I'll take a look at it. I suspected something of this nature, especially seeing the machine working hard to power everything going on. I can see plenty if dimming throughout the gameplay. I have a brand new external power board from @DumbAss, it's probably time to go ahead and overhaul this machine - everything else is in top notch shape.

I checked over the fuses and didn't see anything suspect. I'll start testing voltages on the power board. Thanks for jumping in to lend a hand.

Thanks. I'll be doing that ASAP. Thanks for weighing in on it.

Hello, probably doing this wrong, but... I have agreed to buy a ToM and am picking up in 4 days. Never owned a pin before, but have owned CRT based Midway/Williams machines from that era. The unit I'm getting doesn't seem to have had any mods (fine by me, I prefer stock condition), yet I know that some upgrades are no-brainers due to changes in tech over the years. For example on my Killer Instinct machine, I'd be a fool to try to replace the HD with another physical plate HDD. Instead SSD replacement was the obvious choice (more reliable, cheaper, lower power, etc)

The unit I'm getting was home use, and believed to be from 2nd owner. Thinking about an LED upgrade... in the same spirit of the SSD upgrade mentioned above.... i.e. it would have been a obvious better/cheaper option at the time if the tech was available. Is there a particular vendor that has shown to be head and shoulders above others?

Hey OreoFlapjacks

There's going to be 100 answers and none are definitive. There's so much personal opinion here. With that said, here's mine.

1. There's absolutely no upgrades that are mandatory. If something broke, fix it. But Bally/Williams games don't have a set of things required to "bulletproof" them (using vid terminology)

2. I've been slow to embrace LEDs (mostly because some people do it so horribly IMHO). But IMHO, if you go with LEDs, you must get the LEDOCD board (for matrix lights) or GIOCD for general illumination. Without the respective board, you'll lose all the fading and potentially have bad flickering. By "fading" I mean that a light will no longer be able to be 10% bright, 50% bright, 90% bright, etc. It will just be one or off. This doesn't bother some people, it bothers me.

3. The next item to seriously consider is a ColorDMD. While they are really amazing, you don't play the game on the DMD so it's not essential. Ok, well, TOM has a goofy virtual pinball mode that you do play on the DMD.

Being a "don't like modz very much" guy, those are the only ones I'd consider. But what's important is what you think

Thanks so much for good advice! I've seen the ones with and without the OCD boards, and I'm ashamed to say... I didn't know what the difference was! I'll prob stick to the monochome DMD, as I think it adds to the authenticity of the period....

I have a "guy" who is the local expert tech, but I expect I'll do more and more of the work myself as I become familiar with it.

Glad to be here.

The colorDMD adds a lot to the game.

On this game get the LCD version.

Smooth font looks factory.

It makes the screen match the rest of the game.

Photos / Videos will not show the LEDOCD benefit very well. It's something you really need to see in person.

As for the ColorDMD... I've been doing pins for 18+ years and only recently have I got 2 ColorDMDs. I've considered them too expensive for a limited value. All of my pin friends have ColorDMD on all their DMDs, but I held out. Now that I've lived with 2 of them, it's hard to not have them.

I don't like the smooth mode on any games, including TOM. It was set that when when I picked up the game, so I changed it. I prefer DotsXL. Although I'm pretty sure I'd prefer the LED version. I'd like to do a side by side comparison someday.

The LED dots look exactly like what you would have expected a WPC machine with color to look like. The LCD color DMD's do not look factory, and look worse with the smoothing (in my opinion).

While a side-by-side would be nice to do, it's not needed. The LED dots are literally exactly what WPC machines would have looked like with color plasma screens, it's fantastic.

I have both versions in stock.

After testing all the fonts and features. I ended up with either the dots xl or the smooth on my game.

