Author Topic: Low End Pin Guy scores a Data East Tommy (Read 13918 times)

TopJimmyCooks · « **on:** August 02, 2012, 01:13:16 pm »

Sometimes even a low end guy wants to see what medium looks like . . . . .

CL find, got the CL hit notification on the droid, wasted no time dropping a dime. The seller had some regrets on the price after the 20+ calls she got from Virginia, Alaska and the North pole offering to wire money, but she stuck to her first come first served statement like a champ, which I thanked her for.

I made a play for a few bucks off asking, cash in hand of course, but the knees were knocking to get this pretty unbelievable deal loaded up. I expected it to be wrecked at the price asked, and was amazed to find it routed but very decent. The deal was done for the acceptably Low End price of $800.

Everything works, mirror, blinders, props, everything. Playfield has wear only at the kickouts that would be covered by cliffy's. This makes the LEP man quite happy, because usually when he gets something new he's looking at wood. Silverball target and mirror surface are worn and could stand to be replaced. Plenty of dirt that's wiping off nicely. Topper has a few scratches but nothing big. even all the lights are working. Power switch needs replacement. Backbox boards aren't even dusty.

A few hacks were perpetrated on the GI connection to the power board, easily fixed. they soldered wires to the board and connected to the harness with wirenuts on the two pins that burned. Not the worst thing I've ever seen.

I gave it a quick wipedown, put a few missing rubbers on, and I'm ready to play the silver ball. I'm so glad I didn't bite on that nonworking captain fantastic now. The wife has also pre-approved purchase of any broadway show themed pin. POTO anyone?

terrible cell phone pic:

Le Chuck · « **Reply #1 on:** August 02, 2012, 05:07:53 pm »

Wow. Great score. Love that pin.

MaineEvent · « **Reply #2 on:** August 02, 2012, 07:22:52 pm »

Way to go!
That is a great deal!
My favorite part of Tommy is the topper telling you who the pinball wizard is.
Enjoy the hell out of it

Malenko · « **Reply #3 on:** August 02, 2012, 09:56:06 pm »

if you hold both flippers when you push start, dont the flippers get covered by eyes for the whole game?

looks great, much better than the member that used that name here.

Nephasth · « **Reply #4 on:** August 02, 2012, 11:09:55 pm »

Someday... the boy will move out of the basement. Someday... I'll have a room full of pins. Nice grab Jimmy!

Le Chuck · « **Reply #5 on:** August 02, 2012, 11:12:00 pm »

I just came back to restate my total jealousy.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #6 on:** August 03, 2012, 08:18:38 am »

I know - I feel really fortunate. Usually, whats available around here either has a sucky theme, terrible condition or ridiculous price, if not all three.

Quote from: Nephasth on August 02, 2012, 11:09:55 pm

Someday... the boy will move out of the basement. Someday... I'll have a room full of pins. Nice grab Jimmy!

Don't make my mistake - make sure you get a good year of quality time in with your mame rig. Once you go silver you never go back. I'm trying to avoid the room full of pins - the Mystic is going on the block soon.

Quote from: Le Chuck on August 02, 2012, 11:12:00 pm

I just came back to restate my total jealousy.

Hey, I'll trade you for your TAF whenever you're ready.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #7 on:** August 03, 2012, 11:05:50 am »

pinballwizard79 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 03, 2012, 07:06:52 pm »

Nice score, good job!

The "fiddle all about" mode is the weirdest mode in pinball no doubt

Lucky you the blinders work, thats great news when you go to sell down the road.

Congrats

Pinball Wizard · « **Reply #9 on:** August 04, 2012, 10:58:05 am »

Quote from: Malenko on August 02, 2012, 09:56:06 pm

if you hold both flippers when you push start, dont the flippers get covered by eyes for the whole game?

looks great, much better than the member that used that name here.

Its that you hold the extra ball button when starting a game to play with the blinders on.

