After almost 20 years in storage, unpacked my TZ today! Now time to swap out lamps for LEDs, install Cliffys and some mods, big cleaning, and slowly bring it back up to fighting shape!

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I'm 98% sure I did...I'll know for sure when I find the keys to get into the bad boy

This was in our local Aladdin's Castle back in the day. They NEVER did any maintenance on it. For years I would drop a quarter in every couple months to see if they fixed, and 2 of the 4 flippers would still be busted. Ended up picking it up when Aladdin's Castle sold all their pins, stripped it completely down and rebuilt it. Came out looking NIB (only a couple hundred plays on the beast)

Loved the game, but for a couple decades, just didn't have the room for it. Can't wait to play it again!

Whew!

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I agree 100% (my apologies, did not mean that literally, just to say very low play for a commercial location) Once I find the cabinet key (or my cobalt bit set), I'll have a real number

Not tough at all, all fair play! Bad wording on my part ("...the condition after clean up was as if it had a couple hundred games" would have been more appropriate). I appreciate the sensitivity to how condition of games are presented.

Honestly, it's been 20 years, and I'm apparently misremembering TZ having an internal mechanical coin counter (I was mainly an video game collector at the time, and all those had the mechanical coin counters). Alas, no luck remembering where I put the keys 20 years ago either, but I did find my inventory of spare NOS plastics/coils/powerball/etc

Damn exciting to have my favorite game finally out of storage though. Looking forward to catching up on this thread and this pin and getting it up and going again!

Folks, I'm making progress on my revival of my TZ that was in storage for 20 years. Some quick questions here in case folks have advice they can share (alas, search didn't help):

(1) My magnet cores are pretty weathered, so I was looking to replace. Alas, the big bolt on the bottom is really caked on (and it looks like a huge amount of locktite under the cruft). Any suggestions/tricks for loosening the big nuts so I can remove the old cores? (trying not to be too aggressive in forcing it)

(2) I ordered the Ingo TZ clock board (https://www.german-pinball-modular.de/final-tz-clock-pcb-english.html ) back in October. Every month or two I send a note checking in and get a polite reply re supply chain issues, etc. which I completely understand. Has anyone ordered one of these recently that has received it? I'm coming up on the 6 month deadline to get a refund through PayPal. In case I need to go to Plan B, what is the favorite clock PCB that is purchasable today?

(3) In a similar vein, I have the Pinbits gumball lamp kit on order (https://pinbits2.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_2&products_id=13 ). I'm seeing various reports of pinbits having gone dark (then back then dark). Can anyone comment on whether Pinbits is actively fulfilling orders? Again, if I need a Plan B, any recommendations for favorite available lighting kits for the gumball machine?

(4) Lastly, the large carriage bolts that support the playfield have rusted out, so time to replace. I'm having a hard time finding a reference that has generic parts like this enumerated for this era pin. Most promising thing I've found so far is https://www.pinballlife.com/38-16-x-1-14-ribbed-neck-playfield-support-carriage-bolt.html Does anyone have a reference for which size bolt/part number is needed for a TZ? Worst case I'll pull mine and grind them down and paint them, but I prefer to replace if I can.

Appreciate the HUGE amount of help I've received here, for the 100s of times search did bring up an answer

A crow bar, a huge wrench, a heat gun, and a mighty manly grunt did the trick! Thanks LTG !

Other goodies in my shopping cart for next order

Folks, I'm stripping down my TZ for a cleaning and saw what looks like two pilot holes right by the lock ball outlet (see photo). Are there supposed to be posts here or something, or maybe is this a vestige of some older iteration of the design?

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Interesting. On the early prototype machines, I assume the little trap ramp wasn't there? (judging from how the lock inset is partially covered). Maybe these were for posts to keep the ball from bouncing out of the lock? The opening between them is fairly narrow though...

Always fun to see these little bits of design history on playfields...

I just installed a Casper clock board in my TZ, with a GI OCD, and my clock lights are not working. I have notes in the companies involved asking if I need to swap the LED polarities to work with GI OCD, but can anyone else confirm that the Casper board + GI OCD is working for them? I'm hesitant to get out the soldering iron on the off chance that I have a faulty PCB

EDIT - PROBLEM SOLVED

I did some more searching in the forum, and found notes on reversing the power to J2 connector on clock PCB (swapping pins 5/6 with pins 3/4). The alternative was swapping pins 3/9 on J121 on the power board/GI OCD breakout connector.

I found the equivalent pins on the molex connector for the clock assembly that goes under the playfield, and swapped the two pins that connect to 5/6 and 3/4 on J2 on the clock board (yellow and yellow/white wires). Fired things up, and LEDs lit up like a charm!

