Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Renting Pants, Exploded Electronics & Space Ships | Twilight Zone Pinball Repair Chaos & More!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·25m 29s·analyzed·May 26, 2026
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

Mike repairs battery corrosion on Twilight Zone MPU and upgrades sound ROMs while recovering.

Summary

Mike Dimes records a casual basement episode of Pinball Shenanigans while recovering from a back injury, showing off collectibles including a promotional Independence Day spaceship toy and speaker panel cutouts. He performs extensive repair work on his recently acquired Twilight Zone pinball machine, addressing battery corrosion damage on the MPU and upgrading sound ROMs from L1 to L2, while discovering a failed tantalum capacitor on the sound board. Guest Rob Noel stops by to sell his newly published travel memoir 'Would You Like to Rent Some Pants and Other Travel Stories.'

Key Claims

  • Twilight Zone pinball had extensive battery corrosion damage on the MPU with fuzzy chips and green oxidation

    high confidence · Mike Dimes, directly observed and documented during repair segment

  • The Twilight Zone was experiencing phantom switch closures and diagnostic button beeping caused by battery leakage

    high confidence · Mike Dimes, explained during MPU diagnosis and battery removal

  • Sound ROMs were upgraded from L1 to L2 revision on Twilight Zone

    high confidence · Mike Dimes, documented during sound board swap

  • The tantalum capacitor failure on the sound board may cascade to other capacitors if only one is replaced

    medium confidence · Mike Dimes, citing research on tantalum capacitor replacement practices

  • The Independence Day spaceship toy was a promotional item from Sega (circa 1996-1997), not an in-game playfield toy

    high confidence · Mike Dimes, clarified after initial assumption and confirmed by Mike Hanley

Notable Quotes

  • “So, this has probably been double damaged and uh I don't know just how bad or repairable it is.”

    Mike Dimes @ ~26:00 — Describes the severity of battery corrosion damage to Twilight Zone MPU after multiple leakage events

  • “I am not equipped to uh deal with this. So, I either have to send it out, buy a new board, sell this one to help recoup the costs, or just kind of clean it up and hope it lasts for a while.”

    Mike Dimes @ ~30:00 — Acknowledges limitations in board-level repair capabilities and outlines mitigation options

  • “It says that if you just replace one, then another one might explode. And then if you replace that one, then maybe another one will explode.”

    Mike Dimes @ ~48:00 — Describes the cascading failure risk of tantalum capacitors when replacements are done individually

  • “To Mike My favorite shenanigander flippin... nice mofo I know. It even rhymes.”

    Rob Noel @ ~20:00 — Book inscription shows community camaraderie and the term 'Shenanigander' as community identifier

  • “Hyperdrive engaged.”

    Independence Day spaceship toy (audio) @ ~12:00 — Demonstrates the working electronics and voice functionality of the promotional toy

Entities

Mike DimespersonRob NoelpersonMike HanleypersonJeremypersonDave AstillpersonCoreypersonDan SchadekpersonRob VieirapersonTwilight Zonegame

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Twilight Zone MPU exhibited extensive battery leakage damage with green oxidation, fuzzy IC chips, and double-damage from sequential battery failures. Previous repair attempt replaced a corroded chip without addressing battery leakage, leading to second failure.

    high · Mike directly documented and cleaned battery corrosion area, found green oxidation, double-damaged IC chip, and discussed difficulty in full remediation without board replacement

  • ?

    product_concern: Twilight Zone sound board exhibited exploded/failed tantalum capacitor (1µF 35V), indicating potential cascading failures across ~10 similar components on the board if replacements are made individually.

    high · Mike observed visible capacitor damage, researched replacement protocol, and found documentation warning of cascade failure risk

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Mike performed hands-on MPU battery replacement, corrosion cleaning with vinegar and isopropyl alcohol baths, and sound ROM upgrades on Twilight Zone. Recognized his skill limitations for full board-level repair and discussed outsourcing vs. best-effort cleaning approach.

