Bigdaddy07.....that might be it...I can't remember .......ignore the "easy installation" reference however.....I was afraid to try and cut the lexan, I'm an electronics geek, no carpenter in me....remember, the plastic is thicker than the plastic, so be very careful when re routing the wires, or shorts will happen ( spoken from a fuse blower)... Mark

So, If you want the underside of the mini field to illuminate, you would install the lexan and the under star post lights, and the light will shine down through the lexan from the star posts?

Check Home Depot, you can probably get a small sheet for much cheaper and template it with your cardboard for cutout. The clear plastic looks so much better, its worth it.

No. There is a star post or two under the mini playfield that I plan to light up.
I think the light that shines down from the mini playfield comes from the bulbs that are used for the mini playfield inserts but are covered up by the cardboard underneath.

Yes. That should be pretty easy to use the cardboard for a template.

That's correct.....there's also a GI light underneath which really glows w a clear underside as well.....I'll try to take a pic...

Thanks JoJoBear!

I've cut it for other parts before and used a dremel with pretty good success. You can shave off the edges with a razor as the stuff likes to melt some when you cut through it from the heat. Drill the screw holes out and good to go. Encase your wires in shrink tubes if your worried over the sharp edges.

Not w my iPad, I'm not...too tight...dig my camera out tomorrow.....the clear looks ALOT better, and for me, the 20 bucks or so was worth it.....template or not I would have screwed it up.....soldering iron, multimeter, scope, etc....good...jigsaw in my hand....BAD.....ha

I've wanted a Dremel for some time now.....may have to finally get one and screw around with it.....but it will be a long time before I get near one of my pins with one......I just don't have the patience for cutting straight lines.....heard it's an affliction a lot of us electric/ gear oriented guys have.....rebuild something ...I'm in....make a table?.....I'm an idiot....

Didn't realize you picked up a TZ, that's awesome! You are more than welcome to come take a look at mine anytime, or I can send you some pictures of that piece later if that helps.

Yep - actually traded your old POTC for it - POTC was fun for a few weeks after I got it 100%, then got pretty boring. I thought the TZ would just be temporary too, but it turns out that I'm really enjoying it.

Can you just verify that its those same hex head screws used for everything else? I assume it is. I'm contemplating just rotating the bracket a few degrees and putting new screws in - extracting the old ones and then filling/re-drilling seems a little unnecessary now that I've thought about it.

I just went and checked by removing one of the screws.
It is exactly the same as all of the other 1/4" head x 5/8" wood screws for mounting all other coil brackets.
Your proposed fix should work perfectly. I checked the mechanism and there is a little play which will allow slight rotation of its mounting position.

Thanks Fanatic!

Hey look I can finally join a owners only thread. here's a few pics of mine and a list of mods. Could others chime in with what they think the game is worth? I've had a wide range of offers for it even though Ive never had it for sale.

Cabinet has no fade
playfield has 3rd magnet professionally done with playfield clear coated
Lighted Flipper buttons
blue shooter rod
Red clock housing
color changing door in the backbox
red thunderbird
slot machine that lights up with GI, slot light, and super slot
spiral sign
diverter magnet
piano mod
target decals
color matched pop bumper caps, wafers, and bodies
Brass clock mod
added missing flashers in door panel
camera mod
LED's in inserts and backbox
gumball
plastic protectors
changed the 545 bulbs in backbox to 455 bulbs
I think that's all but I could be missing something lol. On to the pics....

PA020111.JPGPB190041.JPGtwilight zone (8).JPGtwilight zone (2).JPG

PA020112.JPG

twilight zone (32).JPG

That's a darn nice example you have there. I'd say it would be somewhere in the $6,000-$6,500 range. Possibly more if you get the right buyer.

After leaving my machine to sit for a few weeks while I worked on other house-related projects, I finally got around to finishing all the maintenance I had been meaning to do.

-Took apart the whole playfield and gave it a good cleaning.
-Replaced the mylar leading out of the left bumpers to the left drain lane (just above the red car). It was starting to completely lift off and collect dirt, which is apparently common with this particular one.
-Waxed the whole playfield.
-Repaired some stripped holes for wood screws.
-Added a set of plastic protectors and replaced the broken rocket plastic.
-Rebuilt my clock so that it sat right-side up.
-Installed the pinbits gumball light mod.
-Re-adjusted the rocket kicker a tad higher so that it wouldn't brick the ball.
-Right slingshot switch readjusted to match the left's sensitivity.

This game freakin' zooms now and is dialed-in perfect!

Now I can work on my backbox lighting mod. I designed a nice little circuit that, when plugged into the backbox's GI wiring, will flash an LED with a period of 3 seconds and a slow turn-on/turn-off. The idea is that I'll hook one up to each of the 6 black bulb slots. That way I can put any LED with a 555 wedge base in the slots and it will blink with a nice "starlight twinkle" effect. Already soldered together 3 PCBs, so I'm about halfway there.

marlboroa....game looks great!!!...I'd agree on the 6k or so.........

JoJoBear......you are officially wearing me out just reading what you've done already......I'm going to get off work, go home, and take a nap.......sad, but true.....ha........mark

I received my switch kit today for the upper playfield. Really cool, but looks likes a pain in the neck to install since I have to yet again deal with sign rivets and take the upper playfield off. Since my machine is recently shopped I'll probably wait a while to install it.

What is the best way to get rid of ball marks on the magnet cores? Can I sand them?

I take mine to work and turn them down on a lathe. look as good as new. sanding them will give you uneven surface. If you dont have access to one you can send them to me and I will turn them for you free of charge.

