AAARPinball is where I document work I do on pinball and video arcade machines. I strive to include many pictures when describing the repairs and tweaks I have done while including various insights I've learned. There are details covering many machines including classic 1980s video arcade games, both raster and vector, as well as 1990s Bally / Williams pinball machines. Of course, there's a lot more!
I hope you enjoy it and find it useful. If you'd like to discuss anything, you can contact me here.
-- Altan
Below are some entries of particular value or may have been updated recently.
Here are pinball machines I've worked on from manufacturers such as Bally, Williams, Stern, Data East and Jersey Jack.
Here are vector and raster video arcade machines I've worked on from classic manufacturers such as Atari, Sega, NAMCO, Midway and Bally.
Moved from Bootstrap 3.2, which was pretty old, to Bootstrap 5.3, which is modern
Corrected some HTML errors
Corrected some typos
Small cleanup to FunHouse section
Added a couple ColorDMD pictures for WhiteWater
Fixed some typos in White Water section
Added some pictures the White Water seller provided back in 2005
Added a picture of the shopped playfield to White Water
Added some pictures of the White Water upper playfield removed for LED installation
Replaced several pictures on White Water with larger versions
Replaced several pictures on Indiana Jones with larger versions
It's been too long! Many updates have been missed, but here are some!
Added Stern Avengers Infinity Quest (here) which includesFixed some typos in the Godzilla page
Site code and design improvementsGeneral cleanup here and there
Added Highlights section as well as table of contents to index
Added Stern Godzilla (here)
Added details about fixing ball sneaking back to plunger for Guns N Roses (here)
Also miscellaneous cleanup to GNR
Added Jersey Jack Guns N' Roses Pinball page (here)
Additional changes to the website internally
Added brief information about installing LEDs to Theatre of Magic (here)
Added information about removing Pop Bumper Building mod from
Dialed In
Several changes to the core site have been made over the past few days, such as adding a "Contact Me" to the navigation bar and including the navigation bar on the entry page.
Added information about using a ceramic block magnet to help prevent bounce away on the Twilight Zone bridge diverter (here)
Added a few ColorDMD LCD pictures to Twilight Zone (here)
Added information about ColorDMD LED install on Jurassic Park (here)
Added information about ColorDMD LCD install on Road Show (here)
Fixed several typos across the entire site
Added instructions for removal of the Indiana Jones Path of Adventure (here)
Added pictures of current gameroom (here)
Started a page of Theatre of Magic (here)
Added details about Addams Family G.I. light behind the phone plastic (here)
Added details about Addams Family ColorDMD LCD and THING lights (here)
Started a page for The Addams Family (here)
Fixed some small typos across the entire site
Information about Dialed In! drone repair added to
Dialed In
After 9 years, I decided to make the
configurable 1080p convergence and focus test pattern
visible to everyone
As well as the lesser known
configurable 4k (2160p) convergence and focus test pattern
Added info about fixing diagnostic switch and High Score Save Multi-Pac removing
functionality to the
Pac-Man cabaret page
Started the skeleton of a page for my
Pac-Man cabaret
Added information about
Twilight Zone clock fix (only working in
reverse)
Added information about a
Marble Madness Software Exception
Added information about a Dialed In! Pop Bumper fix
Added information about a Dialed In! Trap Door repair
Solved a power issue with Dialed In's ball trough (and molex connector)
Added info about Dialed In! 1.73 firmware
Added some playfield pictures to Dialed In!
Dialed In! improvements: dim lights fix, firmware upgrade, cabinet pictures, inside cabinet pictures
Started a page covering Jersey Jack Pinball Dialed In! (here)
Made some small modifications to the Pirates of the Caribbean page (here)
Added some pictures of the gameroom's current arrangement (here)
Enhanced site to support HTTPS
Picked up a Stern Pirates of the Caribbean (here)
Added info about a General Illumination Bulb not Working in Jurassic Park (here)
Added info about painting Judge Dredd eagle topper (here)
Added several items to the Jurassic Park page (here)
Added information about Data East Jurassic Park audio hum / buzz (here)
Picked up a Data East Jurassic Park in August but just got around to adding it to my site
(here)
Added Asteroids Deluxe multi-game kit
Fixed Asteroids Vector display (here)
Fix for Revenge from Mars backbox light (here)
Drop target fix for Terminator 2 (here)
Diode replacement for 8x bonus light (here)
Added Deadworld mod (original functionality restoration) information to Judge Dredd (here)
Added information about Marble Madness G07 B+ voltage and jumpy display (here)
Added Judge Dredd Eagle Topper mounting (here)
Added info about confusing RadioShack 276-0143 LED specification to Judge Dredd section (here)
Some small cleanup across various pages
Added information about Marble Madness G07 repair (here)
Added pictures of Judge Dredd eagle topper (here)
Added Judge Dredd 3 ball Supergame repair (here)
Added Judge Dredd broken Sniper VUK repair (here) Added new
instruction and price cards to Judge Dredd (here)
Started section on Bally Judge Dredd pinball (here)
Added Rocky pachinko information about modifying the cabinet hopper to support 1,500 balls (here)
New Rocky Pachinko information including:
Added information about 1500 pachinko balls
Added information about modifying cabinet to capture drained balls
Adding resistors/potentiometers for volume adjustment
I've been making lots of updates to the Rocky Pachinko page. Too numerous to list.
