Looking good! Was the installation easy? Can you compare this to a ColorDMD LED?

Anyone can tell me what legs that ToM came with back in the days? All I see on pictures when googling is gold legs but the flyer seems to have chromed ribbed legs. Need to order four legs for my ToM and want to keep it as original as possible.

I just received my Pin2DMD. If there is an update, will your distributor let you know or do I need to reach out to the author?
thx

I'm not following you here. Are you referring to when the power is off?

There's clearly a lot of personal preference here. I've decided I like the ColorDMD LCD version running Dots XL more than the LED version. I find the LED to be too harsh. Just IMHO.

I think ColorDMD on Theatre of Magic is amazing. I haven't experienced Pin2DMD so I'm not saying anything negative about it.

I have both LCD and LED versions of the colorDMD on hand.

I chose the LCD for my ToM.

LED for DW, TAF, etc...

Another vote for the ColorDMD LCD in ToM. I love mine and how versatile the modes are. The kids prefer the HIRES animation, but the Dots looks classic

I have mine on HIRES, it seems suitable,

Funny, the american flyer shows chrome, the german version shows gold: https://nypinball.com/flyers/theatre-of-magic-2/ Go with whatever you like, personally I like the legs to match the siderails, don't like when gold and stainless are mixed, but that's just me.

Thx. I ordered some chromed ones, will look so much better than the ones currently used.

I always hear that from a tournament standpoint, this game becomes a left orbit all day fest. Does any of the code updates (hobby wise) address this or would it be too complex? As a homeowner I never find this to be an issue, although I'm not very good!

That’s what my pro buddies tell me. Not the most fun way to play, but left orbit over and over.

Thx. i did contact my distributor and he said there was one ahead of TOM and I would be notified.

Check out the 2.0 ROM changes, nice options here.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-tom-software-20

Does anyone have an extra indestructible trunk? The $89.99 ones on eBay seem to break right away after just a few games. Any other solutions?

Thanks - I recently installed 2.0 so it's in my machine. What I'm not following is by default, does the 2.0 fix the left orbit all day thing?

Curious how other 2.0 owners are configuring to resolve this code gap.

EDIT - seems like changing spell theatre to HARD will resolve the left orbit original code gap.

Love this game btw.

I need some help! My ToM have star posts that are green, yellow, purple, red, amber and white... it's a frigging rainbow.
My guess is that back in the day an operator just quickly changed them to get the game running.

I've been reading the manual and it mention both clear and amber posts, but nowhere I see where each colour should be used. Am I missing something? Tried searching and looking at ALL pictures here but I can't really find a good answer where they should go or if that's the correct colours.

Cheers.

I've owned my TOM since 1997 (second owner) and it has all red star posts, which I have no reason to think that they weren't original from the factory. I can't imagine using the orange-ish amber on something with such a red-based playfield. I'm sure someone who is some sort of TOM "curator" will verify, but I wanted to share what I've had in mine at least from it's 2nd/3rd (depending on how you count it) year of existence.

There are actually a couple choices on the star post colors.

The purply red vs the red-red.

They used to be listed as the correct ones for ToM.

Both look great, I bought a bunch of the original color ones and I dont remember who had them.

I think the manual lists them as amber or some kind of nonsense.

Look for the part number in the manual.

I have Theatre of Magic pinball and I keep having to set the game to free play. When I turn the machine off and then back on, the free play is no longer set.
Any idea as to why?

Replacing the batteries fixed my issue. Thank you for the help. I am new to this machine.
There seem to be some really nice mods for TOM as well.

Thanks Again

Replacing batteries with nvram is a good advice but beware that the soldering required is tricky and you risk ruining the cpu board if not really careful. As a person seemingly new to pins I suggest you let a professional do the RAM to NVRAM replacement for you.

The "Franks" coin battery mod works pretty good and doesnt require delicate skils to install.

The coin battery rarely leaks and is above the board just in case.

Works pretty good and the clock doesnt reset every time you get a power failure.

Not that the clock keeps time at all, its roughly called a clock that looses or gain time of its own accord.

Its a cool feature to see midnight madness when the clock goes to midnight on some games like ToM.

https://www.tntamusementsstore.com/wptnt/product/franks-famous-battery-board/

I'm in the minority here (or the silent majority, who knows)... IMHO most people, generally, should stay away installing NVRAM. Get Energizer Lithium batteries and you are good to go.

I don't have a problem with NVRAM, but I know people skilled with soldering that messed up their boards by breaking traces during the install.

NVRAM is great if you are very good at desoldering/soldering and will not miss the (infrequent) side effects such as no accurate time on TZ or no real midnight madness on those games.

