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Advice when going to look at a TAF

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robertlucas1970

I am going to take a look at one in the next day or so, one of the pictures has a plug hanging off the board, what would this be for and why would it be disconnected ? Could it just be for the knocker or something ?
Anything else to look for on a TAF apart from the playfield wear ?
Many Thanks


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Knocker is in the cab on TAF.

I'm in the GrizZ shack stood by my TAF and that looks like the connector for J110 ...straight above it in yr pic you can see the white header pins. No idea why that would be disconnected ???

Check Thing hand is working well, and balls should release smoothly from the Thing box down to the Swamp ...no hanging up. Maybe by hand load all the balls for multiball, make sure its all behaving.

Magnet burn on playfield ? - Another thing to check. All magnets working?
 
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Thanks, I cant tell anything from the pics as the glass is still in and they are not so good, its only half hour away, so will go take a look, but I do wonder why that plug is not in and will it start popping fuses if its put back, you would only remove part of a circuit if its causing problems I guess.
 
robertlucas1970 said:
Is that a faulty DMD ? or could be a simpler fix ?
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As the Sarge said it could be a transition between animations. Could be tarnished ribbon cable connectors. Could be a failing DMD board.
You will need to see it working in person really to check if it is ok.
 
Addams is a very collectible title. Good spares availability. In my experience, it is also a very reliable game. It is relatively simple for a wpc era game. In 15 years mine has not yielded any more significant issue than a broken link on the bookcase

The circuit boards can be fixed. Obviously plug in the connector and see what happens. May be innocent, may be sinister. Looks like it may be a flipper connector.

If the dmd is faulty, new ones cost about £170

I would worry about stuff like the dmd, mansion wear on the inserts, chair kickout wear (may be able to cover with a cliffy), thing hand motor, magnet burn to playfield, ramp damage, condition of cabinet artwork. Most important of all, is the seller an idiot / liar ?

If idiots oŵn games, anything can happen. The liars know there is a problem but act as though they are idiots by playing dumb

If an idiot / liar owns this one, and there are faults you do not understand then be careful.
 
From the pic it looks like the one on eBay !!
And it does have a switch fault or something because of the dot after the letter "Y"
 
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yes its the one on ebay, I learnt from the Elvis not to say too much on here when thinking about going after a ebay machine, but he is only up the road.
He claims he has had it 20 years which he might of, but he sent a pic of the chair kickout which I asked for and it has some wear like on most of the others I have seen.
 
Not much gets past @carl lawrence !

3 grand is about right for a working addams

@robertlucas1970 , do you know about credit dots?. On wpc games there is a full stop after the credits or word freeplay, as a warning that there is a problem with the machine. It could be as simple as a faulty switch, or more serious
 
You see these tv adverts about how smart and observant you need to be a raf navigator. You know, the ones of a complete valley and you have half a second to spot the enemy

Stick @carl lawrence in there, every time
 
robertlucas1970 said:
yes its the one on ebay, I learnt from the Elvis not to say too much on here when thinking about going after a ebay machine, but he is only up the road.
He claims he has had it 20 years which he might of, but he sent a pic of the chair kickout which I asked for and it has some wear like on most of the others I have seen.
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I've also learned that the guys on here never miss a trick regards eBay/Gumtree.
It's probably been spotted within a millisecond of being listed.. Lol
 
Always good advice from the guys on here. Hopefully nothing to worry about but at the very least you should pay what it's worth based on any 'mods' or 'hacks' that may or may not have been applied.

Good luck with it.
 
Re. the loose connector; that area of the driver pcb is for the flipper relay, lane change sensor chips, etc, in the earlier Wpc games like Funhouse and Bride of Pin-Bot. The introductory games for Fliptronic (Addams) and Fliptronic II (Getaway onwards) had the components fitted, in case an op needed a quick replacement for one of those earlier games. Addams and Getaway also had wiring provided to allow conversion to the older high-current-switching 'conventional' flipper system, so that connector may well be the back box end of it.

I don't recall any common 'false report' on Addams (where a switch is reported that is in fact working, but simply hasn't been activated for a while), but it is a game where a switch problem can go un-reported. The four "Cousin It" targets are all the same switch number, so broken-off wiring on any but the one with the connections to the switch matrix wouldn't generate a report/dot. Funhouse may be another similar case, with the "Sausage" targets.
 
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Just got back from looking at TAF, the chap has had it 20 years, very nice guy, he has the paperwork from Pinball Paradise, cost just over a grand !
So for 20 years home use I wanted it to be real nice, but the price he wants is around £3250 and I have seen better on here for that price.
The wear round the chair kickout can be covered, but why has the playfield suffered all these small cracks ?
It also needs a ramp and slingslot plastics. for some reason there is a hole melted out of the ramp at the top left.
It also went off and just reset itself, so could need a few bits replacing on the power supply.
It seemed to play fine, but im not used to this game, not played one in a long time, should the magnet be on in multiball ? I dint feel anything there when the magnet lights were flashing, could be something to do with that plug ?
The main problem is cracks in the playfield, I offered £2.5 before I went to see it, so not sure if I would go to that now as if I had I can see me spending £2k to get it nice as I see there is a playfield up for sale and by the time I get the plastics I bet im close to £5k
Many Thanks

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It might be possible to just get the playfield re-clear-coated - my local car body shop place charges £20 for re-doing it with several coats of automotive clear. Providing it was well cleaned beforehand, the cracks will probably just get filled in with the clear. No guarantees, but if there was no other wear around inserts or the holes, then this might be an option.
 
@robertlucas1970 sounds like you are after a minter TAF, in which case walk away from this one. Plenty of nice ones do come up, you'll just pay accordingly and save yrself a lot of work.

It only *needs* new slings, ramp etc IF you want a minter. Many folk don't and are happy to play one with cosmetic issues. You pays your money and makes your choice.

Personally I don't think those cracks are a biggie unless ALL over the playfield. You see them quite often on TAFs. Often on the cloud area above the mansion.

As for it being a 2K machine ?? Even with a few issues....working TAF for 2K ?? Thats sooooooooo 2012 :D
 
It also has a Mylar protector over it, I would worry those cracks would get worse or even flake off leaving a mess, if it was £2k I would take the chance and do all this, but at £3k+ I am leaving this one.
 
Even the most cosmetically knackered TAF's go for £2500 these days :( If you think you'll pick one up for less than you'll be waiting a long time as any owner can bung it on Ebay and get good money.....just the way it seems to be with this game.
 
Yeah I don't see any big issue either tbh though the price should be closer to 2800 or so. If he has the paperwork and the machine shows no signs of being in an arcade ever (coin slots showing use, security bar, stickers, coin counters etc) then that has to be a better than average example. TAF is a game that starts at 2700, 2800 nowadays even for a crappy one, and more likely 3000 for one in decent nick.

Did you take any other pics?
 
Paying up for an addams may seem painful when you can buy stuff like a shadow or wcs for half of the money. But addams really has it all for an early wpc game ...

Cab art
Playfield art
Sensible topper
Callouts and music
Gameplay
Sensible scoring
Fantastic use of playfield to support modes
Spares
Reliability
Good stacking
Liquid market with plenty of buyers
 
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