1978 Playboy

[bobbyb13]

Love how campy this one is.
Termite eaten and sunburned of course, so I'm building a new box and got stencils.
Wheeee!

[TacoTownCharlie]

We’re not here for your articles, send pictures!
TTC


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bobbyb13]

I"ve tried Tony!
My pictures won't pass the test, even after some manipulation.
I'll try again harder after dinner.
There are more photos because this project also has snowballed to silly proportions- as expected.

And nice to see a post from you fine sir!

We’re not here for your articles, send pictures!
TTC


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bobbyb13]

Maybe THIS will work?

So this machine has a story already.

Chapter 1
Over a year ago this beast was listed on craigslist- so of course I had to go look.
A really odd haole (not from here white guy) who lived on the 4th floor of an old block apartment building in town (with his wife- who was a slightly younger than him Japanese woman who looked really pissed off about the whole situation) had this thing in the living room of what felt like a 400 sq ft studio.

It looked like a fun project but it needed a LOT.
Obvious termite damage (maybe still unmitigated even?!) a beat up playfield, broken plastics and rubbers, burned out bulbs, sound messed up, delaming backglass, etc.
The guy wanted far too much for it.
He also refused a polite (and generous!) offer given the thing's condition when I listed the $2k in stuff it would need to be the $3k machine he thought it was.

I left bummed because I knew he would just be destroying it to try to get more $$ out of it since he had NO clue wtf he was doing with anything apparently.

[bobbyb13]

The image thing is just maddening...

So-

Chapter 2

I had written this thing off of course, until a few weeks ago when it popped up on facebook marketplace (which I grudingly check SPECIFICALLY for pins and arcade machines.)
HAD to be the same machine- except now it is on the OTHER (sparsely populated) side of the island.

The guy had only listed it that day and I was apparently the first person to send him a message- and actually had time to go look the next day- a Saturday.

Sure enough- same machine- except this guy (whose name is Guy! and he is a great guy actually) had bought a bunch of parts for it and cleaned the thing up quite a bit.  Way better than I had seen it.

So I asked him, "Where'd you get this?"  His reply?

I had to meet this really odd guy at a storage unit to see it- and he was a mess- really dirty, and stunk like he was homeless.  Said his wife had kicked him out and he was trying to get some $$ out of this thing.

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

He wanted what he had paid for it (less than the first clown wanted!) and was chalking what he spent on it up to getting to play it for a while, and knew it still needed more time and $$ and was ready to pass it on.

I gave him what he was asking for it and loaded it in the Element and brought it home!

Nikki loves it.  Laughs every time she sees it.
Today was "Look! They even gave the girl in the green suit some camel toe!"

Classic.

[bobbyb13]

The stupidity continues-

Chapter 3

So I get the thing home and already I know that even though Guy had treated the thing for termites and there weren't any still chewing away at it that thing has suffered.

The bottom of the cabinet where the bottom dado was cut in was tearing off, the backbox support pieces were like paper mache' in spots, and there was enough termite crap that had spilled back into the coffin in transit that I knew the wood in a bunch of places was in pretty bad shape.

Well, ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, it's only a box, right?  Has to be easier than a video game cabinet, no?

Sure, the magenta color is completely burned out of the cabinet art, but at least I have an original to work from.



Turns out, there are a number of interesting details to a pinball machine cabinet, epecially if you are going to re-engineer it slightly so that you don't have to buy a few really expensive router bits (and maybe you are a little impatient too.)
A little glue and head scratching later and...



But of course if I am going through all of THIS trouble then I can't just leave that nasty playfield (which it turns out has had a bunch of termite damage also) in a NEW cabinet, can I?!



And, the slippery slope steepens.

[pbj]

Theme is a no-go for me, but I’m here to hold your hand and look into your eyes while you ---fudgesicle--- your wallet.

How do the boards look?  As you’re obviously learning, literally everything for that machine has been reproduced. 

I’ll check, I may have some plasma displays laying around.  If I recall correctly, though, the logic on the displays is driven by 5V on each display PCB and you can solder in LEDs and just leave the high voltage disconnected.  (On Williams, all the logic is on the master display board and only high voltage runs out to the displays, so you can’t mix and match those)

Or just buy these…



https://www.wolffpactech.com/6-digit-display-kits



I don’t even bother trying to repair old boards and displays anymore.  But you’re crazier so I’m here for it.

[bobbyb13]

Thanks for chiming in!
The newer Playboy ones are definitely a no-go for me but this one is SO cheesy that it still works, and when Nikki found it funny too I thought screw it.

I figured this could be a skill building exercise I would just sell but surprisingly I like the game play.
Not sure how it stacks up with others from 1978 but the sound, light, mechanics, and scoring are all fun enough to me anyway- certainly for something this vintage.
Even more fun to play with a group of mildly intoxicated people.

As far as the state of the machine goes I have to accept that I enjoy the self-flagellation of something currently beyond my scope.

The last guy had spent all the cheddar to get a few new boards to make (nearly everything) work but didn't know to follow through with replacing the connectors and headers where needed- so that will sort out the remainder of what was flaky.
Even those crazy plasma displays seem to all work- for now anyway.
I need to have a look at those wolf displays again anyway though.

The box and playfield were termite farms for a while as it is so to hell with purist delusions.

