You're listening to TopCast, this old pinball's online radio. For more information, visit them anytime. www.marvin3m.com slash TopCast Hey, Shaggy's a good player. He's doing this live in the studio. This sounds like some stupid PBS radio show, doesn't it? Hello and welcome to TopCast, brought to you by pinballlife.com MarcoSpecialties.com PinballLife.com and I did, I read the right one. ThePinGameJournal.com and WideWebVideo.com You're the guy messing with something. You can't read your own type of piling here. This is Norman Shaggy of This Old Pinball. We'll be taking calls today on the phone If you have any air questions or opinions or anything you'd like to do to talk about on pinball, our phone number is 1-800. I'm just calling you up to raise up your phone bill. Why are these hillbilly dogs walking around? Can I say that on the air? Are we going to offend anybody in Tennessee? You said I can't offend anyone today. So we're broadcasting this week. From Hooters. Yeah. No, not from Hooters. And we're up in our eyeballs, broken pinball department here in Detroit, Michigan. Yeah, you know, if you didn't buy every pinball on site, you may not have this problem. Yeah, but what else would I spend my time and money on? Women? I don't think so. Wine? Doubtful. Song? Well, maybe. Well, speaking of which, what are you working on this week? Well, I'm working on some new games. I'm mostly doing, you know, some wood rails and that. Oh, we have a phone call. Who is that? Is it pizza delivery that we're also doing? Yeah, pizza delivery. Pizza delivery. Hold on a second, Norm. Someone should be. Oh, well, let's see. This is WPIN. That means we're east of the Mississippi River. If it was west, we'd be K-PIN. So, I guess. Okay, we've got a caller. Yeah, who might that be? And who's on the line right now? It's John Craig with Shopping Halifax Oh my god, that's like a long ways away Okay, John, we just need your first name We don't want to embarrass anybody in Canada Or anywhere else with last names You know, after somebody hears the show They might come after you or something Norm might come after you I don't think he's laughing at any of this I've got a question for you guys What's the longest time you took to try and break a back glass? I've been beating on a Gottlieb soccer one for a while. Oh, yeah, they can be kind of feisty. What you need is a little pointy object with a heavy weight, and that'll break it. There's even a better thing. If you want to break, like, any kind of tempered glass, you can go to the hardware store and buy what's called an automatic center punch. And what it is is it's actually advertised for breaking out of the inside of cars. Like, you can put it up to the side of a car window, and you do the automatic center punch on it. Don't say that to people. They'll be breaking into cars and you'll be implicated for this. As long as it's your car, Norm, I am totally okay with it. Somebody did that to my wife's car, broke it and stole my camera bag out of there. But not his camera. And it shoots parking lot there, of course, too, in a good and airy area. It was actually right around the corner where Norm Wurz, and it wasn't in there. The Waffle House. The Waffle House. I'm the manager currently. Oh, I guess Shelburne must be here. He brought his dogs with him. Anyways, John, any other interesting questions? What have you been using, hammers? Yeah, I like doing the hammer time on the electromechanical and early electronic pins I keep getting. Oh, you're talking about? If I can't get them working, they get the hammer. Oh, the persuader. Speaking that wrong, it's the persuader. Anybody want to diet Mountain Dew? Norm is heavily into breaking things with hammers or fixing things. I guess it depends on your point of view. What's the Carl Weathers like in Halibox? It's still pretty heavy today. It's like powder all day long. What's your temperature out there? It's probably the first year in quite a few years you can actually skate on the lakes. What's your temperature today? What's your temperature today? We had minus four this morning. Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit. Yeah, I think there's probably, I don't know, I'm so into Celsius, I guess it's like about minus 12 or minus 15 for a low. Can somebody do the conversion for us and call us back? Got a new program here to help us. Minus 32 times, what is it, 5.8? 1.739 plus 3 to the third power. No, it's 5.8 minus 32, isn't it? How do you convert Celsius to Fahrenheit? We need to talk about pinball some more though I like the guy from Malapax I like that from out of the country That is nice Do you have any games or any game questions you want to ask? Other than how to destroy them Yeah I'm trying to rebuild these golems too I keep working on the first play field So I'm back to hand Routering them again What? What do you mean hand routering them? Just like Greg Walker did with the Fathom. You mean you're making your own? We wrote all the holes for the light lenses and lane guides and everything and then put the art onto it. So you mean you're making your own playfields? Yeah, I'm trying to make my own Gatlia playfields. Oh, okay. So how's that working? It's awfully slow. I work six days a week and I keep getting off on other tangents trying to fix pinballs, so I've got to really buckle down. and then when I say that, I'm probably going down to Texas for all of March. Perhaps you should quit your job. That'd be nice. That'd be like winning a lottery. Yeah, just take unemployment checks like Shaggy does. Excuse me? At least I have a job. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah, it's something I'm not a leech on society. What was that? That means somebody else is trying to call in. So we're going to let you go, John, and we're going to take the next victim. Thank you very much for calling. We do appreciate it. You're number one. You should get a discount. All right. Talk to you guys later. All right. Take care. All right. Okay. Bye. Hello. Hi. Hi. Who's this? This is Herman. Herman, where are you from, Herman? From Ann Arbor. Herman from Ann Arbor. It's not too far from here. It's not. Should have just joined us in the studio. It would have been easier. So, Herman, what can we do for you today? I just started getting into the hobby. I want to thank you guys for all the support that you've had of it. I can see that you're major players. My first machine is a... Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Norm is a major player? I've been in this hobby since 82. I can't believe Norm would be a major player. 82. You know? Actually, that's when I bought my first machine. He's achieved majorosity in my eyes. Let's put it that way. Thank you very much. Yeah, that's kind of what I thought, too. You know? Okay, I'm sorry, go on We interrupted you So, I've got a top card It was my first machine I picked it up three or four months ago Which is, of course, a Gottlieb EM We need to tell this Because not everybody knows what a top card is Okay It's played great The play field looked really sharp When I got it It's starting to pick up these little Little pinprick white spots of wear And I'm concerned that this might be an early symptom Of something major If I don't maintain the play field So I was wondering if this is a common problem, and do I have to take all the parts off the play field in order to polish it up again, or what would you recommend? You're talking about like in the areas like around the slingshots and in front of the flippers, any large colored areas, just like little white pinprick areas. Is that what you mean? That's it. Yeah. Yeah, Norm has actually addressed us how to fix that in one of the earlier top videos. I think it was top one, where he got an approximate color match using water-based acrylics, and he basically paints it on like a swab and then takes a paper towel and wipes it off. And what happens is when you wipe it off, the color stays in the pinprick holes. Oh, okay. And the majority, and the paint that's kind of laying on all the high areas, which is, of course, the majority areas, you know, you just wipe off. Now, the color match, amazingly, doesn't have to be perfect because the holes are so small that your eye isn't really drawn to mis-color matches. I mean, it should be as close, obviously, as you can get, but it doesn't need to be perfect. Now, a lot of people say, well, do I need to clear coat or somehow seal that after the fact? And the short answer