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Part 2: 1985 Pinstar Gamatron Project! WTF is Gamatron anyways?

Pinball Shenanigans·video·1h 0m·analyzed·Aug 22, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Pinball Shenanigans explores Gamatron history and restoration of heavily deteriorated 1985 conversion kit.

Summary

Mike Dust from Pinball Shenanigans documents the history and restoration of the Gamatron, a 1985 conversion kit produced by Pinstar (Gary Stern's short-lived venture between Stern Electronics and Data East). The episode explores Gamatron's design origins, technical specifications, and the severe condition of Dust's specific machine, which requires extensive cabinet reconstruction rather than simple cosmetic restoration.

Key Claims

  • Pinstar existed from 1985 to 1986 and was a company created by Gary Stern between the collapse of original Stern Electronics and formation of Data East

    high confidence · Direct research presented from Internet Pinball Database; confirmed as factual history

  • Gamatron was designed by Harry Williams and Steve Kirk with art by Seamus McLaughlin

    high confidence · Flyer documentation reviewed on screen showing designer credits

  • Gamatron uses Flight 2000 playfield and is powered by Flight 2000 software (100% identical binary comparison)

    high confidence · Stated as research finding with specific technical detail

  • Gamatron conversion kit could not work with Stern games without modifications due to backbox height and display placement incompatibility

    high confidence · Duncan Brown source cited; technical constraint documented

  • Few Gamatron kits were sold and few examples exist today because the game lacked ramps, speech, and alphanumeric displays that were driving the market in 1986

    high confidence · Research presented explaining market failure

  • Gary Stern replied to Todd Tucky's inquiry about Gamatron production numbers by stating 'Sorry, I do not remember'

    medium confidence · Anecdotal recollection from 8-12 year old video; secondhand account

  • Space Shuttle (1984) generated approximately 7,000 units and sparked a pinball market resurgence

    medium confidence · Stated as historical comparison; specific production number not independently verified in content

  • Sagasa/Sonic (Spanish company) produced their own version of Gamatron and may have purchased the design from Pinstar

    medium confidence · Information provided by Pinside user who owned Sagasa version; unconfirmed speculation about acquisition

Notable Quotes

  • “So, it's like an in-between company. The playfield is a version of Flight 2000 and features a device similar to that game's ball walker at the upper left completing Gammatron letters to enable locks etc.”

    Mike Dust @ ~3:30 — Explains Pinstar's historical role and Gamatron's core design basis

  • “Gary says, 'Sorry, I do not remember.' That was the reply.”

    Mike Dust @ ~6:20 — Illustrates uncertainty around Gamatron production numbers even from original manufacturer

  • “Thus, not many Gammatron kits were sold, and few examples exist today.”

    Mike Dust (reading research) @ ~5:50 — Explains rarity of machines and significance of Dust's restoration project

  • “You don't even need a soldering iron.”

    Mike Dust (reading Gamatron flyer) @ ~18:30 — Marketing claim emphasizing ease of conversion kit installation

  • “Kevin changed the name. It's not Gammatron anymore. It's Garbatron because of how horrible the condition is.”

    Mike Dust @ ~31:45 — Reveals severe deterioration of the specific machine requiring full restoration rather than simple conversion

  • “The back too. Oh man. This uh price has just gone up on this thing. This is going to require quite a bit of love, but it's definitely in the right hands.”

    Kevin (mechanic/restorer) @ ~28:30 — Acknowledges scope expansion from cabinet cosmetics to structural wood replacement

  • “Dry rot, dry rot, dry rot literally sitting in a freaking puddle.”

    Mike Dust @ ~40:50 — Describes root cause of catastrophic damage to cabinet

  • “When you have a playfield this nice and a backglass this nice, it's hard to put it in a leapt up cabinet.”

    Mike Dust @ ~35:20 — Explains decision to fully restore cabinet rather than preserve original aesthetic

Entities

Mike DustpersonGary SternpersonHarry WilliamspersonSteve KirkpersonSeamus McLaughlinpersonPinstarcompanyGamatrongameFlight 2000game

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Kit Corp (Pinstar distributor) and Grand Products Inc. connection unclear; limited production information available; Gary Stern unable to recall exact production numbers when asked years later

    medium · Dust states 'Stern being Stern doesn't typically show production numbers' and anecdote about Gary Stern's 'I do not remember' response to production inquiries

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Shenanigans content strategy involves detailed historical research, community sourcing of information, documentation of restoration process, and collaborative expert involvement (Kevin, Bigfoot Bruce, Pinside users)

    high · Multi-part episode structure; research methodology shown on-screen; active community collaboration; expert craftspeople featured; educational focus on pinball history and preservation

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball restoration and community knowledge-sharing: Pinside users volunteering information about Gamatron variants, custom artists (Bigfoot Bruce) creating decals, content creators documenting history

    high · Sagasa Gamatron owner shared complete documentation folder; Bigfoot Bruce created prototype decals; community comments provided custom paint design inspiration

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Steve Kirk placed personal design number (SK prefix) sequentially on backglass of each game he designed (SK1-SK13 identified); Gamatron features SK9 on launching rocket; multiple designer/contributor initials (HW, JJ, GS, SS, SM) embedded as Easter eggs on backglass

    high · Research finding documented with specific locations on backglass; Easter egg hunt conducted on-screen with partial success finding SK9, HW, SS, JJ signatures