I got my first TOM three months ago and my family has been playing it a lot but we've not had a single game where the game worked as it was designed. The trunk will lockup, the magna saves won't work, a switch or two will be out of adjustment. Something won't work right until you go through your machine. So be ready to update the ROM, replace some fuses or switches, update to Smart Eddy boards, and replace some plastics. Watch some videos on the game rules / modes so you know how things should operate. Remove the glass and get ready to recreate some of those modes rolling the ball around to see where and what to fix.

There's a lot to unpack here. I guess I'd start by saying... These games are from 1995 and each has had a unique life experience. Some have had hard lives, some easy lives, some have been worked on by terrible repair people and some have been worked on by top notch techs.

I wouldn't make any assumptions about how one TOM plays because of how your TOM plays.

I just picked mine up last week and, while I enjoy repairing Bally/Williams games, this one is in great shape for it's age. All original, no LEDs. I did just rebuild one GI connector. But everything else works great. I didn't need new switches, eddy boards, etc.

So @oreoflapjacks, I'm crossing my fingers your TOM is closer to mine than @jesse-fowler's example.

Yeah hopefully your TOM is more like @altan's.

BTW altan I have a bookmark to your site to review your Star Wars Amplifone Deflection Board Repair but I've been too busy working on the TOM. Thank you for keeping all that stuff out where people can learn from all your experience. Oh and the mirrors in your gameroom make it look as big as a pinball museum!

Awesome! I’m glad it helped. Everyone sharing experiences / repairs is part of what keeps this hobby going.

Sadly, I moved a couple of years ago to a smaller place and I no longer have those mirrors anymore.

Was playing my Theatre of Magic yesterday for a "while". Maybe 45 minutes. All of sudden it started resetting. Never did that before. Timing was when I press a flipper button or both together.

Let it "cool down overnight", still happens this morning. (sigh)

I'm about to clean (rubbing alcohol) the pins on the power board, make sure the board is tight to the backbone (for grounding), and reseat all the connectors to the power board. Then if that doesn't work, I'll pull the board and look at reflowing solder joints on the board.

ANYTHING ELSE to consider before I start working on it?

-Rob

By the way, cleaned and reseated the connectors... All good again. Hope it "holds" for a while. Appreciate suggestions though!

-Rob

This is perhaps the most common failure of WPC games. Everything you could want to know is here

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#Game_resets

The TL;DR version is...

1. There's no one single simple fix
2. You need to look at all the connectors and components in the power chain (which the pinwiki site explains) --- they are many potential failure points.

In my experience, if you solve a reset by reseating connectors (or cleaning them), it's just temporary. It will come back in a few weeks or a few months. The "good" thing here is you've identified it's one (or all) of the connectors you've touched. They should be rebuilt to prevent the problem from returning.

Took me 11 years, but I'm finally in the club!

IMG_20210809_143232403 (resized).jpg

Is there any interest in a set of used ramps? Not even going to bother to get them out and take pics unless it's something someone would need. AKAIK new ramps are available still so I didn't think it would be of interest to anyone. I think the only issue is the front left corner of the right ramp is cracked. I believe the cliffy covers it. I can take pics if someone is really interested. Otherwise I just have more old parts to store.

Oh, btw I posted this a while back. It's now up for sale on our store. I can do silver if you want it to match the stock shooter rod housing.

https://pinballmods.co/theatre-of-magic-pinball-mods/shooter-rod-cover-plate

20210717_103804 (resized).jpg

I think mine was in pretty good shape. Playfield and cab in really good condition. All original boards with matching serials. I had some GI issues with it, but the connectors and power board were not burnt (or had been repaired). GI strands 1 & 2 were wired incorrectly such that GI 1 was sharing pins with GI3... with of course the connecting fuse blown (F108) -- (thank God for fuses!). Once that was sorted out it has been great. Thinking about the Leon fix, but after ~200 games over the past couple of weeks only had 2-3 lockups. So about 1-2% chance. Think I'll just let that be. Other than that a couple of eddy adjustments. Very happy with the purchase.

