Are there any truly high end toppers for TZ available?

One based on the Tower of Terror ride would be awesome, but we are open to any high end topper. One that did something right when powered up would be super cool.

There is only one, and it’s unobtanium. But you’re in luck, one just popped up for sale yesterday. Wish I had the cash for it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-igt-slot-machine-topper-1

Im aware of New Toppers being made at the upper end of the Spectrum with lots of animation and interaction, for a variety of games,'
with licensed approval. I dont know all the titles, and time frame, but there is a large effort at this time with a "New", Old company.
Hopefully by the end of the year, there will be a reveal.

I have been thinking of using this Tower of terror model as for a topper for mine. If you know you know.....

https://www.etsy.com/listing/665859302/hollywood-tower-of-terror-scale-model?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=tower+of+terror+model&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1

That would be Amazing!

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There is a half size one as well. I asked the guy that made them and he said he could do extended wire leads for the lighting and its all 12v. Would be cool to have it light for certain modes, even a strobe led strip like lightning on the back or in the elevator shaft for the battling the power mode. The Tip top light could indicate something else. I don't have a TZ yet (been snagging parts like the spiral ramp for when I finally get one) but I remember someone saying it was possible, just don't know what wire would need tapped into.
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Does anyone know of a source for the 3rd magnet kit now that Pinbits is no longer in business?

(Or if anyone has one lying around that they aren’t going to use that I can buy)

That is sick. Would love to see that come to life on the game. My favorite ride at Disney.

I remember going there as a teenager expecting them to have the game sitting there in the gift shop, the way they used to have Indy at Indy. Was super bummed that they never took advantage of that.

I'm also looking for a 3rd magnet kit,. If anyone has a lead, please PM me.

https://iobium.com/third_magnet_project.htm

You should be able to buy the hardware from various merchants. I have a plug-in (piggy-back) board that will allow you to use a standard opto transmitter/receiver pair. The board performs the functionality of the specialty board in the kit.

Extending LITZ?

Is there any way to extend LITZ in the settings on 9.4H?

Is there any way to add time to LITZ before- or during the mode?

I am pretty sure there isn't a way to extend or add time to LITZ.

Correct, LITZ timing is fixed.

Tak, Bundy.

Switch wiring confusion:

Bought some new trough switches with the hopes of sorting my frequently confused game.
Replacement outhole switch has three lugs, while the stock switch has two and an odd bake-a-lite plate with a lug.
Second photo shows how I wired the replacement.
Same configuration?

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No confusion. The switch in your game has a lug missing. The positions are the same, marked or not. Look at the end of it, see a lug cut off. And quit showing pictures of the switch installed in the bakelite sides.

Wire it like I emailed you.

LTG : )

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Here - cut off your bottom lug and wire black end of the diode straight to the white wire.

Or that terminal on the bakelite side, solder the white wire and black end of diode to it. And the green wire and yellow wire to the lug on top.

LTG : )

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Thanks for the photos and guidance.
Sorry I missed your emailed photo.
Can't use the odd lugged plate with new (thicker) switch body as my screws wouldn't be long enough.
I will get back to this project tomorrow.

Update:
Wired the outhole switch as advised and the the other four trough switches are they are working!
Thanks!

Impressions of TZ Gameplay From a First-time Owner:

I don't presume that readers here will care too much about one member's opinion, but I wanted to share my impressions of this game, for whatever that's worth.

Layout:
- Interesting, stress-me-out position of the dangerous/active pops low on the PF
- I wish there was a way to shoot the lock shot from the upper left flipper
- I love the smooth Spiral orbits
- I like the magnet "helpers" and am surprised they don't appear in other games. (Elwin uses up-posts for this purpose, perhaps because they add less to the B.O.M. than magnets would.)
- I wish there were more shots from the upper-right flipper. It would be clever if an upper-right-flipper shot to the 5M target just to the left of the Hitchhiker lane would award a double value, given how hard that shot is to time. I also wish a loop from the upper-right to the left Spiral were more geometrically aligned.
- I would also love to see a target nested in the right Spiral ballguide that could be struck by an upper-left-flipper shot through that channel just above the Slot Scoop island. That would be a great, needle-threading shot!

I will tackle the code in another post, but I want to voice the two MOST salient features of this game:

1. Chris Granner is a wonderful musician and his work here is the best I've ever heard in a pinball machine from any manufacturer. He's groovy. He's jazzy. He's so talented! Oh, and you get multiple compositions for the same mode, depending on whether you reach the mode before or after LITZ. (Fast-Lock is a great example.) GREAT sound effects, too! (Tallying Hitchhiker pickups is one heck of a sound!)

