# SDTM Cary Hardy: Saving Swords Of Fury Finale **Source:** Straight Down the Middle **Type:** video **Published:** 2021-05-15 **Duration:** 19m 16s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvQ6PUDE-RM --- ## Analysis Cary Hardy completes a multi-year restoration of a Swords of Fury pinball machine rescued from an abandoned location. The video documents the final stages of the restoration, including troubleshooting electrical issues (blown fuses from a staple short-circuiting the backbox), cleaning and polishing side rails, replacing bulbs with LEDs, and diagnosing a failed transistor (Q58) in the lamp matrix using the machine's diagnostic test modes. The machine is confirmed fully functional and has already sold. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Swords of Fury is a rare and underappreciated game that deserves recognition for its art, music, and unique layout. — _Cary Hardy opening statement about why the game warranted extensive restoration efforts_ - [HIGH] The restoration series spanned over two years, but not all of that time was spent on the machine—Cary was working on other machines simultaneously and waiting for a hardtop to be released. — _Cary explicitly states the timeline and factors causing the extended duration_ - [HIGH] A staple inserted at an angle during backbox reassembly was touching the base and caused a ground short that blew two fuses and disabled backbox lighting. — _Cary describes the troubleshooting process and identifies the root cause after tracing power lines_ - [HIGH] The side rails had been sitting on a shelf for multiple years (before acquisition and over a year after) without deterioration, and will be cleaned with 1200-grit sandpaper, soapy water, and metal polish. — _Cary discusses the condition of the rails and his cleaning methodology_ - [HIGH] Transistor Q58 in the lamp matrix had failed, causing column 5 of the lamp matrix to short and stay illuminated; this was confirmed both visually (darker appearance) and through multimeter testing. — _Cary uses lamp matrix diagnostic mode to isolate the failed transistor and confirms via resistance testing_ ### Notable Quotes > "I knew the potential of this game I knew that it could be salvageable you don't see this game in great condition it's getting harder and harder to even find the game" > — **Cary Hardy**, opening > _Establishes the rarity and value proposition for Swords of Fury restoration_ > "it was that I was doing other items and other machines at the same time not to mention I was waiting on a hard top to be released" > — **Cary Hardy**, middle > _Explains why the 2+ year timeline did not reflect continuous work on one machine_ > "it's a rare thing to completely disassemble a game get it put back together and it worked 100 percent" > — **Cary Hardy**, middle > _Emphasizes the technical achievement of a successful full restoration_ > "this game is already sold it was pending one hour after posting" > — **Cary Hardy**, middle > _Demonstrates market demand for fully restored Swords of Fury machines_ > "where is this damn short" > — **Cary Hardy**, troubleshooting_section > _Captures the frustration of tracking down an intermittent electrical fault_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Cary Hardy | person | Pinball restoration enthusiast and content creator; host of this Straight Down the Middle restoration series; performs full disassembly, electrical troubleshooting, and cosmetic restoration work | | Swords of Fury | game | Classic pinball machine being restored; identified as rare and underappreciated; features distinctive art, music, and playfield layout; subject of 2+ year restoration project by Cary Hardy | | Straight Down the Middle | organization | YouTube content series documenting pinball restoration and gameplay; host channel for Cary Hardy's work | | Q58 | product | Failed transistor in the lamp matrix of Swords of Fury; controlled column 5 of the lamp matrix; identified through diagnostic testing and confirmed failed via multimeter resistance testing | ### Topics - **Primary:** Pinball restoration and repair techniques, Electrical troubleshooting (short circuits, fuse failures, transistor diagnostics), Lamp matrix diagnostics and lamp circuit failure identification - **Secondary:** Cosmetic restoration (rail cleaning, polishing, LED conversion), Swords of Fury game rarity and market demand - **Mentioned:** Long-form content production and restoration documentation ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.85) — Cary expresses satisfaction with the restoration outcome, pride in the technical achievement, and gratitude toward the community. The machine's rapid sale reinforces positive sentiment about market reception. Minor frustrations during troubleshooting do not diminish overall positive tone. ### Signals - **[event_signal]** Swords of Fury restoration completion marks the end of a 2+ year video series with community participation and viewership (confidence: high) — Cary thanks everyone who joined in on the journey and notes the extended series run - **[design_philosophy]** Swords of Fury lamp matrix transistor failure (Q58) may indicate age-related component degradation or design margin issues in Williams solid-state circuits, though not explicitly framed as a design flaw (confidence: medium) — Transistor visually darker than others; required replacement during restoration; Cary notes this is a 'common issue' in switch/lamp matrix transistors - **[product_concern]** A single installation error (misaligned staple) during backbox reassembly caused cascading electrical failures (blown fuses, disabled backbox lighting), highlighting the sensitivity of vintage pinball electrical systems (confidence: high) — Cary identifies staple shorting to ground as root cause; demonstrates need for precise assembly technique on vintage machines --- ## Transcript [Music] blind man i merely rescued this game from an abandoned shop at a person's house that had stuff all in there of all sorts but here it was this machine just looked in the back corner all by itself and alone i knew the potential of this game i knew that it could be salvageable you don't see this game in great condition it's getting harder and harder to even find the game when people get this game they are now holding on to it and rightfully so this game deserves the love it's the art the music [Music] the unique layout it was at this moment where i really understood how good of a conductor stainless steel is when it comes to heat this game took me a long time to finish [Music] but it didn't take long to sell swords of fury is one of those games that i'm glad to see people making reproduction items for resurrecting this game was a task but it was oh so satisfying at the same time thank you to everyone that joined in on this journey so far i know some of you have been waiting for this patient [Music] this series has been going for a little over two years now it's not that it took me two years to do it either [Music] it was that i was doing other items and other machines at the same time not to mention i was waiting on a hard top to be released [Music] but it's done it's beautiful and it's time to wrap this series up [Music] you wanted it you got it this sword's a fury as officially been safe we have come a long way guys i learned a lot during this restoration and i hope you did too there's going to be a couple of other bits of knowledge in this video because it's a rare thing to completely disassemble a game get it put back together and it worked 100 percent and i'm going to go over why and how it was not 100 this game is already sold it was pending one hour after posting don't worry this game wasn't meant to be a keeper for me i still have my own swords of theory that i will give it the treatment eventually after this game i really needed something different which so happens to be the game next to this one johnny but now it's time to perform the test if you've ever taken apart a game and put it back together you know what this test is called the smoke test i powered the game off quickly because i was afraid i heard a coil lock on little did i know at the time but i had already blown two fuses no gi in the backbox was my first indicator of a problem i began troubleshooting and tracing wires i didn't see any other gi bulbs out so i knew the problem was on the backbox this was not an easy puzzle but i found the issues eventually the issue was found out to be one of the staples that was recently put back in after i redid the entire back one of the staples that was really close to like around here around here went through at an angle and was touching the base and basically causing a short to ground so that's what the issue was and it evidently did it on there was a short on both lines because there's two separate gi lines back here and it did a short on one and the other so i had to go through each line wherever i saw a staple to try to figure out where the short was i was like where is this damn short so it took a while and i found it and that solved that problem so that fixed the backbox gi issue on that let's talk about the side rails and what i'm going to be doing with these these have been sitting out for well let's see that the years before i got the machine including now the year and over a year that i've had it these have been just kind of just sitting on the the shelf waiting for me to do something with them how we're going to clean these up is actually quite simple they're not damaged so that's always a big old thumbs up on that but all it's going to take is some high grit sandpaper and some soapy water i'm going to use 1200 grit actually because it's not that scuffed up so 1200 grit should be fine and i'm going to go over it give it a nice good scrubbing get it all dried up and then i'm going to hit it with the the metal polish with the microfiber towel and get it all polished out and it should come out pretty good all right finally got my leds in so now i can finally finish this machine up all right let's do this okay now that we are fully led i get to go through the machine and figure out why certain bulbs are or are not working um kind of strange these seem kind of inconsistent down here this one was always on it seemed like these two look like they're i may have a leaky diode somewhere interesting so i'm gonna look around see if i got any kind of loose connections or something like that all right we are currently on all lamps let me get this camera moving around a little better that's on all lamps now notice how this particular column right here seems to be even brighter than the other ones as well so let's uh move over to uh separate bulbs here all right so now we're on single lamps and as i go through you're going to notice that instead of just one lamp right here now we're on two this is going to be 3 4. that column is always going so this is column one two three four five column five oh it even tells you the top right here if i get the camera down enough and you can see that yeah column five is shorted now that's when you boot out your trusty dusty trashy dusty whatever your manual and get out your lamp matrix which is always going to be in the manual somewhere or another and figure out which transistor controls column 5. now we're going to do that using our multimeter as well but if you look on the manual for this particular game this system this is going to be q58 q58 is right here this is the transistor hell you can even see from this camera angle that this one in particular is even much darker than the others hmm so you've even got a visual sign of an issue that's kind of funny so this one right here is our bad apple more than likely now there's always a possibility that up here on these chips and even all the way up to the pias there could be an issue but the chances are this is the most common issue when dealing with you know your switch matrix or your lamp matrix is your initial uh transistors right here so this is more than likely the only problem hopefully it is but i'm just stopping immediately at my first point right here and that is this one right here so let's get the board out and fix this transistor all right now let's say if the visualization of the tester just isn't enough and we want to confirm that in fact that transistor is bad we'll go through the entire column and road to figure out which one is bad by testing the lugs all right that's good that's good that's good that one's shorted we know that the one two three four fourth one down is shorted and the fourth one down is one two three four q fifty eight so that's double confirmation that this bad baby is not good so let's take this out [Music] all right now that we've got all the transistors in there let's test them to see if they're all the same all right so this is the one that was bad all right getting around 600 for all of them sweet all right let's get it back in the machine guys we are hooked back up to the machine and i'm not just going to hook up the play field guys because what this board is going to be useful for is really determining if the reason for the short on that transistor was due to the play field because i'm negating the play field from the formula right now so if this transistor shorts when turning on the machine and it still does what it does and i know it's not the playfield because the playbill doesn't connect it to it so then we'd have another issue so this works completely with this board but then i hook the play field up to it and that column goes out again then i know i've got a short somewhere on my play field which i really hope i don't so let's turn it on and see what we get oh that looks good that looks really good i don't have like a really bright column or anything like that nice all right let's go to the lamp test and see if we still get the same thing so that is all lamp test every column every row flashing together it's beautiful there's no balls in it so all right whereas before i would know immediately because these two bulbs like these two bulbs up here and as well as up there would be always on and there we go guys i believe this machine is finally 100 working good outro music there all right let's do a pan over the play [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] free the titans [Music] you _(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 6a13e1a8-cb2c-43e2-9734-dce9d8192383*