Thanks to everyone for documenting their experiences and fixes here in the forum!

I am danger close with the tear down and build up of my TZ that has been in storage for 20+ years. Only things that is still vexing me is the 10 opto board (standard one for me).

Six of my optos are working, and but four are not. I ended up replacing all three LM339's to try and fix, and reflowed the solder on all the connectors, but still have the same issues. CPU board is known good after repair by Chris Hibler, with no stuck rows or columns.

Here are details:

Working: 72 (auto fire), 73 (right ramp), 74 (gumball popper), 76 (mini pf exit), 81 (right magnet), 83 (left magnet)
Not working: 75 (mini pf top), 84 (center lock), 85 (upper lock), 87 (gumball enter)

Looking at the schematics, here which LM339 each of the non-working opto's connect to:

75 (U1), 84 (U3), 85 (U3), 87 (U3)

I swapped out the new LM339 at U3 with another one just in case I had a bad chip, and same issue. At this point, LM339's are off the table as root cause.

Any suggestions for obvious things to look at next? My next step is to check wiring to these optos in case there is a break, but these are three different connectors under the PF (which has me perplexed)

I have a replacement board on order so I have a known working spare to help diagnose with, but I'd love to solve this problem and finish putting things back together and have a proper game!

(as an aside, a Twilight Zone with the mini playfield, upper plastic ramp, and wireforms off looks amazingly like a really full featured modern Stern LE...two fancy mechs instead of 1!
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Thank you for the pointer. I'm looking at the PCB and the schematics, and I only see one capacitor to stabilize the 12V Vcc input.

Is this what you are referring to?

Everything else is resistors and diodes (which is what makes this problem so vexing!)

Replacement 10 Opto board should arrive Friday from PBL, so I'll know soon if I've been chasing a red herring (there is a chance I have 4 failed opto transmitter/receiver pairs, but wow, that would be a surprise)

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I had same issue with Ingo board (canceled my order a couple weeks ago) and bought installed the Casper board from PBL. Works and looks great!

Only caveat for me was that it didn’t work with my GIOCD board out of the box. I reversed the pins on the molex connector to the Clock assembly and things worked just fine

As shepP suggested, swapping pins 3/9 on J121 will work.

As an alternative, I chose to swap the wires at the molex connector that goes to the clock assembly. On that connecter, find the yellow wire and the yellow/white wires. I used a small flat head screw driver to free the pins from the molex housing (there is a little flat of metal that holds the pins in the connector), and swapped the pins.

Both are equivalent though. I preferred to keep the cabinet wiring the same, and keep the change local to the clock assembly, although both will work, and both will work if you remove your GI OCD or go back to the original clock PCB with bulbs.

After waiting for parts and way too long business travel, I'm finally able to get back to this. Alas, with a replacement 10 opto board from PBL, I'm getting the exact same behavior. While this makes me feel better for not knowing what else to fix on my 10 opto PCB, it is still a head scratcher for what could be causing 4 optos to be no functional.

My next step tomorrow is to go brute force on these opto's and confirm wiring, and start swapping out the little opto PCB boards to see what happens (there is a chance I have 4 failed opto PCBs after 20 years in storage, but that seems like a stretch). If folks have any suggestions before I go medieval on this problem, pointers always appreciated!

(and I'll continue to document process here for posterity...the archive here of others has been an absolute gold mine as I've been getting this beast back up and going)

Thank you for the tip. As I was checking voltages on the various optos, I paid special attention to the harnesses. All seems to be good, but it was good to check.

Turns out, brute force repair was the right answer.

Mini playfield entrance switch (75) had a bad receiver, and gumball entrance (87) had bad emitter. Quick swap with replacements and cooking with gas.

For the two bad switches in the lock assembly (84 and 85), both had bad emitters. Replaced those and good to go!

Apparently these opto devices aren't as robust as I thought they would be (nothing except a LED and photo sensor on these things, but 4 of them still went bad while in extended storage...wild)

Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions!

Thank you Manny65 I saw your reply after posting. Your diagnosis was spot on (3 bad emitters, and 1 bad receiver). I tried looking at the LEDs with my iPhone camera, but not the FT camera. I will try that next time. I may also get some IR paper to have in the repair box to be able to do some quick tests next time (this looks like it may work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HS1GHPK )

Naively, I would have thought a simple IR LED would be one of the most robust items in the pin, but clearly reality is a bit different than intuition on this one. Appreciate the confirmation of lesson learned, and I'll be stocking up on replacement optos on my next PBL order

Arg....I'm finally finishing putting my TZ back together and I am missing a single screw(!)

