So they are going to examine a 35 year old pf and assume the colours are the same as the day it came out of the factory?

Do NOT do this. You should never overfuse a circuit especially one that is acting suspect like yours. This could cause permanent damage to your game. If you don't have the proper 1.25A fuse, you can temporarily use a lower rated one (like 1A) without risk. But a 2.5 A fuse is not safe to use here.

Do not hesitate to install the solenoid saver board. It will allow you to see the correct fuse break, and still play the game while the other 5 fuses work. I ended up putting a breaker on my lower-right pop fuse, since I can get 20-50 games out of mine before it pops again. Never found the cause yet. But I have a manageable situation for home use now.

-mof

I looked all over for this gate and couldn't find one. Marco recommended making your own. They sell a kit for about 10.00

I understand the risk, I've got new 1.25s on the way. I'm just trying to figure out what the issue is...overfiring of the pops? That's about all I can figure; nothing else has changed.

Yes, the board is a great thing. I would have likely overheated part of the control board otherwise. I installed it as a kit a while back. Best thing ever. I just wonder if in following vid's guide to make the pops ultra sensitive, it causes them to fire so rapidly that it is like the solenoid circuit being held closed constantly.

O.K. Marco has an #12-6505 wire gate that is a "like" part. Use this "like" part to make a "real"
part that fits your Fire Power II. Use your reference photos.

Do you need some measurements for this? There is an FP2 that we play at my league. I can get actual dimensions if you need them. Just let me know.

I’m seriously considering trading my firepower. I think it’s just cursed. Can’t even tell you how many times I’ve repaired the boards and they keep finding new ways to fail.

That and I really should have a Bally machine here for all the Bally stuff I’ve been selling. My only problem...... I currently only have a sedan to drive.

I am starting to think the same... I've had the boards gone through. Re-did a connector tonight... put it on free play & the balls won't kick up a game won't start. Uhg!!

Ideas as to what is wrong?

I have one but not sure if it would be good enough for what they need.

-Steve

As a former Firepower owner i'm glad to see we have access to backglass again with mirroring. The reject ones posted here are vastly better then the one i had on mine. When i get another machine i'd be happy with these flawed ones. My guess is i wouldn't be the only one in this camp but i understand the desire for 100% no flaw one. They also would great wall hangers.

O.K. I think it is Williams part # 01-3206-1. Marco does not have it....
From picture ref. top round end is 1/2" across | mid is 2" across | bottom end is 7/8" across.
You are going to have to fabricate the part. Hole Dia. .062
Use the top gate bracket as ref. to make the bends, holes, etc.
Note: UP DATE part is used on:
Game #487 Tri-Zone
Game #489 Time Warp
Game #495 Blackout
Game #499 Algar

Help please. My FPII sound sometimes works fine and other times it’s just all wrong with some sounds correct and others weird sounding. Also the background drone will not play at all, and other times starts up and plays as soon as I turn on the machine or keeps playing at the end of a game. Should I remove and reseat the sound chip? Thanks.

UPDATE - I found a bad 2.5 amp fuse... switched it & now I'm a pinball fan again !!

Most of this was posted on rgp ages ago...but bought my first Firepower in 2000, non-working, in an operator's storage unit bulk deal (along with an inop Time Warp and a bunch of classic vids & parts) - decent playfield and cabinet, typical crackled backglass. Spent some time getting it working, bought an "NOS" backglass for it that turned out to be a repro (the original ones with the thinner glass and wrong color/opacity inks that had hot spots from the GI lighting). Really fell in love with the game though. Spent the next few years upgrading/switching pieces around as I'd owned several more examples of the title, including one I bought at auction that looked like it had been in a fire, literally.

Around 2004 I picked up the best original example of one I'd ever seen, and still own it. Great cabinet (although it's got a few very minor touch-ups), very nice playfield, and even a great original backglass.