    high · Detailed documentation of repair steps, tool choices, testing methodology, and explicit discussion of when to defer to professionals

  • ?

    code_update: Twilight Zone sound ROMs upgraded from L1 to L2 revision; purpose/differences not specified but characterized as 'latest and greatest' with likely improvements.

    high · Mike replaced L1 sound ROMs with L2 on sound board; obtained from pinballrom.com; noted probable improvements without specific details

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:01
Okay, maybe I'm not done playing with it just yet. Okay, now I am. I'm Mike Dimes [music] and this is Pinball Shenanigans.
0:14
[music]
0:14
[music] >> That's one leap for man, Okay, it's my first time recording in the basement for an episode of anything because I was down for the count with my back, but I am slowly getting better and thought that I would come into the basement, see if I can fart around for a bit and do some miscellaneous shenanigans. We're going to play a little game of show and tell. This was the first prize the first prize plies. This was the first place prize at Forked River when I won couple tournaments ago, so that's cool. This is something that a dude named Jeremy, fellow Shenanigander, gave to me. This is a set of PCB release tools. He gave me, I think, four sets, so I gave one went to Corey, one went to Dan Schadek, one went to Rob Vieira, I think maybe one went to Kevin and Dutch and one went to me. So, these are pretty cool. I haven't tested them yet, but this is um you know, when you're trying to remove circuit boards, like and they've got those little um plastic spacers that you got to try and squeeze with your fingers or uh pliers. Uh Gottlieb has like they include these tools in a lot of their old games and you know, this is a remnants of that. This is a PCB removal tool. And uh also, I think, Gottlieb provided like copper ones as well that were made of metal or some sort of metal and anyway Jeremy made a whole set of 3D printed here and they've got all different sizes and they're printed right on there somewhere. I can't read that, but we've got 3 mm to 4.25 mm. So, thanks Jeremy for this little set. I'm sure that will come in handy.
Independence Day
game
Getawaygame
Segacompany
Forked Rivervenue
Pinball Expoevent

community_signal: Community member Jeremy designed and 3D-printed PCB release tool sets (3mm-4.25mm sizes) and distributed multiple sets to community members including Mike Dimes, Corey, Dan Schadek, Rob Vieira, and Kevin.

high · Mike received and documented the tool set, explained its purpose for chip removal, and noted distribution to multiple named community members

  • ?

    collector_signal: Mike acquired a Sega Independence Day promotional spaceship toy (circa 1996-1997) from Mike Hanley for $20. Item featured working electronics including voice clips ('Hyperdrive engaged') and laser/weapons firing mechanism.

    high · Mike documented the toy's features, interaction with Mike Hanley regarding its origin as promotional item rather than playfield toy, and functional testing

  • ?

    collector_signal: Mike has collected multiple vintage speaker panel promotional cutouts from games including Twilight Zone, Dracula, Congo, Party Zone, Popeye, Whitewater, World Cup Soccer, Getaway, and Fishtales. Items featured peel-off backing or nail mounting.

    high · Mike displayed and discussed collection of speaker panel cutouts, explaining their promotional printing/distribution purpose

  • ?

    content_signal: Rob Noel made unannounced visit to sell newly published travel memoir 'Would You Like to Rent Some Pants and Other Travel Stories'. Mike featured reading of opening chapter on the episode.

    high · Rob Noel appears in video with published book (copy #5005), Mike obtains signed copy, and Mike reads first chapter as episode outro

  • ?

    operational_signal: Mike performed systematic testing of Twilight Zone repairs including: factory settings reset, diagnostic menu navigation, button functionality testing, time/date persistence testing with battery power-off cycle, and voltage verification at RAM chip pin 28.

    high · Mike documented each test step, explained purpose of tests (battery functionality verification), and showed positive results confirming battery replacement success