Does anyone know what size screw holds the wireform immediately under the diverter?

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You guys are awesome. Off to Home Depot later today...

Took 2 months, but the job is done and I'm playing the heck out of this bad boy! Amazing how those 25 year old shooting skills just come back without thinking.

Appreciate all the help from the forum members here (including all the archival stuff from search...invaluable)

For future searchers, here is all the goodness and learnings from this process:

Machine was in surprisingly great shape when I pulled it out of shrink wrap (thankfully I had remembered to remove the batteries before packing it up). There was some fuzz on the internal metal parts and dust and creak, but very clean. After a quick once over, machine started right up with only a couple errors in the self test. So far so good!

Found one solenoid shorted out (piece of metal from a gate had rusted out, broken off, and was shorted across the terminals). That lead back to a dead fuse, and some switch matrix issues on the CPU board (see

for Chris Hibler's documentation of the repair). Shooter rod was basically rusted out (only deteriorated piece in the pin...every else was very clean)

Strip down/cleaning/etc was pretty fun. Last time I had done this was 1995 when I got the machine. MUCH easier with digital cameras and the internet LED install process was surprisingly easy (my first LED retrofit) and the comet kit is outstanding. I was worried that things would be Las Vegas bright and garish, but game looks incredible. Cleaned out all inserts, etc. in the process, and the game looks new. Highly recommended.

The OCD GI and OCD LED kits are spendy but they are a must. They did an amazing job of softening up the look and making the LED lighting feel organic. The LED kit and OCD boards are truly a no compromise upgrade from the old bulbs.

Working with the old PCBs to installed NVRAM and new 5V and 12V chips was scary. PCBs looked pristine (like they were new from the factory), but my soldering skills are about as old as these PCBs. Thankfully, I didn't do any damage with the installs, but this was the most nerve wracking part of the project for me. That being said, between switching supplies for 5V and 12V, LEDs replacing all the lights, and moving to a LED display, the boards are running cool as a cucumber now. Hopefully they will be trouble free for many years to come.

Dropped in Cliffy's and a new set of titans. Rubbers were shot, as were the 2 complete replacement sets I had from Marco from back in 1995 (I had forgotten about those!). My slot machine scoop was an original with the broken weld. It was great to finally replace it with a Mantis scoop, and take care of the busted/bent back target as well (those airballs were my bane back in the day). I took advantage of having things stripped down to selectively install some PETG washers as well (my Guns 'n Roses has trained me well)

Everything was generally fine. Magnet cores were gnarly, but with a crow bar and mighty grunt I was able to loosed the nut and replace them pretty easily. Couple wires had broken off terminals over the years, but those were easy to track down with switch/solenoid/lighting tests.

Clock PCB was working but flakey. Time for a new one. After 6 months waiting on the Ingo board, I canceled my order and got a Casper one. Only trick was needing to reverse the polarity of the LED pins on the Molex to the clock (LEDs weren't working with the polarity coming out of the GI OCD board).

Once Chris had repaired my CPU board for me (I suspect the solenoid short had fried the matrix decoder on the board), most of my switch errors went away, but some persisted. I had a surprising number of opto failures (both the opto switches and the opto's in the flipper boards). Not sure if they didn't age well, or if they were damaged by the short that took out the switch matrix decoder on my CPU board? Chasing this stuff down took by far the most time during this effort (including chasing a red herring with the 10 Opto board and wiring), with most of the calendar time patiently waiting for the next batch of parts from Pinball Life as I tried to brute force replace things to find the issues. Anyway, all good now.

In terms of new goodies, I LOVE the ColorDMD (LED version). Wow, what a difference it makes with the game! Like LEDs, the ColorDMD is now on my "must have upgrade" list for these older pins.

Mini playfield was actually a lot of fun to be working on again. Added some Comet lights at the base of the posts (very nice...the mini PF was always too dark for me) and added Twister 's mini switch kit (cleaned up one of the hackiest looking parts of the original machine IMO). The LEDs and flashers make a particularly big difference on the mini PF I think. The mini PF was always a dingy dark recess on the game before. It is a full part of the game now.

Love the look of gumboils in the gumball machine (although finding a light kit for the gumball machine has been a PITA...I'm going to have to cancel my Pinbits order soon).

