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🤖 This machine had sat broken and unused for over thirty years! The owner wanted to get it up and running again so he and his grandkids could enjoy it. I love helping parents and grandparents introduce their kids to pinball!


Lots of board work needed on this one. The MPU was rooted with battery fluid all over it, so this was stripped, treated and rebuilt. The CPU and one of the PIAs also broke apart when removing them from the sockets. The ROM sockets were also flaky, so the ROMs got combined into a single 2764 with a fresh socket.


The solenoid driver board was also shot. Two of the high voltage transistors had failed, sending unfiltered 240v to the displays. Yuck! The entire section got rebuilt with new caps, resistors, pots and trannies. But that wasn't the end of it. All of the coils locked on when powered up. The driving IC at U2 was dead, so that got replaced as well.


Most of the displays appeared dead, or had missing digits. Reflowing the header pins got some going again. Replacing the 100k ohm resistors got a couple more going. Only one was DOA, so a new one was put in. I dialled the display voltage down to extend their life. Oh, the sound board got recapped, too.


Fun electrical hacks on some parts of this game, too. Plenty of wire used to bypass fuses on the rectifier as well as the main playfield solenoid fuse. Luckily, these didn't appear to be hiding any serious issues. A new rectifier board was installed so all of the mess was cleaned up in one go.


The disappearing post assembly was a disaster. Most of the parts were missing, so it didn't actually work. Looks like the down solenoid caught fire and was removed. Sourced all of the required parts and reinstalled them. Wired both of the solenoids back in. Working well now.


Phew! Almost there. Boards back in and game was now booting up. Fresh rubbers installed, lots of new lamps, and a good check over. Drop targets needed a good service as they weren't resetting. Saucer kick out was also gummed up. Plenty of switches needed adjustment. Two pop bumper bodies were toast, so new bodies and wafers went in. New legs, new leg levellers and new leg bolts as well. New pop bumper caps to replace the old faded ones, too.


The stand out issue in this repair was a real weird one. The tilt would register each time the left outlane was hit. Seems like a typical switch matrix diode issue, right? Wrong! After changing a few diodes and checking wiring, nothing was any better. The problem turned out to be residual moisture in the timber mounting panel for the tilt mechanism (the machine was kept in a very damp room). There was enough moisture in the timber to conduct current between the tilt bob itself and the tilt bob surround (high resistance even when the tilt contacts were apart). The MPU detected this when the outlane switch was closed for some reason, and triggered a tilt. Insulating the tilt mechanism parts from the timber backing was enough to fix the issue. This has got to be one of those one-in-a-million occurrences which I don't think I'll ever see again during my lifetime. Touch wood (lol)!


Machine is back up and running for the first time in a long time... at full bionic power! 🦾