Purple flasher domes with mirror blades looks pretty good on mine.

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Anyone redid their cabinet? Is there a good source for decals? It’s be nice if Rad-Cals existed for this game.

I bought these. They seem like pretty good quality and a nice matte finish. I’ll post photos once the cab is done. Took about two months to receive them.

https://pinballdecalseu.com/shop/the-shadow-pinball-cabinet-decals-set/

It does take awhile to get them but they are nice.

I am also looking for some good decals. I bought a set for 3 month ago and had to send them back because the color was far from matching. The bleu tended to purple...

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I've had my Shadow torn apart since April as part of a full restoration. I got busy over the summer and finally got back to working on the playfield. The original playfield had a lot of sanctum wear, so I had to repair that and airbrush the entire gray area. I also applied a waterslide decal for the sanctum lettering. I just finished the final clear coat today and wanted to share some pics.

The clear is Omni MC161 shot with a cheap Harbor Freight spray gun. I'll be letting this cure for 10 weeks before sanding and buffing. I've also got a CPR Gold playfield that I've cleared. The plan is to look at them side by side after buffing and decide which one to use and which to sell.

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Nice job there. The waterslide decal (like the one I did) has only the ever slight outline of the decal. Which won't be seen installed in the game. Your clear looks awesome and its not even sanded and buffed yet. I think you will be pleased with either one at the conclusion.

Here is the ironic part. I just restored my friend's Shadow with new cabinet decals from https://pinballdecalseu.com/shop/the-shadow-pinball-cabinet-decals-set/ . They came through much more purple than his Shadow which had somewhat faded artwork (the more purple was his preference). I ordered a set for my Shadow since they installed nicely and were of good quality. I have been told that the blue color is faded purple which was stock. The set I ordered from the same vendor were completely different (much to my liking since they were more of the blue variant). So, not sure what the standard is, but I believe it is a crap shoot what you may receive. The picture shows the Shadow I restored with the new the decals installed, and the set I ordered for my Shadow are the ones in the foreground.

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That’s interesting… I like the blue set but shouldn’t the Shadows scarf be red? So it matches the red scarf on the PF? The one in the blue set of decals definitely looks orange to me instead of red.

The "orange" does change more to the red as it goes.

Thanks @epeabs. You were an inspiration with your excellent writeup on the work you did on your friend's Shadow. I'm working on the cabinet now - I tried sanding off the front decal and it took forever, then tried the heat gun approach for the side decals and that worked much better, with minimal glue left behind.

Has anyone ever seen an issue where hitting the right ramp / left diverter ring (switch 77) also awards the left ramp / left diverter ring when it activates switch 75? It's a little thing, but I always feel like I'm cheating when I can get two rings with one ramp hit.

Here’s another side by side of the colors. Lighting in the room does make it different. Final dial in now to get the bugs out but should be ready for Pintastic NE show in a few weeks.

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I like the original playfield better. CPR blues are off.

Have you checked the diodes for those switches? A bad diode can cause switch misreads on the matrix, but it typically would happen with more than just one switch I would think. Worth looking at those in any case.

Yeah that is definitely the biggest issue with the CPR. But having a brand new play field with no wear at all may tip the scales. Not going to think about it till late December when I sand/polish.

I had my original professionally restored so it is perfect.

Anyone have a pic of the battlefield electric motor set up where the brass gear rides on the white gear teeth? Interested if your brass gear touches the mini playfield bracket or not. Installed a mantis mini playfield bracket and the gear looks like it is touching the bottom.

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Just got into it, and the diodes are all testing normal on those switches.

I had a similar issue ,look at my post I think 8001 in this thread,ended up filing that edge to get some clearance for the gear shaft

Will do!

I'm not sure i put the coils back how they are suppose to be on the diverters. When in solenoids test if the system says diverter left, does the ball suppose to go left or does the diverter suppose to be left , so the ball goes right. Does it really matter because i had a hard time tightening them. Does the game use logic at some point to force the diverter to the left or right position ? Tnx!

as far as i know the game does not know what position the diverters are in , in the solenoid test if i says "diverter left" that means it is activating the left solenoid not pushing the diverter left , which way it points entirely depends on what direction you have it pointing when you tighten the set screw.

as long as they work when you push the button you are good to go.

The game does know the position of the left diverter for the purpose of the skill shot - when the ball is in the shooter lane, have a look at which skill shot is lit on the DMD and then confirm that the diverter on the PF is pointing in the same direction. If they are different then you need to switch the 2 coils around.

Of course you are right manny.
Totally blanked on the skill shot selection,!I will go for the skill shot if I am in the mood for vengance but usually ignore it as too risky,I have not seen the extra ball in the selection for many months

Hey everyone - I have a Shadow that needs some love. The mini playfield motor, gearbox, and paddle are shot. I have no idea how to work on this, and was checking if someone here has done this and/or would do this. I believe I have most of the parts purchased to complete the job (new pinion gearset, bracket, motor). Any help would be appreciated - I can do most pinball repairs but this is beyond me.

Mike

was thinking about this on the drive to work, i don't recall there being a sensor or switch to detect the position of the diverter so it must just use the change in state of the left blue button to decide the diverter is in the left or right position ?

