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    Repair log: Black Pyramid (Bally, 1984)

    1984 Bally Black Pyramid Repair log

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

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    This Black Pyramid wasn't booting up anymore. The MPU board exhibited corrosion from a leaking battery. Voltages were all good, so something in the reset circuitry on the MPU was stuffed. Took the board in for rehab, removed affected components, treated the alkali residue, sanded everything back, and repopulated the board. Now it's booting up reliably again.


    There were a few more tasks to get this game back to 100%. The solenoid driver board got some fresh capacitors and voltages were adjusted. Installed new rubber rings on the playfield. Replaced a broken drop target. (These linear drop target mechs are a breeze to work on!) Reflowed solder on the auxiliary lamp driver board to get some lamps going again. A couple of switch capacitors had died, rendering the switches inoperable. Replaced those too. After all that, it was good to go again!


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    Repair log: The Addams Family (Bally, 1992)

    1992 Bally Repair log The Addams Family

    ο»ΏRepair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, πŸ“¬ Contact Us to discuss how we can help!

    ο»Ώ

    Image description


    This Addams Family had a bit of a wonky bookcase assembly. It wasn't level with the playfield and was trapping balls on its bottom edge. After taking it apart, a few broken parts revealed themselves including the bookcase frame, base, and one of the actuators driven by the bookcase motor. Perfect opportunity to service the mechanism and replace all of the broken parts! New parts ordered, installed, and working great now.


    A few minor repairs were enacted on other parts of the game as well including a new battery holder for the CPU board, replacement of some lamp sockets, and installation of a strip of LED lights (had to create a small custom wiring harness for them).


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    Repair log: Strikes and Spares (Bally, 1978)

    1978 Bally Repair log Strikes and Spares

    ο»ΏRepair logs are quick summaries of workshop and on-site repairs. If your machine needs a service, πŸ“¬ Contact Us to discuss how we can help!

    ο»Ώ

    Image description


    I had the pleasure of servicing this absolutely stunning Strikes and Spares. Haven't seen one quite as nice as this before, and I doubt I ever will! While cosmetically flawless, this game had a few issues to sort out. It needed some new rubbers. Problems with the playfield fuse were causing issues with the coils. There were a couple of electrical issues to fix too, including some flickering displays and non-working lamps. Did a few switch adjustments to round out the repair. Looking as good now as it did back in 1978!


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    Attack from Mars

    1995 Attack From Mars Bally
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    I wish this blog post meant that I had bought an Attack from Mars (Bally, 1995) and was restoring it for my own pleasure. But alas, no! This was a mini restoration for a customer who had purchased the game, taken it apart in preparation for restoration, but was never able to complete the project. So, I offered to help and get the game back together for the first time in over ten years. This project was a little different to previous restorations, as I was starting with a blank playfield and boxes of parts, with no reference photos of my own. Plenty of fun to be had. It helps that Fiona also loves Attack from Mars, so this was a good chance to give it a thorough playtest!
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    Bally Star Trek Circuit Board Repairs

    1979 Bally Circuit Board Repair Star Trek
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    I've been repairing a few classic Bally games lately, so it's only fitting that this one came into my care recently. Star Trek (Bally, 1979) has some cool playfield features including a saucer which spits the ball out into the pop bumpers, and a free ball return lane. Star Trek appears to be the only Bally solid state game that had a free ball return lane feature, and it was a great way to rack up scores by collecting bonuses continuously. The "Where No Man Has Gone" horseshoe at the top left of the playfield was also a cool gimmick, causing the left pop bumper to fire the ball back at the left flipper.

    This will be a relatively short blog post as this restoration was focused mainly on circuit board repairs and upgrades. Only minor playfield repairs were conducted, and the machine was otherwise in good, playing condition. The playfield was stripped and cleaned, various broken parts were replaced, and the flipper assemblies were also rebuilt. However, there's nothing particularly exciting about any of that. Instead, I intend for this blog post to serve as a generic reference for those troubleshooting classic Bally boardsets and to explain some of the basic modifications and upgrades I perform.
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    Bally Playboy

    1978 Bally Playboy
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    If you ever need proof that pinball was made for adolescent men, look no further than Playboy (Bally, 1978). As gaudy as this theme seems now, it remains a great example of a classic Bally game. There is a reason they made over 18,000 of these - they were fun! The standup targets on one side coupled with the drop targets on the other side made this a fun shooting game. This game was given to me to repair by an elderly customer who had stored it outside in his pergola for many, many years. I initially attended his house for a service call, but was then advised that he wanted the machine to be refurbished and brought back to playing condition. However, this customer did not want to spend a huge amount on the game, so I had to tackle this repair with budget in mind.