to that is if you don't want to, you don't have to. It's pretty easy to do. You don't really have to take anything off, you know, because, you know, unless you're doing some area that's covered by something. But it will wear pretty well because the holes are so small. It actually takes wear even with the acrylic paints fairly well. Or you can just leave it alone. That's another good thing. That's Norm's suggestion. I told you. What did I tell you about Norm? That he's not a major player. Thank you very much. Just stay away from the shoppies. Well, thanks a lot, guys. I really appreciate it. Thank you for listening. I'll pick up those top videos, and I'm really starting to get into this hobby, and, again, I appreciate everything that you're doing for those of us that are just getting into it. Okay, yeah, thank you. Well, the good thing is you're going to meet a lot of nice people and make new friends. But that won't be us, but you will meet some nice people. Look forward to it. Thanks a lot. All right, take care. Bye. Okay, we're going to run a little spot now. We've actually got some commercial sponsors, and the first one we're going to run is Joe's Crack Pipe. Yeah, Joe's Crack House. You know, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to, yeah, he's going to go up there. Yeah, that's good right there. Glad this is a test show. Maybe not. Maybe we're not going to run it. Web-wide video is a proud sponsor of TopCast. For all your video needs, head on over to webwidevideo.com. Okay, we've got a slight technical thing we're going to address. We're going to run a longer break here. Well, actually, no. I'm sorry. My bad. We've got, this is one of our classier sponsors. By Marco Specialties, your pinball parts superstore. Visit their website at marcospecialties.com. You can search for parts by game name, game make, or part number. Marco Specialties was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Lexington, South Carolina. They specialize in pinball parts, supplies, books, and anything pinball. Marco has been online since 1996 and is the web's oldest and largest pinball parts supplier. Their new 12,000 square foot distribution center services 25,000 cutbacks. Marco Specialties, your pinball parts superstore at marcospecialties.com. Okay, we need some other callers. If anybody wants to call, it's 1-800, because Norm doesn't want to get any calls at his house late at night, so he makes you put that code in. He's going to change it right after the show. Right, Norm? Yes, here we are, W-P-I-N. That was Norm. He gets excited whenever he says that. That was Marilyn Chambers. She's on the couch with me here. We're not going to turn this into like a Howard Stern show, hopefully, are we? Are we? It's up to you, Norm. I don't think we should. It's Sunday. And remember, we're here with all different faces today. It's a nice mix in the studio. We have the Catholic guy, which is Norm. The Pin Game Journal, he's our technician today. And he's doing a great job. Yeah, he's doing a great job. He's our technician. He's running the boards and the sounds for us. And, you know, he's taking our calls, and he's going to talk to us. And as soon as he tells us that it's somebody that he actually wants to talk to, he's going to hit the line one button on the speakerphone, and then you'll be live. Why would we have to screen anybody? Well, we just want to make sure that we don't get any prank callers. So who cares? This is a test. Did I mention that you need to call your wife, Norm, that she probably will be calling in looking for you? She's sleeping right now. She doesn't feel good. Yeah. So are you working on any games, Norm? I have a fun fair, a Ginko fun fair that I've worked on the head a little bit. That's a wood rail from, that was her last. Last wood rail that Ginko. Yeah, that was her last wood rail. Before they were bought out by. All right, so we got a call? Yes. Yes, how can I help you today? This is Chuck. Chuck. Chuck. You had mentioned on the news group that something I thought was interesting, refinishing shooter lanes by routing them out versus repainting them. Have you done anything more with that to create a jig or experimenting with that? Yeah, I did something like that. It was back a couple years ago. I had a game that had a really, really bad shooter lane, and I actually created the jig with a rounded bit on it because you have to kind of come in at an angle. It was really hooked up for just that particular play field, but it really cleaned it up nice. And, you know, because you get a lot of dirt in there, it's not the first thing you need to do, though. The first thing that you should try is, of course, sanding out the lane just by hand and trying to keep the edges as sharp as possible. And then if you don't get satisfactory results, this is kind of like last-case scenario because it is a lot of work to do. and also you basically only have one shot at it if you make a mistake. You could use a dowel and go in there with a dowel and then go hard over the top with a flat piece. Norm likes to take about a quarter or three-eighths inch wood dowel that you buy at Home Depot. Shelberg, you're fired. Shelberg's fired. And after you wrap some sandpaper around it, like maybe 220 or whatever grit you're working with, and you kind of use that as your sand. Or you can do a Sharpie. It's got a nice fluting edge to it. Oh, Norm says you wrap your sandpaper around a Sharpie. Kind of interesting. Gotcha. Yeah, it would just be nice to see a picture of the jig you built because I've been thinking about it. It might be easy to build a universal one that you could kind of site depending on the angle of the play field. It would be tough to do a universal one. It would really be. Every game is different because of the way the angle is. some exceptions might be if you're doing EM playfields there's some consistency there but if you're doing playfields that are just you know like for instance 90 Williams almost every game's shooter lane is routed differently yeah but I bet you every creature is the same yeah if you had 10 creatures in your backyard yeah that's true if you wanted to do that I don't have pictures of that jig anymore because again it was just something real crude that I came up with at the time it just didn't I was just doing it for myself, and I didn't even think of taking a picture. The police confiscated when they took your potato gun. Yeah. Well, cool. I appreciate it. Okay. Take care. Thanks. I don't think he was happy with that answer. I don't think so either. Hello? Hey. Hello. Who's this? This is Paul from Pins and Bits, Georgia. Paul, how are you? How are you doing? I got a few questions. Paul the Infamous. I remember him. He's the blind guy. Paul, how are you doing? What can we do for you today? Well, I got this 60, I guess it's a 64 or 66 Williams EM, and I'm more of a solid state guy. And it'll go through all four players, but it'll never reset back to player one. And the coil doesn't fire at all, and I'm just kind of lost at where to look. You're saying like if you start a game, you're saying you start a four player game and it goes to it'll go all the way through player one ends it goes to player two and it gets to four and tries to reset back to one the reset coil never fires on the player unit do you have schematics? I might have one for that I think so ok this is what I would do off hand I don't have a bulk answer for you, but this is what I would do. I would get the schematics and I would look for the coil that says player reset coil. And then I would just basically work back from that. So the schematics are set up in kind of a vertical manner where the coils are usually on, there's usually a center or a common wire down the center of the schematic and then to the right of it is the coils and usually to the left of that is usually the playfield lighting. So you find the coil and you find the common and then everything to the right of it, you just kind of look over and every switch in the train and you have to go down. There might be multiple branches or legs coming off of that that determine what resets that. Now when you have the game set up for four players and you hit the start button, does it reset back to a one-player game? I'm trying to remember. I don't know if I had to manually reset it or not. Well, that would be... I don't know if those are two different sequences, but if you did have a four-player game, and then you hit start, and