You lucky SOB!!! I love this game. Plays well and it doesn't seem to suffer from the typical DE/Sega typical gameplay feel.

jennifer · « **Reply #10 on:** August 05, 2012, 03:42:59 am »

Now that is just awesome and at the right price too!....Would you please take another pic of the other two? Jennifer doesn't have her glasses on
and they are a bit out of focus.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #11 on:** August 05, 2012, 01:25:38 pm »

Quote from: jennifer on August 05, 2012, 03:42:59 am

Now that is just awesome and at the right price too!....Would you please take another pic of the other two? Jennifer doesn't have her glasses on
and they are a bit out of focus.

It's not you, the pic is out of focus even with glasses on. I did a little shop work and cleaning yesterday, and when a few more things get done I'll post some closeups. Does anybody know if the propellers are supposed to spin any other time than during the skill shot?

The Globetrotters has a thread with some pics around here somewhere. I'm afraid to photograph the Mystic closely, any extra photons might shatter the floating film of ink fluttering behind the backglass.

Thanks for the comments guys. We've really enjoyed it so far and once I get a few more things tuned up I'll be filming a tribute recreation of Bowen's one handed tutorial. . . .Uh, going to practice for that now.

ChadTower · « **Reply #12 on:** August 06, 2012, 12:02:44 pm »

Nice score!

I guess I just don't get the extra appeal for this game. It feels like a regular DE DMD game to me. Nothing special.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #13 on:** August 06, 2012, 04:52:04 pm »

This game has stiff legs or something. My wrists are hurting from trying to nudge. I know this is more mass to move than my other older games. However, I played a transformers LE at the beach a couple of weeks ago and I could move it fairly easily and get a slow back and forth almost with my fingertips. It felt like a heavy game on thinner legs. Tommy feels like a brick. It's on carpet and pad so obviously I'm not going to slide it around, the levelers are rooted. I wonder if maybe the DE legs were heavier gauge steel or something. Any thoughts?

ChadTower · « **Reply #14 on:** August 07, 2012, 09:12:18 am »

The games of the Tommy era are heavier than modern Sterns.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #15 on:** August 07, 2012, 11:55:58 am »

Hey, that TFLE was freakin' fun to play. Couldn't comment on the quality of components. PF looked cheap with the heavy screen print texture printing through the clear. My wife was getting excited until I told her it was $7K. Maybe I should get some cheapo tin foil stern legs or something.

Just took a look and the legs are definitely heavier gauge than the bally games. Might try a swap.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #16 on:** August 13, 2012, 01:46:30 pm »

Replaced with trifurcons. Actually replaced two times, because the first time I put pins on and plugged it in the wires all broke off. They were completely cooked for 1" back from the ends. cut off a couple of inches of wire and now I've got complete GI. pins were gone on the board side, so i put new ones in with an 18 ga. Jumper wire across all four and over to the relay. Hopefully that will run cooler.

New rubber (black per original spec), rebuilt flippers, more cleaning. Looked at a replacement for the worn out auto plunge lever but they're $49. decided to repair the old one as best I could. working better now. As soon as I touch up the black on the head and inside the cab sides, it will be ready for some glamour shots.

Getting ready to try making a plastic to replace the trashed VUK surround.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #17 on:** August 28, 2012, 10:15:19 pm »

As with all Tommy's, the VUK plastic on the game was toast. LEP Man does not deal in euros so could not purchase an expensive repop from the deutschlanders. Got a scan of the intact plastic from a dude on RGP. Printed on photo paper. Made a template of the plastic in wood. Routed the Optix by using the permanent mounting holes to screw through and sandwich the optix- see pics. The piece of masonite on top of the optix is there so the wood screw clamp screws have a place for their heads to countersink and not be in the way of the router baseplate. Sanded the edges through the grits to 800. cut out the paper and taped it on with clear packing tape. The tape is trimmed flush with the edges and you can see a 1/16" of clear around the edge. I didn't spend any time color correcting or anything. I'm going to see how this holds up/how long to crack it. If things go well, I'll do a more permanent version with flush edges, polish out the edges, etc. for a more perfect dupe of a real butyrate. For the time being, I think its Smucking Fashing.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #18 on:** August 28, 2012, 10:25:34 pm »

Oh yeah, in a not-so-Low End move, ordered a G.D.M.F. $69 replacement Data East autolaunch. I am tired of not even having a chance for a double jackpot on multi. Worst engineered autolaunch possible- 17 moving parts. it would have been more to get a stern upright autolaunch and coil bracket though.

jennifer · « **Reply #19 on:** August 29, 2012, 10:16:38 am »

Jennifer looks over the top of her glasses at this...An interesting (low end fix), But the problem as I would see it it being clear packing tape will
yellow with age within a year.

