Thursday, November 20, 2008

Magic Castle is alive!

The backbox for my Magic Castle arrived last week. I must send a big thank you to László (of Zaccaria-Pinball.hu fame) for selling it to me. Not only did he part with the backbox for a very reasonable price, he even collected and assembled all the needed parts, programmed the roms and tested that everything was working. He must be a true Zaccaria fan for putting so much love and effort into the machine for a fellow collector. To top it all off, he even sent me the plunger assembly which was missing from my Magic Castle!

László had sent me a list of things to check before it was safe to connect the backbox:
  1. Check the main transformator voltage setting and fuses values (5A and 20A).
  2. Be sure the switch matrix circuit not connected to the +40V circuit. The most failure point the switch on the main right flipper arms. (React ball saver). Is there a combinated switch - this switching the +5V and the +40V circuits too.When it's there a short contact the IC38, 25 will be destroyed !!! The inputs will not working more ...
  3. Be sure the light bulb sockets in the pops are ok. Watch the shorted sockets ! If not - the lamp SRC 69, 73, 79 will be destroyed !
  4. Secure the head with the screw to protect a falling head. The displays and the neon tube can damaged! Maybe the steels are made with different setting points and the lock can be release the head under repair !
After checking it all, I plugged it in. And without much further ado..

Life at last! This game has been sleeping for too long.

DHL had transported the backbox upside down, so one of the displays had fallen off, and another one was disconnected. But they both worked after reseating, and the game plays almost perfectly already!

Sadly, it was getting late, and I had to leave the game room before I could finish the testing.

The biggest issue I noticed was the sound. The ambient background sound was not at all what it's supposed to be, but all of the effect sounds were working nicely.
I will try to ask László if he has any tips. All the chips and ribbon cables seem to be seated, but I may have overlooked something.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice game machine...:D

 
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