it doesn't go back to the first player, I would suspect that maybe the coil is bad. Did you test the coil by chance? No, no, I haven't even got to that point. What about cleaning the apparatus Yeah that the other thing too The stepper unit I do assume the stepper unit does step up and reset It not a step up step down It a step up reset unit That's what all player units are, or all Williams player units. And I assume it does that correctly. If I go back there and kind of fake the coil manually, it does reset back. Okay, that's good. That's a good sign. So, yeah, I would say there's a couple approaches you could take to testing the coil. The first is you can turn the game off and take a digital volt-ohm meter and test the resistance of the coil. I would suspect that's probably a 3 to 5-ohm coil. If you don't get any value, like a null value, then the coil's open. Sure, I believe you. I love you, man. Then the next thing, assuming you do get a resistance, that means that probably the coil's good. Then you can turn the game on, and remember one side of the coil is attached to the common side. Then you can take a long alligator test lead from either the transformer or some other spot where hot is, and you need to look on the schematic for that, and touch it to the other side of the lug and see if the coil fires. Now, probably even a better way is to turn the game off and take a 9-volt battery and actually take, you know how 9-volt batteries have those two leads on the top? You can actually touch it to the coil, and it should do something. It may not be powerful enough to pull that sucker in, but you should see it at least twitch. That's also another really good thing. I don't ever have any 9-volt batteries laying around, so I don't tend to do it that way. But it's a good way to do it. It really is, if you've got a battery around. You have E.M. Dave's number? You can call him up. Yeah, and then if it doesn't work, we'll give you somebody else's number to call up. And this is one of those games where you have to beat the bottom of it to turn it off. Oh, cool. Do you usually wire those up to a switch, too, or do you kind of leave the... He does. You like to beat it up on your machine? I don't. Norton likes to kick the bottom of his games to shut it off. And the way that works, in case people were wondering, most games don't have a power switch before, you know, 65. Forgotten Leaf is actually about 68. so what they do is there's a hold coil which when you turn the game on or play it for the first time the hold coil pulls in and stays in and it basically turns the power on to the game and when you kick it up from the bottom it sends a little miniature plunger up which opens up a switch for just a second and that interrupts the power to the hold coil and the game shuts off I personally like power switches and also it's nice Like if you've got people in your house and, you know, they want to play a game and it's not on, or you want them to turn it off when it's gone, and Norm knows what a fanatic I am about turning games off when I'm finished. He's crazy, man. He's crazy. So, you know, I like to, you know, shut them off. So I like power switches, but it's not for everybody, and it's obviously not original to your game. On my nags I have it, and everybody thinks it's nuts when you beat the bottom of the game to try to shut it off, and they think you're crazy. But Norm is crazy, so. Any other good questions? These are good questions. I appreciate that. How's that Pins and Fits 2 video doing? That's what I was going to ask you. Last I heard, we're up in the mid-100s in sales in about a week's time. It's very good. It sucks. No, I like it. I like the stuff you guys did. God, it's awful. I think the one thing, like Shaggy said, you could have, over Gene, you could have showed some of his collection, but that's the only negative comment I could say. I thought it was really good. The parts that I liked were, of course, the parts that I was in. No, I liked him on his tour of this place. Yeah, I liked it a lot. You know, I really like the comical ends of it because I can tell. I know setting up skits, how much trouble it is and how much work it is, and you guys put a lot of time into that thing. I think the first day that we filmed most of the desk shots, I'm usually trying to trip the teleprompter going, but I'm doing everything I can to not read off the teleprompter, making other stuff up. Oh, we don't have one of those. To see if Al can react or not. Yeah, we don't use those teleprompter technologies. You guys probably put hours into your scripts. We didn't do that in the last vid. And even with the teleprompter, I think the first hour tape we filmed, we only got about three minutes of actual usable footage out of. Yeah, I know the pain that you're going through. It's taken us sometimes nine months to do a movie. Yeah, yeah, easily, easily. And you guys are probably just as bad. What was the longest one? Yeah, the worst part is now Al's got that HD camera, so it makes all of our mistakes even look much better. Yeah, and then you've got issues with the editing, don't you? Anyways, I appreciate you guys starting this. It's a great resource, and now I can actually talk to somebody instead of just reading Marvin3m.com and the fix stuff. Cool. You probably could have called us before. I might even give you my phone number. Well, you know, I just wanted to help you guys out and give you a call on the radio show. Cool. Well, thank you very much, Paul, and you take care. You too. Bye. Have a great day. Hola, amigos. This is Cliffy, CARGPB number two and maker of the world's finest pinball protectors. Welcome to another edition of TopCast featuring Norm and Shaggy. Hi, this is Flippy again. See, if you're not listening to TopCast and learning how to fix your own pinballs, then you're just not pissing enough people off. So let's get to it, my man. We like these spots where people have actually made some nice little spots for us here. New games or the classics? Reports on industry shows or collector expos? Insights on a game you want or features to help you fix the game you've got, Pin Game Journals for you. Their website is at pingamejournal.com. Very good magazine. I've been getting that since the early 90s, I think. Yes, me too. Hello. You'd like to make a call. Oh, yeah. Hang up and try again. I think you lost him. I lost him. Hang up and call your operator. That's pretty good. But it's because we got Shelberg running the show. Well, one of the problems with getting magazines and literature, you just didn't know what existed and what didn't. It took me forever to know that there was five magazines, six magazines at one time. It's all hit and miss. What's your favorite? Oh, of course, the Pin Game Journal. Yes, yes. It's our favorite because it's the only magazine all about pinball. Well, Game Room is good, too. I get Game Room. Are you allowed to say that? Shelberg's standing right next to me. Well, I think Gamer was going to have to start coming up with money, and then I'll mention him every show. You mean Shelberg has given us money? Um, maybe. I think he bought me a Diet Mountain Dew. Ready? Bill. Bill. Hi, how are you, Bill? Hey, how are you doing? What can we do for you today? Bill, I'm a first-time caller. So is everybody else. I wanted to know, is Candy going to be on the show? Is that Candy back there on the couch? Yeah. Yeah, this is like Marilyn Chambers' old couch here. No, that's Norm back on the couch. Oh, okay. What you couldn't tell? He's showing his arm. There's going to be a picture taken in three, two, one. Norm's giving everybody the finger. No, I'm giving two fingers. Yeah, two fingers. So if you do a refresh on your browser, you'll see Norm's left hand in the video. Let's see, what girls have we used? We have Candy, we've had Sapphire. Yeah, and then we had Dandy. Dandy. What's your favorite? They're all my favorite. I like the Sapphire. I don't know why, but I like Sapphire. What was your favorite? Bill? I think he's gone. Bill! He's gone! He's back. He's gone. We lost Bill. We lost Bill. Well, you know, that happens sometimes. So, Norm, you haven't told me again how far you've gotten on your ginkgo. Not very far. Not far enough as at, like, I think Bill's back. I'm working on a Gottlieb Green Pastures right now, which is a wood rail from the 50s. Yeah, I think it's 54. I almost got it done. Last week I finished, what, a Queen of Hearts and a Sweet Adeline, and also a bowler. I finished that little pixie bowler, that little EM pixie bowler. You've got plenty of time. It's amazing the things you do. Well, yeah, I work, you know, hard on this stuff. I know you do. You know, I know that's hard for you to believe. No, you do. You do some nice work. Gee, he's such a sweetheart. So do we have a caller? We've got a caller. Hello. Hey. Steve. How are you, Steve? Hey, I'm good. Let me mute this out here. Okay. Where are you calling from? Yeah, where are you from, Steve? Media, Pennsylvania. Whoa. Good. I was in Pennsylvania once. Is that near the sled works? Yeah, well, it's a big state. It's a huge state. When I go to Allentown, you know, because we're, you know, in Detroit, driving through Pennsylvania is like bad. I thought driving through Ohio was bad, but driving through Pennsylvania, oh, my God, that state is huge. Florida's a bad one, too. Well, there's lots of cows to look at. So, do you have any pinballs? Oh, sure. What do you have? What do I have? Yeah, what do you have? Oh, man. What do I have? Okay, wait, wait, wait. Are you a one-digit, two-digit, or three-digit collector? Yeah, good question. Two-digit. Two-digit. Ooh. So, 10 to 99 machines. Yes. 10 to 99. Norm, what are you? Try to keep it around 20. 