Standup targets (especially with new foam) play much faster than the drop version. This is one case IMO that the original style (drops) does not play as well as the modified/cheaper standups. It does make the rules more obvious ball to ball, though, especially for relighting the kickback.

The 3 proms to 1 eprom mod certainly makes the mpu use less power and is more reliable - doesn't do anything to make it more responsive and play faster though.

Angle is too flat on the 1995 WPC version of the mechs. The original is fine as it's one piece, it's the older WMS flipppers that are the bad responsive ones. The system 11 style/early wpc style is fine as well, the stroke is the same.

My machine has system 7 firepower software in it custom written using information from this site:
http://gamearchive.askey.org/Pinball/Manufacturers/Williams/PinBuilder/text/williams_lvl7_programming.html#compatibility

Requires a system 7 board, obviously. All of the original ruleset was implemented from scratch and the following was added: (I'm probably forgetting some of the features....)

2x/3x scoring during multiball (depends on balls in play)
Spinner when lit counts value on another player display so you can see how much you're collecting
You can requalify locks during multiball by completing the standups
You can set the kickback to be lit at the beginning of the ball

A couple other people have this software as well and I know it made it to the TPF either last year or the year before.

The metal on the outlane to the left really funnels the ball down there I think you'll find in gameplay that it's not too tight at all. Fill the hole nearer the insert.... I wonder if someone was trying to make your game even harder by moving that?

Now that I'm looking at your main pic closer, I think your correct location for that guide is someone in between your 2 existing holes. Easy black paint touchup but you'll have to fill both of them to stick it in the middle. Bummer!

You put 3 balls in it, but you can set it to 3 or 5 ball (or, anything really from 1-9) - seems to vary by territory. Solid states were always 3 ball by me growing up in central NJ. Other areas might have been different.

No, that's the lamp matrix resistor.

They're actually in good shape for those, usually the board is really burnt under them.

It's specifically programmed to do this, the outhole switch has to be seen and the coil fire to move it into the trough - if the outhole switch is not seen and flagged, the game will fire another ball into play.

I added a post to the right part of the under apron area above the trough to help prevent this... just a metal post, no rubber.

Pic posted on this thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/firepower-intermittent-new-ball-but-no-advance-#post-5182270

No, the object is to make sure the ball doesn't rocket up the trough. You need a ball's width on either side of the post or it could get stuck there, unless you move the post over a lot, which defeats the purpose of the fast moving ball.

If it falls on the post towards the shooter lane, you've still accomplished what you need to do, which is get the ball to rest on the outhole kicker switch so the software can pick it up properly. (at that angle, it's rolling to the left)

Yes and yes.

If you continuously are getting the audit mode 1497 code, your ram isn't holding its checksum byte for some reason. When it boots up with the audit code there, the os rom has cleared all the nvram and has reset it back to factory settings.

Cycling the power fast enough to avoid the newly-loaded checksum clearing is what's happening - but it means that your battery power isn't getting properly to the ram.

22 uF and 100 ohm resistor

I don't think it's on the schematics anywhere though

You sure that wasn't one of the Alan Meyer repro's from that time period? (The fade at the top was more orange than red, and there wasn't as good as/any dithering in the color fade)

I looked up on RGP the discussions that were going on then - 1988 is when WMS apparently made the 2nd run with the pink lettering and thin glass. 1996-up are the Alan Meyer screens used to make glass, earlier versions were missing the correct dithering at the top in the firepower logo, and the later versions I believe corrected this. I have that version with the bad dither - when east coast shows come back I'll take a peak at Mayfair's current offering as IIRC it's been corrected.

That's a typo on firepower pinball's graphic. It's 6802/6808.

That's fine attention to detail there.

Those 2 that look burned up? They're bad....

https://resistorcolorcodecalc.com/

white-brown-gold-gold=91 ohm

You used to be able to tell from the physical size of the resistor what wattage but not so much anymore. If they are the same size are your burned originals, they will be fine though, just don't go smaller unless you know for sure they are 1/2 watt.

I don't think the circuit calls for 91 ohm there though, I don't have a legible set of schematics handy for that boardset so you'll have to double check the correct value. The gold/silver bands never are the start of the resistor calc which helps you ID what value they actually are.

