Yep, looking at it right now.

It looks great when certain light hits hit. Its also right next to the window so at certain times, the blue flake shows nicely. But as I mentioned before, the blue flake is very, very subtle. Also, if you look at the finish from a distance under well lit conditions, the finish does not show the slightest blue tint at all. I nthink any purist would be very happy with this finish.

When its at night or under low light conditions, the blue flake can not be seen at all, and the finish looks solid black.

I also had the choice of using a black with slight silver flake powdercoat (forgot the name) which had a much more pronounced appearance. The silver flake certainly stood out more without it being too much. If I had my own TZ, I might actually go with that finish rather than the blue flake. The one I am working on now is for a client.

Nice, did you do the whole thing lockdown bar legs side rails etc.

Yep.

This is close to what I was speaking to earlier:
https://www.prismaticpowders.com/shop/powder-coating-colors/PPB-4727/silver-sparkle?gclid=CjwKCAjwivemBhBhEiwAJxNWN1wzSR3y9TrzDYCTWO3J-E1QeDRRqUonD-W-9TVQ57ky30G6ij-H1RoC3vkQAvD_BwE

But, the color swatch I saw had the silver flakes lesser dense IIRC.

Cant see the blue flakes, but here are a couple shots under low light. Like I said, it looks solid gloss black here.

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Thanks super helpful

A few of mine with the black and silver flake…

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Oh wow that looks awesome, thanks for sharing the pics

It’s a plastic film, comes with a sticky pad. I honestly don’t recall how I did it, maybe a clear tape?!

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Finally got around to cutting the acrylic piece for under the mini playfield. I really love how the blue fluorescent turned out and will post more pics post install. I have an extra if anyone is interested and we will be happy to make these in a larger batch for the community. Again, I dig the blue for my game but we can easily do them in clear or any other color that’s of most interest to the community. Feel free to shoot me a DM if you’re interested!

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Awesome …..thanks! I will be going to the craft store shortly

Excellent - looks miles better. If you weren’t so far away I’d be asking for your spare! Good work.

New question regarding the angle of the small upper left flipper.

When the ball is shot through the right turn around and approach the small upper left flipper. Should the ball:
A. Pass the upper left flipper unimpeded and tag the rubber sleeve at the camera shot, then bounce over to the upper right flipper?
B. Be slightly re-directed by the upper left flipper and then roll down to the lower right flipper.

I dont see any alignment pin for the small upper left flipper.

Thanks again guys.

I'm about to shop out a mostly working Twilight Zone.

The clock is out, I have the replacement with leds. The trough opto is touch and go, have a new one ready to go. Also picked up a protector set from the guy in Portugal who sells on eBay. Also swapping to led lighting.

I do have a few questions.

1. The gumball machine loads and ejects in test mode, but I've not seen it do anything during game play. How/when does the gumball machine get involved?

2. The skill shot switches can hold ip the ball once in a while. I will attempt to adjust, but is this just one of those things that is common?

3. DMD has some fog looking haze apparently between dmd and the panel. Is that held on place with some kind of adhesive?

4. What other oddities should I expect to encounter while I'm at it? Or what things have you learned that made things easier?

4 nuts.

Should come off. Might be stuck to foam around it. Gently tug it off.

LTG : )

When lit, the right orbit shot loads a pinball into the gum ball machine and then releases one.

It holds 3 pinballs.

You qualify the gumball machine by shooting both ramps at least once. That lights the gumball sign and you can shoot the machine via the right orbit to advance powerball. During powerball, you shoot the right orbit again to start powerball jackpot multi ball mode, where you need to defeat the power to collect the jackpot. It’s a very tough jackpot (on my game anyway) but it’s a huge jackpot.

Yes, the front plastic is typically held by sticky tape that can be tricky to remove or replace. I took one off my Fish Tales to install a lit speaker panel. That panel can get foggy over the years. You should be able to replace it.

Ah so it appears a diverter must not be working. After ramps, right orbit rolls through.

