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Complete Fish Tales - Very Mini Shop

Fintan Stack

Fintan Stack

Registered
Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Messages
1,944
Location
Lyme Regis
Hi Folks.
Thought I'd share my Fish Tales mini shop log. It's fairly short as I didn't take may pics along the way. I meant to but, well, just didn't. :rolleyes:

So I bought this Fish Tales from the forum about 2 months ago and have been slowly tinkering ever since. There were a couple of minor issues I noticed when she was delivered and I powered her up for the first time.

  • Bottom backbox GI all out.
  • Right slingshot pretty pathetic.
  • 2 rollover switches not working. (One with a snapped rollover wire)
  • 1 incorrect standup target.
  • Few rubbers at death's door.
  • Few bulbs out here and there.
So nothing major. Other than that she played well. This is a typical routed Fish Tales with wear in the usual places (fish and tacklebox inserts) and a cabinet that looks like it's been stored in a solarium. So it's never going to be a minter but I do like to have everything working as it should.


Firstly I tackled the GI problem. Didn't take long to find the culprit:
002.jpg
Swapped that bad boy out for a new connector:
004.jpg

Then for the moment of truth:
005.jpg

Yay! Happy days.

Next I dismantled the right sling to see what was going on. I noticed that the plunger seemed too long to go all the way into the sleeve. I could be wrong but I think it had been replaced at some point with a Stern/Sega one. Here is the old one next to the new one I fitted:
003.JPG
Much shorter and when fitted seems to have sorted the issue.

Next I replace the broken switches. Here is the left inlane switch. As you see it was actually snapped:
001.jpg

Put a new one in (and another elsewhere) and all was good.


Next I decided to strip the playfield topside to give it a good clean and a new rubber kit. I also decided to replace all the star posts and plastic posts with new ones as I think it makes a huge difference for very little cost. Nothing more satisfying than removing old, cracked star posts and installing nice shiny new ones!
Here are a few strip down pics. Sorry, I didn't take many but you get the idea.
Boat removed:
012.JPG
0016.JPG
Pretty dirty under the plastics:
013.JPG

At this point I decided to do a full LED conversion. I have never done this before and only ever messed out with LEDs in backboxs etc. I've never really made my mind up whether I like machines pimped out with LEDs or not. I think it suits some games and not others. But I wanted to give it a go and see how she looked.
I bought all of my LEDs from David at pinball-led.co.uk who was super helpful. - Thank you David.

Anyway, after cleaning everything and installing the new LEDs, posts and rubbers I put her all back together.

Before:
009a.JPG
After:
009.JPG
Before:
015.jpg
After:
016.JPG

Finished:
007.JPG


Big bag of horrible old stuff that was removed:
010.JPG


So it's all done now and plays really well. I actually really like the LEDs on this game. I installed the Premium 2's in the inserts and they look really good. Especially the purple ones. They really pop.
I replaced every single incandescent bulb and flasher with LEDs. But in the end I went back to regular flashers for the backbox as I thought they looked better there. Other than that, it's all LED. I think it cost me about £130 to deck the whole machine out in them.

Annoyingly, I realised I had forgot to replace the incorrect standup target whilst I had the machine in bits! I managed to score the correct one from Paul (Thanks Paul) but just completely forgot about it. So I'll have to do that soon.

So that is my mini - mini shop log!
I'm going to be selling this machine very soon as I have a new game coming so I'll chuck a for sale ad up soon.
 
Last edited:
GrizZ said:
Good stuff Dean ...nice to have you back on duty, firing on all pinball cylinders again :cool:

Fish Tales - stone cold classic. Love it.
Click to expand...

Cheers Grizz. It really is a great game. It's kicks my **** most of the time because it's just so fast! But when you have a good game it really is awesome. And I just love hitting the ramps and then collecting the monster fish. So awesome.
 
What are you scoring? My high-score is just 469M and my average is around 120M I guess, and I'm worried I'm a bit ****. I think FT benefits from LEDs on the inserts massively, especially the insert flashers on the boat.
 
Agreed..great game, when your playing well, otherwise it's a brutal drainer.

I've owned mine for years and never managed to top 350M, I must be really sh*t.

I played the one with all LEDS at the NLP, and got close to my best score with one game. The drain posts were set to easy and it had standard flippers installed instead of the original lightning ones, seems to make a big difference.

Still unsure about going the way of LEDs, but the NLP one did look good, if not a little dark around the lower playfield.
 
I need to fix the castors club target, doesn't automatically drop the target, probably why I struggle to get jackpots.

Is anyone else playing with the original lightning flippers?
 
You won't get any jackpots if the target is not dropping. I had the same problem with mine originally.
 
Fish Tales should only be played with lightning flippers!

