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Part 4: 1977 Allied Leisure Getaway Pinball Project. We have life! (kind of)

Pinball Shenanigans·video·32m 14s·analyzed·Apr 23, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Getaway restoration progresses: fuse holder replacement, board swap, and capacitor troubleshooting underway.

Summary

Mike Danis continues restoration of a 1977 Allied Leisure Getaway pinball machine, replacing deteriorated fuse holders and swapping circuit boards to diagnose electrical issues. After powering on the machine and getting initial lights, he identifies a faulty transistor on the main board and a likely failing capacitor (C9) as the culprit preventing proper boot-up and LED display activation. He references John Ed Robertson's comprehensive Allied Leisure repair documentation on flippers.com as a key resource.

Key Claims

  • The 1977 Allied Leisure Getaway uses a System 2B circuit board (identified by part number ending in 'H'), which already has switch input protection built-in, unlike the earlier System 2A boards that require 15+ additional diodes

    high confidence · Mike Danis, speaking from flippers.com documentation and physical board inspection

  • Allied Leisure System 2B boards use the same generic program for all games of that era with no game-specific ROMs stored on the board

    high confidence · Mike Danis, citing flippers.com and John Ed Robertson's research

  • Capacitor C9 failure is a 'common problem with older circuit boards' in Allied Leisure machines, causing erratic booting

    high confidence · John Ed Robertson via flippers.com, cited by Mike Danis

  • The machine's 5-volt power supply is outputting 4.85 volts, which is within spec (5V ± 0.25V)

    high confidence · Mike Danis, measured via multimeter

  • The original board in the Getaway has had at least 6 IC chips replaced at some point in its history, suggesting past damage

    high confidence · Mike Danis, visual inspection of circuit board

Notable Quotes

  • “So, in a three, two, one. We have life. Oh, look. Those lights are kind of flashing.”

    Mike Danis @ ~20:30 — First successful power-on of the Getaway, marking a major milestone in the restoration despite initial confusion about the flashing lights

  • “So, as long as the writing on this paper is accurate, then uh my work here is done.”

    Mike Danis @ ~15:45 — Highlights the challenge of working with decades-old fuse documentation and the need for verification when restoring vintage machines

  • “These might be the best schematics available on the internet. So, should scan them in to Internet Pinball Database.”

    Mike Danis @ ~36:00 — Recognition that the physical schematics he possesses may be higher quality than digitized versions, suggesting potential archival value

  • “So out of all the variations I'm super lucky to have the good one and I don't have to do all of that stuff.”

    Mike Danis @ ~35:15 — Reflects relief at having the System 2B board variant which avoids the tedious diode-addition work required for System 2A boards

  • “I either have to disconnect the chimes or replace the transistor to proceed.”

    Mike Danis @ ~26:30 — Diagnosis of a stuck transistor causing continuous chime activation, a major obstacle requiring repair before proceeding

Entities

Mike DanispersonJohn Ed RobertsonpersonCorey CookpersonChris BowdenpersonChadpersonKevinpersonJim WilkespersonStan FukuokapersonJoshua Clay HaroldpersonRonpersonGetawaygame

Signals

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Deteriorated fuse holders identified as critical failure point; Mike replaced all fuse holders and discovered incorrect fuse ratings (8A instead of 4A slow-blow, 15A instead of 5A fast-blow) indicating decades of makeshift repairs

    high · Visual inspection and documentation of original fuse holders showing brittleness and incorrect fuse ratings installed

  • ?

    restoration_signal: System 2B circuit board variant identified as superior to System 2A, avoiding need for 15+ diode additions; board swapping strategy employed to isolate transistor and capacitor issues

    high · Comparison of two boards, identification of System 2B characteristics (no edge connector, end in 'H'), reference to John Ed Robertson's classification system

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Capacitor C9 identified as likely failure point preventing proper boot-up and LED display activation; Mike located and installed replacement 22mfd 16V capacitor based on John Ed Robertson's technical guidance

    high · Flippers.com documentation citing C9 failure as common problem in Allied Leisure boards; physical location and identification of suspect capacitor on board