Picked up a pachinko machine! It's a Toyotec Rocky the Movie. I've started a page for it (here)
Updated this page to be mobile friendly!
Made many other changes across the site (which shouldn't be noticeable)
Updated Indiana Jones section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Getaway section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Terminator 2 section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated FunHouse section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Ripley's Believe It or Not section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Star Trek: The Next Generation section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated RoadShow section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated White Water section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Fire! section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Simpsons section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Creature from the Black Lagoon section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Star Wars section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Twilight Zone section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Daytona 2 section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Super GT section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated RoadBlasters section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Asteroids Deluxe section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Area 51 Site 4 section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Gameroom section to be mobile friendly (here)
Updated Yajikita section to be mobile friendly (here)
Added picture of Barry Oursler Dr. Who translite signature (here)
Added information about fixing the "Bend" in the Doctor Who Dalek Topper (here)
Started Bally Doctor Who pinball page (here)
Added information about the Revenge from Mars / Pinball 2000 driver board (here)
Added information about up/down ramp fix
Started Revenge from Mars (Pinball 2000) page (here)
Added details about Ultimarc Video Amplified
Added details about upgrade to RFM version 1.6
Added original Revenge from Mars VGA wiring to Wells-Gardner 19K7302
Added various pictures of video integrated with gameplay
Added information about Pinball 2000 / Revenge from Mars CPU fan replacement
Rewrote Atari Marble Madness page to be more modern and mobile friendly
Added section on track ball rebuild here
Rewrote Atari Star Wars page to be more modern and mobile friendly
Added section on Amplifone deflection repair
here
Rewrote Tempest cocktail page to be more modern and mobile friendly
Added section on dark Plexiglas polishing. Click
here
Several updates to the Tempest cocktail section including new cocktail glass/art and installation of CPO (control panel overlay). Click here
Twilight Zone decal for "Battle the Power" diverter installation (here)
Twilight Zone (pre-DCS) sound clicking/popping sound problem fixed (here)
Tempest monitor repair for bending vectors near bottom (here)
Added info about Tempest cabinet restoration
Added info about Tempest cocktail artwork vectorization (here)
Added information about replacing Tempest's WG6100 HV caps
Added information about installing the LV2000 to repair Tempest's WG6100 low voltage
Added info about Big Blue replacement (here)
Started Atari Tempest cocktail page (here)
Added information about GI header repair as well as information about Twilight Zone GI dimming (here)
Twilight Zone Clock started acting up ("clock is broken") so I made a fix (here)
For Area 51 Site 4, added information about replacing lightgun PCB for accuracy. Also added strategy information to defect the alien queen at the end of the game (here)
Added information about cap kit for Area 51 Site 4 monitor (here)
Added video of gameroom into Gameroom section (here)
Moved an "informal review" of Herg's LED OCD I originally wrote on Pinside to my web page
(here)
Added info about converting Area 51 Site 4 from old hard drive to flash drive with an IDE to SD adapter
Added a picture of the 74175 chip that assists with high score saving in Asteroids Deluxe.
Started a new page for my Atari Area 51 Site 4 arcade game. Check it out here..
Added a few panorama pictures of the gameroom
Fixed speaker hum
Replaced the Twilight Zone clock casing / housing
Adjusted the Twilight Zone gears so that both hands point at 20 o'clock when powered on
Replaced broken ball pop cup on the gumball VUK
Rebuilt the GI connector that was previously soldered directly onto the driver board
I'm back to adding Pinball stuff! I've got hold of a Twilight Zone. Check it out here. I've been updating this page frequently. Here are some of the updates:
Added some info about the TX-NR818's HDMI EDID handling Click here.