This machine holds a certain place in my heart, as its the machine that got me 'hooked' about 3 years ago.
 
My high score is around 500m but that was a particularly good game for me. I usually get around 150-200.

I have the lightning flippers on mine. It definitely makes things a lot trickier.
I've never hit a super jackpot! Multiball tends not to last very long when I am playing!
 
Fintan Stack said:
Hi Folks.
Thought I'd share my Fish Tales mini shop log. It's fairly short as I didn't take may pics along the way. I meant to but, well, just didn't. :rolleyes:

So I bought this Fish Tales from the forum about 2 months ago and have been slowly tinkering ever since. There were a couple of minor issues I noticed when she was delivered and I powered her up for the first time.

  • Bottom backbox GI all out.
  • Right slingshot pretty pathetic.
  • 2 rollover switches not working. (One with a snapped rollover wire)
  • 1 incorrect standup target.
  • Few rubbers at death's door.
  • Few bulbs out here and there.
So nothing major. Other than that she played well. This is a typical routed Fish Tales with wear in the usual places (fish and tacklebox inserts) and a cabinet that looks like it's been stored in a solarium. So it's never going to be a minter but I do like to have everything working as it should.


Firstly I tackled the GI problem. Didn't take long to find the culprit:
View attachment 3932
Swapped that bad boy out for a new connector:
View attachment 3933

Then for the moment of truth:
View attachment 3934

Yay! Happy days.

Next I dismantled the right sling to see what was going on. I noticed that the plunger seemed too long to go all the way into the sleeve. I could be wrong but I think it had been replaced at some point with a Stern/Sega one. Here is the old one next to the new one I fitted:
View attachment 3935
Much shorter and when fitted seems to have sorted the issue.

Next I replace the broken switches. Here is the left inlane switch. As you see it was actually snapped:
View attachment 3936

Put a new one in (and another elsewhere) and all was good.


Next I decided to strip the playfield topside to give it a good clean and a new rubber kit. I also decided to replace all the star posts and plastic posts with new ones as I think it makes a huge difference for very little cost. Nothing more satisfying than removing old, cracked star posts and installing nice shiny new ones!
Here are a few strip down pics. Sorry, I didn't take many but you get the idea.
Boat removed:
View attachment 3937
View attachment 3938
Pretty dirty under the plastics:
View attachment 3939

At this point I decided to do a full LED conversion. I have never done this before and only ever messed out with LEDs in backboxs etc. I've never really made my mind up whether I like machines pimped out with LEDs or not. I think it suits some games and not others. But I wanted to give it a go and see how she looked.
I bought all of my LEDs from David at pinball-led.co.uk who was super helpful. - Thank you David.

Anyway, after cleaning everything and installing the new LEDs, posts and rubbers I put her all back together.

Before:
View attachment 3940
After:
View attachment 3941
Before:
View attachment 3942
After:
View attachment 3943

Finished:
View attachment 3944


Big bag of horrible old stuff that was removed:
View attachment 3945


So it's all done now and plays really well. I actually really like the LEDs on this game. I installed the Premium 2's in the inserts and they look really good. Especially the purple ones. They really pop.
I replaced every single incandescent bulb and flasher with LEDs. But in the end I went back to regular flashers for the backbox as I thought they looked better there. Other than that, it's all LED. I think it cost me about £130 to deck the whole machine out in them.

Annoyingly, I realised I had forgot to replace the incorrect standup target whilst I had the machine in bits! I managed to score the correct one from Paul (Thanks Paul) but just completely forgot about it. So I'll have to do that soon.

So that is my mini - mini shop log!
I'm going to be selling this machine very soon as I have a new game coming so I'll chuck a for sale ad up soon.
Click to expand...


Did you need to use any special tool for that GI connector?
 
Fintan Stack said:
My high score is around 500m but that was a particularly good game for me. I usually get around 150-200.

I have the lightning flippers on mine. It definitely makes things a lot trickier.
I've never hit a super jackpot! Multiball tends not to last very long when I am playing!
Click to expand...

I got my high-score with a couple of super jackpots. If you can get on a roll with those then massive scores are available. It's bleedin' hard, though.

It was the game that got me hooked too, back in the day when it was a current machine we had one in the snooker club. I don't think anyone troubled the factory set high-score of 300M and now I know why - it's a very good score for even experienced players.
 
xenon325i said:
I got my high-score with a couple of super jackpots. If you can get on a roll with those then massive scores are available. It's bleedin' hard, though.
Click to expand...

I will have to hit one before I sell it!
I tend to get my higher scores by snagging as many monster fish as I can. Once you get into the flow of hitting the 2 ramp combo over and over it's magic! Hard to keep it going though.
 
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