It's an early production game with some hints of "prototype" features; it has the cutouts behind the middle standup target banks for the extra leaf switch that would have been utilized if the game had shipped with drop targets (prototype design), dimples in the underside for drop target mech mounting screws as well. The extra leaf switches are wired. Had the target bank plastics without the blue border at the leading edge, which was added later when the design was changed to standup targets; I took those off and set them aside for regular plastics with the blue edge as they cover the targets better.

Got tired of the constant hassles with the ball trough so I converted it to microswitches. No more trough problems! If I recall, I used a spare trough plate from a T2, and some other misc. spare parts. Also converted the flippers to modern WPC style baseplate/bushing/coil stop design.

After rolling the score over a few too many times I decided it was time to do the 7 digit conversion. Installed a level 7 MPU, display controller board, and displays - and burned a set of Oliver Kaegi's excellent custom game ROMs, giving the game 7 digit scoring and the multiball award/skill shot enhancements.

Richard

fp7digit1 (resized).jpg

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fp_sw_01 (resized).jpg

This seems like a great idea. I will have to consider doing this. Can you post more detailed pictures?

My FFII has done this a couple of times. The first time I replaced the sound board with a used one on eBay and it fixed the problem. Now it's doing it again. So I unplugged the connections to the sound board and plugged them back in. This worked temporarily and started up again. Next, I'll be checking the connections. I think something is not seating properly or bad connection.

Okay thanks. My guess too. A few of the boards in the back were missing mounting screws and I’ve replaced those, it maybe bent or twisted something slight enlight to cause a flaky connection.

If anyone is interested in Mirco making Firepower playfields, please chime in here -

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/poll-which-new-mirco-repro-playfield-titles-wanted-for-2018

CPR will not be rerunning the title in the very distant foreseeable future from what they told me.

Joined the Firepower club a few days ago. The bottom of my cabinet is soft and curling on the outside and really soft on the bottom inside. Anyway to make this better or will I be making a new cabinet in the spring?

I wonder why they won't re-run it? It's like the 5th most common production game and people are constantly clamoring for playfields. I don't get that at all.

Too many other projects ahead of it apparently.

I guess I get it, but even with their "measuring interest" section... seems like they'd offer it up.

I believe Outside Edge will be releasing a hardtop. At $300 or so, that's half the price of a CPR playfield and it won't be 10 years before it comes to market. It looks like a viable option. I will let you know how my Black Knight turns out...

I supplied the Cruze scan of a NOS Firepower pf for the CPR project. They ran 150 boards and they didn't sell out right away. Then there were issues with the hot dog inserts. Getting inserts is a big issue. The plastic companies laugh at you for 1000 pieces. I kinda get why they don't rerun them.

Mirco says he can do small runs. He also has the original art. Hopefully the hot dog inserts aren't a deal breaker.

One reason I kept mine in the playfield when I restored it.

It's actually crazy easy. Just get a trough plate and ball 1 switch (really just a generic submicro with long flat lever) from a newer 3 ball Williams game. Newer games are microswitch. The trough plate itself will just have 2 switches, as the 3rd, which is a submicro with the flat lever, mounts separately right to the playfield and still uses the trip wire from the old leaf switch. It's been years, but if I recall, a couple of the original trough plate holes got re-used which helps position the newer plate.

I took a couple fresh pics and have uploaded them in as high of resolution as the forum will let me, so hopefully that helps.

This old Williams document hosted on IPDB for retrofitting a microswitch trough plate may help, too. I don't recall having seen it before I did my mod, but it's probably the same exact setup: http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/310/bkmicroswitchkit.pdf

Richard

fptrough1 (resized).jpg

fptrough2 (resized).jpg

As the hot dog inserts are essentially just cut pieces of 1/4" red/blue acrylic or polycarbonate, what is to keep someone from cutting a small number out of sheet stock? e.g.

https://www.estreetplastics.com/1-4-transparent-blue-plexiglass-acrylic-sheets-s/66.htm

It would seem that for the cost of a large sheet and a few hours on a laser cutter, they could be replicated in some usable form. Or am I missing something?

They are 3D shapes, just like all the other inserts. Not plain flat plastic. If they were flat, they would warp far easier. The lip around the edge also facilitates its mounting into the beveled hole in the playfield.