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:04
I'm Mike Dus and this is Pinball Shenanigans. [Music] All right, so let's get to some gamutron. This is going to be episode number two. Episode one just kind of happened without much preparation. So on this episode, I'd like to kind of figure out WTF is Gamatron, where did it come from and why? And see if we can figure out a little bit about the history of it. You know, from my brief research, it seems like, you know, in the early8s, like maybe 1981 to 84, pinball was in a lull. And Gary Stern, being the serial entrepreneur he was, decided to start a new business venture called Pinstar and um try and spruce up some sales. So, uh let's look up Pinstar here. I've got some stuff queued up. Uh when I look up Pinstar, I see that uh they existed from 1985 to 86, so it was very short-lived. We've got Gamatron the conversion kit here. And then a couple other games. Bullseye 301,
1:36
which apparently does not have any photos. That's interesting cuz someone reached out to me on YouTube and said they have a Bullseye 301. And I did find photos of it actually, but I guess not on internet pinball database. You think they would be here. It is a Dart themed game. Full full game. Obviously Stern being Stern doesn't typically show production numbers. Then we got Gamatron. We've got Velocity Ball. All right. We're going to have to uh we're going to have to look this up together. V E L O C I T Y ball. Pin ball. See if we can find something about it. Images. No, that Hey. Oh my god, that link actually works for the first time in my life. Velocity ball. What? Zoom in on that. Let's go. View image
2:32
and see. Presenting a grand new moneymaking idea. Velocity Ball. Is this Grand Products Inc.? Okay. I've never heard of Grand Products Inc. until recently because I think Bullseye
Space Shuttle
game
Sagasa/Soniccompany
Internet Pinball Databaseorganization
Pinsideorganization
Todd Tuckyperson
Duncan Brownperson
Kit Corpcompany
Bigfoot Bruceperson
Kevinperson
Stern Electronicscompany
Data Eastcompany
Grazely Garagecompany
Superior Metalscompany
Weebi MPUproduct
Stern SB300product

licensing_signal: Sagasa/Sonic (Spanish company) appears to have acquired or licensed Gamatron design from Pinstar; produced localized version with Sonic branding and dedicated cabinet distinct from conversion kit model

medium · User on Pinside reported 'he seems to think that Sagasa bought Pinstar and the game designs from Gary Stern and made their own version of Gammatron conversion kit into a full-blown game'

  • $

    market_signal: Rarity of Gamatron machines creates restoration and collector value; Dust's project evidences dedicated community interest in preserving obscure pinball history; custom parts market (decals, metal finishing) supports restoration ecosystem

    medium · Community members offering documentation and custom parts; professional restoration services (Superior Metals, Grazely Garage) supporting vintage machine work; Mike Wy reportedly owned 7 Gamatron units over time

  • $

    market_signal: Gamatron's commercial failure attributed to lack of ramps, speech, and alphanumeric displays as market was rapidly moving to these features by 1986; conversion kit was technologically conservative compared to Space Shuttle competitors

    high · Research presented stating 'Thus, not many Gammatron kits were sold, and few examples exist today' due to missing features that 'were starting to drive the market in 1986'

  • ?

    community_signal: Steve Kirk's design philosophy included embedding personal signatures and numbers sequentially on games; Seamus McLaughlin handwrote initials on backglass as artist signature; collaborative team culture reflected in multi-signature backglass design

    high · Research documenting SK1-SK13 sequence across multiple Kirk-designed games; identification of HW, JJ, GS, SS, SM initials on Gamatron backglass

  • ?

    announcement: Whirlwind pinball machine mentioned in restoration queue at Grazely garage; appears to be next project after Gamatron completion

    low · Brief mention: 'There is another game in the queue. Whirlwind. Total chaos.' during cabinet inspection footage

  • ?

    product_concern: Severe environmental damage (dry rot, moisture) to 35+ year old Gamatron cabinet requiring 80% structural replacement rather than cosmetic restoration; playfield and backglass condition inversely exceptional

    high · Cabinet examination revealed rotted wood in head, sides, back, and bottom; playfield/backglass remarkably well-preserved despite 'sitting in a freaking puddle' in barn storage

  • ?

    technology_signal: Modern replacement options available for vintage pinball restoration: original Pinstar PSM daughterboard can be replaced with Weebi MPU and Stern SB300 soundboard for improved reliability

    high · Dust discovered on Pinside that 'PSM board that you saw in the video... you don't need that... can use a brand new Weebi MPU set for Flight 2000 and use a Stern SB300 soundboard'

