Just went ahead and ordered new trough optos and a switch for the shooter lane. Sanity for a few dollars.

Hey TOM owners.

Just joined the club after previously owning one. I sold my original one for a newer Stern and I missed it, so I had to go get another one.

Now I’m doing the fun part and buying some mods for the pin. In my original TOM pin I had a clock mod that was stationed on the right side of the pin that would flash on and off. The face of the clock looked like the face clock on the headboard of the pin, stationed in the center below the dmd.

I can’t find this mod anywhere and was wondering if someone could help me or has one to sell. Many thanks in advance.

Forget my last post. Pinball Decals has them, but he wants $185 bucks for it. Don’t like it that much.

I've been looking for this mod too. I also did not like that price much. Please do let me know if you find a different source.

Definitely, but it’s not looking too good.

Biggest rip-off mod site on the internet.

Hi, Magical Theatre owners. I have an extra brand new trunk and basement protector available. I think they are $30 and $14 retail, so $44 plus shipping. If someone wants them both for $25.00 plus whatever shipping is, ($5?) message me. I will bubble wrap and ship in small box.

Edit: sold! Thanks.

FEAB85A0-4096-4B96-B2B7-4A326B51508D (resized).jpeg

Hi everybody

I would like to know the missing pieces behind the two screws that are in the white circle. My decor is broken and I would like to replace it, but maybe I'm missing some posts and screws? Thanks a lot if you have some pictures behind the scene.

Thanks a lot for your help.

TOM1 White Circle (resized).jpg

TOM2 (resized).JPG

Looking for same advice. Its getting time to shop out my ToM again, last time was 20+years ago. What would you guys recommend, here is my short list and if you have any comments/pics/suggestions just let me know :

Comet LED kit
Auto Eddy board for the trunk...and magnets?
Titan rubbers - color(s)? or just the standard regular rubber (black)
New "unbreakable" trunk. I still have new OEM ones somewhere.

LMK, Im not to big into mods and only have the spinning tiger saw on it but I'm open for anything cool.

Thanks

ColorDMD if you don’t already have one. It really does give pretty much any DMD game a huge update while at the same time staying totally faithful to what it should be.

LEDs are probably the single biggest upgrade you can do on the PF. I just use Comet sunlight 2 SMD frosted everywhere myself, some pinsider made that recommendation to me once and it’s a good one. Nice and bright but still pretty natural.

Titans are great too, the color wise it’s your call but I think in most situations clear looks pretty good. I don’t use titan posts tho as I prefer the action and color of Cliffy posts.

You don’t need to change your Eddy boards unless your old ones won’t stay adjusted.

Trunk wise if what you have is working you can save the money... I have an unbreakable I haven’t installed cause the original style is hanging on, so I can’t say if it plays different but as it’s softer I assume it will change the action at the trunk.

If you want to stay true to the original incandescent GI lighting on the playfield, I got Comet sunlight warm 2smd and they are gorgeous. Colors in the backglass makes it pop, but still looks classy. I just put the unbreakable trunk in a few days ago, it's the real deal; highly recommended.

TOM (resized).jpg

I used Ingo's trunk pcb and theres an output that I used so that I could attach a circuit to activate a shaker.
Used a trigger circuit and PWM motor control so that I could adjust the shake.

When trunk rotated it set the shaker off.

For anyone interested, I've just made my version of Leon Borre's trunk fix available to print - for free.

https://oshwlab.com/stumblor/pinball-lamp-boards

TOM Trunk Fix > Open in Editor > Fabrication > PCB Fabrication File > Order at JLCPCB

Parts required:
2 x 4P .156 headers
2 x 4P .100 headers
2 x diodes
1 x Omron G5LE-14-12DC 12v relay

The design is free - printing will cost you about $10 for 5 boards.

Enjoy!

pasted_image (resized).png

Hi everybody, I have the picture now. Here it is for all.

Behind the scene (resized).jpg

I'd been asked by a few folks to make my 3D Coin Reject Buttons for ToM ... your wish is my command!

ToM_1_RCP (resized).jpg

Featuring -- what else? -- a rabbit magically appearing from a hat! My coin reject buttons are printed with multiple filaments; in this case, the button & hat print together, and the rabbit is printed separately and then inserted. Available in your choice of translucent color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or white/clear); complimentary matching coin slots are included.