Installed this weekend. Overall, I do agree the look is miles better than the crappy fish paper, but I was let down that the blue florescent failed to provide the pop of color I was really hoping for. That said, there are 2 star posts underneath that I can add some lighting to that may help correct this issue. Time will tell.

Regarding the install, I did experience some slight clearance issues with the 2 brackets that secure the mini PF to main PF. The one on the right was easy enough to fix and just required unscrewing the nut until it was in a higher position, but the bracket on the left (the one without the spring) I had to put a few washers underneath to raise it up a bit. Once I made those adjustments everything worked fine.

Long story short, I'm still more than willing to create the plastic piece for the community but it would be with the caveat that it may not be as simple as a "plug in play" install. I'd only be providing the plastic piece, anything else would have to be provided by the buyer.

DM if anyone is still interested and I'll keep you posted as things progress.

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This might benefit from edge lighting. It might also be distracting. Try it and see!

Ran a switch test and it appears the lower right magnet optical switch isn't working, which I suspect triggers the gumball diverter, in addition to the gumball Geneva and gumball exit switches.

So I just started having a problem with the ramp diverter. Sometimes it won't lift up. You can hear it trying to work, and it kind of moves a little but it won't fully work. Then it goes into ball search and it works. It happens maybe one out of 5 times. I replaced the coil sleeve but that didn't help. Any suggestions on what it could be?

For anyone interested, and who might live in the Columbus, Ohio area, we'll be hosting an event tomorrow evening at the Level One arcade starting at 6pm. We'll be unveiling our Godzilla topper to the public for the first time and will be bring our TZ topper for all to view as well. Now I know that alone isn't likely to sway most people into making a special trip, so we're sweeting the deal by giving away some sweet prizes to boot!

So if you're in the area, and on the fence about where you might be going to get your silver ball fix for the evening, consider swing by and saying hello! We'd love to see you and talk all things pinball!

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Fixing some battery damage to my CPU. Unfortunately, the chip was already socketed (old repair) and the socket didn’t come out gracefully. And a few traces are severed, which was causing switch matrix issues. I think I can fix it….

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If not, reach out to DumbAss he likely has what you need.

I have two of his blank CPU boards, just haven’t taken the time to populate them. I enjoy trying to fix the olds ones anyhow.

10-4.

Just for anyone else reading this, DumbAss does sell complete ready to install boards as well.

Any idea how much a WPC CPU costs?

Pm him. I'm still not 100% on everything he makes and definitely don't know prices.... But he has a thread that covers it as well.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dumbass-test-and-reproduction-pcbs

We have 2 slots available for the 3rd magnet kits, PM me if you want one of them.

Have 1 slot available for the 3rd magnet kits...but will certainly take addl. names for waiting list or fall back. Should be ready to ship next week.

Hey all,
I recently moved and sold my entire pinball collection. I am about to jump back in as I have my new house now. I have never owned a dmd pin and for the most part have only owned new sterns and JJPs. I haven't had a lot of time on TZ, but have always enjoyed it. My question to owners of TZ and games like the ones I have owned is will the code of this game hold my interest or will this game grow old fast?

I've owned mine for 20 years. It hasn't gotten old yet.....

Then again, I joke that I'll be buried in it someday. So there's that.

Obviously, everyone has different likes/dislikes. For me, TZ is a game I can always go to - play, have fun, and get aggravated as hell at times. I keep my game on rather difficult settings (with a steep slope), so even after 20 years of having the game, I still feel damn lucky if I can get LITZ.

There can be huge differences in games, as well - some games I'll hit 1 billion. Others? I can't break 100mil. And that goes between different games, too - there's a TZ on location near me. First time I played it, reply. Second? Three replays. It was easy as heck. I walked out leaving the three games on the machine.

So if anyone has one in their collection, and thinks that it's too easy - they ain't trying hard enough to make it hard.

Yeah, the rules aren't as deep as newer games - but there's a lot of things you can do to try and wipe the screen with a new high score.

(Example: Get powerball mania, and/or Town Square Madness, and/or Clock Millions on the same ball that you get LITZ. LITZ will then taken those scores and add them together. Extra points if you can get those door modes, land the Camera 'Collect Bonus' award, and THEN get LITZ.)