    • 2:53
    Bullseye 301 pinball is also Grand Products. Oh. So, there's some sort of connection here between Grand Products Incorporated and Pinstar cuz look at this. Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Isn't that Stern's location? But here is Bullseye
    3:26
    Dart theme pinball. Who doesn't want that? Let's try and get an actual photo here. The back glass pretty bad and playfield here.
    3:47
    Looks pretty unfun. Couple targets here and maybe a spinner up the middle. Very symmetrical layout. So, there's that. And then
    3:59
    let's go back here. What was the other one? Walking the ball production none. But there's seven photos apparently. What is this all about? Just drawing.
    4:16
    Walking the ball. Oh my god, that is amazing. We need that to be a shirt with the pinstar logo. That is awesome. Oh [ __ ] just closed it. And I'm gonna have to go all the way back here. Pinstar walking the ball. And that's about all we get. Just uh some more of the same photos. Photos of the um the original concept drawing. Oh, SM. Is that like Sheamus or something? Yep. Sheamus Mlaughlin the artist. Okay. So that is uh what Pinstar is all about. We got uh Bullseye that was produced by whatever that company was called again. Um where did it go? But it says Pinstar. Eh. So, did Pinstar license the Bullseye game to the Grand Electronics or whatever the hell it was called? Anyway, so the best thing that came out of Pinstar obviously is Gameron. And let's uh go over the details here. Design was by Harry Williams, so that's pretty epic. and Steve Kirk. Art by Sheamus. So, Gamertron was a conversion kit produced by Pinstar, a company that started and owned by Gary Stern between the collapse of the original Stern and the formation of Data East. Okay, that's interesting. So, it's like an in between company. The playfield is a version of flight 2000 and features a device similar to that games ball walker at the upper left completing gamatron letters to enable locks etc. The belly stern board set is used pinstar daughter board plugs into the CPU socket. Binary comparison of the software indicates that it is 100% identical to flight 2000's software. So, it literally is flight 2000 software running. The kit could easily be used to upgrade a worn out game from the early 1980s, but it did not include the features that were starting to do um drive the market in 1986, namely ramps, uh speech, and displays capable of showing text as well as other players scores. Thus, not many Gamatron kits were sold, and few examples exist today. I was watching a Todd Tucky video on Gamatron from maybe 8 or 12 years ago, I forget, where he literally sent a message to Gary Stern or his associate to ask the question, "How many gamatrons did you produce?" And he actually got a reply from Stern headquarters. And Gary says, "Sorry, I do not remember." That was the reply. So, don't know how many kits were made. Um, but yeah, so like 1984
    7:37
    game by the name of Space Shuttle showed up on the market and they made like 7,000 of these. So they basically say space shuttle kind of like brought pinball back into uh life, another resurgence there. So that lull there, you know, Stern is scrambling. But uh they're just not going to keep up with with a space shuttle with with you know multiball and ramps and uh I think it said somewhere here it is the first game that had a quote unquote playfield toy which was the space shuttle plastic shuttle replica. Anyway, so where are we? So oh yeah, we're over here. Okay. Reportedly, this kit was used to modify existing Stern games as well as ballet games. However, the manufacturer flyer shown here states only fits most standard size four player ballet pinballs. A subsequent report told us that this kit will not work with stern games without modifications for two reasons. The height of the replacement plexiglass is too tall to fit into a stern back box, which is too bad because I had a lead on a stern back box, but I didn't want to have to modify that or cut the back glass down. Instead, got to rebuild one almost from scratch. And I'll show you that a little more details on the head progress in a bit. And the display placement of the back glass is set to work with the standard display placement of belly games. Stern did not follow a standard where the displays were placed and typically change from game to game. Like thinking of stars display one, player one is here, player two here, player three here, player four down there. Very unorthodox. Uh Stern like to mix that up. By kept it the same, probably saved a buttload of money doing that, too. So Duncan Brown told us that Steve Kirk explained to him that he placed his personal design number on the back glass of every one of his games in the order in which they were designed. Here are the ones we know. Stars has SK1 on the Jetwing. Nineball has SK3 on the wizard's cap. Meteor has SK5 on one of the rockets. Pinstar's Gameron has SK9 on a launching rocket. We got to look for that now. Okay, here is the second back glass. So, we're looking for what? SK9 on a launching rocket. There's a SS there. SB. Oh, wait. Before I look at all this stuff, I might as well go over the rest cuz there's some other initials. Let's just finish reading this and then we'll go check out the back glass in more detail. So, the prototype game Ramp Warrior. Never heard of that. Let's look at that. Ramp Warrior. Three units made.
    11:04
    It's interesting to delve into the history. I I'm always learning stuff. There's so much going on. Oh, let's turn off that flash. That doesn't affect much. Ramp Warrior. Interesting. Look at these wire forms. Those like almost 90° turns here.
    11:27
    Kind of reminiscent of high-speedish. And let's go back here and look at the back glass. Wow, that's interesting.
    11:42
    Pretty cool. Big giant truck crashing through the barrier of a closed road. And then we've got a myard whitewood. Okay. Interesting. So, where are we? We're not walking the ball. Uh, yeah. So, anyway, prototype ramp game. Ramp Warrior has SK13 on the truck's license plate. Oh, did you catch that?
    12:12