20, that's about where I'm at. Try is the operative there. You have a lot off storage. My wife keeps saying I should buy a bigger house, and I said, no, that will just mean more machines. Exactly. Yeah, I find that you expand to the space that you are given. It's an entropy thing, I guess, or entropy, one or the other. So you have old stuff, new stuff, what do you have? Old stuff or new stuff? Mostly around the late 70s, early 80s. Good. And a couple of stragglers on either end. Are you working on the nostalgia thing, or how are you operating? It's just what I like. I don't know. I call it nostalgia, if you will, but it's pretty much what I played in college and graduate school, and it's just what I like. Excellent! Nostalgia. Of what appeals to you, what got you more than turning. Yeah, that's good. So what kind of question you got for us today? Yeah, well, I'm helping a friend out with a Williams Toledo. Yeah I'm not going to say anything about that title Yeah, it's his first game So we figured we'd, you know, go cheap Yeah, it's in EM In case people don't know, it's in EM I believe, is it early 70s, I believe it is? I think it's 75 75, and it's single player or from, correct? It's a two player game Two player Two player game And it's, you know, it's pleasant looking, I'd say if you like flamingo dancers and pink and guitars. Oh, I thought you was Toledo, Ohio. But anyway, yeah, anyway, we bought it from a guy who had it for 30 years, one of those deals, and it just stopped working. That probably would have been fine, except then he tried to fix it. Ay-yi-yi. So I'm reverse engineering whatever he did. And after, it was actually stone cold dead. I think I've had almost no games that I can recall that actually were that dead. He managed to get cold joints on the transformer when he put that back in. Hmm. So he was soldering with what, like a... I think... Like a Scott Bullock. The ball-peen hammer. Yeah, something like that. Well, anyway, so we got lights, we got power, we got the motor running. and going through the game, pretty good. When you push the start button, when you push the replay button, it blows a fuse. It blows the 24-volt fuse. So I thought that maybe it was going to be the bridge, but I disconnected the bridge, and that didn't change matters. And we should explain that. Yeah, that era of Williams game has the pop bumpers are DC current, so it takes the 24-volt solenoid voltage, runs it through a fuse and a bridge rectifier and a small capacitor and then powers, I believe, just the pop bumpers, maybe the slingshots. Flippers. Flippers too? Mm-hmm. Okay, it was kind of a progression. They started with just the pop bumpers, then they added later in down the road, They added the slings, and then they went to the, I guess they went to the flippers. I haven't actually seen that game, so I'm not really familiar with it. Well, I'm lucky enough to have the schematics and the manual for it, so that's a plus. That always helps. Yeah. So you've been unable to find what's blowing the solenoid fuse? Yeah, I haven't found it yet. I took it out of circuit, and it still blew the fuse. and it blows it pretty nicely. I mean, you know, a big flash and, you know, I mean, it really blows it. So it must be a real dead short somewhere. Yeah, insert a penny in there. That will happen. Or a quarter-twenty bolt. No, what you do, first thing, whenever doing shorts, I always recommend that you get a circuit breaker. You can buy, if you go to our Marvin3M.com slash EM webpage, page. We actually have a picture in the parts and tools you need that shows a picture of these little mini circuit breakers and then you solder a dead fuse to the end of it and you can insert that in there instead of basically throwing 50 cents away every time you turn the game on. That's the first thing I would do. The second thing I would do is with the game off I would give everything a good visual inspection. I would go through every coil and just physically look at it, and if you have a digital ohmmeter handy, which, again, I would recommend, you can put that on each coil. And when I mean each coil, the things I would check first, the big culprits would be the knocker, the three coils for the chimes, you know, the, what is it, the 10, 100, and 1,000-point chimes. I would check the player one all for the score reels. I would check there. I would check the, there should be something called a 0 to 90 unit in the back that every time you score a 10-point switch, it advances this unit, and what that thing does is it varies maybe some of the playfield options. Not every game has that, but most games do, and those things are real, real, real typically. If a playfield switch gets locked on, that thing will stay on, and that thing draws a lot of current and it will blow that coil really easily. I suspect you still might have a playfield switch that's stuck closed too. Another thing you can do is kind of make the whole process a little smaller. On Williams games, it's real, real nice. You can unplug the playfield from the bottom panel and turn it on. And if the fuse doesn't blow anymore, well, then you know that it's something, a coil on the fuse. You could also have a bonus unit or something under the playfield. Those also tend to be big culprits. But basically, it'll take you maybe 10, 15 minutes to look at every coil and measure the resistance on them all. You might miss a few. It's real easy to miss a couple. We were working on a Gottlieb Happy Clown not too long ago, and we were having the same problem, and we thought we had found every coil and measured every one, but it was still blowing the fuse. We couldn't figure out why. And it turns out that there was like a bell or a chime that was kind of like hidden behind the score reels that we couldn't see. And that was, in that particular case, that was the culprit. That was the coil had just baked itself. Because as a coil stays locked on, it heats up. And then as it heats up, it burns the enamel painting off the wires, the insulation. so then what that does is it decreases the resistance of the coil which makes the coil hotter which makes it burn more enamel off it just becomes a cycle until the thing just basically implodes and you blow a fuse so that's what I would do now the other thing you can do is you can also try removing the connectors remove the playfield connectors and then you can remove the backbox connectors too and try turning the game on and starting a game I'm not quite sure how well that will work, but it might give you an idea. I mean, I use your guides all the time, actually. It's helpful. And, Field, yeah, if I go in and hit the start relay, the game will start right up, not blow a fuse. I can play a game. It's only if I try to use the replay or coin circuitry. So it's got to be... The knocker. It's got to be the knocker. You think it's got to be the knocker? Well, every time, on a Williams, every time you use the coin circuitry, as in you add a credit, the replay unit pulls in. And there is, you know, obviously you want to check the coils on the replay unit too. But it pulls in and then it closes the switch, which knocks the knocker. So, you know, I would double check that knocker. You