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple indicators of past catastrophic failures on original board: 6 replaced IC chips, stuck transistor causing continuous coil activation, evidence of poor repairs (missing washers, incomplete shrink tubing on bridge rectifier)

    high · Visual inspection of board showing multiple component replacements; transistor stuck in 'on' state triggering chime without input

  • ?

    historical_signal: Allied Leisure used standardized game ROM-less boards across System 2A/2B variants; hardware differences between board generations document evolutionary approach to switch protection and reliability

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:02
And hopefully this time we at least get some general illumination. So in a 3 2 1 Hey, look at that. I'm Mike Danis and this [music] is Pinball Shenanigans.
0:25
Okay, I'm back in the basement for another episode of Allied Leisure's Getaway. First to do a quick game room update. As you can see Alaska is in the lineup. It was in the middle cuz I was out of space. So this means that Godzilla is gone. It left today. Corey Cook picked it up and delivered it to Chris Bowden. Actually, I should follow up and see how that went because Chris has a pretty dicey basement and stairs. So they were going to have to remove the head and even put Godzilla on a little bit shorter legs, like 27-in rather than the 28.5-in just because of the height restrictions. So hopefully that went smooth. Also thanks to Kevin who came over yesterday and helped me move both Godzilla and Gamatron upstairs. So Gamatron's currently upstairs and it is going to Chad on Friday. He's going to meet me over in Sarnia just across the border and we're going to transact. So things are in a little bit of disarray.
1:43
And I've got the second Getaway cabinet here for now. I'm going to move that over to the other room. And the stupid Christmas tree. Also Chad's grabbing this Big Bang Bar Translate off me. How cool is this? This is a the super rare Capcom game. They only made what? Initially like 12 or something and then Jean Cunningham bought out Capcom and was able to make another couple hundred or something like that. Anyway, I found this in my stash and it's got some pretty cool art. It's by Stan Fukuoka who passed away pretty recently. I had actually reached out to him after listening to Clay Harold's Pinball Podcast or Top Cast and I just thought it was really cool. So I reached out to Fukuoka on Facebook and he got back to me and sent me a link to some of his art. I never did purchase anything, but anyway this has got to go with Gamatron. Okay, so let's get to the Getaway. Corey when he was here today he um hooked me up with some fuse holders and that is the next step >> [snorts]
Alaskagame
Godzillagame
Gamatrongame
Big Bang Bar Translategame
Twilight Zonegame
Shack Attackgame
Allied Leisure Industriescompany
Capcomcompany
Joe's Classic Arcadescontent
Internet Pinball Databaseorganization
flippers.comwebsite
PinWikiwebsite
Ellieperson

high · John Ed Robertson's classification of System 1 (10 boards), System 2A (with edge connector, lacks switch protection), and System 2B (no edge connector, built-in protection); Mike's confirmation of 2B board specifics

  • ?

    community_signal: John Ed Robertson's flippers.com documentation serving as de facto authority for Allied Leisure repairs; multiple restoration channels (Joe's Classic Arcades, Mike Danis) reference and depend on this centralized knowledge base

    high · Multiple citations of flippers.com; Ron at Joe's Classic Arcades references John's findings; Mike considers archiving high-quality schematics to Internet Pinball Database

  • ?

    technology_signal: Physical schematics in Mike's possession potentially higher quality than digitized versions available online; Mike considering archival contribution to preserve documentation quality

    medium · Mike's observation that his schematics are 'probably fairly useful' despite being worn; recognition that online versions are scans of photocopies of photocopies

  • ?

    operational_signal: Methodical diagnostic approach: fuse verification → power supply testing → board swapping → individual component testing; leveraging online technical resources and community expertise to guide troubleshooting

    high · Step-by-step progression through fuse replacement, voltage measurement, board substitution, capacitor identification, and LED status checks

  • ?

    collector_signal: Active secondary market activity: Godzilla delivery to Chris Bowden, Gamatron sale to Chad (cross-border Sarnia transaction), Big Bang Bar Translate trade, indicating fluidity in high-end collector community

    high · Multiple machine deliveries and sales documented in episode; networking between collectors for logistics and modifications

