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Fathom and Black Knight, where do I start!

Flyte

Flyte

Site Supporter
Joined
Sep 27, 2015
Messages
125
Location
Liverpool
Hey all

I've just discovered I have a passion for Pinball Machines - no idea where it came from it just hit me out of the blue even though I've been making video games for 20+ years Pinball never had much interest till now.

I've just picked up a Fathom and Black Knight which I'm going to try my best to restore, I'm just wondering first of all if there is anyone close to liverpool that knows anything about getting the electrics sorted?

Also any recommendations for touching up the Playfield?

Any advice will be more than welcome!

Fathom.jpg

Black Knight.jpg
 
Congrats on scoring those games, Fathom is a particular favourite of mine :thumbs: Probably best starting a thread for each game in the tech help section and start by describing what the games do now when you switch them on. If you haven't already, check all the fuses to make sure they work and, more importantly, are of the correct rating. Also check the state of boards in the backbox, especially the MPU (top left of the 4 boards) and check the batteries aren't leaking.
 
Flyte said:
haha hey Ben :)

Thought I recognised you! such a small world! had no idea you where into your pinball
Click to expand...

Indeed! Yes mate, just got the one machine at the minute - you'll see my daft pictures on here seeking wiring advice today as cobbling together some lighting. Good guys here.

Brewdog in town have got a pinball thing on tomorrow. Should be worth a visit
 
Beeper said:
Indeed! Yes mate, just got the one machine at the minute - you'll see my daft pictures on here seeking wiring advice today as cobbling together some lighting. Good guys here.

Brewdog in town have got a pinball thing on tomorrow. Should be worth a visit
Click to expand...

Did you get a restoration one then?
 
2 of the best games ever made. great score , plus they don't look too shabby for 30 year old games
 
Thanks steve, no they aren't too shabby. need a bit of TLC but they could be worse...Black Knight is dead though the electrics are buggered...when I turned it on it started smoking :p
 
Hi, Flyte,

You'd have been hard pushed to find a better pair of games to start with - both top games at the time. The designer of Black Knight is still prominent today.

The Bally electronic system, copied by Stern (in an earlier incarnation), is probably the easier for a newcomer to follow. Diagnostic sections of the programs automatically check the computer circuitry of both the main Mpu and the separate Audio computer pcb, flashing a Green l.e.d. on each as different tests are completed satisfactorily (7 times for the Mpu, it varies between 4 and 5 in different games for the Squawk & Talk audio used in Fathom). The red push button on each of the Bally boards has different functions; on the Mpu it's mainly for clearing book-keeping entries, but on the audio it produces all the sound and speech contained in the program chips.

The Williams system, the then-new 'Level 7', isn't quite so helpful. There is an automatic check on the main Cpu, but it shows its findings on a 7-segment display mounted on the pcb. The correct display is the figure '0'. The Audio pcb also has its own test button, but this board only produces a few sounds and each word of its vocabulary.

With the Black Knight, the primary concern is whatever's sending out smoke. With the power off, check to see what component it is.

With both games, you'd be best removing the memory back-up battery, if you haven't already done so. The Williams games used three ordinary AA cells in a toy-like holder, while the Bally device is a soldered-in NiCd on the bottom edge of the board. Both types cause problems if they're allowed to release corrosive leakage.
 
Hey Jay

Thank you so much for the awesome feedback, really appreciate it and actually I really very very lucky to have found those two machines after all I've heard about them and read about them. Luckily the fathom had already had its battery pack moved to the wall of the back box but this must have been done in the 80's as I haven't seen everreadies like that since I was a child :p

I'll follow your advice for sure!

Thanks

Gary
 
Gary,

Those Bally Mpu boards, often known as the 'dash 35' (from the number of the basic board) or '8K' (the program memory size), were originally configured to re-charge the Ni-Cad battery, so the remotely mounted battery pack (assuming they're Ni-Cad cells) could well be older than you'd expect. With non-rechargeables, as originally used by Williams, the consensus here seems to favour a yearly change.
 
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