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    Australian Pinball Expo 2026

    Australian Pinball Expo Events


    👏 Thank you Adelaide! We are finally back from the Australian Pinball Expo, where we were looking after 200+ games over the course of the weekend! While it was full on, we got to do some pretty special stuff.


    🏗️ Worked on an Atari Hercules. Largest pinball machine ever made. Only a handful of people on the planet have ever worked on one.


    🕺 Set up and fixed some rare 1960s electromechanical games. These games are almost as old as my parents and are in way better condition! Fantastic pieces of pinball history.


    🕹️ Played some cool games I've not seen much of before. Gold Wings: awesome soundtrack and a fun layout. Al's Garage Band: not many of these Alvin G games around. Whoa Nellie: love the retro-style playfield. Funny, too!


    👨‍🔧 But of course, we spent most of the weekend repairing games as they broke down. Do you know what's involved in looking after this many games over the course of a weekend? Now you do, because below is my repair log (not counting the 50 or so stuck balls we had to attend to)!


    Swords of Fury. Lost settings. Text in German and not in free play. Verified battery voltages and changed settings as required.


    Strikes and Spares. Mid pop bumper not activating. Switch adjusted.


    Sinbad. No free play. Test button not responding. Wires from coin door to MPU board were hacked up. Dodgy connection identified and fixed. Set back to free play.


    Supersonic. Slingshot kicker not returning. Loose assembly under playfield. Right sling not registering either. Diode broke off. Soldered back on.


    Harry Potter. I/O board issue. Reconnected USB at PC and driver board.


    Central Park. Flipper movement was hesitant going both up and down. Retensioned spring. Still a bit lame. Gunk built up in flipper bushing. Needs clean out.


    Elton John. Lamp board comm issue. Replugged I/O board.


    Fire. Slingshots not working. Coil fuse blown. Upper ones locked on. Disconnected them. Attempt transistor repair but did not stop them locking on. Likely CPU issue related to battery corrosion (extensive).


    Star Trek TNG. Left launcher coil not working. Broken wire. New wire run and repinned connector.


    Devil Riders. No sound. Sounds board not plugged in and volume pot set too low.


    Duotron. Ball stuck in centre hole and would not eject. Game not sensing ball due to dirty switch contact.


    Hurricane. Ball stuck on Ferris wheel. Belt had lost tension and was slipping. Retensioned.


    DE Simpsons. Ball stuck. Broken plastic on left side was letting balls fly past it after hitting the drop targets. Repositioned plastic and cable tied to make secure.


    Venom. Right VUK not working. Wire came off coil. Resoldered.


    Elvira HOH. Cellar door malfunction reported. Opto board under playfield was intermittent. Dodgy solder joint somewhere. Wire connections and opto resoldered.


    Queen. Autolaunch assembly broken at weld point. Repaired with bolt and nut. Will need replacement for long term reliability.


    Flintstones. Leg bolts were loose. Leg bracket threads had been stripped. Installed nuts on inside of leg bolts.


    Hercules. Loose left flipper bat. Added Loctite and reinstalled screw.


    Stern Playboy. Rubber had broken off and was blocking VUK. Removed broken rubber; installed new one.


    Sorcerer. Binding flipper bat. Flipper assy. cleaned, reassembled with proper gaps.


    Rollercoaster Tycoon. Display showing garbled data. Likely poor tension on display board power connector. Replugged ribbon and power cables.


    Queen. Drop target not dropping. Spring was broken. Installed new one. Also found a loose connector on lamp boards. Replugged. Also fixed a wire that had come out of one of the drop target connectors.


    Godzilla. Flipper no worky. Broken flipper link. New link installed.


    Portal. VUK 3 was not kicking out balls. Increased VUK strength in settings.

    DE Simpsons. Displays showing segments locked on when they shouldn't be. Replugged ribbon cables to no effect. Likely a board issue at this point; but did not proceed further as it was perfectly playabe.


    Alice in Wonderland. Saucer eject on mini playfield was too weak. Ball was stuck. Decreased coil pulse timing.


    Top Score. Ball was lost. It was stuck on a pop bumper which had a misadjusted wafer. Adjusted switch for proper operation.