  • ?

    product_strategy: Twilight Zone receiving one-of-a-kind custom art package with upgrades including powder-coating, blue shooter rod, new barrel spring, polished bolts; demonstrates premium restoration market segment

    high · Kevin's teaser photo showing multiple custom modifications; Mike's anticipation and planned content coverage

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball Shenanigans serves as educational resource for vintage pinball restoration; detailed documentation of diagnostic procedures, component failures, and repair techniques accessible to enthusiast audience

    high · Multi-part series format, step-by-step troubleshooting documentation, tool reviews, and resource citations designed for viewer learning

  • ?

    business_signal: Kevin operating as specialist in custom modifications (powder coating, art packages, parts fabrication) serving the collector pinball market; evidence of informal vertical integration in restoration ecosystem

    medium · Kevin's work on multiple machines (leg elongation, Twilight Zone custom art), powder coating capabilities, specialist knowledge referenced by Mike

    • 3:00
    [snorts]
    3:00
    [snorts] >> in trying to get this machine to work if
    3:02
    in trying to get this machine to work if
    3:02
    in trying to get this machine to work if I can find where the heck they went. They just completely vanished. Um this is not me having an accident on my chair. I was using my chair as a workbench when I was cutting a cardboard shipping tube down to size earlier today. I shipped out a Shack Attack translite. So that's what that is. I got to clean up my mess. Anyway, so in the last episode the fuse holders I discovered were crap. They were falling apart and I decided I'm going to replace all of them before proceeding. In the meanwhile in the last couple few days I've been doing my homework. Been watching some of Joe's Classic Arcades.
    3:59
    He was working on a Allied Leisure Heartscape's cocktail machine and I've gained some good info from that. Also I briefly read up the information on PinWiki about Allied Leisure. And also John Robertson of John's Jukes out in BC has a lengthy write-up of all of his work and findings on Allied Leisure games. So I've been doing some reading on that. And Joe's Classic Arcades uh what's his name again? Ron? He uh refers to John's information quite a bit on the videos I've been watching. So that seems to be a pretty valuable go-to source for all things Allied Leisure. So there's board upgrades and miscellaneous things you can do to uh improve the functionality of these things and reliability. So we'll get to that eventually. I just would like to see some light bulbs turn on. That's my first goal for the night. So I'll change all my fuse holders, triple check all my fuse values and then um turn this thing on and see if we can get any life. Just so you know, this is a chime box not a coin box. Okay? Just for future reference. So here are the crappy fuse holders. And in my readings on PinWiki it did suggest that you should change all of these out. So I was definitely on the right track with that finding there. Here's one piece of a fuse clip. And then there is one more up here. So according to my math there's six fuse clips. So there is the before. I'll be right back after I change those out. Didn't I mention that I dropped off another set of legs to Kevin? And he is going to elongate the hole so that a standard set of legs will actually work. And he's going to have them powder coated black. So my legs are going to get an upgrade. And in other news just not long ago, maybe an hour ago, Kevin sent me a photo of well basically a teaser photo of my Twilight Zone progress that is getting one-of-a-kind custom art package and it looks amazing. And tomorrow I'm going to head over there and check it out. Williams, what are you doing upside down? So I'll include that photo right now and you can see there's a lot packed into that photo. We're talking powder coating, shooter housing, blue shooter rod. You can see art blades. You can see the art. You can see new barrel spring. You can see polished bolts. You can see the flat black powder coated coin door the the purpley blue powder coating of the side rails. It looks amazing. So I can't wait to see it tomorrow. I'll bring you along for the tour, of course. So watch out for my next Grizzly Grudge episode. Okay, so I got the playfield propped up into the ceiling. This is my strategy. I just kind of move the machine a little bit back and forth. Oh, I probably shouldn't have it resting on wires. That's is very precarious. That is not ideal. Do not want to um lose my head. So let's move this forward a little bit more.
    8:05
    There we go. That ain't going anywhere. Look who came to check out the action. Hi Ellie. Say hi to everyone. [clears throat]