2. Much too much time is spent waiting for the ball to emerge from the subway! Too many sinkholes feeding the Slot Machine kickout. I haven't counted, but I would think I wait for and then juggle a ball kicked from that scoop at least fifty times per game. That's too many. The "bucket" diverter from the right ramp shot is another time suck. I had read about "stop-and-go" in TZ before I bought the game, and now I know what they were talking about. It's not a deal breaker, but I do find myself getting impatient waiting for the ball to return to the PF.

How dare YOU, sir!

Just kidding...I cannot disagree with any of your points.

It is a great game and I had an extremely nice example but I ultimately let it go in trade for two other titles which are staying in my collection.

I wish we could get his work in high quality stereo. I wish they would do a full high quality restoration for pinsound with stereo compatibility.

The last batch of door lamp board mod (with built-in flasher) is ready. I have 5 extra boards.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-door-lamp-board-flashers-add-on#post-6188233

Lock Switch Confusion:

Well, it's been a few days since I had a credit dot, so my machine probably got uncomfortable and had to create another one - this time involving the lock.

The Test Report asks me to check the upper switch (opto) in the lock. Checking those optos really can't be done with fingers. You have to just load balls in there, one after another. When I do that, the results are as follows:

1. Ball one rolled into the lock: lower opto open
2. Ball two rolled into the lock: middle opto open
3. Ball three rolled into the lock: lower opto open

Like, what is going on here? Why would the lower opto open when the third ball is sitting in the path of the upper opto?

I do NOT want to pull that lock as that will require removing the clock and both ramps.

Update:
Bad news. Switch 85 is "open" without a ball in the upper part of the lock.
Guess I will I have to replace that opto. Fork!!!!!

Update 2:
Found the problem.
One side of the opto is out of position.
Not a simple fix as the right ramp's base shares this screw. I threaded the lock to accept a 8-32 machine screw to ensure a more solid perch for the ramp.
Not sure how I will deal with this.

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Twilight zone blacked out with rainbows end prismatic metallic. Looks mostly black with flake indoors but shows it’s rainbow effect when it catches the light.

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That's some dope powder there!
Nice job!

Wow, that looks great. Good choice of powder coat colors.

Gord

That really looks sharp!
Nice choice.

Crooked auto-Fire: can it be fixed?

My auto-fire kicker sends the ball careening up the lane, bouncing off the walls and often running into the post bumper that separates the two lanes, mucking up the ball's trajectory, etc.

I've rebuilt this kicker but that's not its problem. Something is out of alignment although it's not visible to the naked eye. I can't experiment with alternate alignments as the pivot bracket has only one, fixed position, as does the coil bracket. The kicker arm is original, straight, and appears to be fine. The coil and its bracket are also stock and look fine. What is a smart way to sort this? Do I remove the pivot bracket, fill the holes with glue-slathered dowels, and then drill new mounting holes just a few degrees away? I spoke to LTG about this. He said I was asking for trouble by chasing perfection. I don't think asking your TZ to auto-fire straight up the lane reliably is chasing perfection. I would say it's demanding basic functionality, no? It sucks when the game tries to auto-fire the ball but it ends up dribbling back down the right Spiral because it collided with too many things in the lane.

Super-common TZ problem. I went through everything you are experiencing and what I finally did was to construct a transparent ball guide out of polycarbonate plastic. It attached to the sides of the lane and the underside of the ramp. It had tapering sides so an off-center ball would be guided to the center. No, I never got any photos of it.

Sometimes the ball get air and hits the underside of the ramp and then rebounds back down. Take a close look to see if that's what's happening.

Talk about unobtanium. I’ve been hunting for this since your post. I have two friends that refurbish slot machines, I figured one of them would have one…nope. Shame too, that is an incredible topper.

Ah, that sucks man. You would think with how many TZ out there, and the popularity of toppers these days, someone would make one similar to that one or the discontinued Tilt Topper. Those are by far the best ones. Until that happens TZ will be my only game without a topper. And that bothers me.

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess I would rather find a solution that doesn't require installing a significant "mod" like that. I my book, the game needs to work as designed in stock trim.

After looking carefully at the action of that kicker arm, I realized I had two ways to affect a change on the motion:

The angle of the stud on the pivot bracket; and the Z-bracket that holds the coil.

I took the pivot bracket out and used a vice/crescent wrench to carefully bend the tang that holds the pivot stud. This can correct deflection in any axis if done right. I also put the z-bracket in the vice (sans coil) and put some "wind" in it, thereby moving the coil more squarely beneath the kicker arm.

What I learned from numerous attempts is that a perfectly aligned kicker arm doesn't translate to a perfect auto-fire. There are too many variables at play for me to tell you exactly how to solve this problem, but at the very least I wanted to share with this group that these two "controls" are significant if you want to make the adjustment yourself.