    Pro Football. Flipper was machine gunning when held in. EOS switch was misadjusted. In additin, flipper hold winding was broken. Resoldered coil wires and terminals and winding was repaired.


    Gold Wings. Display was blank. Likely due to failing edge connector pins on the display board. Pins were cleaned and connector checked.


    Banzai Run. Sticking flipper button. Cleaned out and adjusted.


    Shaq Attaq. Post came loose from above playfield left outlane. Reinstalled post.


    Alligator. Non responsive to credit button. Relay ladder had fallen off one of the relays. The score motor was unable to reset. Adjusted relay switch leaves and reattached the relay ladder.


    Jurassic Park Lost World. Balls stuck in egg kickout. Removed balls and adjusted assembly.


    ACDC. Rubber was broken near pop bumpers, blocking balls. Replaced. Also found the N in TNT switch not registering. Bad connection at opto board. Replugged. Also found the right slingshot not registering. Diode broke off. Resoldered.


    3 Musketeers. VUK at top of playfield not ejecting properly. Wireform needed adjustment. Up post was also trapping balls. Needed adjustment to sit level with playfield.


    Joker Poker. Blowing coil fuse. Upper right flipper coil was burned up due to badly adjusted EOS switch. New coil installed and EOS adjusted properly.


    El Dorado. Not completing reset. Start relay switch contact was bad. Adjusted.


    Duotron. Pop bumper was not working. Poor switch contact. Adjusted.


    Cross Town. Not resetting properly. 1 point relay was stuck on. Leaf blades had fallen out of the switch ladder, causing them to bind. Reinstalled.


    Shadow. Sticking right flipper. Cleaned and realigned.


    Howzat. Sticking flipper button. Cleaned and reinstalled.


    Total Nuclear Annihilation. Pop bumper not working. Wire had come loose from coil. Upper right slingshot was also machine gunning and adding score when flipper was activated. Poorly adjusted switch.


    Stern Star Trek. Kicking out too many balls into the trough. Trough switch 1 not working. Readjusted trough board and replugged.


    Hercules. Lamp issues. Replaced some burned out bulbs. Some sockets will need replacing.


    Queen. Ball shooter bracket loose again. Bolt had come loose. Reinstalled bolt and nut. Game was also not registering ball falling into outhole. Trough switches needed adjustment.


    Space Invaders. Wire ball guide came loose. Reinstalled.


    Hobbit. Opto boards caught fire. Short from coil power circuit to switch matrix due to loose shooter lane switch. Catastrophic failure; opto boards need replacement and driver board needs repair. Could not do on site.


    Road Show. Ted's mouth not working. Fault on motor driver board. Inductor had broken off the board. Resoldered. Eddy switches also needed adjustment.


    Champion Pub. Up post coil had melted. Loose ground braid had contacted coil lugs and locked the coil on. Dressed ground braid properly and replaced coil.

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    Repair log: The Hobbit, Smaug Edition (Jersey Jack, 2016)

    2016 Hobbit Jersey Jack Repair log

    Repair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, 📬 Contact Us to discuss how we can help!

    

    Image description


    🤏 Lots of little fixes to be done on this machine. The first was power related. The machine wasn't booting up. In fact, there was no power getting to any part of the machine at all. We weren't even getting power to the EMI filter at the rear of the cabinet. The power cable had come loose from the socket. Even though there is a cover over the socket and plug to prevent this, pressure on the cable can put a little stress onto it, which eventually pulls it out of the socket altogether.


    Now we could deal with some of the other issues. The Orc pop-up target was malfunctioning. In test mode, the Orc up switch was not registering. The switch has a roller actuator on it, which the mechanism pushes against when raised. The switch housing was cracked and the actuator was long gone. New switch needed here to get it back into operation.


    The "A" drop target wasn't raising itself. All looked OK above and underneath the playfield, but looks can be deceiving! The power wire is daisy-chained to each of these coils, and heatshrunk at the coil lug. The wire had broken off the lug, which couldn't be seen under the heatshrink insulation. A bit of a tug broke it completely free. Soldered back on and back in business.


