Recent purchases

Just a little update about recent purchases I've made..

First of all, I found a Zaccaria power cable harness on eBay. I remembered that I had a broken connector in the backbox of my Magic Castle. But I did the mistake I often do: I bought something without ensuring that I actually need it. It turned out that I already had this cable in nice working order!

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Magic Castle #2

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I bought an absolutely beautiful Magic Castle from Germany last year.
...and then I sold it this summer. I'm not even sure if I have a picture of it.

I need to cut down on my collection, and my target is to sell the following games in 2011:
The Machine - Bride of Pinbot
Star Wars Trilogy
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Judge Dredd

..and the plunger is back on

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had troubles finding the right screws for Magic Castle's plunger mount. It turned out they were just standard US threads, and I actually found a pack of brand new screws in a rack mounting kit at work. It's nice getting something for free for a change!

Broken post

I won an eBay auction for a Magic Castle backglass. The seller was from Austria, and I sent him some e-mails in (my quite basic) german. 

I tried to make sure that he would pack it properly, and that he had actually shipped a backglass before, and he assured me that it would be safe, in many layers of styrofoam. This didn't quite comfort me, as I would want a wooden board in there, but in the end I just had to take his word for it.

Sadly, it arrived broken.

I didn't find the packaging to be satisfactory, with just a couple of thin layers of styrofoam inside a quite flimsy flatscreen tv cardboard box. In fact, I was quite nervous that the Post would feel the same way, and refuse to refund the costs, but they were ok with it.

The 170 USD are back in my account, but I still don't have a backglass. It's quite sad actually.. I'm sure there aren't that many left of them out there, and now there's one less.

Polishing the plunger

Don't worry about the title!

The plunger housing I got with the Magic Castle backbox was a bit rusty looking, but I decided to polish it in the tumbler.

The all-important "before" shots..

I was hoping to awe you all with some fantastic "after" shots, but it turned out just ok. It may not be very visible in the pictures, but there were some spots I just couldn't remove, neither with the tumbler or with good old manual polishing with Autosol.

Still, I don't think anyone (or me, for that matter) will notice it while playing, and I think this is as good as it will get without actually re-chroming it.

The worst part, though, is that the screws don't fit the housing. It seems the threads are some kind of southern European non-standard, and I can't find matching screws anywhere!

I'll do a last attempt in a specialist hardware store, and after that I'll just have to order three screws from Italy.

Zaccaria gifts

The friend from whom I bought Magic Castle surprised me with two items which he had forgotten to give me:

1. A coil with a plunger of some sort. I'm not sure where it fits, because I frankly didn't study the underside of the playfield enough yet to determine if something is missing.
   
2. Some sort of official Magic Castle operator's sheet, inside a beautiful Zaccaria zip lock bag. Evidently, it doesn't take much to make me happy!

Isn't it great?

Where does this go? Follow this blog and see.

Magic Castle Electrical Diagram

I haven't worked on Magic Castle for a while, simply because I was too into Robotron.

MC still has some issues, specifically the sound and some loose wires. So when an eBay auction popped up with the electrical diagram part of the manual set, I just had to get it.

I later found out that I had the pdf, but that's just life as a compulsive shopper, I guess. Besides, it's better to have the actual schematics than some low-quality A4 prints.

I'm looking very much forward to troubleshooting Magic Castle again.

Pardon the image quality. I better get a new cell phone. I assure you, the manual is white.

The seller even included a flyer for CSI, which I infact haven't tested yet.

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.

Magic Castle: Backbox on its way!

The backbox for Magic Castle is getting closer. I have transferred the payment, and hopefully it will be shipped via DHL later this week. 

The seller is a great guy! He has checked/repaired all the boards, and confirms that everything is working. I can't wait to finally test the game! 

Here are some of the pictures he sent me.

Working displays

Boards in place

Working neon tube

WTB: Parts for Magic Castle

I recently acquired a Zaccaria Magic Castle from a friend. Half a Magic Castle, that is. It's missing its backbox, playfield glass and legs, and I just noticed it doesn't have the plunger either.

I have contacted a collector who is willing to sell me the backbox, so I'm getting very optimistic about it! Zaccaria's build quality continues to impress me, and my impression of the machines I have seen so far is that the game play is solid too.

The shipping costs are quite high, actually more than I paid for the machine in the first place, but this is one beautiful game I would love to see restored. Cross your fingers for me!