New pin pickup - it's a doozie

[shardian]

I was at the local arcade Saturday with the wife, and they had the obligatory price tags on everything. There was something different this time though - the prices were pretty low!
Here sat this pin I had been playing since they first brought it in new. After talking over with the wife, I decided to go look at it with the manager this evening.

Well, it is sitting in my gameroom as we speak. Am I happy with the purchase, well I really don't know. Do I know what I am going to do with it now that I have it, no I don't. For now, we will play it and think about it. I was hoping to negotiate, but I had to pay full price plus tax.
Hell, I am considering shopping out my Lethal Weapon to sell, plus another game or two to offset the entire cost and keep it. Time will tell.

While it is incredibly clean for a route game, it does have a few coil issues. The autolaunch is wussy and will not launch the ball (good thing there is a plunger). The left sling is dead, but it did work when I first started playing it at the arcade. The right sling is wussy, and tends to fire when I activate a flipper. I assume the switches are just poorly adjusted too close. The VUK doesn't always sense the ball - but launches when the game searches for it. Just a dirty opto.

The cabinet is simply immaculate. How a game can be on route for several years and not appear to have a scratch on it...just makes my brain hurt from thinking about it.

The playfield needs a tear down and cleaning, but it will look damn near brand new. The only thing I see that is not fixable, is that the ship is missing a small chunk where the ball smacks it repeatedly. I would assume that is pretty typical. There were even brand new slingshot plastics in the parts bag.

Here are some pics. I'm the ugly dude in black, and dirty as hell. And yes, that is the obligatory Billy Mitchell thumbs up.
Jimmy - the guy in red - is my fellow gameroom bud that dragged me into this hobby into the first place. He left this evening with my Jungle King Mame. Sayonara first ever project cabinet.

[Zero_Hour]

 

[ChadTower]

 

[Pinball Wizard]

Would you mind telling us how much you paid for it?

[shardian]

Would you mind telling us how much you paid for it?

Less than the going rate...but not too much below. 

[pinballjim]

I enjoyed the game, wish it had shipped with the pop bumper in the outlane. 

The pieces of eight collection is supposed to be the tie in to the third movie.

Complete idiocy on Nordman's part that he didn't realize his mixmaster was the perfect tie in to the "Compass that points nowhere" until 3 months after the game was out.  Did yours come with any of the stupid Austin Powers or Apollo 13 decals?

[shardian]

Austin Powers and Apollo13? Why would there be stickers of those games on there?

As for the theme, it doesn't tie into the movies well at all. I have noticed something I have never previously seen this pin do before - occasionally the ship will sway back and forth like it is in water. I don't know if that was a software upgrade, or it just never noticed it before. Jimmy also logged time on this machine over the last few years, and had never seen it before either. It was a nice touch, and one of those 'little things' that make these crazy machines more fun.

[pinballjim]

Austin Powers and Apollo13? Why would there be stickers of those games on there?

The mixmaster needed a textured decal to whip the ball around.  When the game first shipped, they reused old decals from Austin Powers and Apollo 13 - AP had that black and white spiral thing, and Apollo 13 had a moon decal on a playfield spinning disc.  Take a look at the flyer, you can see the Apollo 13 decal on it.

[shardian]

No, this one has the standard textured compass decal. I read about where the sample games shredded the decal and dumped it all over the game within a month on location.

[Jeff AMN]

Your kicker problem is probably the VUK switch. Those are somewhat problematic on Stern games. They use that fork switch and one or two might fail every few years. I just fixed one on my dad's TSPP on Sunday, as a matter of fact.

[shardian]

Your kicker problem is probably the VUK switch. Those are somewhat problematic on Stern games. They use that fork switch and one or two might fail every few years. I just fixed one on my dad's TSPP on Sunday, as a matter of fact.

The VUK works 90% of the time as it should. I did notice at Marco that there is a switch in there that is available as a replacement. Interesting. I'm hoping a cleaning will fix it, but I might have to bite the bullet on the switch. Minor concern considering my other coil issues.

[pinballjim]

Sounds like you need all new coils and boards.

[Jeff AMN]

Your kicker problem is probably the VUK switch. Those are somewhat problematic on Stern games. They use that fork switch and one or two might fail every few years. I just fixed one on my dad's TSPP on Sunday, as a matter of fact.