I haven't yet gone nuts with mods, but I am eyeing the piano mods and spiral mods as gateway drugs. I also have a red Tbird ready to go, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for that level of bling quite yet. I have not yet installed my Pinstadium Neo's in the machine, since I want to get a feel for the machine without the stadium lighting. I am tempted by mirror blades and speaker/sound upgrades as well. TL;DR - all the usual mod'itis is about to start

I really really enjoyed this project. Aside from the nostalgia factor, TZ is my favorite pin of all time. To come back to it and really get reintroduced to it after working on and playing modern pins for a while (Godzilla LE and GnR CE) has highlighted how software has overcome mechanical layout and components in modern pins. Progressing through doors is so much more intuitive and accessible than the 598 battles modes and song modes in my other pins. Having TZ stripped down like that really shows Pat Lawlor for the master of motion and connection that he is (you can see the orchestra conductor at work in the layout). These modern pins just don't hold a candle to that mechanical and physical elegance (although Godzilla at least hints at it). Can't wait to see what he does with his next (last?) JJP pin...hopefully the BOM gloves are off, and we really see the toys.

Time to go back and get some games in. Thanks again for all the help and information here!

Full inventory of what went into this (and yes, this all cost way more than the entire machine cost me back in 1995)

Visible stuff

PinGuard Cabinet Protectors (set of 4) Black
https://www.pinballlife.com/pinguard-cabinet-protectors-set-of-4.html
Black legs and levelers and silicone feet (pinball life)
Pinmonk black leg washers
Comet outhole drain lighting kit Sunlight
Titan lock bar finisher
https://www.titanpinball.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=133
Comet TZ LED kit (with flashers, upper playfield post light kit, and LED OCD board and bracket)
https://www.cometpinball.com/products/twilight-zone-led-kit?_pos=1&_sid=744c49014&_ss=r&variant=27680629456998
GI OCD board and bracket
http://ledocd.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=24
ColorDMD LED
https://shop.colordmd.com/led-replacement-display-for-twilight-zone-pinball-machine/
Door flasher PCB
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-door-lamp-board-flashers-add-on/page/3
Mini playfield switches from Twister
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-owners-club/page/129#post-4625780
Pinball Life gumboils for gumboil machine
https://www.pinballlife.com/twilight-zone-polished-seamless-opaque-glass-gumballs.html
Classic Playfields mirrored glass TZ backglass reproduction
https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-backglasses/tz-backglass/
Decal for diverter
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1084-pinball-pimp/01802-twilight-zone-starfield-ball-diverter-decal-a-must-have
Custom instruction cards
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1084-pinball-pimp/04236-bally-twilight-zone-instruction-cards-custom-designed

And the invisible stuff

9.4H ROM
https://mattsbasementarcade.com/product/twilight-zone-pinball-cpu-rom-9-4h-u6-bally-williams-eprom/
Rob Kahr No Reset WPC Power Fix Pro Daughterboard and PSU5 and PSU3-12 5V and 12V upgrades
https://kahr.us/daughterboard.html
https://www.ezsbc.com/product/psu3-12/
https://www.ezsbc.com/product/psu5-nonoise/
Mantis slot machine scoop
https://mantispinball.com/product/twilight-zone-slot-machine-scoop/
Full Cliffy set + flipper ball guides
http://www.passionforpinball.com/tz.htm
Replaced full shooter assembly (rod, sleeve, springs, tip)
Keyless lock for coin door
Magnets on diverter
Full set Titan silicone rubbers, tip, posts, flippers, etc.
https://www.titanpinball.com/kits/index.php/view/id/1227
anyPin DMD+ NVRAM Battery Eliminator
https://www.pinballlife.com/anypin-dmd-nvram-battery-eliminator.html
New magnet cores
https://www.pinballlife.com/magnet-core-plug.html
New plastics for mini PF, including metal brace to protect Magna-Flip plastic
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/31-1765-17-G
Repairs/hardening on MPU and power board by Chris Hibler
http://chrishiblerpinball.com/contact/

Caspers Clock PCB
https://www.pinballlife.com/twilight-zone-clock-pcb-assembly.html
http://www.installationinstructions.com/103501.pdf
Replacement 10 onto board (red herring, but I have it now)
https://www.pinballlife.com/10-opto-replacement-board-for-twilight-zone-a-16807.html
LOTs of swapped out switches and optos

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Indeed, learned this after the fact. I have a remote batter holder on order, so I'll end up with batteries as well I think.

What I'm really having trouble tracking down is a reasonably priced gumball light kit. Pinbits seems gone for good (website not working) so that order likely isn't going to show.

Anyone have a spare kit or know somewhere that has these in stock?

Thanks for the pointers! I will check them out.

Practical play question since I've forgotten - when the game loads balls at the beginning, does it load the gumball machine with 3 balls or 4 balls? (mine is loading 4)

I'm having an issue when I lock a ball with extra ball lit. When the ball drains, machine is not registering the need for a new ball. It goes through the ball search a couple times then kicks out the locked ball. After that drains, get the extra ball as normal. I suspect it may be confused about the number of balls available.