said in the coin app, right? He some reason felt compelled to take the transformer out, so to have gone to that extreme. So I think what you need to do is actually inspect every... He also took the power switch out from on the bottom, figuring that there was something wrong with it maybe that there wasn getting any voltage but that was after he had messed with the transformer of course What you have done is wrong It not wired if you will Yeah, my own personal thought is that it's probably somewhere in the circuit between the replay button and the start relay, only because that seems to be what's doing it, and I just haven't tracked it down yet. Well, the circuitry for the whole start button is pretty easy to follow. You just find the replay button on the schematics and follow it through. Yeah, it goes through the coin relay and the second shoot relay and some other stuff like that. Right, and I wouldn't suspect anything with those relays. They don't get used a lot. Switch stacks on the score motor. Did you give that a good visual inspection? Yeah, I'm going to have to do it again. And I think, you know, it seems to give a spark and stop. Well, that's what you really need to do on everything is just carefully inspect the motion of every switch in the game. All right. Well, anyway, keep up the good work. Okay. Well, hey, thank you very much. We appreciate you calling. We're going to really hang up on you this time, but on purpose. Okay. All right. Take care. Bye. Norm, what did you think of that? I think we're trying to help him, and I think we're doing okay. Yeah? Okay, we've got some other people calling. I'm going to run another ad here. Web-wide video. Oh, yeah. Web-wide video is Korn's company. He helped us a lot with some technical back-end stuff. Web-wide video. Don't sweat the details of your next video project. For everything from captions to transfers, Webwide Video has you covered. And, of course, there's the ever so famous... Pinball Life, your source for balls, rubbers, and... Pinball Life, your source for balls, rubbers, and cleaning goo. Yeah, Pinball Life is one of our first sponsors. Pinball Life, eBay sellers can treat you badly. We have a phone number so you can call and complain direct. 773-202-8758. And the correct pronunciation of your last name, is it Boag? The fantastic city of Ferndale, I suppose. Don't answer Norm. He's just being his usual Yahoo self. Of course. Anyway, my question. When a DMD degasses, should I automatically replace the high-voltage components on the board, or should I just replace the display? I would just I would go with replacing the Display I mean don't fix stuff that's not broken Check the voltages Did you check the voltages No I'm just asking if it's a good matter of course to do that Generally speaking I think you know Especially since We know your history with the soldering iron Hey I would say Don't try and fix anything that's not broken Wait, let's go back to that history with the soldering iron thing for a second. Wait a minute. It's not like I'm Mr. Propane Torch here. Yeah, but you're friends with him. So, you know, we have to, you know, it's guilty by association. That's true. Oh, yeah. It does rub off, doesn't it? I should just replace displays rather than the hot. Okay, I'm going to have to play this just because, you know, I feel bad now. You made me feel bad, so. All right, all right, I apologize. I'm really, really sorry. I apologize unreservedly. That was my question, sir. Yeah, I would say, you know, don't try and fix things that aren't broken, but check the voltages. Put the new display in, and with the new display installed and powered, the game powered on, check the voltages and make sure that they're, you know, they're not high, low, or otherwise, you know. Also be aware that Williams changed, you know, like the 68 volts. I think they went down to 63 on some games. So, you know, if that reads a little low, don't concern yourself. They also, I think, might have decreased the higher voltages too. So, you know, low voltages don't bother me nearly as much as higher voltages, voltages that seem, you know, on the high end. putting too low a voltage to a score display as long as it's still lighting can't do anything but help it frankly but giving it too much voltage can't do anything but hurt it gotcha thank you very much sir take care I got an idea we should give away a DVD and sign it who's going to sign it I'll sign it, you'll sign it and I'll have Shellbook sign it and we can like we can do this every show and you could pay for it. Thanks. Which means I have to put it in the mail. Can we give it like the best hard luck story or weirdest pinball story? Okay, okay, Norm. You got it. Next caller. Next caller. Next caller that comes in, you get a free top DVD of your choice. It can't be one I want to give them? You give it away then. Okay, next caller. The phone is not ringing though. 1-800. Is that kind of like that dial 911? Next time we should do 1313. Give this dog away next time. Yeah, Norm doesn't like the animals. What a crock. He just, you know, he just doesn't, he doesn't, he's not animal friendly. I don't think anybody wants that DVDs, even for free. Oh, well, wait, the phone's ringing. Our infamous Shelberg Screen caller It's Sapphire And who do we have there Mr. Shelbergian It's a Chinese restaurant They're ordering from us They want some more dog You know that is really cruel I'm sorry it was Korean Pinball life If you can work on your games And your underwear you should be able to buy parts that way too. Pinball life. How you doing? Richard. Hi, Richard. How are you? Hey, all right. Good. So where are you calling from, Richard? I'm calling from Houston, Texas. Okay, Richard, do you want a DVD? Sure, man. I'll take a DVD. Okay, this is what I need you to do. It's a little bit of work on your part, but go to the TopCast webpage. It says TopCast at the very bottom. It says email Shaggy, and just email me your address because I don't want you to give it to me on the air because then, you know, you'll get a letter bomb from Norm. Right, I'll get stalkers too. Yeah, if you don't already have them. All those groupies from our show. Yeah, the groupies. The dogs. Norm will stick the dogs on you. Sapphire and Candy and Dandy, all those groupies of ours. So you got any good pinball questions for us? Actually, I don't have any pinball questions. I just wanted to kind of reiterate what I said in my post in the news group. I think it's great you guys are doing this. You know, some people that actually have something to say about pinball being on the webcast. I think it's great, and I wish you guys a lot of luck with it. I think you're drawing a lot of, you know, bad conclusions. We actually have, Norm has nothing to say. I know that personally. Absolutely nothing. Well, since you gave me that lobotomy, my emotions are kind of stymied. That's not the only thing that's been stymied, as you may put it Norm's going in for surgery tomorrow And I'm not going to tell you what he's having worked on I'll let them guess Hello Yeah Hi, how are you? Who's this calling? This is Ken out in Oregon How's the Carl Weathers out in Oregon? Oh, sunny and about 45 now Okay, so I already don't like you much. Yeah. It's like, when I woke up this morning, it was minus four Fahrenheit. I'm just not a fan of that. So how can we help you today? What kind of questions you got? I'm not a tech question. I was just calling about your next vid, Norm's first kiss. Black power. Wonder when those are coming out. Norm? Well, we have like four or five videos we're filming simultaneously, so we're kind of behind, and I think, I'm not sure, but maybe the wood rail will come on next. We don't really know at this point. Things really start kicking up on filming during the summer. Usually, you know, come July, we go full tilt and work on it solid from July to Expo, because we always use Expo as kind of our release venue, as it may be, and things will kind of get decided then. To be honest with you, right now, due to the Carl Weathers, Norm doesn't live all that close to me. He's about a 30-mile drive. In the winter in Michigan, it's just, I can't, he's such a whiner. You know, he whines constantly about making the drive, even on nice days. Yeah, I'm here, so shut your mouth. I'm so mad. You know what, the beginning to the intro to the kiss is probably one of the best intros we've ever done. It is hilarious. But, I mean, did you have a