ToM_2_RCP (resized).jpg

Contact me through my website, https://rocketcitypinball.com, or visit my shop here on Pinside:
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1282-rocket-city-pinball/04945-3d-coin-reject-buttons-theatre-of-magic

Trouble in paradise.

Has anyone ever seen a random "Slam Tilt" during game play? I have all slam tilt switches disconnected, along with the tilt bob (I'm a persistent nudger) but for whatever reason, I am getting this reset - happened during an unusually good game, grrr...

Anyone see this? Could it be component related, maybe power supply related? No random game reset, only slam tilt.

I've had this happen to me on two games. In both cases the cause was a bad switch that was in the same row/column as the offending tilt switch. Put the game in switch edge test and do some checking. Thump on the playfield a little and see if any switches activate.

The slam tilt is the coin door slam switch. Might be a short in the door cable or switch, or loose IDC wire in the coin interface board?

Check for a wire short in that column. The switch test might show a clue if there are switches closed that shouldnt be.

Re-seat the switch wires on the CPU board and check for loose wires in the IDC connectors.

Apparently, the slam tilt on the coin door, and the slam switch at the bottom of the cabinet are paralleled. Did some tracing, double-checked the wiring. The switch at the bottom of the cabinet was previously unplugged, and the door switch was tweaked so that it could never make contact.

Re-seated all connectors including the interconnect board, pulled it out and checked for cold solder joints, and tested all switches along with every diode I could find. One of the center ramp targets was intermittently shorted with a wire whisker, so I corrected that. The target bracket was bent back towards the ramp guard, which would cause airballs, so I bent it back to normal. Seems way too flimsy - I'm going to put in some sort of support to prevent that from bending back again. Those switches take a beating. Those switches are not on the slam tilt matrix, so it's unlikely that the short would be causing my issue.

Ran the machine with the glass off, hitting every possible ramp and switch combination I could think of (hit 4 billion on the display), and problem did not repeat itself. Going back into normal use. Hopefully, I stumbled across a reason it happened in the first place. We shall see.

EDIT: The Trough Jam is in place. The trough LED boards have a space for a 5th. detector, but it's not used in the machine, and there are no wires in the connector. All is well with the trough system, although I did have a flaky LED, so I replaced it with a different style IR led, and it works fine.

Aloha all,

I'll be joining the club shortly...

-z

I sold a nice ToM to a non collector in 2011 for $3200. I was pretty pumped as I only paid $2600 for it. I serviced it a few times, he turned out to be a great guy and was my favorite service call. Fast forward 10 years, he's looking to sell. He asked me what the current value was, I told him I'm seeing them listed for $6500 to $7k on average. Not sure if they are selling for that. I thought $6k would be a quick sell price. The game is very much stock, no LED's, no color DMD, no mods. I seem to remember a little moisture damage on the bottom panel. I don't remember any playfield wear and I doubt it's had 100 plays in the last 10 years. It has been recently serviced by someone far more qualified than myself. Is my assessment fair? I'd like to buy it back and give him a fair value, but I'm not paying $6000.

We recently went through a similar issue on a fish tales and after much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands it ended up being failing voltage causing switch issues.

i think it would fly off the shelf at $6k, but i could be wrong.

I wouldnt sell my HUO with LEDS and color DMD, "as-is" for less than $7500.

Just finished replacing the playfield in my Theatre of Magic and added Pinduino controlled GI:

Code: https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/Theatre_of_Magic_interactive_ramps_v2_GI

Let me know if anyone wants any info on how to make something like this for their game or what I did to mine when replacing the playfield.

Screen Shot 2018-11-29 at 10.33.42 PM (resized).png

Looking at a theater of magic from a friend. He got it around 4 years ago from a woman who stored it after it came off route. It has the spinning saw, but the saw is grey plastic. What is the story on the spinning blade? Did sample games get them?

Its a mod.

I think most games have them at this point.

Some are better than others...

Personally i like the plastic saw better.

You have to install the modded ROM to get it to work.

Game was originally designed with the saw in mind. It got axed at some point due to the bean counters at williams which is why it is in the software so no, it is just *a mod*.

This machine has not been shopped since he bought it 4 years ago. I know, because I was supposed to buy it (long story). It came from a woman who was connected to a bar that closed down. It had been in storage with a fh for years after the bar closed down along with various other bar equipment.