I put more coin battery mods in than NVRAM.

The coin battery is quick and easy and sorta keeps time.

Best post I've seen all year.

Yep, I have NVRAM on two games. Basically because I messed up the boards leaving batteries in when they went in storage when my daughter was born. Damn kids always costing me money. Anyway, one I had to replace with a new board that was slotted to take the NVRAM, the other the batteries corroded and basically the battery holder needed to come off and we had to replace with a socket for NVRAM. Nice person offered to do the soldering for me, been doing this type of work for 40 plus years. Still managed to break traces and had to jump one. My TOM I was able to clean the battery holder out and all is good for years now. Plus I understand NVRAM messes with midnight madness. So IMHO some things are just simpler to leave alone. LED all the rage in pins, yet for the older ones, you talking spending 300 plus in boards just to make them work right. Not really worth it IMHO

Does anyone know if Pinball Decals, Inc. is still around?
I see their website, but have received no response when I email them ([email protected]).

Thanks,
Rick

Does anyone know if there's an European shop where I can buy a mirrored ToM backglass?

NVRAM will not affect Midnight Madness as a feature of Theatre of Magic. This is based on advancing the clock in the game by shooting the right orbit and not related to the RTC (real time clock).

Midnight Madness in any other game is a feature of Dwight Sullivan games. Not all Dwight Sullivan games but a good number of them. This is based on the RTC and interrupts the game being played to enter this special mode.

The RTC is also used by Twilight Zone to display time on the clock while in attract mode as well as record the date/time stamp of things like Rule the Universe in Attack from Mars.

As far as I know, they are still around. I've ordered from them when I bought my TOM a little over a year ago. He will eventually respond to your emails.'

Hope this helps.

And of course, the other option to save your boards is to stay with batteries, but move the battery holder to the sidewall of the backbox. This way if your batteries do leak somehow, they won't damage any boards.

Here are my TOM coin box photos from multiple angles.

Gord

P1020602 (resized).JPG
P1020597 (resized).JPG
P1020599 (resized).JPG
P1020600 (resized).JPG
P1020601 (resized).JPG

Just confirming, what is needed to upgrade to 2.0? Can I just install and be done with it, or are other board mods needed?

Make sure you have the 539 security chip installed.

If unsure, order the matching security chip at the same time.

Tell Dave what you need he will take care of you:

https://www.pinballrom.com/

Good thinking

I get you mean well, but the security chip isn't a dollar. My understanding is, if you don't have the home ROM that required a new security chip, you should be fine.

I have two problems I can't figure out.

1. At start I can't choose Illusion with my flippers.
I have cleaned the optos and both flipper-optos register two button presses on switch edge test, so in my world it should work. I have checked all the settings and I can't find any setting that should disable/enable it. I have TOM 2.0 firmware if that matters.

2. I have a Pin2Dmd, it works mostly great but some colors lag behind and some colors mix together incorrectly (I assume at least). Could this be because I use 2.0 firmware? Anyone with Pin2dmd and 2.0 firmware that it works perfectly?

I don't have any 1.3 firmware to test with to see if everything works as it should. :/ Maybe I should order one but thought I better check here first.

Cheers.

This is accurate for some people. You run a risk of lifting a trace when de-soldering. I think many people feel the need to salvage the original RAM and try to de-solder the whole thing and remove it. You need to get over that and clip the RAM out and de-solder the pins one at a time and remove them. This eliminates 99% of the risk of lifting a trace. If you lift a trace it’s because it’s still attached while you are pulling on it. I managed to lift only one trace on FT that I had to jumper to repair. It’s on the back of the board so you can’t see it. On ToM, I cut it out then heated each socket hole individually and pulled the tabs out one at a time. Zero mistakes. Then just clean up the hole and installed a socket to make it removable. Granted, I solder electronics at a nuclear power plant with 60’s technology, but even a newbie could pull this off. To me, it’s harder to get the CPU/MPU out of the game than doing this.

This.

I put in nvram in 8 of my games over a period of about 2 weeks, all working fine after. Just accept the old ram chip will be scrapped and clip the legs. I had never done this type of delicate soldering before but all went good.

I use a magnifying glass that I can wear on my head, so I can see the small solder points but still have two hands free.

After soldering in the new socket I take a multimeter and measure continuity from each leg to the next point it leads to and do this on both sides of the board. This is quite easy and only take about 5 additional minutes but it will save you lots of problems if you have damaged the board somewhere as you will notice it now.

Then just slap an nvram chip in the socket and back into the backbox.