    8:14
    What's she going to do? You're going to check out some Getaway? She did climb right in the Gamatron upstairs through the hole there. So I had to block that off. But uh Chad, you're getting probably an Ellie hair or two.
    8:34
    She did a thorough inspection though and it checks out. Oh, you know what? The weather is actually finally decent for once. >> [snorts]
    8:41
    [snorts]
    8:41
    [snorts] >> I mean it only took till freaking
    8:44
    I mean it only took till freaking
    8:44
    I mean it only took till freaking mid-April but I can open my window now. So Ellie can enjoy. All right, I got one side done. Just for fun, let's put some pressure. Oop, look at that. Did not take much or that
    9:11
    or that. So basically uh we're 50% here. Three are decent and three are garbage. I've got to give a quick shout-out to Jim Wilkes. He brought me this wire stripper tool a couple years ago and I don't use it that much, but I really should cuz it is great. And um I guess this is the adjustment for Oh, that's for the length of wire actually. I don't know. Oh, there's for the gauge of wire. So I don't know that I have it adjusted properly, but in a tight space like this
    9:50
    I found this tool to be extra helpful. Check this out. Bam. Just like that. So, thanks again, Jim Wilks. Okay, my chore is done. Here are the old fuse holders. Uh had a few fuses that were not correct. Let's see if I can remember what they were. This one was the most concerning. But, this 4-amp is supposed to be 4-amp slow blow. It was an 8-amp. This is supposed to be 3-amp and it was 2 and 1/2. But, this guy here, this says 5-amp fast blow. This, let's see if I can show you. There. Can you see the five there? So hard to see. But, if you look at just in the right light, there's a one in front of it. So, maybe someone just thought it was a 5-amp. But, it's actually 15-amp. So, as long as the writing on this paper is accurate, then uh my work here is done. So, one thing I should have done in the last video when I powered this machine on was to check the 5 volts on the power supply and make sure it was outputting the correct voltage. On a side note, I did notice that this bridge appears to have been replaced because, well, it's missing a washer for one. And um it's missing most of its shrink tubing. This guy has it all. This guy has one piece remaining. So, this looks like this was replaced. But, what I should do, really, it's probably the damage has already been done if there was damage to be done, is I should have disconnected these before um turning the machine on and make sure that the voltage was proper cuz if it's too high, then uh according to Ron at Joe's Classic Arcades, I probably just blew a whole bunch of chips. And that might be what happened here cuz we have six of them that were replaced at some point.
    12:25
    So, I think I will disconnect these and then um see if we can measure the 5 volts on this thing. This is a uh potentiometer right here. So, if it's just a little bit off, I can dial the voltage up and down a bit. Oh, and on a side note, when you um clip these wires for this fuse holder, your soldering iron don't work anymore because uh it services your plug. So, there's a lesson for you. Okay, I have these connectors removed. So, we're going to power this on and hopefully this time we at least get some general illumination. So, in a three, two, one.
    13:22
    We have life. Oh, look. Those lights are kind of flashing.
    13:30
    Huh. Interesting. Why would they do that? Is that just some weird glitch? Cuz it can't be computer controlled because we don't got no computer. Or wait a minute. I didn't disconnect the board, did I, completely? That is all the I guess input connectors and these are the output connectors. So, we might actually be in attract mode. Although, I don't think there is an attract mode. But, we have some attractive blinky lights. So, this is definitely a step in the right direction. So, well, hopefully I didn't fry anything. I will see if I can figure out how to measure the 5 volts on this power supply next. All right, that was kind of tricky. I found the culprit. A blinker bulb. So, I don't think we are in attract mode or booted up at all. We don't have any displays. And why would we? Because things are not connected. So, anyway, that's what that was. Okay, measuring the 5 volts is not difficult.
    15:00
    one lead on each lug and we have 4.85 volts. So, I'm assuming that is sufficient. Um maybe I should turn it up a little bit though. But, yeah, I don't know. Maybe though that potentiometer is so old, if I turn it and break it, then I'll have to replace it. And right now, I want to try and keep the ball rolling here. So, I'll turn off the machine, plug everything back in and see what happens. Okay, that was weird. I think we have a bad transistor because this plug here, even with the machine off, when I went to plug it in, let's see if it happens again.