All the switches in the trough are working, as are the switches in the lock area. Only thing I can think of is maybe it is loading an extra ball into the gumball for some reason, and losing track?

I haven't had to work on the gumball mechanism before. I'll dig into the manual and see if something may be going on there.

Other than that, game is playing amazingly well and we're loving it!

I did see a setting for number of balls in the gumball machine (I'm set to the default of 3). I do see balls per game (I'm at default 3). I'm not seeing a total balls in game setting, but I'll go through the manuals and amendments tomorrow in case I missed something (I'm on 9.4H)

Just to be safe, I'll also try a factory reset tomorrow, in case the game is in a funky state with the settings. I'm 99% sure the root cause of my issue is the auto gumball loader loading 4 balls instead of 3, although it isn't clear what can be causing that (gumball optos seem to be firing on load, but they may be glitchy or something?)

Thank you Manny65 I had verified multiple times that the trough switches were fine (manually triggering switches, rolling a ball up the trough and confirm each switch was triggering, etc) but I agree that the issue has to be there.

This morning I went back, and found some flakiness on the left trough switch. After working it a couple times it was clean and the intermittentness had gone away, but initially it wasn't reading well. Time to swap it out.

Cracking the switch open, there is non-trivial gunk build up in the switch that must have made it intermittent (esp. after sitting around). Wild

During my initial sweep through the machine, my center trough switch was also intermittent, but not working more than working (also gunk on the inside). There was a bunch of gunk on the trough and playfield under the apron when I cleaned out, so I suspect a coke spill from 1993-94). Time to proactively replace all the other trough switches

Appreciate the sanity check on what is expected behavior and suggestions for debugging

Folks, I'm about to order some mirror blades. Has anyone seen the PDI black mirror blades in person? I'm wondering if those may be a better match to the look and vibe of TZ than the regular mirror blades.

http://pinballdecals.com/MirrorBladesPage.html

GoldenBear I went with the Comet LCD kit for my TZ (https://www.cometpinball.com/products/twilight-zone-led-kit?_pos=1&_sid=744c49014&_ss=r&variant=27680629456998 ) with flashers and the OCD board for LED's. I separately purchased a GI OCD board

The comet kit was outstanding. As a newbie to LED upgrades, it couldn't have been easier to follow. Each LED came in a small baggie, labeled for which lights in the game it was intended to replace. Upgrading became a paint by numbers exercise, cleaning inserts as I went.

I too was VERY worried about a harsh LED look, but the warm white/sunlight bulbs that come with the kit are actually very close to the bulbs I pulled from my system (just a lot brighter and cleaner). For the inserts, the LEDs are selected in the kit to match the color of the inserts, etc.

I would occasionally drop the playfield and check the look as I went, and things just looked better as they got swapped out. The game really came alive, without looking different, just looking brand new and extra alive. I couldn't be more pleased

With GI OCD, all the GI dimming effects are fantastic. Without it, it was pretty annoying for mw.

I have not yet fired up the software to tune up the parameters for the LEDs or GI bulbs. I'm pretty happy with the out of the box config, but I may fiddle with tweaking the configuration at some point

Tactical question for folks. I have NVRAM installed in my machine, but I was looking to add batteries (with a remote holder) so the clock keeps current time. Can TZ work with both NVRAM and batteries at the same time, or would I need to swap back in a regular memory chip to use regular batteries?

Thank you for the confirmation Manny65 remote battery holder installed!

For the first time since I purchased my TZ in 1995, there is no dot next to "Free Play" on a consistent basis (last hurdle was adding some electrical tape to the minute hand on the clock so that it consistently breaks the optos) Wow!

Yesterday I installed some Stern tapered black post rubbers from Titan and the low bounce Titan flipper bands, and airballs are almost all under control now as well

Now some fine tuning questions for folks that have been enjoying and tweaking their machines much longer than me.

When I shoot the left spiral, the ball comes all the way around and back to the right flipper (as expected). However, when I shoot my right spiral, the ball bounces off the black post rubber holding the lower right corner of the mini PF. Is this expected behavior, or should the right spiral go the the lower left flipper as well?

Also, is there consensus on the best angle/position for the lower flippers? I have mine so that the front face of the flipper is perfectly aligned with the lane guides (slightly above the toothpick holes, but I'm using slim low bounce bands, which are slightly thinner than other bands). Shooting the right spiral from a trap is quite challenging right now, so I'm wondering if the flippers should be dropped a bit? Should the center line of the flipper be parallel to the lane guides?

I'll for sure fiddle with flipper position, but always easier to dial in starting with the consensus position

Fantastic info, thank you!

