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    🦅 Repair log: Judge Dredd (Bally, 1993)

    1993 Bally Judge Dredd 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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    This Dredd had a rough time after moving house. The removalists destroyed the topper, breaking off its wings! It looks more like a sphynx than an eagle now. Thankfully, Planetary Pinball still have reproduction toppers in stock so a new one is on the way! While we wait for that to arrive, let’s deal with the other issues…

     

    First up are the test buttons on the coin door. Two of the buttons were very sticky and wouldn’t register consistent switch closures. These switches cop a lot of abuse, and they were cheap switches to begin with. Normally I shy away from contact cleaner in pinball machines but it works quite well at dissolving the muck and improving the action on these switches in particular. One spray on each switch and both were working nicely again!

     

    Upper left flipper was being weird. It was very weak when it worked, but pressing the flipper button rarely got it to move at all. Let’s look at the flipper switch in the cabinet. Dredd needs a unique opto interrupter and bracket due to where the opto board sits in the cabinet. These were missing, and they aren’t readily available. A regular opto board had been put in its place, with a long metal blade taped to the interrupter to make it work. Not a bad solution actually, but the tape had perished and the blade was loose. Reinstalled a new interrupter plastic and secured the blade to it properly.

     

    Some general illumination lamps were out in the backbox. Specifically the bottom half. These are all on the same GI circuit. Following the wire back to the power driver board, the J120/121 connectors were fine. So were the fuses. The problem was all the way back on the input side, at J115 where lamp power comes in from the transformer. The connector had been messed with and somebody had tried to solder some of the wires back into it, causing a couple to get loose. Installed a new connector with new terminal pins which made a solid connection and the lamps started working again. 

     

    What else? Battery was flat, so that was also replaced. Some vertical lines appeared on the display which were caused by a loose ribbon cable on the display driver board. One playfield switch needed adjustment. The playfield also got a clean. All working well now! 


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    ⚽ Repair log: World Cup Soccer (Bally, 1994)

    1994 Bally Repair log World Cup Soccer

    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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    I sold this game to a customer about ten years ago. He still has it! Last week he asked me to give it a service as it wasn't working properly. When I got there I could see that its memory had been lost as the message on the display indicated that factory settings were restored. Unfortunately the batteries had not been changed in some time and were now toast. Luckily, WPC-S games had the batteries mounted to a small PCB above the CPU board. In this case the small PCB was toast but the CPU was fine. I removed the small PCB and installed a lithium cell instead. No more leak risks in future!


    Another issue presented itself once the game was booting up into attract mode. No sound or music. Sound board looked OK, so I tried reseating the ribbon cable. Next time I powered up, sound was back. A pretty good indication that the ribbon cable was on the way out. New one installed and sounds were back to normal.


    The only other issue I could see was a set of lamps not working. This was due to cracked solder on the lamp PCB. Once I fixed that, I played a few test games, and couldn't fault the game anywhere else. Just needed to replace the balls as they were getting a little pitted. A pretty good run for ten years! Maybe I'll see it in another ten. 😁 


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    🕹️ Repair log: MAME arcade machine

    Arcade 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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    Customer was about to throw this machine out as it was not booting up. As with most multicade machines, the system behind it is a PC running a MAME frontend. A lot of these machines are getting old, which means the PC batteries are running flat. That was the case with this one, and this was preventing it from booting. Once the battery was replaced and BIOS was reconfigured, it started up normally.


    But still there were issues. The control panel was mostly nonresponsive. Only a few of the buttons worked. This had nothing to do with the PC, and more to do with the literal mouse nest in the control panel. The mice had made a nice home amongst the wires, and had also chewed through some of them in order to fit their furniture in! Lots of soldering to repair all of the broken wiring.


    Once that was done the machine was back in action. From trash to treasure, as they say!


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    🏴‍☠️ Repair log: Hook (Data East, 1992)

    1992 Data East Hook 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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    Let's get Peter Pan airborne again! Game booted up and could start a game, but plenty of things weren't quite working right. First up was confusion when a ball would drain. Sometimes the game wouldn't detect it. Other times it would kick two balls into the trough. A sure sign of trough issues. Well not one, but two of the trough switches were bad. In switch test, each switch was turning on and off repeatedly, and it wasn't just from a poor wire connection (this is common too). Both of them were replaced. Make sure you use the correct switch for this! It has to activate easily with the weight of the ball. Typical arcade and cheap microswitches require too much force to trigger the switch and they won't work here.