    15:52
    The chime went off. It gave me a little bong. Let's see if I can replicate that.
    16:01
    Um let's just turn it on for a second and then turn it off and plug this in. Listen for the chime.
    16:15
    That's weird, man. So, that coil that I changed that was fried is probably because of a uh bad transistor on the main board. So, I'll have to check that out. But, uh
    16:39
    let's continue on. Now that the juice has dissipated, plug that in. I almost guarantee that uh as soon as I turn this on, that chime's going to go. So, let's test that theory.
    17:03
    Yeah, uh it's locked on. So, I either have to disconnect the chimes or replace the transistor to proceed. So, we'll see. Okay, I'm having a hard time removing this connector. They're on really stiff. Same with these guys.
    17:23
    And uh in the last video, I think my right wrist was really sore. And in this video, my left wrist is really sore. I've got bad wrists and they kind of come and go. So, that is not helping. Then I it dawned on me that I actually had the schematics for the game sitting on the head. So, I'm going to pull up the schematics online if I can. But, even though these are chewed up,
    17:54
    they're actually going to be probably fairly useful. Like,
    18:00
    I can get most of the information I need. Just a little bit of stuff I'm going to have to figure out, but all in all,
    18:15
    this is very workable. And check this out. This is the power supply. Adjust the potentiometer on the 5-volt power supply so that the VCC at main computer board reads 5 volts plus or minus .25 volts DC. So, once I get this transistor figured out, cuz I'm going to go that route. Oh, and you know what? I could technically steal off of this board if I needed to. Although, this is a perfectly good board. I don't know that I'd want to do that. But, I may just have to at least borrow one. I don't know. I'm kind of torn on that. The the schematics that Ron was looking at on Joe's Classic Arcades were in pretty not good shape. So, maybe these are better. He had a real hard time reading them cuz they're just old and photocopied and scanned and photocopied. It's probably a scan of a photocopied scan. But, these are >> [snorts]
    19:29
    [snorts]
    19:29
    [snorts] >> as good as you're going to get.
    19:32
    as good as you're going to get.
    19:32
    as good as you're going to get. These might be the best schematics available on the internet. So,
    19:45
    should scan them in to Internet Pinball Database. But, I I if it's everything I need.
    19:57
    I'll do a little research here see if I can find um which transistor controls the chime. Okay, so what I've decided to do because thus far I have not been able to find the information I'm looking for regarding what transistor does what. I mean they are marked on the board
    20:21
    showing like different part numbers or like location like uh let's see that guy there is Q20.
    20:36
    hard to see but uh I have not been able to find upon my brief search thus far which one of these is for that particular chime coil. So, I grabbed this board that was on the floor and I inspected it thoroughly. I cleaned the edge connectors.
    21:02
    And it looks to be in good shape even better than the one that is in the machine now. There's no replaced IC chips. Everything looks to be in real nice shape. Back side is also very nice. I mean maybe that one chip there has been replaced. And that component there and maybe that one. So three things have been replaced. So, [snorts] that is uh more promising than the one that's in there. Also, I did learn that there's no game ROMs on this board. This board will be the exact same program for all of the Allied Leisure games of this era. So from reading flippers.com and this is a wealth of information here. This is John's John Robertson out in BC. He's got this whole section on Allied Leisure Industries. And right off the top here there's repair tips, testing the power supply, fuse holders, switch problems, etc. So, the first system did these few games here. He's calling it system one. And uh it was a collection of 10 circuit boards. Glad I don't have that. Then there's uh system 2A.
    22:42