I've had no bounce out issues since getting these:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GLGFYW7

I too have issues with hitting the ramp so fast that the diverter does not get out of the way in time (happens about 1 out of 5 times for me) I hear the energizing of the diverter, then a short delay, then diverter moving, so I'm wondering if there is some stickiness that is delaying the activation of the diverter? May be worth doing a coil test for the diverter and seeing how responsive it is.

Here are photos of the ramp and with the ramp removed. Also a snippet from the manual that shows where the part is

It only has a ramp on one side. The ball goes up, and drops into the lock ball section.

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Sorry Manny, I saw you posted after hitting post!

By chance, took delivery of 2 pins today, and after 50 years of dreaming of someday having a proper pinball lineup, that day has come!

Of course, my daughter is now calling out my TZ for looking a bit thin and naked up top compared to his cousins. Any recommendations for tasteful TZ toppers that folks can share, for purchase or DIY?

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That slot topper is very sweet. In googling around, this one caught my eye as well:

Haven't seen anything other than this video though. Did this one ever get produced, or did they skip to the Pedretti topper (out of stock) on cointaker?

A couple pinsiders very kindly called this out. My TZ was in storage for ~20ish years, and I've been rebuilding it for the past many months (including new legs). Yesterday was the first time it was next to other pins, and I was scratching my head why it was so squat. It was on my list to measure the legs today, but mounting the legs too low is almost certainly the issue (thank you for callout!)

If feels like something like this could be DIY'able (certainly for less than 4 figures). The plasma ball would simplify any electronics since physics would take care of all the dynamic lighting. I'm thinking some custom printed plastics mounted to a wood board, some LED strips to back illuminate the plastics, and the plasma ball.

I'm getting more excited about this project as I research it more.

Looks like there are services to print out photos on acrylic:

https://www.mpix.com/products/homedecor/acrylic-prints?msclkid=f1f0e28e25751cb273548021a05a82f0&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Mpix%20Shopping%20Campaign&utm_term=4584207583730765&utm_content=Mpix%20Shopping

1/4" acrylic would be pretty bold on a topper

I'm thinking one large image with all the pieces on it, printed out on 1/4" acrylic.

The alternative is to get a large sheet (or two) of custom decals printed, and apply to an acrylic sheet.

Time to look for some vector art that's suitable for TZ...

Love it!! That's awesome! Alas, we do get earthquakes down here

Fantastic post! Appreciate the guidance on how to use a relay for AC powered mods (thank you).

I have some of these on order:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256801497905332.html

DC powered flat plasma disks, sound activated. When they get here, I'll post some pics and report here.

Absolutely! I was inspired by your post to experiment with these (thank you!). I have 4 different colors in bound

I recently swapped out an original board for one of these and it works great! Be very careful to not lose small parts as you do the swap, but otherwise easy

Only asterix is that my minute hand had intermittent detection after the swap. Turns out it wasn't cleanly breaking the opto path. Following the advice here, I put a bit of electrical tape on the end of the minute hand to extend it and absolutely zero issues since then.

Took a while for the Aliexpress slow boat to make it to this side of the big pond, but my plasma disks are finally here. Here is the flat blue disk installed in the back of my TZ.

Unit is sound activated, which works very nicely in game play.

Next step for me is to get a 3.3V DC Buck converter so I can wire it directly into the game (currently powered by 2 AAA batteries)

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A friend showed up today for my TZ topper! She keeps saying "I'm Talky Tina, and I love pinball very much!"

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When I tore apart my TZ many years ago, the subways were horrible. After basic cleaning (which took multiple passes), I got out polish and the dremel with a polish wheel and took care of business (Novus 3 to 2 to 1)

Lights are burned (it would get hot in there) and optos are unhappy.

I just got the following board from PBL:

https://www.pinballlife.com/twilight-zone-clock-pcb-assembly.html

Only tweak I needed was the plastic on my minute hand was intermittent for breaking the optos. I put a bit of black tape on it to extend it and it's been 100% since then.

I too ordered the Ingo board (and got a refund right around the 6 month mark when I told them I was going to reverse PayPal charges)

I got the Casper board from PBL, and installed it in my machine with GIOCD and LEDOCD.

Out of the box, it did not light up. To fix, I reversed the polarity of the pins on the clock side of the connector to the lights, and it came right up. I was comfortable doing this because evening if someone were to convert the game back to regular lights, since that is 6.3VAC, the orientation of those pins won't matter.