preference of, you know, what you wanted to do next? Yeah, he wants to kiss. He told us that. The kiss. The kiss? I have several of the ballys of that era. You know, if it was up to me, that would be the one that I want to do next. Let's do it. But, you know, like I've told people this before, it kind of depends, you know, which direction the wind is blowing. It's hard to explain. Speaking of depends, I think it's time you change us, Shaggy And God bless us all, everyone Alright, well, hey, we appreciate the call, thank you very much Thank you, bye Okay, take care Norm You don't ever have anything nice to say about me, why is that? Well, you just beat me up about coming here I'm here, I'm sitting here, I'm saying nice things about you And you start picking on me Wait, wait, wait, you're saying nice things about me? Yeah, I said some nice things about you I'm not going to do that again, but So what time is it? It is, we've only got about a minute or two left Can we go over? TopCast is brought to you by Marco Specialties Your pinball parts superstore Visit their website at marcospecialties.com You can search for parts by game name, game make, or part number Marco Specialties was founded in 1985 And is headquartered in Lexington, South Carolina They specialize in pinball parts, supplies, books, and anything pinball Marco has been online since 1996 and is the web's oldest and largest pinball parts supplier. Their new 12,000 square foot distribution center services 25,000 customers in over 50 countries. Feel free to call Marco Specialties at 803-957-5500. Marco Specialties, your pinball parts superstore at marcospecialties.com. Okay. Is this Cliffy? Hey, how you doing, guys? Cliffy! How are you doing? Yeah, I'm doing all right. I don't want to make you hate me, but it's about 67 degrees out here in California, nice and sunny. Hi, Cliffy here. I just turned on podcast when my wife walked in and turned my speakers off. So listen, show's sounding pretty good. Got some little technical stuff to work out. Need a bigger phone queue for one thing. It took me like 10 tries to get in. Wow. We're very busy here. Yeah. Who do you think you are? I think it's just Shelberg, he saw my number and said I ain't putting him on Yeah, he keeps blocking calls Now, we have Donations to get Oh well, heck, you know, maybe I should have got a ball rolling on that for you Yeah We didn't take any money I actually put the bill on all this Norm didn't kick in anything And he just Norm, go ahead, get that for the camera We're getting a picture right now, Norm Norm, there you go Do a refresh on your browser. You'll get Norm's infamous middle finger. Yeah, middle finger. Oh, well, I really appreciate that. That's not to you. That's the number one salute, right? That's not to you. That's too shaggy. Yeah, he only speaks badly of me. He's friendly as can be to everybody else, but to me. Did you want a free DVD since I'm giving away all of Shaggy's DVDs? Hey, I have one. I haven't got that one yet. Which one? Which one? The latest one, your, what is it, top eight? Yeah, well, if you put your name in that pinball registry thing, you would have got one. I sent one to your buddy, Charlin. Oh, yeah? Oh, that's right. Well, I sent it to him off the address on the pinball registry, and it came back. Is that right? Yeah, and so then I emailed him and said, hey, I sent you this, and, you know, it came back. And he's like, he had some story that he didn't want to tell me about somebody after him and chasing him. So he gave me another, quote, secret address. I can't be allowed to give it out to anybody. So, you know, I burned the email to make sure that nobody else, nobody would steal, you know, go rifle through my garbage and get it. So, yeah, email me your address and we'd be happy to send you one. Norm is signing the covers, so you'll have to get a new DVD cover for it. Oh, doggone it. Yeah, you'll have to get a new one. Or put it on eBay. Or just get some goof off the market. I could always copy the covers and start selling them. Yeah, there you go. I have to have Sherland over here to watch it. I'm not even sure he's got a DVD player. So that's why when I sent it to him, I never heard back from him. He never even sent an email like, thanks for the DVD. You know, we watched it, two minutes of it, and it looks good. I didn't even ever get that phone. I wouldn't put it past him. He's probably using it for a coaster. Yeah, really. He doesn't have a DVD player. Well, it's good. Well, it's good. And I've got a question for you guys, though, if you're up. Sure. I'm working on an Indiana Jones for a guy, and I've Googled my heart out here on this silly path of adventure problem. I know it's a common one. But this one's got me a little bit stumped The little opto board that tells it left and right is fine I had to put a new lower opto on, and now it's fine And it was playing okay, even though I suck at it But it was going left and going right with the flippers But then sometimes it'll just stop And then I'll get an error You know, the motor's not working and check the switches and what it does is it falls to the right and it seems like it goes too far and then the motor cannot seem to bring it back. Right, it kind of jams itself. Yeah. And you're sure that those optos are cool? Yeah, they are absolutely good. And you re-soldered the .156-inch Mullitz plugs on the board? Yes, I did. Okay, just to make sure. And the IDC-style female portion of the connector, that's all good? Yeah. and the voltages check out fine. It's getting power to the optos. And if I manually, you know, grab the POA mini play field and just push it to the left, you can hear the gears kind of whir, you know, and get it back to center. And then when I test it, then it'll test okay. It'll go to the right, and it'll say motor is good. Did you check the opto voltage just for fun, make sure it's, you know, solid 12 volts? No. Okay, do that. Another thing. Shave your head, too. Shave your head. Yeah, shave your head. That also. You're going to get a haircut, Shaggy. Yeah, there you go. The other thing, well, that's another story. The other thing that I would do is check the flipper optos, believe it or not. If you have bad flipper optos, and I can't remember if it's the lower or upper, but if either of the flipper optos are bad, that will freak that thing out. So check them or you can always swap them right and left and see if anything changes. But from what I understand, it doesn't use the flipper optos in test. You know, that's a vicious rumor. But not a bald-faced lie? You know, no. But what I would do, again, since it doesn't really cost anything and only takes a minute, I would swap the two and just see if anything changes. I'll certainly try that. Yeah, you know, I would really do that, and I would check the opto voltage. And here's the last thing I'd do. I'd put it into the switch test. I can't remember if in switch test the mini play field optos, if they show up in switch test. No, they don't. Yeah, they don't. So you've got to go into – so that's kind of a problem. I wish they did. Because one thing that I've found is that with optos, sometimes if you leave the game and switch test for a period of time, you know, 10, 15 minutes, and you can be in the basement doing something else, and you'll hear that on Williams and like this doink, doink, and then you go up and look at the display and it gives you the last switch closed. Right. And it'll be like an optic switch. And to me, any time I see that, I know that I have a problem with an optic. Yeah, well, this one was doing that on the lower opto switch 95. Just for fun, why didn't you replace the other one? It was breaking in and out even though nothing was breaking the beam. It was a de-de-de-de-de-de. Right. So I knew it was bad. Did you replace the other one just for, you know, giggles? No. You know, I would do that too. Because, you know, I kind of look at Optos kind of like as miniature flashlights. Right. I figure if you know one went maybe it not such a stretch to think that another one is going to Norm Norm what in that Norm right now you got three two one You can see Norm's leg in the picture. It's real nice. He doesn't want anybody to see his face. He's afraid somebody will come after him. I'm doing my Pilates. He's exercising. So, you know, those are all the things I would do. Why don't you do me a favor? Check that simple stuff, and then email me back, and let me know what you find. And