    Let's go back to that. Ah, there it is. Steve Kirk, three. So, that's uh what do they say? That's like in the order which they were designed. So Stars was his first game. Neat. Okay, so truck stop shows license plate laying crumpled in the street. We don't know what games belong to SK2467, etc. So on Gameron various sets of initials were placed around the back glass in addition to Kirk's design number. The initials are listed here followed by the names we have. So we got a SK for Steve Kirk. We got to look for HW for Harry Williams, JJ for Joe Jews Jr., GS for Gary Stern, SS for Sam Stern. I think we found that. And SM for Sheamus the artist. Likely his signature as the artist handwritten. Okay, now let's take another look. See if we can find all these other characters. Okay, so we saw down here SB. Who was that again? Oh, is that might have been one of the unknowns. SS
    13:32
    SK Steve Kirk9. There it is. Boom. HW Harry Williams. Uh, let's look for Gary and Sam. Oh, Sam Stern. That's what that is. What is this? QS DS. See, if you're not if you don't know, you're not looking, you never find these little Easter eggs. Steve Kirk. So, he's on there twice. Do we see Gary? Gary, where are you?
    14:15
    Okay, how about I pause and uh see if I can find Gary. I'll be right back. There's Se. There's KH. All right, I'm not having any luck, so I'm going to move on. But I'll leave that as a homework assignment for y'all. See if you can find Gary Stern. And if you do, let me know where the heck he is.
    14:48
    Where are you, Gary? There's a JJ. All right. So, yeah, the JJ was Joju's Jr. should be JJ. And, uh, I don't think we found the handwritten SM either. Gary Stern, we still got to locate him. Okay. So, another interesting thing I found out about Gamatron, I'm not sure the full details, but there's a different Gamatron. Where is that? Here it is. Check this out. It is Gamatron produced by Sagasa/Sonic, which I believe is a Spanish company. And check it out. It is basically the exact same game except we got a different pop bumper cap and we've got a different and dedicated cabinet with the Sonic logo here. So that's pretty interesting. Someone reached out to me on pin side.
    16:08
    It was a loser and he said that he had the Sagasa version of a Gamatron and was working on that and he offered me some information. He said he zipped his entire folder for Gamatron, scorecards, manuals, pics, etc. and even made a coin door sticker for both versions and uh sent that to me. So that was awesome. Thank you very much. There's all kinds of good information there. I won't download that on the laptop. I've got the information upstairs. But he seems to think that Sigasa bought Pinstar and the game designs from Gary Stern and made their own version of Gamatron conversion kit into a full-blown game. Uh, oddly enough, the Gamatron that he had used a lot of valley parts mixed in, which made the game kind of feel jerryrigged or juryrigged when I first got it, but it worked out in the end. And the game had this thick plastic cover on the playfield. Remember, I was suspecting that when I was first looking,
    17:17
    but I never did confirm or deny whether that was the case. I'll have to take a closer look. I'm pretty sure there's no plastic on it, but especially if it was a thick sheet, I would have noticed that. I would I would think Sagasa also also Well, Sagasa Asa Sagasa also had a deal with some Spanish pinball makers, which is why they made so many odd ones. If I recall correctly from what the seller told me, my Gamerron had been on route in Germany since brand new and later sold to an operator Sweden late 80s and routed here till 99. Then sat in a sat in a wet barn until the guy before me bought it. Rotted the lower corners. Sounds familiar. Forcing me to do some woodwork to keep it together. So, I thought that was interesting. There's a second gamutron out there. basically the same game, but not quite. Okay, so what else do we got? Um, in the first video I mentioned, hey, I wonder if it would be cool to make a coin door logo. I wonder if someone would, you know, make me one cuz I don't want to put a B coin door logo. And sure enough, look at this. Bigfoot Bruce says, "Ask and ye shall receive." This is an early prototype here. But have a look at this pinstar coin door decal prototype. Bruce, thanks again for coming through. He also made me um my drop target decals for Viper, the custom ones. And then he also sent this secondary version.
    19:07
    So that's pretty sweet. I got a couple options. And then also I got a message from Mark Benovvena who designed this. So couple of you all shenaniganders out there came through with my uh my request and uh that's going to be awesome. Nice little finishing touch. kind of getting ahead of myself. That's like got about 46,000 steps before that happens. But I'm thinking ahead. Okay. Also, um let me ceue this up because I wanted to show you a couple cool things. Okay, so the plan for the Gamatron cabinet has changed. Was just going to leap it up. Kind of just paint around the bad areas black. And then we thought, oh, maybe we'll just cut out the Pinstar logo and paint everything black around it. But the head's in such bad shape and decals are not great. So, it's turning out to get a full on Grazley garage treatment, full paint job, full everything. It's actually going to be amazing. Um, and I made a post about, you know, getting a gamutron. I got a couple comments. And check this out. Once you paint the cabinet, you can really just do whatever you want. You're not stuck with the decals. You can use some creative liberties. And check out Mike Wy here. Custom paint job he did. That looks pretty slick. I like that. That's basically what mine's going to look like, but just got to decide on the colors. So, I'm thinking black for the main cabinet and then stick with the white um like trim here border and then I say white yellow border with white star something like that. I don't know. I got options now. But and you can just do something completely unique as well if you like like this. Mike Wy said that as rare as this game is, he's actually had seven of them over the years, which is kind of crazy. Uh, and then let me see if I can find this other custom paint job. Okay, here it is. I finally found it. Took me a minute. This is a cool custom paint job. It's actually pretty awesome. Look at that. It's got the like robot eye shooting a laser beam across the cabinet and then Gamatron written vertically on the head. That's pretty killer. So, you can do really whatever you want since we're not using the decals. Um, that reminds me. I wanted to show off the flyer. Let's read this together. See if I can Okay, here we go. Designed to appeal to today's player by Harry Williams and Steve Kirk. Exciting multiball chain reaction launching chamber. Oh, that's uh the new name for the ball walker. Why is this not really scrolling very well? Exciting multiball. Oh, wait. I already read that. Highaction components. All parts made in America by current manufacturers of pinball machines and components. The kit includes a wired playfield ready to install prom changes and soundboard, new back glass, and complete set of decals, all necessary cables and hardware. Comparative earnings at half the investment. Oh, I wonder how much it cost. Easy conversion. You don't Wait, I just want to reiterate. Easy conversion. Let's see how easy it is. You don't even need a soldering iron. So, there we go. Elgroveve, Illinois. What is Kit Corp? What the f is Kit Corp?