    And that one didn't have uh protection on the board for the switch lines. And you could tell because that board has an edge connector in the top left. And it is recommended if you have that board to add all kinds of diodes like maybe 15 of them onto the board which looks like a real pain in the ass. Then there is system 2B. So that is the next board series which is this one. And you can tell cuz it doesn't have the edge connector. And it has already all the switch input protection on the board. You can tell because um system 2B part number ends in an H. So that's what I've got. So out of all the variations I'm super lucky to have the good one and I don't have to do all of that stuff. So that is a real bonus. Um you can see here this is system 2A. It's got the edge connector up there.
    24:06
    that is just some good news right there. And I'm going to swap this board out and see what happens. So here's the old board. Also got the H so it's the good one. Oh and off the hop you can see these capacitors are um axial? Is that what they're called? No, radial. And these are axial. So there's a difference there. Also these jumpers for like credit adjustments and replay adjustments all these jumpers are a little bit different but I'm not too worried about that stuff. Number of balls in play and uh out of ball adjustment, etc. That I can deal with later. So, what I really should do at some point is repair this board at least that transistor and test it because these are very hard to get. And I think John Robertson does make new ones but they're very expensive. So if I can get this one to someone who needs it. Okay, so I'm going to plug this guy in and we'll turn on the machine. Okay, got this other board installed. Let's see if anything locks on. Okay, three two one.
    25:46
    I think those lights are on. Both LEDs are on. I don't know if they were both on on the other board. So that's supposed to be on?
    25:59
    Well, let's um meander around see if we have displays. Uh oh. We got some LEDs in the middle there. But those are just basically lights.
    26:20
    We want LED displays to turn on but that ain't happening. So this is where things get interesting.
    26:31
    Not exactly sure where to go next but I guess it's time to do some research. I just remembered we have to check the five volts. I believe it is across this capacitor to see if the board is getting the proper voltage. So let's do that. Okay, you're going to have to be upside down for this. I'm sorry. It's just easier. So
    27:00
    let's see if we get anything across this capacitor.
    27:26
    Remember it's five volts plus or minus .25 so that is uh the correct spec. So I think that's good news. And I just got to figure out what to check next. All right, back to flippers.com. A common problem with older circuit boards are failing caps. This shows up in Allied Boards, Allied Leisure Industries when capacitor C9 fails leading to erratic booting if the game boots at all. So there's C9 on the schematics. And John recommends replacing this cap with a 22 mfd 10 volt or higher capacitor. So that's there. And that appears to be this guy right here.
    28:30
    And it says uh C9 right there. We need some light. There we go. So, I'm going to have to see if I have one of these in my stash and then uh I will replace it. Look who's back.
    28:50
    What are you trying to tell me? You've been so squawky. What? How come every time I hit record you like shut right up? Are you camera shy? Huh? I bet you want to come on my lap. Let's see if that's what she wants. No. Are you being a scaredy-cat? Yes, I guess so. All right. Anyway let's wheel over and see if I can find the right capacitor. Imagine it was this first one right here. Actually that's a whole sound board cap kit. I can't break into that. Aha. Look what I found. 22 microfarad 16 volt cap. All right, I got the new cap installed. And everything's plugged back in. Let's see if that changes anything.
    29:58
    Ooh. I heard like solenoid or something. What happens if we add a credit? Will anything happen?
    30:23
    New. Start again? No, that's not the start button. Uh this? Yeah, I didn't think so. Okay.
    30:38
    I guess I'm going to have to move on to whatever the next step is. Okay, so John Robertson says that LED number one should turn on for a second and then turn off once you power on the machine. And that these two LEDs should also power on and then go off or dim and then they should blink periodically. So, have a look. You see that? LED number one at the top. It's faint, but it turns on and off. And these guys? Same thing. But I'm not getting my periodic blinking of LEDs three and four. There is an LED number two apparently, but it is not used. So, there's a spot for it on the board, but it's not populated. So, that makes me think that I have possibly an MPU issue.
    31:47
    So, I think what I might do is eventually, not tonight, I got to wrap up this video, try and repair the transistor on the other board and then change the cap and then give that board a try. So, that's about as far as I'm going to get tonight cuz it is getting late and it's time for the couch and some Doritos.