While putting in a few mods, swapped the ROM for the 9.4 H and it seemd to fry a chip on the board.

Machine failed to accept coins and contol button on coin door failed to respond.

Put old ROM back, no change - not working.

Then took a board out of Party Zone and put original TZ ROM on it.
Message said "cut jumpers W15-W18 for USA machine". We Cut the jumpers on the board.
Clock stopped working.
Reattached W18 and all worked fine

Now I need a replacement board for the Party Zone so I can sell it.

Since the TZ had been in Europe, could the 9.4 ROM do what I think it di, fry a chip on the board??

So yeah, in the club now. Love TZ, been on my hit list for quite a while. Was fortunate enough to make a deal w/ a local pinsider as well. Always makes things easier when it's local. I got a question for some of the veteran TZ owners, the divertor bounce back...gotta say, kind of a pain in the ass. I've seen the magnet fix on ebay but if there was another option, seems to me like this would be one of the first things to straighten out.

Magnet fixes 95% of bounce outs

I'd like to see that...sounds cool

Here is a pic of my home-done fix.
Neodymium magnets were purchased in the hardware section of Home Depot.
One of the disc magnets was glued to the packaging pillow included by the manufacturer. The "pillow" or pad is used to add spacing to the magnets during handling and reduces the magnet's pull.
I've put this fix through several hundred cycles and it seems to work perfectly on the steel pinballs.

Another fix is to reduce the play in the mechanism by adding a washer to each side of the pivot point beneath the c-clip which holds the hinge pin in place. This helps with the Powerball - but I still get some random ejects from the carriage.

IMG_0775.JPG

IMG_0776.JPG

The 9.4H rom is a Free Play Only rom and is not setup for coins. In fact, the "H" stands for Home, meaning for home use only.

The control button on the door might be due to your machine's coin door harness still plugged into the "export" plug on the coin door board. If you look at that board, there are two places to plug in the door harness. One has it's traces run through a set of dip switches, the other one doesn't. Now that yours is stateside again, it should be in the one that doesn't use the dip switches.

I'm not saying that's what might be causing these specific issues, but it's a couple things to start and check out to make sure everything's as it should be.

The rarest TZ of all someday will be one that has no mods!
A true unmolested TZ plays and looks just fine in my book.

I liked it that way when I first got mine but decided I liked the mods and I could put them on but can always take them off easily and have it back to original any time I want (or not)

I had no idea I could pause my TZ with the home ROM ... very cool, even if I never use it.

I learned how to start LITZ accidentally one day when kneeling on the extra ball button (playing sitting down in a chair after foot surgery).

My TZ is totally unmodded, I love the game as it is.

I am going to put gumballs in though, seems like an oversight from the start.

Not sure about the home roms, do they add anything to gameplay?

Is it the general consensus to take the mylar off the magnets?

Thanks for the info guys. My TZ is basically unmodded, aside from cliffy's, LED's and gumballs. I'm not looking to go apeshite w/ mod's but the divertor bounce back certainly needs to be addressed.

Going apeshit is not always a bad thing

As far as I'm concerned, there's 3 must-have mods: Gumballs in the gumball machine, piano toy, and diverter magnet. Shoulda been factory!

Finally finished my mods. Here are some pics.
Everything is custom constructed from the models which were provided to me by the original owner at sale. Said another way, I was provided with the toys - I had to add the "works" and install them.
While I was at it, I constructed an 8x8 wiring harness to give access to the lamp matrix. Disconnects were provided for service/removal purposes. Un-used conductors were simply capped off for possible future use or later simple removal should they prove unnecessary.

Camera.JPG

El Roboto, Roberto.JPG

Gumball.JPG

Piano.JPG

Rocket Hack.JPG

Wiring harness i.JPG

Wiring harness ii.JPG

Mod disconnects.JPG

Where can I get a Robby the Robot? I prefer to mod it myself, so just the base toy. But if that is unobtanium I'd consider the expensive modded one ... maybe.

Hi, I also own TZ that soon became my favorite pin.
I have one small issue that bothers me.
The pin is leveled up, but the mini playfield looks like it's not.
If I don't put the ball through the hole it stops on the right side, under the right magnet. Then I have to wait for the system to recognize the ball is stuck and push it up so I can nudge a bit to get it down. Usually with some tilt warnings.
How to level this mini playfield?

There is a spring on top of the post that is near the camera shot and hitchhiker shot (where people mount the camera mods). That mini playfield can be adjusted up and down by the screw and how tight you clamp the mini playfield down.

Thinking of putting my TZ up for sale to fund MMR - what is the going price for the game nowadays?

All original - sat in warehouse for many years - home use for last 12 years - light fade on one side, pf very nice, all original boards, only mod is gumballs, cabinet is VG...

thanks.

I have a very good example of one on the east coast (NJ) that I just put up for $6,200. zero fade. plays perfectly. certified board, if that means anything to anyone, new rottendog clock board, no mods, no bites yet. a similar one, as far as condition, but with some fade just sold for $5,500 in about 2 days. so my guess is somewhere in between those numbers depending upon condition.

TZ is a great pin! I don't think there is a pin that has more going on than TZ. They look great, just wouldn't want to shop one out.

Thanks.

How do you jump to the LITZ mode? I would like to give it a try.
Thanks

Where can I get the piano toy? Is it hard to install? Does it Need Any electrical work?
Thanks

if you have the home roms. you hold in the buy in button til you hear the spiral loop sound then shoot for the slot machine.

This is what I just bought.
http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1823