In Progress Flash Gordon. Bally SS

[AlanJ]

Picked this up today.


The good news:
It boots up and plays a game.
The flasher works
The backglass is almost perfect
Some new drop target plastics fitted, other new ones came with it just need fitting.
playfield not too bad.

The bad news:
Sound card doesn’t work. (It’s a later FG with the S&T board)
Self Test button doesn’t work.
Cab needs a refurb
Legs are nasty
playfield has some wear

First jobs, get the self test button working and look at the sound card.

Long term, redo the cab and replace the pf.

 

[AlanJ]

Playfield pics

 

[ronsplooter]

That's not bad for an original FG playfield @AlanJ

 

[roadshow16]

Agreed, seen far far worse. Great buy Alan

 

[Ashbo]

By the end of April this will be mint I'm sure. Good find sir, look forward to seeing the transformation.

 

[AlanJ]

By the end of April this will be mint I'm sure. Good find sir, look forward to seeing the transformation.

I am going to get it playing with sound, then park it and play it as I have two other really nice bally projects to do first.

 

[AlanJ]

Had a look at the self test button, it’s all wired up correctly.

As bally ss fans will know, the coin door wiring all goes through a connector block in the cab, usually that’s suspect. but I traced the wires in the schematic back to the SDB and MPU boards. continuity is fine. Suspect the connector or headers.

I’ve never really looked at the wiring to this test button before. it’s a bit crazy. the ground comes for the SDB via the switch to the MPU. not sure why they didn’t just take the ground from the mpu board. but anyway……. gonna clean up the header pins and the connector plugs.


The coin door vol control has been replaced - i guess prev owner swapped it to try solve the no sound issue. I think he’s out in the wrong pot as it seems logrithmic, ie the sound buzz from the s&t amp can be heard only right at the final few movements of the pot. i found the original pot in the bottom of cab, it’s ok, so may reinstate that in future once i get some sound going.

 

[AlanJ]

PS i’ve been looking for an excuse to try out one of @myPinballs Replacement S&T boards, so I’ve ordered one and will pick it up tomorrow. Plan is to use it so I can play the game with sound, but then fix the original and save the new one as a spare or to use in fathom or medusa which are projects i’ll start later this year.

 

[Fubar]

Would you consider clearcoating the playfield at some point?

 

[Deleted member 2463]

Epic game you lucky *******!!!

 

[AlanJ]

Would you consider clearcoating the playfield at some point?

Maybe but actually I love CPR remakes, so will grab one of those next time they redo a batch.

 

[AlanJ]

Can’t believe how long i’ve spent on this friggggging self test button. anyhow bits fixed. dodgy connection to the ground on the SDB.

I found this by just grounding the switch to the coin door and it triggered, so knew it was the ground wire

 

[AlanJ]

Onto the squawk and talk sound board.

U2 ROM was not in the board. Seller told me he had a problem with the sound effects but voice ok, and had heard it could be the U2 chip.

He bought a new set of ROMs for the game and obviously fitted U2, but it didn’t work cos he removed it again - how do i know this? cos the pins are all bent and 2 have snapped off. Of course I was told it’s just a case of putting in new ROMs ——NOPE!!!!


I decided to check what type of ROM the minestryofpinball had used, so scratched off the label of the legless U2 - 2732, ha ha. the board is not jumped for those!

I created a new set of U2 and U5 Roms and changed the wire jumpers on the board.
Still no boot - Led locked on. So changed Main processor, and U11 PIA, still the same.

Removed the other socketed ic’s U6 ram, U7 pia and the two sound and voice chips. still no joy.


The crystal might be dodgy? can’t get a pulse on the 38-39 pins of the 6808? but maybe it’s ok? got out the scope and had a good look it’s working fine.

Possibly U15 or U17 ? the plot thickens …..

 

[AlanJ]

U17 doesn’t test out quite right. so gotta go


fortunately i have a spare


in it goes


I had high hopes for this, but.

It did not work. Led still locked on. no flicker at all. The reset circuit is working as the Pin40 on mpu going high after a moment on boot. vma is pulsing nicely. hmmmm

 

[AlanJ]

Spent this morning sorting out all the blown lamp bulbs, turns out a lot were not 'blown' rather the lamp sockets have failed, managed to get quite a few working by twisting the solder tab so it makes better contact. Will replaced these pesky lampholders and incandescent bulbs with my LEDBAR's in the near future:



Off to collect the S&T from Jim later this morning, so should have sound up and running soon - will then have another go at fixing the original S&T board.

 

[carl lawrence]

Lovely fined Alan ! When I had a none working Medusa , think there maybe a shop log on here , it was a good few years ago , one of the problems was a none working S&T board .I read it somewhere that it was a common problem . To solve this you had to replace every single cap on the board , which did for me !! But mine had not been touched for years as it was in a pubs basements in Congleton near where I live

 

[AlanJ]

Nice to see Jim @myPinballs today and collect this masterpiece :

Btw pictures are with my crappy handwritten ROM labels!

A real nice quality board, well thought out replacement for the bally S&T board

Popped in my own ROMs and into the machine, booted cup and I now have all Flash’s sounds and voices. perfect.

Will still try to fix the old board in the next couple of days.

 

[myPinballs]

Nice to see Jim @myPinballs today and collect this masterpiece :
View attachment 163459
Btw pictures are with my crappy handwritten ROM labels!

A real nice quality board, well thought out replacement for the bally S&T board

Popped in my own ROMs and into the machine, booted cup and I now have all Flash’s sounds and voices. perfect.

Will still try to fix the old board in the next couple of days.

Cheers Alan, nice to see you. and thanks for the kind words. Always good to get appreciation.

Forgot to mention to you that can run my echo board on these to, so you can get reverb to the speech like with centaur. Sounds cool on Flash gordon

 

[DRD]

As the bits covered by the legs show, the red paint fades horrifically on these lovely Bally SS cabs.

The blood reds of Flash Gordon, Paragon etc are all that candy floss pink now.

Pinball Pimp to the rescue?

 

[AlanJ]

Yes will restencil it. it looks like a raspberry or strawberry red

 

[AlanJ]

Original S&T sound card is fixed and working - yey! Combination of a duff replacement 6808 IC that I put in, plus a dodgy trace on the pcb.

Really could do with a test rig to ensure 6800, 6802,6808 and 6821 IC's are working or not. seen one for the processors but not the PIA.

 

[HomerRamone]

Doesnt the boot test on the MPU test all these ? (Quite an extravagant test board that though )

 

[AlanJ]

yep great idea. could probably use an old mpu with some leds soldered / connected on to show the various pia outputs blasting away.

 

[AlanJ]

and if i could write some rom code could make a nice test rom that goes through all the pia input and outputs.

 

[AlanJ]

actually daves multi game rom
board has test rom options in it !!!!!! eureka

 

[AlanJ]

but only tests 6800 not 6802 or 6808

 

[HomerRamone]

Ah, OK.
Not sure how you test those - but it sounds like your talking yourself into another arduino project

 

[Jay Walker]

Doesnt the boot test on the MPU test all these ? (Quite an extravagant test board that though )

The power-up 'flash' routine (pun not intended) isn't in fact an exhaustive test of the PIA chips - not both anyway. AIR one section or output mode of at least one chip isn't covered.

 

[Big Phil]

Love this thread!