The Pinball Guy without pinball???

Yes, it’s true, but only temporary…

I am in the process of restoring a United Shuffle bowler.  It dates back to the early 1950s.  Completely broken down, the lane itself is still 10 feet long.  It won’t fit into the freight elevator at the studio, and is too long to go around the corners on the stairs.  My garage is being utilized for another project right now, which leaves my game room as the only available place for me to work on this beast.

The game itself is a very simple EM game, unlike the games which were produced on the 1960s which had more options, and got more complicated.  Mechanically, this game is a piece of cake.  Cosmetics are another story…

The woodwork on the game needs to be sanded down and refinished.  The paint on the outside of the game just needs an occasional touch-up.  The lane itself is formica, and in good shape.  It’s even got all of the flip-up type bowling pins!  The puck that the game has is a more modern, and somewhat larger puck than I have seen on other games of this vintage, but it will work.

Currently, the game is sitting on the floor.  We’ll need to get it up on saw horses to do the work on it.

Given a little bit of time, this game is going to look and play awesome – and then I’ll get my pinball machines back where they belong!

 

…And Now For Something Completely Different!

My wife was going through Craigslist a few weeks ago, when she came across a Space Invaders game.  She asked me what I thought about getting it.  The price was right so I said sure!

We went out and picked it up.  It was in good condition with the original 1970s graphics intact.  We got it home and I started poking around in it.

My full time job has me working in a bowling center.  Maintaining the games in the arcade is part of my job, but arcade games today are not the video games of my youth!  THIS was a game from my youth, and it looked it when I opened it up.  It runs on an old 8080 processor, and a few other smaller boards for the power and sound.  After a few minutes with the game, I noticed that the manual that came with this game was for Space Invaders II – with different hardware and software.

My experiences at work made it clear that the manual for solid state equipment has to be followed to the letter, unless you know as much about the game as the person who originally designed it.  So far, my only experience with repairing solid state equipment goes back to my Bally Eight Ball game which needed a replacement light driver board, and then later required a new diode on that same board.  As for tracing logic paths, etc., I have no experience in that department.  So, I knew enough to know that the wrong manual won’t get me where I want to be.

I made contact with a guy who had a copy of the manual I needed.  A week later, manual in hand, I set out to try to bring Space Invaders to life.  I decided to replace the fuses first.  One was toast, and the other one seemed good, but I wasn’t sure it was the right one.  Manual in hand, I hit the local Radio Shack and grabbed what I needed.

I replaced the fuses with new ones, exactly as specified in the manual.  The power cord had been cut.  Not having a replacement on hand, I used butt connectors to reattach the severed wire.  I checked for voltages with my multimeter and seemed to be getting the right kind of power.  The blower fan came on, and the screen seemed to work, but nothing else seemed to happen.

I killed to power and tried a few different things, but to no avail.  My brother-in-law and his wife were coming over to visit us that afternoon.  I was hoping to have it running by the time they came over, but it wasn’t looking too good.  When they arrived, I shut everything down and went to greet our guests.

Upstairs, the conversation finally swung around toward Space Invaders.  We talked about the game for a bit, and finally we all went down to take a look at it.  My wife’s brother is a whiz with computers.  He built us a computer once and created a program for us to use in a business once.  He was curious to see a game that was as old as he was!  After us all having a laugh about how old everything looked inside the game, we set out to trying to figure out how the boards all worked inside the game.  We identified all of the parts in the game, and identified all of the connectors.  I gently pulled each connector apart to inspect it and make sure it fit snugly.  Then we figured out which connector had the wires to supply the motherboard with 5 volts of power.  I pulled the connector apart, and found that one of the pins was almost jet black, and it was the 5v power supply!  I went into my toolbox and grabbed some 600 sand paper and gently cleaned up the pin. 

Then we turned on the game.  Since there’s no hard drive on the game, it didn’t sound any different when it started up, but then someone noticed text appearing on the screen!  It was blurry at first, but as the monocbrome CRT screen warmed up, the images became crisper.  We put in some credits, and pressed the start button – the game played flawlessly! 

Now, over a week later, Space Invaders is a big hit in a house of mostly pinball fans!  I’m hoping to restore the game to it’s original conditon, but maybe not right away.  For the time being, I think I’m just going to enjoy it as is!

 

The Block Party was a Success!

It was overcast, breezy at times, and it rained a bit toward the late afternoon, but overall, the Block Party was a success!

The Game Room was going all day long.  The foul weather helped to make it the “IT” place to be.  The games were playing flawlessly for most of the afternoon, but one of Big Hit’s flippers needed a minor adjustment, due to the change in humidity. 

It’s hard to say if there was a favorite game in the bunch.  Most of the adults were stopping by, mesmerized by the games, playing them like the did back in the day!  The kids came by and played too.

Our neighbors said that all of their guests’ kids were asking if the games would be available again this year – so it’s cool to see that people look forward to playing them!

By the end of the night, the Coke machine had been emptied by the guests, the records in the jukebox had all been played at least once, and we closed everything up.

Another successful Block Party in the books…  🙂

 

Preparing for the Block Party!

For the last week or so, everyone at the house has been preparing for the annual Block Party.  Our town does July 4th, a day earlier, so that everyone can be festive in the city on the Fourth, and see the big fireworks display.  Meanwhile, our town has its own on the Third, and the whole neighborhood partys for the day.  As was the case last year, the plan is to have as many pinball machines working in time for Sunday as possible.  The four pinball machines in the game room are: Bally Star Trek, Sinbad, Big Hit, and Bally Eight Ball.  Pat Band was moved into the shop to make room for Eight Ball. 

With Pat Hand going out, and Eight Ball coming in, I moved the machines around.  The reason was that with Big Hit on the far left, closest to the door, I was always concerned about it getting whacked or scuffed up.  After all of the work I put into it, seeing one of those brand-new legs get gouged would really hurt!  So, Big Hit and everything else got shifted one position to the right.  Eight Ball is now closest to the front door.  This means that all of the games will need to be leveled again…  😦

Star Trek stopped kicking the ball into the shooting lane.  I took a look at the troubleshooting guide, and then decided to take my own course of action.  The troubleshooting guide was made for a game that was virtually new, but Star Trek is 32 years old!  I decided to unplug and then replug in all of the connectors for the various circuit boards.  It worked, and all four games in the game room are working.

I moved the Vendo Coke Machine from the shop into the game room.  It was always supposed to be there anyway.  Right now, it’s stocked with Coke and IBC Root Beer in glass bottles.  I’m going to find a few other items to add to the mix before Sunday.

My jukebox had to be moved to the opposite end of the game room – the end closest to the laundry room.  It works for the most part, but there is this noise coming from the amplifier.  If you turn the volume up, it seems to drown out the noise.  I’ll have to tend to that at some point…

Last year, I had seven pinball machines going for the Block Party.  This year, I considered doing that again, but now the garage is a workshop for the pinball machines, and no longer has a roll-up door.  I am considering taking two of the games out of the shop and putting them in my driveway.  Target Pool and Ding Dong are the two candidates this year, both of them are in the shop, and both work well.  The question is, will the weather permit it, and will I have the energy/desire to move them outside in the morning, and put them back in at the end of the day?  Time will tell…