Nope, no wiring hackery.

Fixed software.

Every Firepower I've seen or owned had 44's in the backbox.

It's already been done.

It blits a 2 or 3 depending on scoring level into the left part of the ball in play display. Normal play ball in play display shows 1 (where is blank and 1 is the ball in play, or 2 or 3, etc.) - when multiplied scoring, that display shows 2_ or 3_ for 2x, 3x, blanking the ball in play but flipping back and forth. It is 7 digit, and requires a level 7 mpu board. It's a complete rewrite of the game into the newer (blue) OS rom using information from: http://gamearchive.askey.org/Pinball/Manufacturers/Williams/PinBuilder/text/williams_lvl7_programming.html#compatibility

http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_d7f.html is how you physically install the new display set. The wiring for the 2x/3x version's displays may or may not be different than that, I'll have to double check, but the sound board wiring definitely is. You have to make a short new harness to plug your sound board (and commas for the displays) into the upper right connector on a system 7 board. The software referenced on that page is yet another version, which doesn't have 2x/3x scoring, but some other kind of gameplay with "missions" during multiball.

dothedoo and Gizmonic both have this installed in their firepowers (obviously I do too) - Bill's was at the Texas Pinball Festival either last year or the year before it.

It's definitely not plug and play.... if you had a head harness for the displays from a parted out system 7 you could use that instead of modifying what's there.

The hardest part is mounting the credit/ball in play display properly. The other 7 digit displays all use 2 of the same mount points from the removed 6 digit displays. Luckily on the 4 or so machines I've changed displays on I've been pretty lucky in getting that alignment correct. (Flash, Timewarp, and TriZone are the other 3.... TriZone I've never broke 1,000,000 on for some reason I used to kill that machine in 1980 but now, nope.)
display-sound-signal harness diagram copy (resized).png

Oliver's rom doesn't require sound board harness changes. The blue rom which is the 2x/3x variant does because it's a complete rewrite using a different operating system where the sounds are activated via the extra added PIA on the system 7 boards. I'm pretty sure the display strobes ended up being in a different area as well, again, because it's using the blue system roms instead of the modified green ones in the Oliver romset, which were an added on to available space setup vs. something that was purpose designed to be used with the 7 digit displays.

I really like the playfield multiplied scoring feature which is why I didn't use the Oliver romset as is. The original 2x/3x was hacked into Oliver's just 7 digit mod without the mission addition, but that got 'sloppy' fast. Firepower was pretty much at the limit (ram, mostly) of what system 6 could do.

And of course, everyone fixed the right special staying on in attract mode. If only there was one less lamp some earlier in the playfield it would have ended up in column 6 and been part of the original attract mode. The documentation makes it look like there's an empty lamp there, but there isn't - system 6 uses it as a carry, even though there's no physical lamp attracted to it.

There was an ongoing discussion on this as well in the classic stern club thread and it was pointed out that the drawings in the parts catalogs actually shows the Williams switches incorrect as well.... personally, I feel like a contact face should face a contact face, regardless of what the drawings showed. Maybe the drawings being wrong for a couple years is why they put so many of them together incorrectly.

No.

Try disconnecting the connector to the insert board next time it happens and see if the issue goes away. With a lamp matrix issues could come from an row or column that's in common.

I'd check every single diode in the game to make sure it's not shorted out against something nearby. You have normal lamps in there or LED's?

That's really, really, bizarre. It's running the "fire completed" lamp animation when you complete power targets..... it should never do this.
Then it's adding lamps to it.... should also never do this.

What kind of mpu board is in the game?

Try the RD board to rule out the playfield wiring.

The power targets are doing what they should until they get to completion.

It serves the same function with incandescent flashers, it prewarms the flasher so that it doesn't burn out prematurely.

It's on https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=856 all the sets that are listed as "bootleg" as mods.
This is the author of most of them's page with info on it: http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

Alan Meyer ran them back in the 90s and they've been sold for decades (literally) by Mayfair as "NOS 2nd run". Original version didn't have the correct dithering fade in the firepower name, but that was corrected.

First time CPR ran them, sure. So I guess it's first licensed run?