Short updated the Sony HW30 projector Onkyo TX-NR818 compatibility section
Also made small update the TX-NR818 clicking noises and solution. Click
here.
Updated the Sony HW30 projector Onkyo TX-NR818 compatibility section. Click here.
Added information about Sony HW30 projector and (what I thought was the) Onkyo TX-NR818
"power on" fix. It turned out not to fix it.
Also added some info about Lip Sync (AV Sync) for the Onkyo TX-NR818. Click
here.
Another off-topic section... I've added information about the Onkyo TX-NR818. This first section attempts to describe how the (confusing?) video output functionality works. Click here.
Added information about Data Easy Simpsons GI repair
Another unexpected addition. 1080p convergence and focus test patterns with discrete colors (red, green, blue) for monitors and projectors (here)
Branching out! Got a Japanese Pachislo (Skill Slot) machine called Yajikita (here)
Added information about Asteroids Deluxe high score repair
Added another image of restored coin door
Atari Star Wars yoke potentiometer swap (here)
Added picture of "Atari Wall" to gameroom (here)
Added image of Asteroids Deluxe cabinet almost 100% cleaned up
Added info about coin door and side art image to Asteroids Deluxe (here)
More info added to the Asteroids Deluxe page (here)
Added Asteroids Deluxe page (here)
Added video of FunHouse gameplay to FunHouse page
Several updates to the Sony VPL-HW30ES / VPL-HW30AES projector page have been done (but have
not been listed here over the past month)
Surprise! I've written my impressions of the Sony VPL-HW30ES / VPL-HW30AES projector!
Click here to read...
Added Daytona 2 mosaic picture to the Daytona 2 section
RoadBlasters thumb trigger repair added to RoadBlasters section
Road Show voltage selector repair added to Road Show section
Slight modifications to the RoadBlasters section
Started a RoadBlasters section
Added more details to the System 1 audio issue in the Marble Madness section
Added information about repairing an audio problem with an Atari System 1 Main PCB to the Marble Madness section
Updated White Water page with a (much) improved video
Added new gameroom video
General cleanup to the Atari Star Wars page
Added more details of my x2212 settings / high score fix
Star Wars / Empire Strikes Back settings / high score fixed!
Moved some of the basic screen shots to later on the page
Update regarding Star Wars NOVRAM and crosshair centering
Added info about Star Wars x2212 novram, settings and high scores
Added a couple of pictures of Empire Strikes Back running on the Star Wars
Miscellaneous updates to Atari Star Wars section
Star Wars yoke controller calibration
Started Atari Star Wars vid section
Added game room picture section
Info about Marble Madness coin door lights
Atari Volcano switch repair for Marble Madness
Added picture of pretty much complete Marble Madness
Added picture of populated control panel
Marble Madness control panel overlay/decal install
Happy New Year! Added pics of Atari volcano/cone player buttons
Added Marble Madness side art (decal) install
Picture from Marble Madness restoration (bondo and paining)
Marble Madness side art removal
Started Atari Marble Madness page (Marble Madness)!
Added information about "Race Leader" relay repair
Did some cleanup on the first 20% of the Super GT page... will try and get to the rest soon..
Added SuperGT image for link on home page, info about removing the decals from the chairs, info about topper lighting.
Finally published some text about taking apart the Super GT
SuperGT steering pot ("volume") replacement.
Some more gear shift info
Added information about DATA ACCESS EXCEPTION to Super GT section.
Also added more information about gear shift repair.
Started Sega Super GT (SCUD Race) page ... very preliminary!
Adding information about Daytona 2 Power Edition upgrade!
Added relay repair, apron before/after pics, and edits based on quick proof reading to the Star Wars page
Added some information and pictures to the Star Wars page
Started Data East Star Wars page (here)
Fixed email address problem
Added a little more info about the Simpsons alpha-numeric score repair
Added information about Simpsons alpha-numeric score repair
Updated home page a bit (added sections for pins and vids)
Added link to gameroom video on YouTube
Small update to Daytona 2 page (now have the correct casters!)
Updated Daytona 2 section with leg leveler info
Added info about a video game! Sega Daytona 2..
Added video if Indiana Jones gameplay to IJ page.
Changed my email address. Too much spam. See note at top for the new email.
Something crazy happened! I've added some information about the Panasonic DMC-ZS3 camera (click here)
Added a ton of info about my Indiana Jones shop (finally!)