Anyone occasionally have trouble hitting the Trunk, when it's turned to drop balls under the playfield, and having the ball bounce back?

I don't feel like I've changed anything, but 50% of the time ... when I have a direct hit on the center of the trunk ... the ball goes in and bounces right back out (rather than dropping down).

I was thinking about adding a small piece of foam (like what goes behind a standup target) or similar inside there. Thoughts?

I put dampening foam at the upper, angled, metal piece to stop this from happening and it worked fine. Just make sure the foam isnt too thick or the ball will have trouble entering properly.

My guess is that normal standup target foam is a bit too swampy/soft.

Does anyone have an intact right inlane plastic (purple piece) that they’d sell and ship?

A356853E-6E80-4540-B8BC-2F2FC29044EC (resized).jpeg

https://www.ministryofpinball.com/en/theatre-of-magic-right-lane-guide-plastic.html

I would get both sides so they match up.

I started having this after polishing the playfield and dropping in new pinballs. I have to assume it's due to the increased velocity of the ball in my case... maybe something similar in yours?

I've been searching through this thread regarding the Tiger Saw mod. The only retail mod I can find is $300, and that isn't happening. I found a couple DIY versions that tie into the trunk motor from years ago. Has anyone done a DIY recently or know of a good guide to follow?

Thanks.

little bit cheaper.....
https://pinballpro.net/shop/theatre-magic-motorized-gold-tiger-saw-blade/

Hello,

I got a little behind with life and all that. Is this still the best recommendation to paint an area of the front of the backbox? And if this is still the best recommendation would satin work better? It doesn't really look like Semi gloss.

Oh and there is like Krylon fusion, colormaxx, etc, Is there a certain Krylon Black?

Kylon fusion or colormax satin black is a very close match.

Hey Fellas. Just joined the club after previously owning one, selling it, missing it and getting it back.

I was wanting to get a topper for my TOM pin and ended up buying one from Melissa at Cointakers. I like the look and was wondering if anyone else bought the same topper as I did (it's the one with the theatre happy/sad masks). I know I saw one on someone's gameroom video someplace, but now I can't recall.

Just curious if the topper is 3D dimensional, lighted, plastic, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Any new technology with LED's, I contemplated changing them years ago in my machines, but everyone said their were issues, does it still require OCD LED and GI LED boards?

I have LED OCD boards in 3 of my machines (WH20, TOTAN, Black Rose). I don't have them in TOM because I'm satisfied with the performance of the LED's as-is. I'm using mostly Comet 2SMD's by the way.

I guess the question is more of, do you still need them, have LED's gotten to the point that it isn't an issue anymore?

I have it. The topper is made by Pedretti and is imported from Italy. It is indeed 3-Dimensional. It consists of two actual masks attached behind a stage and in front of a curtain backdrop. There is a video of it here:

...& I included a picture for you below

Screen Shot 2021-09-23 at 11.47.49 AM (resized).png

Thank, thank, thank you sir for taking the time to post a pic as well as the awesome video on how it installs! I noticed on my wall of pins TOM wasn't getting any love, so I went on the hunt to find one and ordered it from Cointaker judging solely on it's pic.

Thanks again!

It's the nicest topper I've found for TOM. On Comedy's mask the gold leaf is smooth. On Tragedy's mask the gold leaf is cracked. I presume it's a play on the subtlety of young and old. I'm sure you'll enjoy looking at it as much as I do.

PPS-TOM-TOP-PDL_560x560 (resized).jpg

New Firmware is available for ToM!!! (Yup, another PPS/Soren collaboration)

See: https://mattsbasementarcade.com/product/theatre-of-magic-pinball-cpu-rom-1-3-u6-bally-williams-eprom/

Theatre of Magic v2.0 (October 12th, 2021)
(Based on the revision 1.3X software released in 1995 by Williams Electronics Games Inc.)