I think the original fades more to red. Can you post a farther away pic? I have one of the 'bad' dither ones but not in a position to go take a pic of it right now for comparison.... couple days maybe if I get near it.

left and right drop bank resets on the games that have drop banks

the code was never deprecated that still 'resets' solenoids.

You have a parallel wound coil in there stock is series wound double check that you moved the wires correctly vs pinwiki to do that upgrade.

Still doesn't matter shipped with series wound.... but was switch cap on cab. So my follow up was going to be if his game was from Germany as they seemed to require the caps on switches that could spark in that era.

The value is saved every time you advance or decrement it. There's no need to move to the next or previous adjustment.

The adjustment code is (in english) a big loop:

START
read adjustment, display
if pressing credit button, advance or decrement audit and save, then loop to start to display new value.
if not pressing credit button, loop to start to display value.

Every time the audit is put onto the display, it is re-read from the cmos ram. System 6 in particular is ram starved and there wasn't any space available for niceties like saving a temporary value somewhere in case you changed your mind.

Try it and see. System 7/11 work the same way.

This advice of advancing probably comes from WPC era where you have to specifically save rather than turn off, or possibly other manufacturer's like Gottlieb, that one I'm not sure of off the top of my head (I can look later) but bally-stern-williams of this era all save the values as you change them directly.

Are any of your settings saving?

If you have 18 on your match display you press the credit button and the numbers on the player displays change. You press advance to get into test.

You are in the correct area when the player one display shows 1497 2 or 6 depending on your ROM revision. Press advance from there to get to 18.

Yes, many people myself included use the original boards. Do you know if they are working though? Board value goes as: tested not working < untested < tested working. Any damage to them obvious? (Battery corrosion on mpu board, old sockets; Driver board any questionable rework/burnt traces/27ohm lamp resistor excessive burn?)

Probably so that if you plugged in the connector in the wrong spot it would still work? Sounds like a hack for sure.

That's the type of buyer you don't want to deal with. They'll bug you for months after you bought the machine about every little thing.

A lot of the people that burn roms will also burn these. TL866 works with modern systems, but won't do >21v roms (later versions won't go over 16v>, but Quench came up with a mod for that).

I have tried all 3 of the Oliver rom mods for Firepower, and as a bonus, so you don't have to deal with using his patching program, they are on IPDB as 'bootleg'.

It is likely that the mission stuff that requires the system 7 board could be rewritten to work on the system 6 system unless he's using some very large amount of extra ram for something, but he's pretty much retired from the rom-modding for many years at this point.

They should never have stopped making the CS version. I'm glad I picked up 3 of them.... one has a 2532->2732 adapter permanently living on it for those chips.

I have some adapter boards on order from oshpark to stick 27512's in a 2532-type socket, I would really prefer to just have 512's in all my games. Nothing better than eeproms speed in erasing/write cycle.... although I've noticed that they don't last as long as eproms do re: cycles. But they are about a buck each so no big deal.

The problem I'm having now is that you can't put 3x ZIF sockets in a row on the Kahout board the center one just doesn't fit. I doubt the adapter board is going to help that, in fact, might not even fit stock.... I'll know as soon as they get here.

I also had a bunch of boards made to mate a modern eeprom onto a 2532 footprint, but I really suck at surface mount soldering. Might get a hot plate and try that instead. All in the quest to not have to deal with 40 year old chips.

That depends on if you *HAVE* to have the planet area 100% correct to the original. It's actually one of the easier busy areas to touch up on a game as long as you match the colors correctly - it's so busy that yeah, if you went close up comparison next to an original, you'd spot differences, but from playing position you'd never notice, and it looks good.

You're going to have to flatten the inserts anyway if you hardtop it, which of course is easier since you can just sand away. I don't know if scratches in the inserts show through on a hardtop though.

What flavor of rom is this? The Oliver one with the missions? (Also on ipdb). Or some other variant?

Looks fine means nothing. Need to test voltages.

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.

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.

Which version?

https://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

system 6, system 6 + 7 digit displays, or system 7 version?

None of them should require new sound roms.

Looks like IPDB scrubbed all the pre-patched versions of these. Pinball universe might have them.

If you want to order from someone Astill entertainment is a good place to get them.
https://www.pinballrom.com/roms

Yeah, email Dave and check, he should be able to provide them. Give him the link to the patches if he doesn't already have them.