if that's nothing, I'll dig around and see what else I can come up with. What other useless advice I can come up with. One other thing. You're a perfect candidate for Stump the Chump next week. We'll call you back and see. Here's one other thing, though, that might throw a wrench in the works. It's got L4 ROMs, and I know it's been suggested to upgrade to L7. but then I've heard when people upgrade it to L7, it actually seems to make the darn thing even flakier. You know, I work on a lot of different Indiana Jones, and I've never had the ROMs be an issue with the path. Okay, well, I didn't know if there was more test modes in there or something, or that's the reason why people suggested going to L7. I mean, that's just my personal experience. It doesn't mean that, you know, it's correct. But, you know, I think that's what, you know, do you have an EPROM program? Oh, yeah. Well, do you have a blank 4-meg EPROM? Oh, yeah. I can burn one. Yeah, burn it. I feel like I'm digging it all out. Yeah, you can just, you know, try the one that you want. You know, either way. Yeah. I'm just wondering, of course, you know, it's human nature and more my nature than most people's, I think, to go for the absolute hardest thing first. And, you know, I'm really chomping at the bit not to. I'm trying to force myself to look at the simple things first. And I'm hoping it's not the motor itself, you know. You know, it seems unlikely to me. Here's the other thing, too. You need to reverse that thinking. It does go back and forth correctly. You need to reverse that thinking and make your life easier and check the simple stuff first. It's just, I don't know, it's just my... I go right past the easy stuff and right for the hard stuff. Right, right. That's how I ended up with this game in here to fix for a friend anyway, it seems. Oh, you mean it's not even yours? It's not even mine. Oh, well, in that case... I can't afford this kind of stuff. Are you kidding? I can't even afford the top DVDs. Oh, well, yeah, yeah. Check, half of my games were given to me. Let's sell them one for $5. I get the free stuff and fix it up to make it look like new. That's where I get my kicks out of this. Yeah, I kind of like that, too. I've not spent a lot of money on machines, either. I like to buy them as scrap and turn them. We should call and see what's the most you ever spent on a game, in the least. No, I don't care about the most. I'm more concerned with the least. Yeah, really? Yeah. I'll break about the free ones all day. I won't tell anybody how much I paid for the free ones. Yeah, and there's plenty of people that just write the checks, that they don't have the time or the motivation. Like Shelbert. Yeah, like Shelbert. Yeah. Like Shelbert. He just, you know, he just cuts the checks. Admittedly, they're not big checks, but he cuts them. Do they bounce? That's something else. Yeah, they do bounce, too. Yeah, well, yeah. He's kind of like that. I don't need that grief. Yeah. Well, hey. Guys, I appreciate the help. Yeah, and send me an email with your address, and we'll send you our package. Tell us which ones you need. Okay, thanks, bud. Norm would be happy to send them to you. All right. Take care, guys, and good luck. Bye. It's a good show. All right, thanks. Stay slim. All right. Norm, what do you think of that one? I don't know. He's all right. He's paying us money, ain't he? You know, he's not. Oh, well, the way we talk in so long, Paul. Well, you know, I mean, thank God he's not, you know, because not everybody is moneybags like you. Oh, yeah. Independently wealthy. Yeah, he's got some great spots for us, though. Hi, Cliffy here. I just turned on TopCast when my wife walked in and turned my speakers off so she can hear Dr. Phil. I'm proposing a man law. No other TV, radio, or webcast while TopCast is on. I'm all for man laws. TopCast. It goes good with porn. I mean, uh, corn. Yeah, that's it. That's classic. Well, you are easily amused, Shaggy. Here we go. So, we got Al on the line. Hi, Al. How are you doing? Hey, good to hear you guys, man. Hey, you're from Georgia. This is the infamous and famous and worldwide known Al Warner. Now, how come you don't have a Lester Hilbrich accent? Well, I've at least lived in New Jersey for years, man. How come you don't have a New Jersey accent? Yeah, how come? It's a South Philly accent. I live in South Jersey, you know. Oh, wait. Philadelphia's in New Jersey? Did they move it? They're across the river from each other. Oh. So did you ever go to Palisades Park? No, that's in North Jersey. So what? Jersey's like about the size of a stamp at State. What do you mean? It's like 12 miles away. So how was the latest pins and vid? We heard from your buddy Paul. Yeah, he called in earlier. He had some really good questions. I liked it. We're doing pretty good. I think we're around 150. We had a party last night over at Paul's house, and we sold about 20 copies there. We told people that if they didn't buy a copy, they couldn't come. And how did that work? It actually worked out pretty well. We had a jam session. Paul's actually a pretty good musician, so we had a jam session. They were playing some bass and a guitar and a drum, and they were having a good time. Oh, man. We should do that sometime. Yeah, but nobody would come. How about I go and grab my game? Well, I actually do have a question. One of the problems I've got, I have a Pinball Magic Capcom game, and they've got the big honking capacitors up there. And, like, apparently every single person who's ever played this game has worked on those capacitors as well. Yeah, they like to pull themselves off the board. Yeah, and the solder pads are gone. So what do I do? I mean, what's... You mean the solder pads are, like, physically missing? Yeah, they're just... They've been, you know, soldered and ripped so many times, and then people have run wires and, you know, and then, of course, they still bounce around and all, so you've got all kinds of issues. And then, of course, they're unsoldered through holes, so you have to put, you know, I've tried to fix the holes but it's just making the things to hold on right. They're just kind of bouncing no matter what you do. What is the value on the caps? I'm not sure. Those are big ones. They're big ones. Yeah, I know. They're big ones. Maybe he can epox you. More question, what do you do about keeping the caps up there? Okay, well, I'm going to tell you. This is what I would do. I think they're like 10,000 or 15,000 microfarad caps. I would go to Great Plains Electronics and he sells caps in that value that have, instead of being like a snap cap where the two leads are at one end of the cap, it's the other variety where there's a lead at each end of the cap. Now, and I would go to Home Depot and get a tube of 100% silicone. And though the real estate is going to be precious, you know, it's going to be hard to mount them, If you can mount these caps like silicone them flat And then just run the leads into the holes And then solder them on the back side of the board I know that's going to look weird But the problem with those caps is they're so large And if you imagine the board is mounted vertically It's like mounting two large beer cans on Norm's chest That's just scary And gravity pulls them down You know, I mean, they just, you know, and that's, you know, that's the whole problem is that, you know, any kind of vibration is just going to pull them down. Show me your kit. You know, so that's the big problem. So, you know, if you can make the cap kind of mounted more flat, the other thing you can do is if you email me, I can tell you where you can get some really flat snap caps. You know, they make SnapCaps not only in different values, they make them in different dimensions, too. And the ones that Capcom used actually physically hang off the board pretty far. Right. And they make ones that are more stout. And also, just by the nature of electronics today, because that game's probably, you know, easily 10 years old. Right. You can probably get a SnapCap that isn't quite as long, and then put a ring of silicone along the bottom of the cap, stick it on the board, bend the leads out when they're through the board and solder them from the back side and that would be another alternative the last alternative which would be the one I suggest the least don't leave them in, just cut them off no, that was what I had in mind is that you could actually mount them remotely but then