Summary

A defect in the Trunk control that could cause it to stop working midgame is fixed.
Four new feature adjustments to aid fine tuning score balancing and mode difficulty.
Strategic Basement awards in competition play.
In competition play, the multiball is not started as compensation during ball search.
The revision 1.4H Tiger saw motor control is ported to this revision.
The display omits buy-in high scores when buy-in disabled.

Improvements

Better mechanical device stabillity for location as well as competition usage.
Better applicability in competition usage in all levels.
Minor bug fixes.

Detailed changes description

Reference to the revision 1.3X.

The Trunk error handling procedure has been refined to not give a false positive during normal playing conditions with a healthy Trunk mech.

With secondary function to reset the error state in case of genuine in-game Trunk error (like with a stock ball).
When tournament play selected: Opening/closing the coin door will reset the Trunk error state.

New feature adjustment A.2 21 “Spell theatre”. Options: “Easy” and “Hard”.
Easy: As rev. 1.3X. Spell theatre is lit except in the modes: Theatre, Lock multiball and Grand finale.
Hard: On THEATRE advance, the Spell theatre light will go off. Making a major shot in the game will re-light it.
Major shots considered: Trunk loop both ways, Trunk, both ramps and the right orbit. Not the left orbit nor the Tiger saw captive ball.

Adjustment “Spell theatre” defaults.
Ex. easy, easy and medium pre-sets: Easy.
Hard and ex. hard pre-sets: Hard.

New feature adjustment A.2 22 “Combo max value”. Options: 8M – 80M in 4M steps. Default: “20M”.
On combo value build-up, when it reaches this value, it will stop incrementing.
Combo scoring will proceed at this value.

New feature adjustment A.2 23 “Bonus-x adv”. Options: “1” and “2”. Default: “1”.
Bonus-x increment for each top lane completion. 1 or 2. With 2 being 1x->2x on first completion.

New feature adjustment A.2 24 “Hocus 2nd saver”. Options: “No” and “Yes”. Default: “Yes”.
In single ball play only!
If the Hocus pocus outlane saver magnet fails, a compensation one shot ball saver will serve the ball to the plunger lane.
The feature only saves balls going to an outlane, that should have been saved to an inlane.

When tournament play selected: Basement awards.
A catch-up choice that will award progress on Illusions or Clock. Which ever is lacking behind the other.
Generally:
If the clock is 10 or 11 am, Madness is awarded.
If the clock progress is less than the Illusions progress, Adv. clock is awarded.
Else Illusion is awarded.
Special cases:
Illusion is not awarded if achieved for this Grand finale, if already lit, if one is currently running or when other states where an Illusion cannot be started at the Trunk.
Adv. clock/Madness is not awarded if achieved for this Grand finale.
If Illusion is not available, Adv. Clock is awarded if not achieved for this Grand finale.
If neither is available, 20 Million is awarded.

When tournament play selected: Limited ball search. No compensation locked balls release or free multiball.

The Tiger saw motor control has been ported from the rev. 1.4H software. And slightly improved.
It runs for a solid two seconds on a captive ball hit. Instead of the very short pulse in the rev. 1.4H implementation.
In a Tiger saw mode and multiball stack, it stops when both modes are finished. And not when just the first of them finishes.
Tiger saw motor added to the solenoid test.

Feature adjustment A.2 12 “Trunk ball save” now has three options.
“No”: Trunk ball saver is disabled. This is default.
“Yes”: Rev 1.2 behaviour. Trunk ball saver is enabled for more Trunk hits.
“Once”: Rev 1.3X behaviour. Trunk ball saver is enabled for the first hit to the Trunk only.

The buy-in high scores are removed from attract mode DMD presentation and status report, when the buy-in feature is disabled.

The max bonus-x 5M is awarding 5M points.

Midnight is corrected to be at 12 AM. Not 12 PM.

Adjustment A.1 28 “Min. vol override” defaults to “Yes”.