Only other tweak I needed was to add a little black tape to the end of the minute hand so it would consistently register on the opto's

Details from my notes:

- [x] Reversed yellow and yellow/white pins on molex from clock assembly under playfield to reverse polarity to clock LEDs, and worked like a charm\
- [x] Alternative was to swap J121 3/9 on power board/GI OCD break out box, but wanted to keep change local to clock assembly
- [x] https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-owners-club/page/205#post-6229494
- [x] http://ledocd.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7

Nice! Just got a Hallmark Robby ornament and trying to get inside to wire up LEDs without destroying it

I have both the original translite and the mirrored backglass from CPR. Both have their pluses, but I opted to stay with my original translite (it is in fantastic shape, which made it an easier call to make). If someone in SoCal is looking for a mirrored TZ backglass (or mirrored ST:TNG backglass...I ended up scoring a NOS TNG translite, so my mirrored TNG back glass got bumped), drop a PM

Danger close on my new topper! Should have the light shield next week, and I have a pile of old pinballs (and a white pinball) ready to fill the gum ball machine once it is on top of my machine (heavy!) Alas, once loaded, the LED strip will no longer reflect as eyes, but for now, I'm enjoying the smiley face

Question for this group. I am keen to put an eye sticker on the pyramid. I've cleaned up an image from the mini playfield and have it sized correctly, but I've never done any printing on clear backing with translucency. Does anyone have a good recipe (paper type, where to get things printed, etc) for this sort of thing?

This has been a long effort to source and lay out everything, but a heck of a lot of fun. Very happy to have some real antiques (cheaper than mods lol) and tangible physical things for this pin.

Next up: a topper for the Lebowski I have on order (there's a global supply issue with bowling pins for the past 6 months...who knew?), then a topper for ST:TNG

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I get all my rings through Titan. Folks post kits for their games, each with a different flavor (color combos, etc.). I went with a vanilla config:

https://www.titanpinball.com/kits/index.php/view/id/2129

If you have legs with two bolt holes (newer ones) did you attached them to the right holes on your pin? If you're off by one you'd have a hard time making up for that with the leveler legs

Lot of work, but very happy with how this turned out. Couple more lighting tweaks, wiring to machine with some relays, and getting a proper eye sticker made for the pyramid, but happy to finally have this on the machine (and the civilians in the house are even happier to have the kitchen counter back

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Most definitely! Bolts and screws coming up from the bottom of the topper base to secure the heavy things, and base bolted to backbox (we live in earthquake country

With pinballs in the gum ball machine, it is HEAVY. Most definitely would do serious damage (although with an epic multi ball)

Great call...Godzilla will continue to get better, and they will be out there for years. There is something special about getting a TZ up to top playing shape. By analogy, can't really compare a Shelby Mustang with a Tesla (or any modern car), but a heck of a lot of fun and satisfaction in taking a Shelby Mustang to tip top performance.

The voltage coming into BR5 and C30 is AC voltage from the transformer. You can measure that and make sure something hasn't fried with your transformer, but that is pretty unlikely I think.

BR5/C30 going bye bye is really common as these boards age. If they were original, they may have been operating on the brink and something you did tipped them over. Once the bridge rectifier is busted, it isn't going back (its blown)

I would be surprised if something could happen on your playfield that would kill a new bridge rectifier and cap. I strongly suspect things like fuses and regulators would blow well before the BR and cap hit a limit. When your BR and caps gets replaced if you use upgraded components, chances of that go down even further.

If you haven't see this vid yet, it is a great overview of what it takes to replace the bridge rectifiers and power caps on these power boards.

You'll see the person recommends BRs and caps with higher voltage ratings than the original, just so they are more robust. Hopefully once replaced, you'll have a good 30 more years out of the new components (esp. if you're about to swap out the 12V regulator with a modern switching version)

Good to be cautious though. Very painful to pull working components from one machine and have them fail in a busted machine (I lost a CPU board that way...ug)

Several months I asked if anyone had installed the black PDI mirror blades in their machine. I ended up ordering a set and installed this evening.

I think the darker color fits better with the theme than the normal mirror blades. Are they worth the 2x premium? That I’m less certain of (although these things are always in the eye and wallet of the beholder)

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These daytime photos with the machine off capture the look of these black mirror blades really well. The look is really sharp I think

If window tinting is durable, that would be a great option

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I waited as long as I could before canceling, but that was ~6 months ago. I hope they've been able to spin up production again.