Reading what correctly? But yes, all of the seven digit mods other than the /10 need seven digit displays with the controller board. The top stud mounts of the 6 digit display is where you put the 7's tops, you have to make new mounts for the bottom holes and the credit/match display - the c/m is the hardest part to get right since there's no existing holes/studs to locate it.

The master board can go on the back where it fits, and you will need the ribbon cables as well. Easiest is to buy an LED replacement set but make sure you get ribbon cables with them, some/most do not include them.

The seven digit mods usually need some rewiring of the display signals as well.

Seven digit display firepowers (there's at least 3 different versions) require special software to control the 7 digit display board, which Rottendog lacks.

The software patch for the most common one(s) is available at:
http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

AFAIK it's not included in the RD board.

If the outhole kicker is firing the software sets a flag that lets the trough count routine that a ball arrived newly arrived there. If that flag isn't set the game ejects it instead. I have had a fast moving ball drain and put itself in the trough resulting in the relaunch.

Make sure the outhole kicker actually fired in your similar situation if it did there's more to research.

Iirc the trough count routine weights all of its switches equally and does a count of all locations a ball can be and compares it to what it thinks you should have to determine locks and ball end.

Hit one target with the glass off. How much score do you get and look at HOW it adds it on..... does it do it 100 points at a time? IIRC it was a design decision by Eugene Jarvis to write the software that way, so that there was a bunch of exciting stuff happening. It's definitely normal for the score queue to get built up and take a while for it to come down.

Which updated code? Differences between L-2 and L-6 are a coin preset only. I don't think Oliver changed the way the scoring goes on those enhanced versions/7 digit update. The other 7 digit update (blue romset), no, it does it the same way.

Not almost like, actually like - that's exactly what they did. Other makers did it too (bally/stern.... see seawitch's sound effects when you get drops down after downing the bank once, the DUTTA DUTTA DUTTA DUTTA sound goes 5 times for each, while it adds on the 1k points) Bally you might not have noticed as the generic sounds on the earlier games don't really lend themselves to noticing.

The main loop of all this era game checks and reacts to switches, when idle, checks a score interval timer, which if not expired, adds any waiting scores queued. That timer is what causes the extra long time to empty the score queue. It just so happens on Williams games that an exciting sound effect is played there. (At least to me..... I know I shouldn't be shooting the 1-6 standups unless I need them, but I like the sound effect)

There are various software mods out there

couple of variants
http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

and an alternate 7 digit requiring system 7 board

Mayfair amusements usually has stock on fp backglass.

It is not.

Yes just electrolytic cap and resistor to give a solid pulse. Not sure if in schematics or not.

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Williams_System_3_-_7#Special_Solenoids

The driver board switch matrix PIA U11 (Upper right corner, it's mounted vertically) is the first thing I'd look at if it's switches.

If it's an AMI branded chip I'd really look closely at that one.

Next time it happens leave the balls exactly where they are and go into switch test and see what switches show as closed. Since there's no drop targets on a stock firepower, you should get JUST the trough switches (or any ball locks you have filled) showing, and ONLY those switches. If there's extras showing (the switch test walks through all the switches that are shown as closed) it might not end the ball (for instance, if the shooter lane switch is shown as closed).

Post the results of the switch test at this point.

Missing diode for lamp matrix

It's a bug in the software. I forget exactly what the reason was. I'm pretty sure the high score gets recorded correctly though are you sure you're not misreading the hstd as your game score (hstd lamp lit when hstd on display.... or just on a reboot see what the hstd is)

I used to know I had notes on it somewhere but can't find them.... something with a variable being needed possibly? I thought it was a firepower thing but never looked at the other games as I'd never noticed it on those.

It gives a consistent pop. Does nothing for correctly adjusted switch though and with the performance on em style pops of which joker poker is one im not so sure it's an improvement at all... I put it on mine and I didn't notice a difference. It would prevent it from locking on though if the high voltage switch contacts decided to weld themselves together.

...and the system 7 plugs that can be cross connected and sometimes have the wrong color connector installed making it REALLY easy to do that. Ugh....

Probably popped the solenoid fuse. Not isolated to special solenoids if they are all out. The activation switches for special solenoids are not part of the switch matrix only the secondary scoring switches are