Richard

Both sets in my 2 playfields are just flat 1/4". Much thicker plastic than the thinner 3D inserts elsewhere. Is this not true of all? Wouldn't shock me if I got the 2 oddballs. They do have injection molding indents, but definitely not 3D.

Interesting! All my previous FP's are long gone but the one I have now being the very early production model, I dunno if it would do me any good to pop it open again and look (just had the pf up yesterday for those trough pics.) It may have the very same flat hot dog inserts you speak of. I could have sworn they were like all other regular inserts (including hot dogs on newer games) but I've got doubts now, since your post.

Another issue is that the repros generally use mostly jeweled inserts, don't they, since that's what is available? They look nice but they're far from authentic for a game from that era.

Richard

Absolutely. That's why I did everything I could when restoring mine to keep the inserts I had. I only had to replace three circular ones. Didn't want to go the jeweled route unless I had to. Even now there are those microcracks within my hot dog ones, but at least they are secured with epoxy, under clear, and stable.

That's actually why I am going to jeweled: the prototype images were jeweled inserts I believe!

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Firepower sample games have plain inserts.
Jeweled insert did not appear til Black Knight.
Starburst insert did not appear til Pharaoh.
Firepower with starburst inserts only happened because of stock rerun in the mid 1980's.
The company that supplied Williams with their plastic parts went out of business.
That is why you do not see jeweled insert except only on Black Knight.
William's had a slightly different ribbed post design than Bally's ribbed post.
William's ball guides had a "Star" formation on top.
Today only the skinny "diamond" shape image is available.
Sometimes Wico would get a subcontract to supply Bally or Stern or Williams with some of their
re-pro parts.

BK had some really unusual jeweled inserts, too. I liked 'em.

FWIW my Solar Fire is a mix of jeweled and smooth; the opaque white inserts in the bonus count are old school style smooth. The playfields were formerly NOS but considering the extremely low production number, I don't think there was any re-run of those.

Bringing this back on-topic for Firepower, curiosity got the best of me and I pulled glass to lift the playfield and check the hot dog inserts. They are indeed flat, and thick, as setzkor mentioned. Not as thick as a regular insert is when you include the "side skirt", as the hole in the playfield isn't as deep when you compare it to the inserts around it.

Richard

sorry

The guy in Germany has made Funhouse playfield and Funhouse playfield has a "hotdog" insert.
So it would seem that there would be no problems of making the Firepower playfield.

Maybe. Who knows what their supply of that insert consists of? Plus that's red; Firepower also has a blue one. If they're using up old stock...that's one thing. If they're having them made new, that's another subject entirely. Now as setzkor mentioned though the insert is flat plastic so theoretically it should be much easier to have these made than traditional inserts.

Richard

IIRC, CPR had a mold made for the hot-dog inserts when they did Space Shuttle, didn't they?

The NOS Firepower playfield that I had scanned had the jeweled inserts. I purchased it from a Bally distributor in 1980.

Man don't tell that other guy sheesh

Got my new PPS backless in today...I am really impressed with the quality! The thing beats the pants off of what I had (I think anything would). It is very nice, the mirroring is excellent, and the colors look great when lit up. I need to get some more white bulbs (the previous owner threw some blues in there in a few sockets, I'm not sure why), but so far it is great. I have a few pictures of my new and old.

Old:
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New:
IMG_3983 (resized).JPG

Side by side:
IMG_3979 (resized).JPG

Up close:
IMG_3980 (resized).JPG

A bit more help please FPII owners. The bulb under MATCH in my back box is always on during attract mode. As such the paint on the back glass has disintegrated over the years. Is this how it’s meant to be? Also I found a couple of stickers in the bottom of the cabinet when I bought the game and I want to stick them back whence they came. Any ideas where?

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103B3DDF-F290-4E2F-9436-3876BF9FE543 (resized).jpeg

Sounds like La_Porta in the post above is happy with the replacement glass from Planetary Pinball. Has anyone else bought one of these? If so have you also been happy with it?