    23:32
    So, that is the sales pitch for Gamatron. Now, let's go to the internet pinball database and I want to show you a little bit of how easy this conversion is. Okay, for installation questions, call Kit Corp. Gamatron manual installation. Gamatron is a conversion kit for Valley standard body solid state pinball machines with the normal Valley size backbox. So, I'll read over a few of these things and then we'll um we're not going to read the whole manual because
    24:21
    D. [Music] Uh, that's how easy it is. Just like that. Okay. Kit contains a playfield with harness back glass pin sound memory board PSM pinstar memory board with two cables attached. One is plugged in board. One is soldered onto board. 44 light bulbs. Number 44 light bulbs, not quantity. Light sockets, screws, two sizes, red gels. Oh, that's for your false zeros. That's another thing. This game is a quote unquote sevendigit game, but the last digit is fake and it's just taped to the back of the back glass and illuminated with an additional light socket and light bulbs, but you can actually yink those off and install seven digit displays. So, you can do that. So, that's kind of cool. Uh, we got the red gels. The sheet black plastic zero. Oh, no. I lied. Red gels are just for the uh here. I'll show you. There's your red gel there. And there's your fake zero. Much easier to show.
    25:54
    and solid rectangles. Set something cabinet decals including left and right back box, left and right cabinet, a Rico printed circuit board mounts, red wire with terminals on each end, two wire harness with connector, four-wire harness with connector. Two wires are attached to volume control. One ribbon cable with 40 pin connectors on each end. cable does cable is plugged into pinstar sound memory board. The PSM board, this is one of two cables attached to PSM board. Approximately 6 ft of wire for installation of the zero lights next to the six-digit score readouts. Pinballs cuz it is multiball. Hey, wait. Pinstar could compete with Space Shuttle. I mean, Gamatron. Gamatron could compete with Space Shuttle in the multiball department, just not the ramp and Alpha Numeric. And Space Shuttle have speech? Can't remember. I don't I don't I don't think so. But anyway, Gamatron could at least compete with the multiball. So, pinballs, heavyduty cabinet flipper switches. Why do you need that? 3-in leg levelers to replace the 2-in leg levelers on the rear legs. This is important. 8 amp slowblow fuse for F4 of power supply board. Interesting. A ball shooter tip. So, it comes with a new rubber tip for whatever reason. Just in case your old machine's all worn out, you want to make sure that your new machine doesn't get all scuffed up. If uh you know, just a metal plunger is smashing into a new pinball. You don't want that pinball to get all scuffed up and then start tearing apart the paint off the playfield. And what do we got here? A manual in one for installation, one for operation, and extra scorecards. So, check it out. I've got the scorecards. It's cool to have the original uh scorecards. I don't really want to read all that right now. Kind of getting done with reading. We're going to wrap this up pretty shortly and actually do some work. So, uh, let's see. The exclusive United States and Canadian distributor for Gamatron is Kit Corp. Oh, so they were the distributor, but that's also on Elgrove Village, uh, Elmhurst Road. Anyway, so there you have it. That's a bit of history. Um,
    28:40
    and there are a lot of steps. I'm pretty happy that some of this has already been done. Here it is. That's the beginning right there. Before you start to convert your old game, be sure your pinball game works 100%. So, I'm going to have to go through some instructions. But yeah, I'm glad someone already did the conversion because it'll save me a bunch of steps. If I just had the playfield and back glass, then there would be a lot more involved. Um, on a other side note, I did read five pages of a gammatron thread on pin slide and I did find that the PSM board that you saw in the video one that's about, you know, a little bit wider than the laptop. It's about like yay big. I don't need to actually use that. I can use a brand new Weebi MPU. set that for flight 2000 and then use a stern SB300 soundboard and then the associated ribbon cables. That way you can not have to rely on this daughterboard that they provided. And the daughterboard is basically just, you know, running the the memory, the RAM, the game ROM, and the sound because you can't use a BI soundboard to run a stern game. So now it's going to be just a lot more reliable using those components rather than the uh the original PSM board. So that's kind of good news. So you don't need that PSM board in order to do a GameRron conversion, which is nice because I've got two. And when I'm done with one, I'll be selling the other and maybe even include the PSM board with it because I hopefully won't need it. All right, that was a lot to unpack just before getting started. So, I'm going to give you um I'm going to show you a couple clips now over at the Grazley garage of um kind of the sort of progress on the cabinet. And then once you check that out, by that time I should have one playfield on a rotisserie and we can uh move on from there. All right. I guess this is the beginning of episode two of Gamatron. Gamatron's made its way to the Grazley garage for this for a much needed overhaul. for a much needed overhaul. The I feel like I'm going to tear this thing I feel like I'm going to tear this thing apart. The front's going to fall off. The rotting head is uh The rotting head is uh dried out. Whoa.