I have a set of Pinstadiums I purchased for my TZ but never installed. Instead, I have mini post lights on main and mini PF, trough lighting, and Brite Mod evo lights on the pop bumpers. That and a full LED set and mirror blades and I didn't need the extra lighting any more

Similar tactic on my AFMr. The combination of mini post lights, scoop lights, trough lighting, mirror blades, translucent rubbers and better lit bumper caps and didn't feel the need for pin stadiums anymore

I've only used the Brite Mods:

https://www.pinballlife.com/britemods-store.html

I have Brite Rings in my TZ, and EVO's in my AFMr and ST:TNG. It is style choice which way you go

The other choice with pop bumpers is whether you want to keep the original bodies, or swap out for different colors/styles. In my ST:TNG and Godzilla, I swapped out for Zitt 's clear bodies, skirt, and bases http://pinball-mods.com/oscom/PopBumper.php?Bally

If there is a lot on the playfield or you want the look of the pop bumper caps floating or you want more light in the pop bumper areas, the clear pop bumper bodies/skirts/bases make a huge difference.

Note that the Brite Mod lighting is VERY easy to install. Swapping out the pop bumper bodies is more involved, usually requiring cutting power lines to the pop bumper and take the assembly apart. Cary Hardy has a great video on rebuilding pop bumpers that shows the process

On mine I wasn’t able to adjust to have it flow to the bottom left flipper, but it sure feels like it should. I’m not sure what intended behavior is though

I'm having an intermittent issue that tedious to try to tweak up, and was hoping someone here has a recipe they can share.

When shooting the right ramp to battle the power, about 1/2 the time the ball gets knocked off the rails when the diverter opens to let the ball through.

For normal shots (diverter down to catch the ball), it is smooth as butter.

I suspect I need to tweak the rails, but it is challenging to do this sort of thing in test mode, and tedious to be playing games to test out tweaks.

Does someone have the magic formula for getting the rail to the mini playfield tweaked up?

Thanks in advance!

(as an aside, I finally got around to installing magnet liners on the path to my lock and it is a literal game changer: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-definitive-twilight-zone-lock-shot-fix-thread After cursing bricked lock shots for 28 years, I don't think I've had a single bricked shot since installing the magnet strips....MANY thanks to those sharing their experiences here, it works amazingly well)

First rule of TZ:

If something with an opto is flakey, replace the optos

Second rule:

If you pull a part with multiple optos to test or repair, replace all the optos

Amazing how many gremlins these rules put down (I had same issue with flippers, replacing optos fixed them)

I bought a CPR mirrored backglass for my TZ and enjoyed it, but went back to the original. I've had my machine since 1995, so the nostalgia factor of the original was too big to overcome, esp. with a nostalgic theme like TZ.

(if someone in SoCal is looking for a CPR mirrored TZ backglass, drop a PM)

It definitely looked more modern, which is part of why I went back to the older translite.

I should caveat some things though. I have 2SMD sunshine LEDs in my backbox (to match brightness in the rest of my lineup). With the repro it lost some of that vintage look that I was used to. Would my impression be different if I had warm white LEDs? Maybe, I don't know.

That slightly aged/warm vintage look is appropriate to the theme I think, and the original translite with the bright sunshine LEDs hits the sweet spot for nostalgia and fitting into the lineup for me.

I did the same. IIRC these screws and bolts came with my switches.

I too swapped out the plastics when I made the change, and added a protector to the right sign (I've replaced that too many times over the years)

Hybrid here. I have color LED in my TZ and STTNG and AC/DC, color LCD with filled in look in my TWD.

Love the dots look in older games, and LED has so much more pop than LCD for the dots

For more modernish games like TWD, the filled lcd look is a nice transition to modern pins look for me

I went black mirror blades for my TZ and love it. Spendy, but really draws out the playfield

Here you go:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-owners-club/page/256#post-7164965

I'm pretty religious about using side protectors when lifting playfields, so hasn't been an issue for me.

Only downside is the seriously high price ($285+shipping). TZ is the prize of my collection and never leaving, so it was worth it for me

Finally got to FedEx today to print out a sticker and finish up one of the longest "to do" items on my pin list.

For my topper I'm using this pyramid from Ali Express:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832702849644.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
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I've taken out of the LED in the base and replaced with something brighter (I think I ended up with warm white LEDs, and yellow LEDs for the rocket windows, but that was a while ago).

Printed out a sheet of stickers with the eye from the playfield and installed. If anyone would like some of these stickers, please PM with your address and I'll drop some in the mail for you (US only please)

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Camera and gumball machine were eBay antique finds. Just had to be patient (surprisingly all were cheaper than most mods we buy)

Dug up some more reference info from my notes

Here is a link to the camera I used for my topper (and I'm pretty sure was the model for the backglass and playfield)

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Rolleiflex_3.5_series

Here is the bronze rocket I found:

https://nelles-studios.square.site/product/rocket-coin-bank-with-portholes-813/79?cs=true&cst=custom

The gumball machine is an Advance Gumball machine (eBay)

TZ topper should be as unique as the antiques in the shop...

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