When I bought my first pin in 2016 it came down to a new WOZ, because I never owned a pin and was worried about maintenance with older pins, and a restored TZ. I went with WOZ, owned it for 4 years and really enjoyed it. But TZ I’ve owned twice since, and my current one is never leaving. I’m biased, as my favorite era is the 90’s DMD era. I love TZ, Indy, Fish Tales, BSD, White Water, TOTAN. I think most agree of the WPC era pins, TZ is one of the most interesting and dynamic. Most owners know the story of Pat Lawlor being given a free hand on TZ after the historic success of The Addams Family. He’s talked about it many times, how much technology and mechs and money went into TZ. There is so much to do on TZ, and because you can stack different modes while working through completing the door, every game feels different. There are lots of ways to score well, aim for extra balls or multi ball, and try to get “lost in the zone.” If you are a fan of the TV series, all the better. If I could only have one pin from the 90s, TZ is probably the one.

TZ was my original "Grail" pinball machine!!!

In my opinion, TZ holds up pretty well even against modern pinball machines, especially if you have a Color DMD.

It helps if you really like the theme, but it is decently deep with fun shots and a lot of unique mechs.

Like Coyote mentioned, I also have my game setup fairly steep and fast, and it can be challenging, but very rewarding as well. I'll often set a goal on a game before I move onto one of my others... on TZ it's usually get to LITZ or break 1 Billion. It may take me only one game or sometimes into the next play session.

I may not play it as much as I used to in the first couple years I had it, but I don't anticipate ever getting rid of it.

It is also a very nicely designed game artwork wise. Backglass is one of my favorite

My only gripe about the artwork is that some of the elements from the show are wrong, like the camera. In the episode "A Most Unusual Camera", it's just a box with a lens on the front of it and the picture comes out of the back of it. But on the game its a Rolleiflex camera, a well known model with two lenses that looks nothing like the one from the show. I guess maybe they had issues with licensing or something? I hope it wasn't an oversight. I'd like to know if there's a story behind why it's different. Could be just because people would recognize the Rolleiflex easily, and if they don't know the specific TZ episode, they might think it looks dumb? Who knows....

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Maybe the Rolleiflex version is a more obvious representation of a classic camera? The simple one from the episode looks like a box with a round lens. I think the DMD video art looks more like the single lens camera from the episode. If my memory serves. I really like the mod. The brown, silver, blue and other colors look classy.

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I think so.
Just think about the players in '90s... I am sure 95% are not aware of the TZ episodes at all (like me).

These toppers from The Electric Playground are off the charts. I hope they make batch 3 soon for those on the list! Just awesome in so many ways.

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Does a WPC CPU board component layout exist? I’m trying to figure out the capacitor designation and value for the one circled below. I think it’s C31, 100uf, but not 100% sure, and there aren’t any markings on the board.

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That is the same as all caps labeled "B". It's a bypass cap.

Thanks for sharing and for posting the pics of this gorgeous machine! The chrome is really something else and now you got a cherry on top as well!

IIRC the PCB layouts are part of the game manual (not the schematics one)

There is also a bunch of elements of the artwork and game that aren’t part of the show. The gum ball machine, the pyramid and I think a few others that don’t ever appear on the show

I know. I just singled out the camera as it's just plain wrong.

From what I had heard, Lawlor had always wanted to put a gumball machine in a pin, so when B/W gave him free license on TZ due to TAF's success, he put it in there.

Damn, that TZ is beautiful! I'd love to get one of these toppers someday, hopefully they make more soon. How was the installation? Where does it plug into? Any install pics would be most welcome.

Nope... C31 is actually in your pic though. Probably .1uf 50v. see followup: .01uf
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Ha, thanks! Not sure why I didn’t go looking for C31 on the board. I have a whole bag of .1uf caps, so I should be in good shape.

In the TZ manual page 2-8 that component is labeled as "B" and is 0.01 ufd 50V

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