Oh, and I want to make clear that the *last* thing I suggest is to hog out the mounting holes on these parts to move them into more desirable positions. Parts with larger-than-necessary mounting holes never stay put! They will eventually migrate out of position and you will end up stuck in a cycle of returning them to position and retightening their mounting screws. No fun!
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20-odd years ago the rec.games.pinball usenet group was full of this exact same chatter. It boils down to the unfortunate fact that the game has no routed-out ball guide in that lane because the ball must traverse it to get to the regular shooter lane. The result is a level of randomness which degrades into outright failure to make the orbit as parts wear.

That does look good!

Maybe the guy that is doing all those incredible mods for GnR will do a topper for TZ. I’m surprised TZ didn’t have a factory topper, guess they had to cut costs somewhere.

I'm building a topper for it right now. Vids coming soon....

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That's a very good point: no full-length groove in the lane to guide the ball!
Ironically, my ball-release kicker punts the ball from the trough clear over to the shooter lane. The ball never touches the auto-fire lane! I could carve - if I were crazy! - a groove in that lane to help steer the auto-fire and it wouldn't affect the ball release!

That is a large Robby the Robot!
I hope you're going to animate him. Make him wave his hands about like the DMD. Easy, right?
You got this!

Fosbury Flop!

My ball-release kicker sends the ball clear *over* the diverter and into the shooter lane. This is a real problem when the ball is supposed to be diverted into the auto-fire lane.
The stock coil is a 26-1200. I replaced it with a 29-2000 (33 Ohms). The ball still cleared the diverter. I then replaced the 29-2000 with a 30-3000, the highest resistance (69 Ohms) coil I could find, but even that is too powerful. These coils aren't cheap, so buying replacements one after another is not sustainable. There are coils that have dual power ratings depending on which lugs you choose when wiring them. For example:

https://www.pinballlife.com/bally-aq-25-50034-5050-flipper-coil.html

Is that my next coil?

I do have another idea though, and it's a mechanical one:

What if I laid a "plug" inside the coil sleeve to limit the plunger's range of motion within the coil? Ordinarily the plunger will move within the coil until it comes to rest against the stop, but if I laid, say, a 3/4" piece of neatly/squarely cut plunger inside the sleeve before inserting the plunger, I would effectively limit the plunge by 3/4", scrubbing some of its power. Are you with me? Is there anything terribly wrong with this idea?
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Wow, something is not right. When my TZ releases a ball, the ball takes a very leisurely stroll to the shooter lane.

Have you tried adjusting the top tab on the trough exit or looked at the kickout mech itself? Are they the correct original part and not worn/broken?

Hi, Manny. Thanks for responding.
Yes, I've tried bending/rebending/rebending the tang that is part of the trough housing that guides the ball as it's released. I've also tried bending the "roof" tang on said housing downward to cap the ball as it exits, but that tang isn't really long enough influence the exit. My kicker armature is stock and in great shape. I replaced the pivot bracket with a new OEM one from Marco just to ensure I would have as little slop in the kicker motion as possible. There is no binding, nothing out of the ordinary. The tip of the kicker meets the ball at precisely the south pole so it gives it the proper heave. I do *not* wish to bend this kicker arm to make it glance the ball.

I'm jealous!

Yeah, mine doesn't eject with much force either...

Take a look around the 12 second mark and see the ball kickout. It may give you some insight. I have a LITZ recording as well, but can't see the balls being kicked out in it...

This is probably your issue as to why you ball is being launched vertically. All my machines that have that trough mech, strike the ball further back behind the ball which would reduce the amount of vertical force. My trough switch sits more under the very bottom of the ball.

So either the kickout mech has been installed in the wrong position or is possibly the wrong part (eg a shorter version to what TZ uses??)

I would wager that the parts that make up the ball-release kicker are all stock. There is certainly a chance that mine were mounted slightly out of position, but I bet you would see that my kicker tip meets the ball in very nearly the same place that yours does if you were to inspect my game. I'm not going to demount the kicker, fill the holes with glue-slathered dowels, drill new holes, and remount the parts. I'm just going to continue scrubbing power from the coil however I can. No one has commented on my mechanical solution involving a limiter, but that's what I will try next.
Thanks for your ideas.

Thanks for the video.
Your game plays great - as do *you*! Great multiball!

I really like the blue LEDs at the top of the playfield. Looks great!

If you are pursuing the weaker coil option, why not use a resistor in series with the coil?

Because I know very little about electronics and that solution was never mentioned when I brought this up earlier.
It sounds more affordable anyway.
How do I choose the right resistor and where do I wire it in?