The ass-pounding my wallet will suffer is almost entirely in the repro playfield and stenciling the new cabinet I'm nearly done with.
New fasteners are cheap and the effort to strip off, clean, and polish all this other crap to swap over will be fleeting moments of zen for me.

Although I really do want to replace the old bulbs with leds that are the proper color tone of an old incandescent.
Any suggestions on who to give my money to for those pbj?
I have read that I need something to increase load so that they fire completely and don't flicker.

In the meantime I'm expanding on some miter saw stand turned rotisserie examples I have seen to make a pair to use for this and the EBD.

If I can get the freakin picture nazi software to accept something again I'll keep this fiasco more visible.

[pbj]

Well, if he's replaced the MPU and driver board, you may not need to do this, but I recall Bally games require a resistor across each LED to prevent flickering.  I think some of the repro boards fix this problem.

I use "warm white" LEDs from a seller called Gearius on Ali Express (which look suspiciously like those sold by a US seller under a different name and more expensive).  I held out a long, long time but I finally switched all my games over.  Reduces strain on the boards and wiring.  They don't get hot so you don't have to worry about them burning up plastics.  For awhile I had Firepower next to Alien Poker, one with LEDs and the other with incandescents.  I couldn't tell the difference.  When people first started switching over 20 years ago, the LEDs looked terrible.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803150389968.html

 

[bobbyb13]

Geez am I getting old.
Forgot you had mentioned those bulbs previously 
Just ordered a bunch for this and the Eight Ball Deluxe while I was at it.
I need to decide if I'm soldering 100 resistors or buying an Alltek lamp driver board for this as there is still an original in this machine.

Well, if he's replaced the MPU and driver board, you may not need to do this, but I recall Bally games require a resistor across each LED to prevent flickering.  I think some of the repro boards fix this problem.

I use "warm white" LEDs from a seller called Gearius on Ali Express (which look suspiciously like those sold by a US seller under a different name and more expensive).  I held out a long, long time but I finally switched all my games over.  Reduces strain on the boards and wiring.  They don't get hot so you don't have to worry about them burning up plastics.  For awhile I had Firepower next to Alien Poker, one with LEDs and the other with incandescents.  I couldn't tell the difference.  When people first started switching over 20 years ago, the LEDs looked terrible.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803150389968.html

 

I finally (after 4 tries at the saw table last night) succeeded in milling out a new bottom channel piece for the backbox which carries the glass.  That seems to be the only part of the backbox that termites destroyed.
Man was that a pain in the ass to get right.
I also got another coat of white enamel on everything, which was easy on the new coffin but getting the layer of nicotine and latex crap that someone rolled onto the backbox off sucked.

I need to go roll out those stencils so they'll be easy to work with since hopefully this coming week I can be spraying that thing.
Maybe one more layer of white rolled and sanded out and then a last coat of white sprayed for flatness and should be ready for color stenciling.

[pbj]

I can’t remember two hours ago much less some crap I posted here in 2019.

Keep going, I’m close.

 

[bobbyb13]

The whole image thing here keeps getting more painful.
I can't upload anything from my phone anymore no matter how much I mess with it in the editor and even once I endure the drama of getting them onto the pc to post they STILL frequently wind up with crappy aspect squish.

Still working at getting the paint finished on this monster.

Today's unexpected excitement was working on the playfiled rails.
When I rolled the thing over to pull the screws out I discovered that... there were no screws.
Somebody had glued these things on at some point- which I suppose makes sense, given that they were probably as violated by termites as various other parts of this box.

And I thought I was finished with all the wordwooking for this project.
So I got the reproduce those silly rail pieces too.
Joy.
At least they came out ok and were an excuse to actually get to see this magenta colored paint in all its glory.
Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- is it loud.



I also had gotten around to getting both of the rotisserie things built so I could get these playfields in a spot to start swapping stuff over.

I had forgotten that I really should seal the bottom of the new one with something so it got a really light coat of spar varnish.
Was afraid to roll it on and have gobs dripping though to the topside and destroying something so it got a really light brush treatment.



At least now MAYBE I can start pulling stuff apart now?
It occurred to me also that I'll need to clean these parts up (vinegar bath and rinse?) before I can put them on the new playfield.

Man this is going to take a while.

[Robbbert]

Wow, you're having fun with that machine. I remember playing that game back in the day.

Just one thing you should check - many old MPU boards have a backup battery that rots and destroys the board. Check it out - now!

[bobbyb13]

Still trying to get time to spray the last few coats of white to start with stencil spraying.
It's good to do electrical work for a local guy with large format printers and cutters who actually thinks it is fun to make one off ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.
He can make anything it appears so cabinet art laminates and stencils will continue to get easier for me to have done.

This stuff is taking up way too much space in my workshop given the 20 other open projects I have so I need to get this phase finished up.

Wow, you're having fun with that machine. I remember playing that game back in the day.

Just one thing you should check - many old MPU boards have a backup battery that rots and destroys the board. Check it out - now!

Somebody had replaced all but the lamp driver board already and the new main has nvram so thankfully I don't need to sweat alkaline destruction!

[pbj]

Well, we’re rooting for you in Houston, bro.



 

[bobbyb13]

Outstanding to chat with you guys last night!
I'll need encouragment soon I think.