Well, it seems the infamous 'Pain-in-the-Frass' Hokus Pokus might be hanging around in my collection for now, since 1) I haven't yet found a local buyer to take it off my hands and 2) it has been diagnosed as termite-free. As such, I'm starting to look into the technical fixes that might need to be made. Note: I'm recovering from a medical issue, so I won't be able to do much actual work on it right now -- just planning ahead.

Before I went down for the count, I did look over the machine for functionality. Among other things, I found the chimes weren't working right -- I took that whole assembly apart and found the rods/sleeves in the solenoids were gunked up with dirt. Cleaned them all up and now they work wonderfully. Now at least it sounds fun.

I did notice two particularly perplexing things I wanted to bounce off you pinball wizards:

1) This "fake fuse". Just past the coin box is a panel of fuses ... and it appears one fuse has been replaced with what feels like a white plastic or rubber piece with fuse caps on it. WTF? Anyone have any thoughts on this -- as to what it is, why someone would do this, and how this could be affecting the machine?

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2) The A-B-C-D objective. One of the primary goals of this game is to complete the A-B-C-D cycle via targets & rollovers. From watching some YouTube videos of how this game should work, I see that when you hit one of the letters in the field, it should light up in the bonus area, and turn off everywhere else. None of this happens on mine. It essentially doesn't register that the letter was hit (though the scores advance as they should), the playfield letters stay on, and the bonus are letters stay off. Any suggestions on where to start? Having this function would at least make it more 'playable' in the interim (until I re-sell it or eventually restore what else I can, e.g., new rubbers, fill 'cupped' lenses, etc.)

Thanks in advance!

Ok thanks for the info on the fuse. I wonder if the manual has info on what it should be, so I could cross-check it and replace as required.

So, any thoughts on the A-B-C-D?

Ok. I have a copy of the schematic stashed in the cabinet, so next time I can do the stairs (recovery pain comes and goes) I'll see if I can take a look at the schematic and the hardware.

Ok here are a few photos of my ABCD Series relay. With the game powered on, there is no movement from the relay when I hit any of the A-B-C-D switches on the playfield. The next relay (500 & Advance Bonus) does function when I hit those same switches.

Something that made me immediately suspect is a loose wire -- the red one you see off to the left, it's not connected to anything. It doesn't have much slack in it, so I imagine it's supposed to be attached to something close by. Any ideas / suggestions?

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This might take a little more effort than I can put in right now, as I'm not physically able to spend much time hunched over the machine -- recovering from a medical procedure that's limiting my mobility. But, based on your input above, and a short round of troubleshooting, here's what I was able to ascertain:

- Holding the red wire to the broken leaf doesn't appear to change any functionality that I can tell. Still, I don't see anywhere else that could/should be. I wasn't able to see (with certainty) where that wire goes; looked like it just joined a bundle running beneath the relays in that area.
- If I manually cycle the ABCD Series relay, it activates the Double Bonus relay (as I believe it's supposed to).
- If I manually cycle the ABCD Series relay again, it awards an extra ball ('Same Player Shoots Again' lights up on the PF & BG). I believe this is also correct, based on the YouTube video I saw.

So this makes me wonder ... it seems like this ABCD Series relay should be activated once the ABCD series is COMPLETE. So, is there something elsewhere (underside of the playfield, perhaps?) that's keeping track of which A/B/C/D have been hit thus far, UNTIL they're all complete? And maybe THAT'S what's not working? The root of my problem is that none of the A/B/C/D are registering when hit on the playfield.

I wish I could spend more time investigating right now; it'll be in short spurts so I appreciate your patience and assistance.

Ok I'll take a peek at this sometime today. Good eyes!

Alrighty, after I adjusted the gaps and re-soldered that red wire to the broken leaf, the A-B-C-D series worked! Each letter on the playfield would go off, and the corresponding letter in the bonus area would turn on accordingly.

THANK YOU for your help with these issues.

Just in time, too, because I got a bite on my Craigslist ad and just sold the machine. I guess since it's fixed and gone, I'll mark this one as resolved.

THANKS especially to MrBally, heldereflippers, trilogybeer, and matthess -- your direction and good eyes spotted the problems.