    31:38
    It ain't in very good shape. We'll take a closer look. But this is a Gamatron in the uh daylight. A little moldy. It doesn't want to move very well.
    31:54
    I'm not exactly uh helping out a whole lot here. Let's move this out of the way. But we've come up with a plan and uh it is to cut out the Pinstar logo and paint everything around it black. You could go with any color you really want, but I think black will look good. But that's what it looks like right now. But that's what it looks like right now. Yeah, we'll fix it all. Make it all nice Yeah, we'll fix it all. Make it all nice and sharp again. Yeah. Yeah. Do the uh Kevin's crispy corners treatment. Sorry. Get out of your way. Get rid of all these staples. Right. Get Get rid of all these staples. Right. Get rid of all this. All the wrinkles. Whatever the hell that All the wrinkles. Whatever the hell that is. Why would anybody change that? Oh, is that metal? Yeah, it looks like a Yeah, it looks like a It's like a floor grate or something. It's like a floor grate or something. Like 6 by9 from the ' 70s. So, yeah, this is a little spotty, but So, yeah, this is a little spotty, but should clean up. Here's the head. That might not clean up as easily. That might not clean up as easily. Uh, yeah. Uh, yeah. Talking about just buff it out. Talking about just buff it out. You can just squeeze the wood. You can just squeeze the wood. 30 minutes. 30 minutes. Oh, no. The back too. Oh man. This uh Oh, no. The back too. Oh man. This uh price has just gone up on this thing. This is going to require quite a bit of love, but it's definitely in the right hands. The key actually exists, so that's cool. and lead. Actually works. Just got to take the Actually works. Just got to take the bend out of it if possible without breaking it. Come on, get in there. Oh, this is painted. They painted over Oh, this is painted. They painted over the lock. Yeah, they did, too. Why would they Yeah, they did, too. Why would they paint that white? Just to make it look better. So, at least the logo here is kind of installed somewhat center. I've seen a couple gamatrons where it's like some of the points are like wrapped around the back. They just didn't center it very well. How about this side? Yeah, that looks good.
    34:06
    All right. Well, we'll come back in uh we know whenever Kevin's done and have a look. But there it is. Oh, isn't that cute? All right, it's Oh, isn't that cute? All right, it's officially in the Grazley garage. Have one last look here at what used to be the head. And uh what is that? Oh, that's the piece that goes right Oh, that's the piece that goes right here to hold back. All right. And a little bit of a spoiler All right. And a little bit of a spoiler alert. There is another game in the queue. Whirlwind. Total chaos. Okay. Okay, back at the Grazley garage for some more Gamatron action with Jay the neighbor. So Kevin has been working on the Gamatron. The plans have changed. It is such Oh, actually Kevin changed the name. It's not Gamatron anymore. It's Garbatron because of how horrible the condition is. Let's go see this live. Kevin is just We just passed him driving to his house. He's walking the dogs. So he said the garage is open. All right. Here's my Bobby or decals have been removed. Oh, I hear Dutch. Side rails have been removed. Coin door has been removed. So, this is uh Garbatron here. So, yeah, this is uh Garbatron here. So, yeah, like I said, the plans have changed and it is now kind of getting the full grazely treatment. We're not leing this one up anymore. Got a bit of a funk to it. Got a bit of a funk to it. Yeah, you can smell that. a little bit. Yeah, you can smell that. a little bit. Yeah, Yeah, this is starting to dry out. this is starting to dry out. But have a close look cuz But have a close look cuz this is uh the before. And unfortunately, this side needs to be replaced. This side, the back, the bottom, it's going to be like 80% new. Top and the other side are great. So, as you can see, we're not cutting out the decals anymore and just painting around the logo. It's going to get a full paint job. Kevin was making some stencils. So, we're going all out. Here is uh my coin door. Oh, I forgot to grab the legs. We'll go get the legs. There's This is for Benedict's uh eightball. So, what's happening is that the side rails and the lock bar and the coin door for both machines, well, just the coin door for my machine are getting sent to Superior Metals and they're going to get highly polished. So, they're going to look beautiful. Legs are getting powder coated. This is really going to end up getting the full treatment. Where is eightball? Here's the A-ball. Aball looks pretty sharp. Aball turned Aball looks pretty sharp. Aball turned out amazing. But yeah, so Kevin's already making a trip to Superior Metals to polish up these metal parts. He's like, "Do you want me to bring the Gamatron parts?" Like, "Yeah, heck. Let's freaking go all out." So, this is what it looked like. Making good progress already. And then the playfield. That's what we're here for. Going to grab this playfield and I'm going to start working on that. When you have a playfield this nice and a back glass this nice, it's hard to put it in a leapt up cabinet. So that's what's going on with Garbatron. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is that on tape? Is that on tape? Yeah. Well, it is recording. I just Yeah. Well, it is recording. I just almost dropped my phone. I kind of threw it and I caught it. Nice save. All right. Here with the boys. We're just going to go take Kevin out on the course here for the first time in who knows how long. But before we go, made those. But before we go, made those. Yeah. Yeah. Just got to check out what's going on Just got to check out what's going on with Gamatron here. There is not much luck. He need a punky. He need a punky. Oh, there's the head. Oh, there's the head. This is what the head was. This is what the head was. Hey, look. We got half a head. That's Hey, look. We got half a head. That's good. Not even half. I think that's like Not even half. I think that's like a quarter. a quarter. Maybe. That's pretty much all that can Maybe. That's pretty much all that can be saved. These two pieces. Really? This is all that is going to be Really? This is all that is going to be salvaged. Wow. Wow. Yikes. New head. Yikes. New head. Yeah. Here's the back. Yeah. Here's the back. garbage inside. It's a little soft. It's a little soft. Uh that be dry w dry dry rot Uh that be dry w dry dry rot literally sitting in a freaking puddle. Yeah, Yeah, that that excellent excellent is garbatron. is garbatron. That's part of the front That's part of the front the what's left of the front lip. See the what's left of the front lip. See what I mean about like how intricate this thing is? That is a pain to recreate. That is a pain to recreate. But But I know a guy. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat.