ChadTower · « **Reply #20 on:** August 29, 2012, 10:26:19 am »

Either way, if it lasts him two years, it would take 20 minutes to pull off the old tape and put a new printout on there.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #21 on:** August 29, 2012, 11:27:27 am »

The tape is under the printout. It only shows at the 16th inch border around the outside and is trimmed flush with the outside bottom of the plastic. I read a tutorial where the guy glued the print to the bottom of the plastic with varathane, but that takes days to dry, and I was frankly impatient. I will redo this one of these days with better colors and better technique. Before that I want to see what protection/mod needs to be added into the plastic to make it last longer, if needed. Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate your input.

I'm really starting to dial in some shots on this, enjoying being able to play with some control and accuracy. Need to work on Vuk bounce outs next.

ChadTower · « **Reply #22 on:** August 29, 2012, 11:29:00 am »

Given the abuse that plastic takes it might be better strategy to make a couple spares than it is to try and make one tougher plastic. Some parts are just going to get broken. Be able to swap it when that happens.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #23 on:** August 29, 2012, 11:40:09 am »

I've got the template so the hour of prep work is in the bag

I just think it's an interesting problem. from the breakage it looks like the damage was from vuk rather than shots, hard to say. If I put some foam in there to deaden the bounce out I bet shot breakage will be reduced. My game already has a piece of aluminum over the more time standup, which I re-used, so it should be protected from the side flipper. It extends past the post sleeve towards the main flippers as well so I may no longer have an issue. You can see that piece of black painted aluminum in the pics. Probably an operator repair/substitute for the busted plastic. I might need to trim the aluminum a little more because it's quite hard to hit more time and I never shoot for it as a result.

ChadTower · « **Reply #24 on:** August 29, 2012, 11:49:23 am »

Aluminum... now that's a thought. Who says that plastic needs to be plastic? Maybe you could make one out of aluminum and put artwork on the top. Is it lit from underneath?

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #25 on:** August 29, 2012, 11:54:27 am »

not lit from underneath. the aluminum isn't the whole plastic- just a bar over the two posts on either side of the more time standup. it's under the plastic- you can see it in the pics. I thought it was part of the original game until I looked more closely at how crudely it was shaped. not in the HEP restore pics either.

ChadTower · « **Reply #26 on:** August 29, 2012, 11:55:29 am »

What I mean is forget plastic entirely. Make it out of aluminum and it won't break again.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #27 on:** August 29, 2012, 01:50:56 pm »

It could definitely be done.

ChadTower · « **Reply #28 on:** August 29, 2012, 02:05:00 pm »

Huh. The one major design flaw on Fathom is the flipper lane plastics. They are always broken because it's ball on plastic constantly. A couple of aluminum plastics there would solve that for sure. There has to be a mod I could do to make up for the lack of transparency...

jennifer · « **Reply #29 on:** August 29, 2012, 03:01:08 pm »

Since you got cutting the lexan down and a good scan, you could seperate the colors, reverse, and cut stencils on a plot cut. If you do this
use a art program (photoshop and illustrator) Dont try to do it freehand, It would be very time consuming with sub par results. This way you
can make one whenever you needed one.

ChadTower · « **Reply #30 on:** August 29, 2012, 06:27:09 pm »

Quote from: pinballjim on August 29, 2012, 02:33:37 pm

Don't chase your tail making unnecessary parts because some jealous forum troll told you to do so. How about a pic of your mythical Fathom, chaddles?

Would you like any specific shots or will this do?

jennifer · « **Reply #31 on:** August 29, 2012, 09:57:14 pm »

OMG, thats hilarious, Hey Jim you got mail!!!....Snort....

