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    Repair log: The Getaway: High Speed II (Williams, 1992)

    1992 Williams Getaway Repair log

    This machine was having switch issues. Half of the switches weren't working. Severe corrosion on the CPU board due to battery leakage was to blame. Duraleaks strike again! A new CPU board and connectors were installed and things were back to normal. Great to have Coin-Up Pinball around; an Aussie supplier of these CPU boards. A few other minor repairs and adjustments were also done. The most interesting was a lost ball which had gotten stuck in the ball trough.... it took a little while to find!


    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!

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    Repair log: Johnny Mnemonic (Williams, 1995)

    Williams Johnny Mnemonic 1995 Repair log

    I've never met a Johnny that didn't have issues with the Cyberglove assembly. This one was no different. It's an awesome mechanism, but finnicky. This one was having issues with the motor that drives the hand forward and back. It would randomly lock on, sending the glove forwards or backwards until it crashed into the end of the worm drive, blowing a fuse.


    So, time for a full rebuild. Disassembled and cleaned. Gearboxes cleaned and lubed. Encoder boards serviced. Turns out, the issue was faulty optical switches on one of the encoder boards. They were oddball optos that were not the correct part, and there was some hackery on the board. Installed new optos, new connectors, new transistors, and we're good to go again!


    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!

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    Williams WPC CPU Board Battery Corrosion Repairs (Including a Scratch Build)

    Circuit Board Repair Williams
    It seems to be the season for battery corrosion on pinball circuit boards. Over the last few months I have repaired several Williams WPC-era MPU (CPU) boards which have suffered various levels of battery corrosion. Original WPC CPU boards are now at least 33 years old, which is an eternity when it comes to electronics. By this point, a randomly-selected CPU board will have had many issues during its working life which would have necessitated bench-level repair. However, for the most part, these repairs would have consisted of replacement of a couple of defective components; a relatively non-invasive procedure. Battery corrosion repair is a different beast, and is more akin to amputation followed by transplantation. 

    Unfortunately for the boards featured in this blog post, the corrosion was discovered too late, so some extensive repairs had to be carried out. This post deals with three levels of battery corrosion: minor, moderate, and major, and the actions undertaken to get the games back into working condition. There is some great information available regarding how to tackle these kinds of repairs, such as the Alkaline Corrosion Abatement section on Pinwiki, and TerryB's Guide to Repairing Alkaline Battery Damage. I used tips from both guides to carry out these repairs. 
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    Johnny Mnemonic #2

    1995 Johnny Mnemonic Williams
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    Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the original Johnny Mnemonic movie. This year also saw the release of a high definition version of the original film. This means it's the perfect time for another Johnny Mnemonic (Williams, 1995) blog post! This was quick repair job for a customer who wanted to repair his dad's pinball machine and finally get it into working condition again. His dad used to love playing it and it had sat for too long in need of repair. I was happy to help him out as I love being able to get a machine going again so it can be played and enjoyed like it was intended to be!

    This restoration was unusual because the machine was brought to me from several hours away. I had been working on fixing the machine for a couple of weeks when the customer asked if I would be able to have it ready by the end of the week (a couple of days away!) as he was traveling back to his dad's place and wanted to surprise him with the machine. I'm not one to say no to a challenge, so as well as playing lightning fast, this machine was probably one of the fastest repair jobs I have ever had to do! As a result, this post will also be in a shorter format, covering just the things that needed attention.
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    Tales of the Arabian Nights

    1996 Tales Of The Arabian Nights Williams
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    Ever since she first saw it, Tales of the Arabian Nights (Williams, 1997) has been Fiona's favourite game. She loves the artwork, the colours, the sounds, and everything else about this game. And I don't blame her. It really is a beautiful game, and really gives you that feeling of being in a "world under glass" when you're playing it. I think Tales of the Arabian Nights has the best unlicensed music of any pinball machine ever made. The end-of-ball bonus music tune is one of my favourites - featuring what I assume is a qanun playing from higher to lower notes as the lamp bonus is counted down - it almost makes me want to lose my ball just so I can hear it!

    So, when the opportunity to restore one of these games presented itself, we jumped at the chance! Unfortunately, by the time we finished the restoration, the game had almost killed us, but it was worth it for the chance to bring this beauty back to playing like new.
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    Fish Tales #3

    1992 Fish Tales Williams
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    It's been a while since my last post! Over the last few months, Fiona and I have been busy with a mix of our own arcade projects as well as various repairs for customers, so let's go over one of the recent repairs for another Fish Tales (Williams, 1992)! This customer had not played their Fish Tales in several years and it had sat around not working. The difficult part was that the customer (and the machine) were in Orange, NSW. A bit beyond the typical house call distance! Luckily, he was able to bring the machine to our workshop for the various repairs that it needed.