    39:50
    So, yeah. How do you like that? Garbatron almost with a head. Well, I didn't put this on the rotisserie yet. I just thought we'll have a look at it before I do that. Cuz in order to do that, I think I have to remove the apron. But the fact that I have two means I'm going to be able to pick and choose which parts I use. So, I can upgrade the shooter housing. This logo,
    40:29
    it feels like it's raised, but also feels like it's been painted on as well. But anyway, that's in great shape. This one has some stuff on it that might possibly clean up. Yeah, that has promise. But here it is. This is the playfield, I guess. We had a rough look at it in the old garage, but didn't look at it too closely. Oh, yeah. There's the uh star post
    41:12
    lodged in there. Well, this is white, though. There's no white star posts on this game. Yeah, look at that. Ooh. Uh-oh. I might have to call upon Mr. Bigfoot Bruce. I might need some new decals. Or at least the face here. Maybe if I clean this up and scan it to you, brother. Could potentially That one's not too bad really, actually. But, you know, I might have to enlist the services of Mr. Bigfoot Bruce for that. That would be pretty sweet. What was else? I was thinking of something else for Bigfoot. Uh, can't remember what it was now, but drop target decals
    42:09
    There's probably something back here preventing them from dropping all the way. Don't fret. So, how is this in such good condition? Why is there no paint wear? It just must have not really got played. Guess I'm going to zoom out a little bit here so we can see a little bit better. But we've got a broken plastic down here. Corner's chipped off and it's broken here
    42:40
    right at the screw. So, it's not that bad. But this one here appears to be intact. But it has a tiny little chip out here. So I might It's got a little of a bend to it, too. So might have to do some baking. Some plastic's flat. Plastic's good. Everything is going to really need to be thoroughly cleaned. You can really smell it, too. I'm going to probably take some creative liberties with this pop upper cap. opaque red. It's just boring. I might go I think Todd Tucky did clear with the color changing LED in there. I don't know that I'll do that. But uh no decals on the left side drop targets. What about over here? Nope. Same. That's original.
    43:42
    So yeah, I'll probably do something with that. Maybe like transparent blue. That'd be kind of cool. This drop target looks original. I just think this game must have not got played much cuz there's almost zero wear, which is pretty remarkable. And the reason this happened is probably just from raising and lowering the playfield. this back edge gets caught in the back of the cabinet and uh tends to snap.
    44:24
    Basically, it looks complete. I don't see anything missing. So, I might not need to borrow too much from this guy, which is missing a flipper uh post slingshot plastic. This one's cracked.
    44:47
    The playfield itself is also in real nice shape. There's no wear spots really that I can tell.
    45:01
    Drop target bank is probably resting on something. So maybe missing a plastic here. I don't think that'll turn up. And couple lane guides are missing. I noticed some stuff from the underside of the playfield was missing as well. This gates here, switch.
    45:28
    Oh, there's a star post hiding in there. And then these stern targets, they're pretty common. I just replaced a bunch on my uh Viper restoration I did. So, you want to check out that? Go check out my Viper restoration. That was an interesting one. Another rare game. Only like 430 of those were made. So, missing a little bit more stuff on the back side. Like missing a coil there. Uh coil and plunge and link are missing there. That looks like the standard old stern plunger link system, but the bracket itself is definitely weird and different.
    46:19
    And uh I think I noticed coil missing somewhere else. What is that kicker? That coil don't look so good. And oh, pop bumper uh coil parts missing.
    46:44
    That's okay, though. That's all stuff that uh is fairly readily available except the two unique plastics that are missing. Okay, so this is what I care most about is the completeness of this. JC says it's okay. And we had a 2 amp slowb blow there. Someone labeled that. A good old relay. I bet you could pop that right out of this playfield and stick it in um my Viper. See if that changes my uh turret mech behavior.
    47:29
    Got some wires here that do nothing. Oh, and Kevin said you had to disconnect these four wires A, B, C, D. I'm thinking maybe they connect to the uh players 1 2 3 4 zeros. Okay, 5 amp slowblow there. It's good that the label's still intact.
    47:53
    Um, was it loser Lazar from Pinside uh gave me some some good like I think schematics and manuals and stuff. So, I don't know if that's on internet pinball database. I haven't looked really for the schematics, but for whatever reason, this secondary switch is not wired up. Maybe they just used it as a spacer. Why would they do that? Cuz the screws were so long. They didn't have shorter screws. So, they went to replace the end of stroke switch and uh just kept that there or added that. I don't know. It's all theory. But wait, same on this side. Why is that?
    48:46
