping it, I'd hard top it.

To do that properly you'd end up having to restore the entire playfield. I'd either leave it alone or clean it, wax it, and put some mylar over it so it doesn't get worse.

That is what I'm going to do. I finished touch up last night, I will install Steve's flippers W/ new coils, Marcos spacecraft and switches coming today. Luckily the ramp isn't to bad. I had to triple glaze the bottom of the back glass but it's fine. The cabinet is almost perfect. So I'll put this baby back together and see if I like it as much as Firepower, If I do, Could be fun to try a hardtop install. Kind of a bummer that a small damaged area can have such a big impact. None of my drunken looser friends will even notice it anyways.

LOL

Well, if that's the worst of it I don't think anyone would deride you for skipping the hardtop. It's way up top anyway. BTW repro ramps are supposedly coming soon from starship fantasy.

Anyone have a, or know a link for the rubber kit rubber placement chart? My kit didn't have the sheet in there.
Thanks.

Never mind. I found one.

When the capacitor fried in my Firepower's flashers I replaced the bulbs with LED's, I'm doing the same LED's on my Shuttle but it's a bit different than FP. Do I remove any of these components?

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Following this. Thanks.

For the LED flashers to work correctly, you can simply cut off the warming resistors on the ones under the playfield as well as the one on the backbox. I can get pictures of mine if you’d like later after work. Had to do the same to my old Gorgar and F-14 tomcat.

I would also be interested in your pics and F-14 pics also. I want to change both those games to led flashers

Got home late from work yesterday and went right to bed. Hopefully I won't be so late tonight and I can get those pictures uploaded by 8pm tonight.

Hello all, So I switched on my newly completely cleaned machine and ran the test mode, Two switches need adjustment so that a piece of cake, speech test 1-6 seems to be fine than it hits # 7 and sounds like a scream? than goes back to #1 and starts over. The volume control does work on the speech board. Could all the speech ROMs be bad? seems unlikely. It looks like none of the ROMs from the speech board are working at all and only the scream from U49 at the CPU is working. Any thoughts?

Try another processing chip, the sound roms might be fine but the processor might be damaged not be able to produce all the sounds.

Could you steer me in the direction of that processor?

If you have an extra 6808 chip try swapping another in at U11 on the cpu right next to the 40 pin ribbon cable that attaches to the sound board. It's socketed so it's an easy check. Just make sure you orient the notch on the chip in the right direction. Here's some more info at pinwiki:https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_9_-_11#Sound_problems20200119_140800 (resized).jpg20200119_140807 (resized).jpg

Ok. Pulled one from my not use Firepower board. No change. But if I press test switch SW2 on the main board I hear all the words cycle continuously and only the words without any other sounds. I have a few things left to do before the machine is ready to play. Thanks for your help so far. We will get it. Beer in hand, Football game is on and working in my game room. Nice day.

Well. It appears that in speech test mode you wont here the words only the sounds. My game seems to be working fine. Maybe I over thought it. Been known to do that. Thanks again Crispin. Hope I didn't waste your time. Last thing on the agenda is the spacecraft.

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