Added video of Terminator 2 gameplay to the Terminator page
Added video of White Water gameplay to the White Water page
Added video of Ripley's gameplay to the RBION page
Added video of Creature gameplay to the Creature page
Updated Indiana Jones Path of Adventure text to correct mistake about 2nd flipper opto
Updated Indiana Jones (IJ) page with right ramp removal
Updated contact information
Added information about shopping (cleaning inserts, subway, lamp PCBs)
Added (large) picture of playfield bottom
Added a bunch of pictures of the Creature Hologram
Added a picture of the slide VUK that broke
Updated all pin pages to include links to home and all other pin pages (at the top)
Started Creech page! (Creature from the Black Lagoon or CFTBL)
Wow! It has been a while. Added story about STTNG battery
Added Simpsons 3-Drop target repair
Added a ton of stuff to the Simpsons page
Updated to Simpsons page
Added Simpsons page (my first Data East machine). Go Bart, Homer, Marge, Maggie and Lisa!
Additional text to existing Fire! sections
Added information about battery holder repair
Added information about reproducing plastic targets
Added information about broken ramp repair
Added a bunch more Fire! stuff
Started Fire! page (my first System 11 machine!)
Added information about STTNG cannon's home and mark
Added a bit about debugging STTNG cannon problems
WCS94 lock and light repair added
Added information about Ted's eye installation to Road Show
Eyes for Ted!
New WCS Soccer Ball!
Added more information to WCS page
Reformatted things a bit across the entire site
Started World Cup Soccer 94 (WCS) page
Minor updates to STTNG page
Added information about "R" in River repair (White Water)
Added information about Road Show knocker
Added information about STTNG hole protector
Added information about Delta Ramp removal
Added information about G.I problem and burnt connector
Rearranged STTNG sections and cleaned up some text
Added drop target behavior
Added more pictures
Added text about drop target repair, some playfield cleaning, and various updates to STTNG
More STTNG updates. Added information about cannon repairs.
Cleaned up the formatting of the STTNG page. Added some new content.
More pictures added to STTNG page.
Started Star Trek: The Next Generation (STTNG) page.
Information about second 8-light PCB for White Water added.
Added information and picture of FunHouse lamp insert adjustment.
Added information and picture of FunHouse subway cleaning.
Added information about Waterfall topper to White Water section.
Added information about coin door inserts to Road Show section.
Updated Road Show with Ted's PCB motor repair.
Added information about White Water "lite lock" targets.
Added information about White Water "Insanity Falls / Whirlpool" sign.
Updated and added some text to the White Water section.
Information about transformer Molex connector added to White Water.
Added information about NOS Big Foot head to White Water.
Added information about new plastics to White Water.
Added information about plunger to White Water.
Added an image of the White Water topper.
Added White Water page. It is very preliminary.
Added a bit of information about the Road Show shaker motor.
Added information to Getaway regarding Supercharger speed improvement (diverter
replacement).
Added pictures of playfield chip repair to Road Show section.
Added information about chip in Road Show playfield below bumper post.
(Road Show) Added picture of Red's hat and Ted's hat with the new decals.
Added Road Show decal artwork.
Added information about replacing leg bolt plates on Road Show.
Added information about cleaning left ramp on Road Show.
Added information about new Road Show DMD.
Added information about new Road Show City Start sign.
Added information about Road Show "Bob's Souvenir Bunker" sign.
Added information about cleaning Road Show right ramp.
Added information about FunHouse ramp replacement.
Added information to Terminator section (coin door, Hunter Killer ship).
Added information about Indiana Jones Bi-Plane.
Added a bunch of information about the Road Show repairs and shopping.
Minor enhancements to Road Show page.
Started Road Show page.
Added listing of RBION Odditorium facts.
Added information about Funhouse (Rudy) repair.
Adjusted text that was added back on 11/6/04.
Added additional information about IJ POA stuttering.
Added a bunch of images from the bottom of the RBION playfield.
Added information to FunHouse section about Rudy's eyeball repair.
Fixed typos in Indiana Jones and Getaway sections.
Added "Path of Adventure was stuttering" problem to Indiana Jones section.
Added image of F103 fuse to Getaway section.
Started recording changes.
Added image of RBION backglass lighting to RBION machine information page.
Added image of RBION playfield to main RBION page.
Added Funhouse section.
Fixed some typos in the Indiana Jones section. I should really proof read the entire site...