Adjustment A.1 21 “Language” is limited to to “English”.

Note

The false positive Trunk error trap was to start choiced Illusions by hitting the Trunk while rotating. Just before it reaches the open position.
The fix does not change the way the Trunk operates. Registering shots, the movement, timing etc.

Coin door error reset is designed for competition play, where a stock ball has caused the Trunk error.
Provided that the bottom coin door interlock switch is not fixed in the closed position.
Upon closing the coin door, allow a ball search to reset the Trunk to its correct position.

Spell theatre is always lit at start-of-ball.
Spell theatre is always lit when Theatre mode, Lock multiball and Grand finale finishes.

The Hocus pocus saver compensation works when the saver mechanism is broken (proximity switch or magnet).
But, requires inlane, outlane, trough and shooter lane switches to be in shape.

The Advance clock Basement award is +3.

The Tiger saw motor runs continuously in the Tiger saw mode and multiball.
And it is pulsed on a captive ball hit.
The motor is controlled by solenoid driver no. 19 (at J125-3 or J126-3).
Do not connect a motor directly. It must be connected via the proper EMI filter.

The Trunk ball saver is generally only active in non-mode play and with the Trunk at its passive position.

Max bonus-x is 8.

Thank you

I haven't done a diff between the release notes but I'm wondering how this 2.0 is different than the original one Soren did (and then pulled until, apparently, things could be worked out with PPS). On the surface it seems very similar.

Which is good! It's great this was released.

With sorens new ToM update that fixes the trunk bug, I think there is now a must have upgrade

The new Soren rom fixes the trunk lockup bug

Im definitely in on the new ROM.

Saw that Plus the HOCUS SAVER! Been wanting that! I guess the OG U22 works with this ROM? No problems going from 1995's 2.0A to the 'new' 2.0?

Im running 1.4h for my tiger saw.

This has been established to work, so im excited to try it.

I previously had a TOM, and bought a bunch of parts to do a restoration. Never ended up getting around to it.

Here are a few parts, all brand new.

PM if you're interested.

I will give a discounted price from what I paid from PBL. I can also ship anywhere in Canada or the USA.

PXL_20211026_215314867 (resized).jpg

Does anyone have a coil sleeve type and count for the whole game? I found some kit deals but they don't list the counts of each, and I think it would be cheaper if I bought individually.

New to this club - This was my personal holy grail machine, as ToM was the first game I was massively into as a teenager and would go out of my way specifically to drop quarters into.

I found a very special ToM that had been built by HEP Restorations in 2015 with just about everything plated in solid brass - side walls, legs, coin door, spirit ring, captive balls, you name it, and chromed under the hood where almost no one would ever see it. It came to me with only 70 plays on it since that restoration.

It shoots like a freaking dream and I really only need to work on a couple things - minor sensitivity adjustment to the chest potentiometer and finding why one light isn't lighting up.

My only question for the owners here is whether there's any way to tweak the magnet duration on the magna ball save. This feature still gives me goosebumps every time it triggers, even 26 years later, but maybe 10-20% of the time when the magnet disengages the ball hasn't finished wobbling so it will still occasionally fall to the outlane.

From HEP's album, here's this glorious machine: http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/v/Finished-Games/album612/

A new 2.0 ROM version for TOM was recently released. Below is a URL to the release notes.

https://dotsandloopspinball.com/rn/Theatre%20Of%20Magic%20rev%2020%20Release%20note.txt

An excerpt from the release notes for the 2.0 ROM is below which you may find interesting with regards to the magna ball save.

'New feature adjustment A.2 24 "Hocus 2nd saver". Options: "No" and "Yes". Default: "Yes".
In single ball play only!
If the Hocus pocus outlane saver magnet fails, a compensation one shot ball saver will serve the ball to the plunger lane.
The feature only saves balls going to an outlane, that should have been saved to an inlane.'

Gord