So, the chances that the operator who was too cheap to replace the ramps (blown out) or fix the trunk (there is a taped on message) bought a mod, seem slim. Game is stock. No leds. Black Rubber. So again, the question is did sample games get the spinning saw from the factory like the sinking building on earthshaker, the moving dalek topper on dw, etc.

Does it have the pop-up center post/plastic disk between the flippers? Its controlled by the poof targets.

If so. I would buy it immefiately.

Agreed. If it has the pop-up then snag it now. If not, then it really does confirm that it was a mod add-on (a popular one as mentioned).

No center post. I traded a friend and am fine with the deal regardless. Needs ramps, leds, cleaning, the trunk fixed, etc.

So I’m seeing these TOMs with brass plated
- side rails
- lockdown bar
- coin door

When these get sent in, do you have to prep them first, or does the service do that for you as well?

- Ballpark estimate for the total cost? (“Asking for a friend”)

I sent mine off and included re-brassing the wireforms, Spirit Ring, and I also had them do the ramp flaps, entrance ramp itself too and bought a new set of brass plated legs and bolts while I was at it. I did NOT do the coindoor. To me I don't like that look. Everything came out to $850 about 6 years ago.

Damage was done before i got this. The sticker was loose and the ball hitting it caused the artwork to crack.

I have seen an insert decal set but it doesnt cover the eddy sensor insert. Has anyone made a decal for this?

20210415_201905 (resized).jpg

20210415_201920 (resized).jpg

Mine has this mod.

Can you please post a pic? I don't think I have seen this before.

I did a quick google search for Theatre of Magic Prototype, and the first result brought me back to Pinside. Check out the 2nd photo in this post....

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-this-a-prototype-tom

Wow! Now that's a center post!

Sure. I'll post it tomorrow morning.

Got a few questions:

1) Does anyone know the size of the bulb the trunk "candle" light mod takes? Looks like a 555, but it's clearly smaller. I'd like to change it from red to purple.

2) Does anyone know who sells cliffy's for ToM?

3) Forgot what I wanted to ask...

Thanks

cliffy does .

[email protected]

Why thankyeh.

marioparty34

Here're the pics. Someone added a piece of clear plastic to the solenoid shaft to, I assume, keep the post insert from spinning back, forth and upside down. Works, but doesn't work that great. I'll see if I can rectify it somehow because it's an eyesore.

The post pops up when you strike the poof target.

IMG_20210417_093844186 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210417_093848293 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210417_094203 (resized).jpg

That's weird. My proto with red boards (see post 920 in this thread) says MAGIC on the playfield above the post and POST below it. There is no wording on the red post itself. An insert for SHOOT AGAIN was added above and to the left of the left flipper. And the target that raises the post says RAISE MAGIC POST on the playfield instead of POOF.

This is a regular machine that's been modded.

Cool, I found it. Where'd you ever buy a ToM proto? That must be worth a pretty penny, eh?

I remember that mod from a few years ago. Its pretty cool!

I like the way the shoot again lamp was incorporated into the raising post.

But since after playing 1000's of games on it, I can get all 8 illusions on ball one, with a couple extra balls.

So, it doesnt need it.

More than 20 years ago an arcade one town over from me had a ToM prototype and I talked to the manager every couple months wanting to buy it but he always refused. This kept up for over a year until I stopped in to ask yet again and found the game wasn't there any more. I asked the manager and he said they had moved it to another one of their arcades. I quietly asked another employee if he knew where it went and he told me it was in another city about 70 miles away. So I drove there and made that location's manager an offer of $1800 for the ToM proto which he accepted and we loaded up the game and I drove home with it. It was very dirty but cleaned up nicely (I used Q-tips to clean the undersides of all the inserts before installing LEDs). I have since added ColorDMD, 3-D translite, gold powder-coated legs and leg bolts, rabbit-in-a-hat shooter rod, drilled out and backlit the clock in the speaker panel, and replaced the trunk board and trunk motor and opto interrupter. As backup I have a pair of new ramps, a plastic set, extra slingshot plastics, and several spare trunks (including two of the new unbreakable ones).

Put a pin2dmd in my tom today. Currently running 1.2 but if anyone has the soren patch for 1.3 please let me know.