Great job, in finding the problem.

You reconnected all the other connectors to your PS board, and everything is working again?

Yep, playing perfectly!

I have a question but I think I already know the answer. Is it possible to run Oliver's ROMs in a Rottendog MPU/Driver combo board?

Also, does anyone have/sell artwork for the arch?

You should be able to if you insert it correctly into the combo ROM. The ROM is just the games roms combined there used to be a rumor that they had been modified but they weren't.

Just bought, what might have been the one I owned 10 years ago, playing needs to be replacing, got the last CPR field made on the last run. Going to make a jig to spin top around while working on it. Take lots of pictures. LOL. Question any other thoughts for the swap, bigger question how many hours did YOU spend on the top swap?

Don't overthink it. It's a smaller job than you might be imagining. I've done full playfield swaps on more complex games (Pinbot, T2) in a matter of a day or two, without rushing. Pinbot was done on a sheet of cardboard on my office floor, and T2 was done on my kitchen bartop. No jig.

Richard

Does anyone know where the "Destroy Aliens" artwork that CPR is using came from? They use it on the topper and the plastic upgrade kit - is that something that they made? Taken from a prototype?

I'm pretty certain it is custom. If they use any images from the original artwork they have to get the okay from the license holder, Rick at Planetary Pinball. If it's custom, they can do whatever they want.

I am trying to get my Firepower coin mech working like it did in the 1980s. .25 on left & right with the center slot taking a Susan B Anthony coin.

At this time the left & center work with a quarter. The center slot say 1 dollar but a Susan B Anthony coin is too big?

I'm pretty sure I need a new .25 wire form. Marco & other places showed out of stock/discontinued but vec-tor saw what I posted in a wanted add & sent me to Bob's Pinball stuff & he had the part.

I know it's difficult to tell by just pictures but can anyone notice other parts or things I should work on? Thanks very much.

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It looks like the left side slot is larger than the center? There should be a metal slot piece constraining the slot to the coin size, I think you can swap the left and center so the coin can get in.

You've got to be kidding me! You saw that from a picture & I didn't notice while it's in front of my face? Good eye & thank you.

You're welcome. I've had three different coin doors apart (Gottlieb Solar Ride, Williams Firepower, and a Suzo-Happ on my vpin), and the insert behind the slot to fit a specific coin is a common feature even if the part differs... and I just happened to notice the larger insert.

I noticed something strange on my Firepower. Behind the 1-2-3 4-5-6 targets, there is a switch that there seems no way for it to register. They are hooked up and score points.

Looking at pictures of other Firepower’s, I do not see this. Even how the rubber goes on is different.

Has anyone ever seen this?

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Yup, that’s what it is! Put some drop targets in that sucker @AirWolfNH!

I hopefully plan to join the club soon. I already know I want to add drop targets when I get a firepower. So I figured I might as well start putting them together while I impatiently wait to find my own firepower.

I was able to snag a lot of assorted first generation drop target assemblies off ebay. There was a fair amount of random parts in the lot where I was able to 100% rebuild one drop target bank, and the other bank is about 80% complete....its missing a coil, coil end stop, and target reset plate...all on order currently. I printed out some target decals and they came together pretty nicely.

I know the horseshoe contacts can be finnicky, so i may upgrade to the alternative NMP sensors that dont need the horshoe contacts.

Now I just need the pinball machine!

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Cool beans. So I'm assuming any stock non-drop target Firepower can handle the added drop target feature. I bet it's in this forum if I wasn't to lazy to look for it.

No - you'd need to replace or modify your PF, as the production PF's didn't have the cutout for the standup switch behind the drops (see the blue arrow). AirWolfNH game obviously has a prototype/sample PF - possibly WMS used up the any spare prototype/sample PFs in their initial production runs. The games with drops also have different sized plastics to accommodate the drop targets.

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I figured that part, more of the MPU handling the drops.

Yes both the l2 and l6 software support automatically the drops wired as the stand ups and you do have to wire up the all drops down signal. Playfields that have the rubber switches likely have the needed wires tucked into the harness.

The game does play slower with drops due to the drop absorbing the balls energy.

Mines for sale in the marketplace if anyone is interested. Pickup only in New Hampshire. Make me an offer!

The horseshoe contacts/wipers work fine and won't need adjusting for a long time if set up properly. What is important is you have two horseshoe wipers per target - the wiper in the back position is "contactless" & is their just to double the tension - the tension of a single wiper is not enough & usually causes a problem with making good contact after a while.

The target in the pic on the right has the two contact set up which is how they came from the factory.

The other thing is to have the target's wiper(s) tension adjusted right at the point where it still just drops nicely but doesn't visually look to be catching/dragging the target's fall too much. I usually over adjust the tension to start with then reduce the tension until the drop is just right.

I did my conversion a few years ago & I have never had to adjust any of the drop target wipers even once. Personally, I much prefer the way the game plays overall with the drops.

CPR repro sets have the smaller drop target prototype style plastics added in to their complete sets. Sometimes you can just buy a pair of these drop target plastics on their own on Ebay if someone buys a repro set and uses the standard plastics & does not need the extra proto plastics.

Some really good points! Yeah, I have both horseshoe target wipers on each drop target.

My thoughts on replacing the horseshoe contacts are mainly because some of the wiper contact PC boards aren't in that great of shape, I cleaned and polished them so we'll see how they do. If I have to replace the PC boards anyway I'd figure I might as well upgrade them all. But, I may be able to get by with just buying a few PC boards.

I had a scorpion, which has 11 of these style of drop targets. So I became very familiar with how they work. I rebuilt the drop targets when I first got it and I had the machine for two years without any further troubles.