    Now we can tackle the lamp issues. There are lamps on the skill shot ramp which should light up depending on which hole you need to shoot the ball into for the skill shot. These lamps were not working. Turns out they are all on the same lamp column with a YEL-BLK wire. Wiggling the connector on the CPU board got them to flash on and off. The YEL-BLK wire was cut inside the CN7 connector housing. Replaced the connector and re-terminated all of the lamp outputs. Lamps were all working again. 


    Another lamp issue, this time for the general illumination. Most of the GI on the rear half of the playfield are on the violet coloured circuit. I followed this back to the connector on the playfield power board. It was very crispy. Replaced the connector and pins and the lamps came back.


    ...and another lamp issue! Some of the playfield insert lamps and lamps in the skull were not working, and the bulbs were fine. All of these lamps were on the same lamp column (col 5). We've already replaced the lamp column connector, so that wasn't the problem. Instead, it was a dead drive transistor for this column on the CPU board. Replaced it and everything lit up again.


    Drop target bank on the left of the playfield was having issues. Targets not registering consistently, and not dropping physically either. Assembly needed a clean, and the switches needed cleaning and adjustment to trigger reliably when the targets were dropped. Working a bit better now. 


    CPU board had some old batteries on it (expired in 2018). They had leaked a little but only within the battery holder. The holder was cut out and replaced with a coin cell battery. Much less likely to leak and simple to replace when needed.


    Left flipper was a little sluggish and was sticking up occasionally. The assembly was taken apart, cleaned, and a new sleeve installed. No more sticky flipper.


    Game is now playing well and ready for a birthday party next week!


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    🐍 Repair log: Dodge Viper Night Drivin' (Sega, 1998)

    1998 Repair log Sega Viper Night Drivin

    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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    Helped a customer purchase and transport this machine back home, where he asked for help giving it a tune up. Game was mostly working except for some switches. Namely the two raccoon switches, and the standup targets on the left and right sides of the playfield. Hmm. All of those switches are on the same switch column drive. So follow the GRN-YEL wire down the playfield and see where it leads. 


    The raccoon targets were the problem here. Not only were the switch housings absolutely smashed, but the wiring had broken off both switches, causing the switches to fall out of the circuit. Now, you can buy exact replacement switches, but the original Sega switches are garbage. Replace them with regular Williams or older Data East standup targets. Yes, the style is different, but they can cop the abuse much better. 


    Minor issue with the diverter under the mountain. Some balls were not making it past the diverter, and were falling back down the ramp. Slow mo was useful to capture what was happening here. The diverter armature was not sending balls to the left ramp cleanly, and they were rattling around and losing momentum. Bent the armature to better direct the balls. Much better now.


    This game had no rubbers on any of the metal posts. Not good when you're using Glo-balls, as these can get destroyed more easily than regular pinballs. So, we decided to replace all of the rubbers with new ones. We went with "radiant rings" which fluoresce under UV light. Not many games can utilise this type of rubber effectively but it's perfect for Viper as there are UV lights mounted to the playfield.


    So everything got stripped off the topside of the playfield, playfield and parts were cleaned, new rubber rings installed, and a playfield protector was installed as well. The rings look really flash in multiball and the protector makes this game play ultra fast. Still some more upgrades and repairs to do on this machine in the future, but for now it's playing really well.


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    🩺 Restoration log: Doctor Who (Bally, 1992)

    1992 Bally Doctor Who Restoration

    Restoration logs are detailed reports on the repairs and restoration activities undertaken to bring a machine back to life! Restoration logs are longer and more in-depth than our standard repair logs. Whether your machine needs minor repairs or a full-blown restoration, 📬 Contact Us to discuss how we can help!


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    Finally! I've been working on this one for a while. A full restoration including new cabinet decals, new playfield, new plastics, new ramps, colour display, circuit board work, and all of the associated madness that goes with those things! Let's dive in.