My Shadow is in pieces so I can't check, but does it really know the state of the diverter before you make the shot? It will obviously detect which direction the ball went when either the left or right wireworm switches gets triggered, and award you the appropriate skill shot. If you don't make the shot in time then nothing happens, but I don't see why it needs to know beforehand unless it updates the display (which I don't think it does).

This is all from memory though.

I do believe the display is updated with a visual cue of which skill shot you are "choosing" based on the current state of the diverter. And it will change the diverter at the beginning of the ball, I think to "default" to the side that doesn't have the ring lit, although I'm not certain of its criteria here.

It does show you what skill shot side you are aiming for. Source: playing Shadow right now!

Ok, my memory sucks then. So thinking about it further, the game is controlling the direction of the diverter so of course it knows what direction it is facing and doesn't need a switch. One of the two coils is engaged in code so it knows what direction the diverter is facing.

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i will double check tonight but as far as i remember my machine does not automatically change the diverter to either the flashing or the lit side

You might be right. Maybe it just always diverts it right at the start? I'll check mine tonight too.

I know it changes it because 95% of the time I want it to feed my left flipper for the start scene shot, and I usually (maybe always?) have to change it to divert left before launching.

My skill shot registers backwards as well. I would think it would go by the microswitch as to which was the diverter is pointed

Manny65 What do you mean to switch the coils around? Mine is backwards as well and would like to fix.

Thanks

nick

The diverter has 2 coils, let's say that currently Coil A is on the left side of the diverter and Coil B is on the right. So you need to switch Coil A to be on the right side of the diverter and Coil B to be on the left. This will fix the issue such that the diverter points the same way as the lit skill shot on the DMD

Correct and this is why if the coils a switched the game doesn't realise and consequently shows the wrong skill shot on the DMD

Yes if you have one of the two rings on a ramp already lit, then at the start of the next ball (whether that be from a drained ball or a locked ball) if the diverter is not already in the direction of the unlit ring, then the diverter will automatically switch to that direction. Of course if both rings on a ramp are lit, or equally both are unlit, then the diverter won't automatically change it's position

Huh. I have never noticed this. I'm not the most observant though.

Finally figured it out. Not only did I have the coils on the wrong sides for the left diverter, switch 75 and 76 plugs were swapped as well. Now the rings are registering as they should.

Incorrect info,manny has it right as per below

Oh, and the two left ring lights were wired backwards as well... so it was a three for one...

I tried out your suggestions to see what happens but the Shadow knows . The first option of manually changing the diverter, the next time you hit the left blue button it switches the highlighted shot on the DMD but doesn't switch the diverter (I'm guessing it powers the appropriate coil but given it's already now facing that way the diverter doesn't change). Option 2 was an interesting approach and looks to initially work (it auto-plunges the ball on closing the door so I can't change the diverter again) but then at the next ball plunge the diverter corrects itself.

Looking at it further the machine knows which is the left and right coil for the diverters (as per the solenoid table). On power up of the machine it will pulse one of the coils on each of the diverters (although it does vary b/n power ups as to which one is pulsed), regardless it would always knows the starting direction of both diverters. After this I believe the machine keeps track of the diverter direction in memory, as it simply toggles the direction in the memory register whenever the blue button is pressed and then fires the appropriate coil for that direction. Having the diverter direction held in memory allows the machine to determine if the diverter needs to be switched (at the next ball launch) dependent upon which rings have been obtained and is why having the coils switched around the wrong way causes the game to highlight the wrong skill shot as the memory register is opposite to the actual direction of the diverter. It also explains the behaviour in the above 2 tests

One thing I discovered back a bit in regards to the ramp switches, both sides are active during the skill shot regardless of the diverter direction as I didn't have the ramp plastic to stop airballs, the diverter was facing right but the ball launched up over the top of the diverter and landed on the wireform behind it, running down to the left micro-switch where to my surprise I was awarded points for the skill shot.
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I played around with it just a little for the initial post but did not notice it reverting but thanks for the correction . I did notice that you are rewarded the skill shot for whichever side ramp switch gets activated regardless of dmd side so functionally the dmd is just providing a visual clue of which way the diverter is pointing.

It would have been an interesting option to have an "auto diverter" setting that would flip to the unmade side say during final battle or vengance or as a difficulty setting such as requiring 2 ramp switch hits per side before the diverter switches sides

I got a six-way combo last night...what’s the biggest combo number that can be achieved on The Shadow?

Got mine switched around and everything is registering correctly. I forgot how broke down I had this game and could've easily swapped position on the coils when putting it back together. Thanks for your help!

Yes while the game knows the direction of the diverters, it is not used in the game code other than the visual cue for the skill shot. Certainly could do a lot more with it, that said it still remains one of my favourites - challenging but achievable and lots of fun

Nice!! Not sure what the max combo number is but that'd have to be close - what was your combo shots?

That’s awesome! Best I have gotten is four. I think I remember reading the highest is seven. And worth one billion points if memory serves. Not sure if that’s true as I could be remembering wrong or the quote I was reading could have been incorrect. Six is awesome though!

I don’t think there is a limit.

1 Billion points? I would highly doubt that as it surely would have been exploited on a video somewhere. Not that I've ever hit more than 3 lol

If you combo into vengeance then combo for the vengeance super that will be around 300 million. I’m gonna test and see.