I spent a bit of time adjusting these drop targets when I put them together but I'm sure I'll need to spend a bit more time fine tuning once they're installed.

I love drop targets and in my mind it just makes sense that this game should have them. I've heard varied responses on how the drop targets affect game play. I guess I'll just have to see once I get a firepower and install these babies!

Oh yeah, I forgot, on mine, I did replace the boards with the Siegecraft boards which added to making them very reliable overall - I also added a a tiny smear of Teflon lube to the boards too.

As Slochar mentioned a direct hit to a drop rebounds slower than a stand up, however a hit to the rubber where a drop is down bounces back super fast. Overall I find it balances out quite nicely & feels just right.

Ha!, I just put my order in for 6 PC boards from Siegecraft. Looking at the pricing of the traditional style boards, it just makes more sense to go with the ones from Siegcraft.

Has anybody seen BOTH the Planetary Pinball V2 and CPR reproduction backglass in person? Is one better than the other? Lit and unlit....

i am selling my firepower if anyone is interested. Pickup only in bokchito , OK
it's one that i put a lot of work into restoring.
Make me an offer.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-firepower-76

Easiest way to spot them is the drop target plastics don't have that extra blue border at the leading edge. When Williams decided to go to standup targets, they did it quickie-style and didn't alter the artwork to enlarge the plastics to cover the gap, they just added that solid blue portion up front.

Richard

Yeah, once you know about the added on blue areas at the front it does look tacked on. Also the overhang you get with original plastics & drop targets doesn't look right.

I am planning on adding a socket to light the saucer holes when the locks are flashing. I’ve never added an extra controlled lamp,just gi in the past.
The sockets that light the green locks have two red stripped wires and two yellow striped.
If I daisy one wire from each lead to the new socket in the same manner, with the diode, will that accomplish my goal ?

That should... I added the same sockets (bayonet to match the rest of the game) to our Firepower here. To be fair, it probably works best with LEDs (like we fitted ours with) rather than incandescents because of the power draw.

No need to add another Diode. Just wire the second bulb in parallel with the original bulb. Wire it in after the stock diode.

I finally got one! It appears to be working well electronically, but It's beat to hell! Cabinet is rough! All the mechs are filthy, shooter rod gummed up, backglass is rough, flippers and slings are pretty weak, legs rusted and one of the leg bolt plates is stripped, coin door dented in, no locks,... I could go on but you guys get the idea. The previous owner put new plastics on it and new LED wolpack displays so its a good starting point.

It's gonna take a lot of work, but I'm excited to get this machine cleaned up and working right!

I'll post more pics as I dig into it tomorrow, had a long drive today getting it so its time for some sleep!

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finding one already working is better than one not booting at all even if it does have some wear.
usually when these have been sitting in some unkept building or storage building for years or decades , they sometimes don't boot or function perfectly.

unfortunately for me rebuilding boards is not my strong suit , usually i just have to replace the entire boards like i did on the firepower i am selling now.
but i do enjoy doing the Cosmetic stuff such as these touch ups i did on the firepower backbox.

and i touched up a six million dollar man pinball playfield and cabinet which i posted about here

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/six-million-dollar-man-restoration-better-stronger-faster

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I agree. Cosmetic/mechanical stuff is a lot easier for me to fix than the electrical stuff. I'm actually pretty excited to go through everything and get it all cleaned and fixed up. Every square inch of this baby has issues in one way or another, its going to be a big prject. Which is exactly what I've been looking for.

First order of business today is is a quick shop out to make it play better than it does now. Im going to clean and rebuild the following: shooter rod area, slings, flippers, clean and gap all switches, and juice the spinner. The pops are pretty responsive so I'm going to leave them alone for the time being.

Larger issues that I'll deal with down the road: cabinet is in awful shape....I'll try to save it but buildingna new one may be easier.

Backglass is missing paint in a lot of areas, before I buy a repo I'm going to try my hand at touching it up.

Playfeild is really worn, sunken as well as lifted inserts, mylar covering everything. I'm thinking a hardtop would be in order but I really want try to fix it myself first, hardtop will be backup plan.

i had to rebuild the flippers on mine too . but i built them using the WPC style flippers to make the flippers snappier.
and Super Lube for works great for juicing spinner.
sometimes the colors on repo backglass don't match the original.

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Restoring my firepower was a blast. Such a great game to work on and it’s all worth it when you finish. In my mind Firepower is my TNA since I don’t have the Danesi masterpiece so I just pretend.

Nice to see more traffic in the club thread.

Didn't have as much time today to work on it as i would have liked but i was able to rebuild the ball shooter assembly and both slings shots. I installed new cabinet switches....I ordered them awhile ago for a different machine never installed them and forgot about them.

The slings were really slugish so i spent some time adjusting the switches so they fire with lots of power.....ha, see what I did there? I'll see myself out.

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Start a resto thread

Will do.

Anyone have a decal for the shooter lane cover or a printable image so I can make my own? mines looking a bit trashed. Somone sells repro apron decals, but I can't find any lane cover decals.

I just made my own. It's not an exact replica but it's close enough and looks better than what I had to start with.

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Anyone else notice that the site http://www.firepowerpinball.com/ is down? It redirects to a page that says the account is suspended. This is pretty disappointing. The site had a lot of great information for firepower. I wonder if it's some sort of a copyright issue?

I believe the site was discontinued... Try wayback machine internet archive.
I think, posted here, was to download what you can from the site before it
goes offline.
I too, am sad about the site being gone; good stuff, RIP.

Thanks for the recommendation! I just went through and downloaded almost everything I could from the archive.