Malenko · « **Reply #32 on:** August 30, 2012, 10:56:18 am »

that backglass doesn't look 100% stock for some reason.

Is Fathom fun? the play field looks pretty barren to me, Im not a huge pin guy but I've played a lot of "TotAN" on my iphone and xbox360.

jennifer · « **Reply #33 on:** August 30, 2012, 02:48:11 pm »

I wanted to see this packing tape thing...So I made a test, and I"ll have to say it came out pretty nice. I liked using the Mylar best, it was
easier to work with, Had a nice feel to it, and I wasn't limited to a 2 in. strip. But all in all it was a nice quick fix...On that particular fix with
Tommy... When It was back lit, different story, The color depth Was unacceptable, The brighter the light the worse it looked.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #34 on:** August 30, 2012, 08:47:51 pm »

We'll see soon how the tape works on the backlit plastic.

I'm having fun photoshopping out the crack and misalignment and look forward to posting a before/after.

This is a good candidate for packing tape due to the clear border all around and less than 3" wide.

I mailed your sharpshooter horseshoe today PBJ.

ChadTower · « **Reply #35 on:** August 31, 2012, 10:27:33 pm »

Quote from: pinballjim on August 30, 2012, 08:51:24 pm

Do both slingshots and nobody will know the difference.

Truth. All they have to do is match. Make up your own artwork entirely and only a couple people might ever notice if they match.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #36 on:** September 07, 2012, 12:17:44 pm »

I replaced the auto launch on Tommy - now it gets a proper plunge all the way around 95% of the time. I'm confident the few misfires are due to the ball being unsettled in the lane during multiball. I originally just screwed it in the same as the old assembly and it worked exactly the same as the old one-very weak. So I took it down to the shop and slotted or enlarged some of the holes to allow more sideways adjustment to line up better with the ball. That nailed it. I also moved the shooter rod over to match. I'm still glad I replaced it because the old one has some super nasty welded repairs on it, and some serious linkage wear.

The assembly came from Marco with a different coil # than stock. I reused the old coil which should be the stronger of the two - 600 wraps v/s 800. A lesson learned- line everything up with the ball where it sits rather than the center of the shooter lane.

I ordered a replacement VUK plastic $13 and some cab touchup paint for $5 from pinball universe, but I'm going to keep the plastic out until I've completely solved the cracking issue. (my recent replacement is already cracked where the ball hits it on VUK exit.)

Crack is right across the guys neck. you can see how far the plastic goes inside the cage. I'm going to make a new one with this area scooped out.

jennifer · « **Reply #37 on:** September 07, 2012, 12:41:13 pm »

I may have missed the lesson learned....Line it up where the ball sits, not the center of the shooter lane?
.....Edit..... Oh Jennifer gets it, nevermind.

ChadTower · « **Reply #38 on:** September 07, 2012, 12:58:41 pm »

Definitely looks like the solution here is changing the shape of the plastic. Might be worth forgetting about that right most screw entirely and just don't bring the plastic that far over.

ChadTower · « **Reply #39 on:** September 07, 2012, 01:07:41 pm »

Hrm. If that were a tolerance issue on the screw holes then the art wouldn't match them. The pic makes it look like everything is in the right place except the plastic and that can't be right. Maybe it's the wireform that is supposed to be sticking out further over the hole. Could the wireform be malformed?

Is this an issue with all Tommys? Some games have a plastic or two that are just doomed by design.


Main	Restorations	Software	Audio/Jukebox/MP3	Everything Else	Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements	Monitor/Video	GroovyMAME	Merit/JVL Touchscreen	Meet Up	Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing	Woodworking	Software Support Forums	Consoles	Project Arcade	Reviews
Automated Projects	Artwork	Frontend Support Forums	Pinball	Forum Discussion	Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board	controls.dat	Linux	Miscellaneous Arcade	Wiki Discussion	Old Archives
Lightguns	Arcade1Up	Try the site in https mode		Site News


Unread posts \| New Replies \| Recent posts \| Rules \| Chatroom \| Wiki \| File Repository \| RSS \| Submit news