The VUK works 90% of the time as it should. I did notice at Marco that there is a switch in there that is available as a replacement. Interesting. I'm hoping a cleaning will fix it, but I might have to bite the bullet on the switch. Minor concern considering my other coil issues.

Hmmm, if it works 90% of the time I'd just try resoldering the wires and the diode. Sounds like you might have a touchy connection there.

Your coils are fine, trust me. If you have an issue with a coil, it's almost always just a cold solder joint or a bad coil sleeve, but coils very rarely fail (like, almost never).

[ChadTower]

Buy a whole bunch of new leafs now.  Just do it.  You'll be glad you did. 

[shardian]

Buy a whole bunch of new leafs now.  Just do it.  You'll be glad you did. 

Yeah, you're gonna have to elaborate as to why. Surely if games from 50 years ago can still use the same leafs, Stern can make theirs last at least 3 years...

[ChadTower]

You'd think that but you wouldn't be playing the odds.  It's a cheap part and really annoying to wait a week on replacements.

They're almost as bad as the crap Williams put into the pin2k games.  Same part number but for some reason those switches are half as reliable than in the games before them.

[pinballjim]

List of Stern games Chad has owned or worked on:

[shardian]

I'm sure I have a few leaf blades in my parts bin if push came to shove.

[shardian]

List of Stern games Chad has owned or worked on:

Being familiar now with my DE Lethal Weapon, I can say this:
If you've worked on a DE/Sega game, you've pretty much worked on a new Stern. The manual is pretty darn nice though. Not the print quality (it sucks and is stapled together common copy), but the detailed information laid out in a "pinball for dummies" style.

[pinballjim]

The only one DE I owned was Jurassic Park and the mechanical build quality on it was abysmal.  My favorite part was the huge underplayfield ramp that was held on with -two- screws, and always broken. 

Williams would have used 3 (and it wouldn't break often but collectors would install repros anyway) and Gottlieb would have used 5 (and it'd never have broken).

Let us know how POTC holds up... if I were you I'd be kicking Lethal Weapon out the door ASAP.

[Pinball Wizard]

Austin Powers and Apollo13? Why would there be stickers of those games on there?

The mixmaster needed a textured decal to whip the ball around.  When the game first shipped, they reused old decals from Austin Powers and Apollo 13 - AP had that black and white spiral thing, and Apollo 13 had a moon decal on a playfield spinning disc.  Take a look at the flyer, you can see the Apollo 13 decal on it.

Could you show me where the "mixmaster" is? Heres the link to ipdb page:http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=5163 which has the playfield sectioned out into small areas. Trying to find it on the flyer hasn't helped me yet.

[Namco]

Austin Powers and Apollo13? Why would there be stickers of those games on there?

The mixmaster needed a textured decal to whip the ball around.  When the game first shipped, they reused old decals from Austin Powers and Apollo 13 - AP had that black and white spiral thing, and Apollo 13 had a moon decal on a playfield spinning disc.  Take a look at the flyer, you can see the Apollo 13 decal on it.

Could you show me where the "mixmaster" is? Heres the link to ipdb page:http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=5163 which has the playfield sectioned out into small areas. Trying to find it on the flyer hasn't helped me yet.

http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=5163&picno=32303

[Pinball Wizard]

Ahh. Thanks. I remember that from my old Apollo 13. Can't believe Stern even considered using those decals.

[shardian]

Got to spend a bit of quality time this evening.
- left sling had a bent switch. Fixed, adjusted, and is nice and strong now.
- right sling was pretty much stuck on. Adjusted and it fires correctly, but really weak. Results in a drain down middle when hit and headed for flippers... didn't test coil.
-Auto plunger: Reflowed and added solder to lugs. Ohms out to 4.1 ohms, and has the same voltage at both lugs. Still only knocks ball about 2" up the shooter lane. Now what???
- Didn't see anything wrong with the VUK. I guess the switch is going bad.


Notes: All the mods I've been eyeing online are badass! I may not do them all, but the green spotlights on the Dutchman is going to happen. Amazing how much ambience 2 green lights adds.