    A couple of loose assemblies needed help. The cover over the LCD screen on the playfield had fallen off. Double-sided foam tape was the answer. Smaug's head was also loose. The screws which hold it together were loose and the holes were hogged out a bit. Some filler material and glue got things secure again.


    Machine was back to 100% again. Ashamedly, I took the Grand Champion score while playing a final test game. Whoops! 🐉


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    Repair log: Hot Flash II air hockey (Dynamo, 2005)

    2005 Dynamo Hot Flash Repair log

    Repair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, 📬 Contact Us to discuss how we can help!


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    🪖 These Dynamo air hockey tables are tanks. I've seen people standing on them. I've seen countless drinks spilled on them. I've even seen people having sex on them. These tables really have seen it all. Yet they continue to soldier on. But occasionally they need a bit of help.


    This one was having issues with the sound effects not playing, displays not working, and the pucks jamming up in the goal ends. The puck jams were simple enough: foreign debris in the goal ends. But the sound and display issues were narrowed down to a fault on the control board.


    A new control board and repairs to a bad solder joint on one of the volume pots fixed the sound issues. But the displays still didn't work. The way the new control board handles display data is different from the old board. Getting the displays going necessitated getting a new wiring harness for the overhead, and rewiring half of the cabinet with it. Fiddly work, and a lot of crawling around on the floor. But once the new harness was hooked up, we had the displays going again.


    This table lives on to have countless more games played on it, drinks spilled on it, and children conceived on it! 💋


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    Repair log: Twilight Zone (Bally, 1993)

    1993 Bally Repair log Twilight Zone

    Repair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, 📬 Contact Us to discuss how we can help!

    

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    🛠️ Basic service for a Twilight Zone that had been sitting unused for a number of years. First port of call was the CPU board. Batteries weren't retaining any memory. No wonder, they expired in 2016! Other than the battery pack, there was only minor damage to one connector and header pin which was causing one column of switches to fail. All replaced, and a coin cell battery added.


    Now onto the playfield. Rubbers were perished, so new rubber rings installed throughout, including the mini playfield. Several lamps not working. New lamps and sockets were necessary. Of course two of the pop bumper lamp sockets were broken, so they had to be desoldered, unstapled, pulled out and replaced. Very fiddly! Highly recommend the lamp sockets with centering brackets for this.


    The trough release coil was jamming, stopping from balls moving in the trough. Pivot point was gummed up with dirt and debris. Cleaned and re-sleeved.


    Lockdown bar had a bit of surface rust on it as well. Treated and polished. Nice and smooth now. Playfield also got a clean to finish off.


    📺 Reminds me I need to watch the original Twilight Zone series!


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    Repair log: Centaur II (Bally, 1983)

    1983 Bally Centaur Repair log

    Repair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, 📬 Contact Us to discuss how we can help!


    Image description


    Time to get a Centaur II up and running again! First problem? Start a game, and the balls are nowhere to be seen. Turns out they were all hiding in the multiball trough. But they weren't getting kicked out because the ball launcher was gummed up with grease that had solidified, rendering it immobile. Cleaned and re-sleeved and the ball issue was fixed.


    The left flipper had also given up the ghost. Broken wire between the flipper coil and the end of strike switch. An easy fix!


    ...then a hard fix. A sound issue. Absolutely criminal on Centaur, because the best thing about the game is hearing it say "Destroy Centaur"! One of the wires on a sound board connector had come loose. New crimp pins and a new connector housing solved the problem temporarily, but it returned soon after. One clue was that some of the backbox lamps would go out when the sound went out. Weird. Somebody had cut the backbox GI lamp braid, and simply tied some wire around it to reconnect it; a poor connection. Once this was soldered back together, the sound (and backbox lamps) returned.


    Plenty of lamps out on this playfield, which were replaced as needed. The "B" in "ORBS" was a little less cooperative. The SCR driving this lamp had failed. New rectifier installed and it was lighting up again.


    The rubbers on this machine were long gone, so a new rubber kit went in too.


    Finally, the ground braid connecting the lower cabinet to the backbox was... not connected together. Didn't seem to be causing any issues, but it certainly could do, so they were reconnected.


    🔊 "Destroy Centaur!"