    Weird. Look at the size of that diode. Jeez. What the heck? Same on both sides. Okay. Well, I think it's time to actually put this thing on the rotisserie. All right. Got gamatron on the rotisserie. Got three clamps on this side. What was it? Quicksilver that I had on the rotisserie. Took a bit of a tumble. Um, you know, this lip isn't the biggest, so it kind of has to be, um, not a very big lip because you do run into components. And I had to, well, I had to remove the apron. And in order to get some good stuff to clamp onto on that side, on this side, I just had to remove the switch here. So, you know, you have this lip out further. Then it's going to run into more components. So, it's just kind of precarious. So, I got it clamped on there pretty good. And hopefully nobody walks into this. I've got it. You know, there's really no reason to be back here other than maybe the fridge or freezer.
    50:12
    So hopefully it stays on the rotisserie. I think when it took a spill on the rotisserie, it's cuz I was rotating it and I don't know, just maybe the clamps had come loose or something. Uh yeah, also I had to remove all this stuff.
    50:30
    to enable it to go onto the rotisserie. And as you can see, there's already layers and layers. Yeah, I had to remove all this back stuff. So, there's a lot of spacers and screws and plastic spacers and metal spacers. And so I'm thankful that I have this as a reference to cobble all this back together again if needed. For the most part, it should be pretty straightforward. I took my photos, but having that second playfield is a bonus. Now that playfield is resting flat. Check this out. Oh, that's good. It's resting nice and horizontally, this guy. Same. So, that's pretty sweet. Little clean up and lube job on those guys. And, uh, those should be good. But a lot of the posts that are close to the flippers that are susceptible to getting smashed
    51:46
    and the wood screws getting beat up and you know tearing up the playfield and stripping holes. None of that is happening. Like most of the times at least those star posts have chipped bottoms. But, uh, everything's in pretty damn good shape. Probably just ultrasonically clean all this crap. All the star posts and lane guides. Clear plastics. This one's a little bit wavy.
    52:23
    Should be okay, though. Factory myar there. Hey, let's see if the drop target bank now works. Try and reset this.
    52:40
    Nope. Not having much luck here. What is my problem? So, now they're all up. Let's see what they look like.
    53:17
    So, we're in good shape. I don't think I need to worry about decals on these guys, but let's see if they drop happily now. Yeah, there we go. All right. So, have a look at the before.
    53:37
    It's a little crusty. Going to get some nice LEDs and should clean up nicely. Might have to bake some plastics flat. Don't love doing that, but works pretty damn good. So, look at how fuzzy these guys are.
    54:17
    and check out the trough system here. Two switches and then one of these guys. I haven't seen that before, but I going to assume flight 2000 is the same. And maybe nineball cuz it's multiball, too.
    54:39
    This thing is in pretty great condition. I'm going to have to try and bend that back. How would that even happen? That's weird. And even this has a bit of a arc to it. Can judge it. by the artwork here. There's a little bit of a whammy out there. So, like almost someone did that on purpose, but to avoid ball hop, but that you would think would create greater ball hop. Okay. Anyway, I think it's time to strip this playfield, and that is exciting. All right. Quick little status update. Guess that's all the same. It's a lot of layers and spacers, screws, plastics removed. My old rubbers,
    55:35
    some of the old rubbers. They're still Let's take it from the bottom here.
    55:42
    So, yeah, all these star posts will clean up nicely. A lot of small rubbers on this game. I wonder if this is all original cuz I don't think this game was played a whole lot.
    55:59
    The lane guides and they even look to all be intact. Got a rubber that popped off here. Yeah, no broken lane guides. This game couldn't have seen that many plays. Often times these lower plastics are uh chipped and broken, especially at the entrance. That's not the case here. Just a little bit of warpage. But as you can see, this is going to require me to pay attention for reassembly. So, this video will also potentially help me if I get stuck.
    56:45
    Some of these are falling off. So, at least four of them. But that's okay. I'll just I'm not going to try and heat them up and stick them back in there. It's fine.
    57:00
    Even this kicker zone here, that would be where you would see some wear typically. Or even just the like ball launch zone. There's no ball trail. Oh yeah, we can kind of look at the playfield here just to finally confirm. No plastic layer, which I assumed after a little bit of investigation. All right, and keep on plugging away. All right, I think is I think I've gone as far as I'm going to go on this episode. Anyways, got all the light bulbs, most of the rubbers and plastics removed. Got some one-way gates removed and a ball guide or two.
    57:51
    This one that arches around here was real crusty like this. And uh unfortunately there's only a few screws. Just one little nail that came out pretty easily. This guy here, it's going to require one, two, three, three nails and a screw. I feel like in order to really polish that up, I'm going to have to remove that. This one was pretty easy. This one may fight me a little bit more, but we'll see. Also, this pop bumper cap is screwless, so it's no easy task here.
    58:43
    See that? That like is a sort of pushes through the white port part of the um pop bumper body. And uh it kind of looks like it only wants to go one way. And there's one on the front side, too. So, you can't just peel up the pop bumper cap. So, I'm going to have to like squeeze that together somehow and then uh pull it through. So, I may not be able to just replace that with any old pop bumper cap because it's very custom screwless cap. And I'm glad I didn't torque on it too hard cuz I was starting to feel like I was making progress. But no, I got to squeeze those tabs. But yeah, that is where I'm going to wrap up this video. It's a decent little dent, but I am excited and motivated very much so to uh just keep plugging away at this. So, I will see you very soon. Sooner than you even think because I wanted to show you. I almost forgot some of this other stuff that I removed. Have a good look at that before. There's the oneway gates, the lane guides,
    60:11
    and plastics, light bulbs. pretty bad shape. I can just throw them out. And then my rubber guy that I made. All right, see you next time.