[shardian]

I just won an auction for the whole collection of Zizzle Pirates of the Caribbean action figures.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170386447472&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123

I'll probably only want a few of them, because too many is overkill.
I'm definitely going to use:
- Jack & Will (swordfight above parlay hole)
- Jack the monkey
-The Treasure Chests
- Maybe Davey Jones and a Pirate or 2.

The rest I'll just relist to get most of my investment back.

[Jeff AMN]

Nice pickup, those little guys are awesome. I really like the figures in my LOTR, and they should fit right in with the POTC machine.

[shardian]

Nice pickup, those little guys are awesome. I really like the figures in my LOTR, and they should fit right in with the POTC machine.

The same guy had a nice set of LOTR figures that sold for like $10. It wasn't complete though. I considered picking it up too for the newer LOTR cabs that left off most of the figures. Eh, if LOTR owners weren't bidding though, who's to know if I would make any money reselling them!

[shardian]

FYI. autoplunger and right sling had broken plunger links. Simple diagnoses,simple fix. I like this kind of open/shut troubleshooting.

[RichSorr]

I have one of these on Location. out of the other Stern games we have in other locations (nascar, ripleys, tspp, roller coaster tycoon) These seem to have the least issues. Fun game to play as well, tons of cool mods

[shardian]

I'll post this here too:

What do you all think this hole is for on the playfield?

[pinballjim]

To help you find the hidden mickey?

[shardian]

Seriously, smartass. Is it a hole for a ball save post? I asked w/o a picture at KLOV, and was told "flipper dimple". I know what the flipper dimples are and what they are for. That is not a flipper alignment dimple.

[ChadTower]

Looks like the size of an alignment hole.  But I don't know what you would align there.  What are the other similar holes down the drain for?

[pinballjim]

I'd guess that's probably an alignment hole for some BS european ball saver mechanism that's required by law - they get user controlled up posts in the outlanes.

There is a 'hidden mickey' in that area of the playfield, fwiw.

[shardian]

I have all my pin orders in now. Got the green LED's and plungers, so sickness be damned, I'm installing them! I got the plungers installed, and I'm at 100% playability now. Went to install the LED's and wouldn't you know it, the spots are 555's. Dammit. When I filled out my order, I went by the manual, which explicitly stated #44. I trusted that, and ordered on it. I knew I should have looked closer...
Anyone have a use for 2 green #44 triple LED's?

I also got in the zizzle toys. Those toys are excellent quality, and extremely detailed for a 3.5" figure. I'll definitely install a few. The only thing that irritated me is that the monkey is in chinese garb from the 3rd movie. I'm not a fan of that at all.

Anways, now I'm broke out in cold sweats and shaking, but it was totally worth it to take a load off my mind. Now I'm going to lay down again.

[gatordad]

Congrat's
I have only played that game a few times so I did not have a chance to really get into it.
I love the theme and the movies are all good too, lots of good poster material for the walls around it.
After you get it cleaned up and tuned in let us know how much you like it.

[shardian]

It works perfectly now. We play every day a few games. It grows on me more and more. I finally locked all 3 balls in the spinning disc  for Tortuga 4 ball multiball yesterday. Man, that was awesome! The best thing about this multiball - quadruple playfield scores while all 4 balls are alive (then triple, then double as you lose them).

I still haven't achieved heart multiball, or Davey Jones battle.

A local collector is currently enticing me with a trade deal. He has a Riverboat Gambler and a Whodunnit on his trade block, and cash - any combination of the three. The Whodunnit is interesting, and my wife really likes that one in pinMAME. We'll go look at them in person in a week or two, and see where it goes from there.

[Flake]

RBG is a fun game.  My parents have one.  I would imagine its not worth more than $800 though in average condition.  Never played a WhoDunnit.

[pinballjim]

WhoDunnit is complete garbage and barely worth $1,000 (and only for the boardset)

[Jeff AMN]

WhoDunnit is complete garbage and barely worth $1,000 (and only for the boardset)

pinballjim hates everything, so take that with a grain of salt.

The game is actually quite a bit of fun, especially if you're not just flipping randomly and actually trying to solve cases. You'll be told where to shoot a lot, and the majority of the fun is in nailing the shots on command.