you're going to have to have wires and it's going to look really weird and all your friends are going to laugh at you it's like they don't laugh at me already well no, they're not, they're not laughing are they? Shelberg's laughing. Shelberg laughs at everybody though. But I don't know. That's what you could try. And again, if you can tell me the values of the cap, if you email me the values of the cap, I can give you some suggestions on where to get some physically smaller snap caps that should work for you that weigh less and stick out and don't stick out as far. It's kind of like those caps have an erection. And we're just going to have to castrate them. I don't know what that is. Show me your tip. We know why you don't know Norm. Norm's a, what do they call it? Eunuch. Yeah, eunuch. That's the word I was looking for. That's what happens when you get married. You can watch The Virgins. All right, Al. Anything else up? No, that's good for now. Thank you, guys. All right. The show sounds great. It's been really good. Good thing you guys are doing. I really appreciate it. Okay, thanks, man. Take care. Bye. Norm, I think we're done. We actually ran over. Well, let's see if we get one more call. Let's just wait. The phone isn't ringing. So all our six listeners have called. Yeah, 1-800. This is Norman Shaggy. And Jim. And Mr. Shelbert from Penn Game Journal is our engineer at TopCast. W-P-I-N. What does that mean, Norm, when you say that? Well, every radio station has their call letters. So we're going to steal some call letters. and since we're east of the Mississippi, it's a W, and pin is for pinball, so it's W-P-I-N. I don't get it. Shelberg, explain this to him. Give him a microphone, for Christ's sakes. Pinball Life. Because the other guys simply aren't hip enough to sponsor this crappy show. I think you have a call. Yes, we do. Hello? Hello? Hello, who's this calling? How's it going? Good. What's your first name? My name's Tim. Tim, where are you from, Tim? Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas. Tim, Norm wants to know about your pinball collection. Norm wants to know what? Your pinball collection. How many games do you have? Does that work? No, just how many games. Are you a hoarder or do you fix them? That's why I'm calling. I'm currently at about 26. It needs to be 27. I think you need to stop. What are you, a junkie? Are you on crack? Stop doing this. I'm your conscience. Don't stop signing my games. Okay, I'm sorry. Go on, ignore Norm, if that's possible. I tried to every time I watched the tapes, too. Yeah, now he's doing it not to the more people other than me. What I got is a Johnny mnemonic, and I'm having trouble with the 18 volts for the lamp drivers. Okay. And it's kind of interesting because it feeds the 12-volt digital logic as well, and that's always fine, but the 18 volts for the lamps goes away after about five minutes. When you say goes away, what do you mean goes away? It drops down to about 2.3 volts. Did you, I don't have the schematics in front of me, But I believe the way this works is the AC voltage comes into the driver board. It gets rectified by the bridge in a filter cap. And then that's the unregulated portion that goes to the lamp driver circuit. And then I believe it goes through a LM323, which is a voltage regulator. No, I'm sorry, not an LM323. through a 7812, which gives you the regulated 12 volts for the other stuff. Right. I believe that's how it works, just off the top of my head. So, you know, one thing I should point out is that the schematics, they're not infallible. That is, they're not perfect. Sometimes there's errors in them, especially those WPC Williams schematics. And that game is a WPC95 game, too, I believe. WPCS. It's WPCS? Okay. So, if you check the schematics, basically you're somehow losing it between the bridge rectifier and the filter cap and the land matrix circuit where the power comes in for that. It shouldn't be that tough to trace. Did you check out the schematics? Do you have schematics? Yeah, I got the schematics for it, and it's one of those top and bottom hole things, I think. Yeah, did you run the jumpers like you go to the Marvin page? Oh, yeah. You did? Okay, that's good. That's why I'm really confused, and I even went so far as this last time I hardwired tack wires just in case I was doing a bad job, and it still does it. Well, let me ask you this. When it goes out, if you put your hand on the lamp matrix chips, There's like a section of chips in there. Are any of them hot, like burn-your-finger type hot? I still have them on my fingers. But you did try this? Well, I checked the transistors, and none of them felt hot. I didn't check the drive chips. Well, I would check the chips. I would check the driver chips. You could put a kernel of popcorn on there, and if it makes it pop. I think you need a drop of oil. Yeah, you've got to have a drop of oil, too. Maybe you should ask questions to people that don't know the answers. Now it's something completely different. It's got to be fun and difficult, you know. It can't be easy. You know, seriously, I had a lamp matrix problem similar to this once, and I forget the chip. I probably documented it somewhere in the Marvin page, but it was very, very similar to this, and I put my hand on the chip, and you could feel it. It was, like, really hot. And I replaced that driver chip, and it was, I don't know, a 14- or a 16-pin chip, and I replace that and it fixed the problem. You know, that's a really silly test, you know, that you put your hand on it, but it actually is, you know, cheap and easy. You know, it's something I would check. I would also check the whole bus. I mean, if you check, like, the TPs, the test points on the board, and, you know, one's at 18 and then, you know, later down the line, you know, you're at 2, there's got to be something in between those two spots that's dragging it down like maybe there's once again I don't have the schematics in front of me but there might be a resistor that it goes through that maybe the resistor as it gets warm opens up and causes this problem too I think with some minor investigation and just your you know some simple heat test you know with your wife's hand Not your own because we wouldn't want to burn that You know you might be able to find this What if he's not married Okay with Norm's hand What if he's not married to me But what if he is I actually have an infrared thermometer There you go He's smarter than we are Which is insane a hell of a lot No I don't think it is It sounds like you're on the right path though Yeah, cool. I hadn't thought of that drive trip. I'll check that next. Okay, man. Take care. Hey, thanks, guys. All right. Bye-bye. All right. Norm, do you have any, you know, I think we're about done here for today. This was our test show, right? This was our dress rehearsal. How did people know about this? I told very few people. I told just your mother. How did people know that this show was, obviously you hyped it somewhere. You know, I put a post on the network, the network, on the news group, the pinball news group, just to kind of, you know, see. I didn't want to do it much ahead of time because I wasn't sure how well our bandwidth would hold up to a lot of listeners. So I've got another friend off-site, our buddy Korn. He is monitoring the number of people that are listening and checking the spikes and to make sure that everything is kind of going the way it should. But I think we're going to close it down for today. And, Norm, I appreciate you coming over. Look, you can see Norm's butt in the picture. So, Norm, I wanted to thank you, man. I really do appreciate you making the drive out here, and I hope you'll continue to do this for us. So when's the next time? The next time that I can get Norm's butt over here is the next show. So it may take a little convincing. I might have to send them some money. I find that almost everybody has to be bribed in order to do things like this. It's a good motivator. It's a good motivator for you, I've noticed. A really good motivator. But we really do appreciate everybody calling in, and we hope this was enjoyable. And we appreciate Mr. Korn's help. We couldn't have done this without him. He's been our off-site engineer and our on-site engineer, Mr. Shelberg from the Pin Game Journal. Well, that's the end. We appreciate all your time and effort and hope this worked out for everybody. Take care. Do I get the last word? Sure. Bye.