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Twilight Zone cabinet was missing keychain plastic component; Mike obtained and installed replacement keychain plastic as part of restoration work.

    medium · Mike mentioned 'There was no keychain plastic on my Twilight Zone, and now there is' during parts restoration segment

  • ?

    venue_signal: Mike Dimes has competed in pinball tournaments at Forked River venue and won first place in at least one tournament competition.

    high · Mike referenced Forked River tournament victory as source of first-place prize received from tournament

    • 2:24
    Also when Mike Hanley came into town to buy his old Star Wars Episode 1 prototype playfield back from me, I bought this. This is a spaceship from Independence Day the movie {slash} pinball machine. I bought it because I thought it was actually in the machine. Independence Day was made by Sega in 1996 and had this interesting shot in the middle that would open up and you could shoot your balls in it. And it is a monster's toy. So, I was surprised that it would actually fit in the machine, but you know, Sega did some crazy things back in the day. Uh turns out this was just sort of a like a promotional item that they were selling or giving away or whatever at Pinball Expo probably in 1997 and Mike Hanley has had it since. I bought it off him for 20 bucks cuz I thought it was cool. And look what I just discovered. Wait, what what here? How cool is that? Also, it does this.
    3:30
    And oh, look. What's this? Little tailpipe or something. Now, I want to install some batteries and see what happens.
    3:42
    Jam these in here one-handed. Oh, probably should test them cuz I didn't test them and I was planning on testing them but I didn't. But let's see what happens. Do we get lights? Do we get sounds? Do we get action? Nothing. We know what that does. Hyperdrive engaged. Ooh, we got voice and light.
    4:09
    Ooh, this is cooler than I was expecting. What does this button do? Oh, wait. This looks like a compartment. Does this come up? Is that what this is for? Oh, see that? Looks like somebody's been jamming in there to try and open it, possibly.
    4:30
    Pretty cool. This thing probably opens
    4:30
    Pretty cool. This thing probably opens up, too. I looked online. There's definitely some more parts and pieces that uh belong to this, but you know, for $20 I think Hyperdrive engaged. [laughter] I did all right. I pried my way in here. Let's see if there's anything.
    4:50
    Oh. Cool. Wonder if a battery goes in there? All right, I got the screws removed. What do we get?
    5:04
    Nothing? We got nothing. Okay, I figured it out. It is a laser shooting device and you have to
    5:14
    not press that button. You press this button. No, you press here. Ouch. And the lasers or bombs or rockets or whatever would fire out here. And actually, there's a couple buttons on the side that look like they would release the weapons. Pretty cool. What these lights look like in the dark?
    5:39
    Ooh. Pretty cool. I'm surprised they still work. >> [laughter]
    5:49
    All right, I think I'm done playing with
    5:49
    All right, I think I'm done playing with this toy. I'm going to hang it in the basement somewhere, but it also has this handy compartment here where you can hide your stash. You know, if this was like hash and it was actually illegal.
    6:05
    Perfect. Okay, maybe I'm not done playing with it just yet. Okay, now I am. Well, this thing can hang out here for now unless I find a better spot. Okay, now I got to find a home for this guy. These guys are actually speaker panel cutouts and they're used for promotional purposes. So, when they like printed off the speaker panels, this would actually be like that and it would be printed like that and then they cut them out and they give them away and they're really cool. I've collected several of these over the years. I got Twilight Zone, Dracula, Congo, we've got Party Zone, Popeye, Whitewater, over here I've got World Cup Soccer and Getaway. They all had backing that you could peel off and stick. But uh sometimes there's just a little hole and stick them up with a nail. And now I've got Fishtales. My buddy Rob Noel just randomly showed up to sell me a book that he just wrote. So, here's that. Hey, look who just showed up randomly and what do you got here for me? I wrote a book. That's pretty cool. >> It's called Would You Like to Rent Some
    7:21
    It's called Would You Like to Rent Some
    7:21
    It's called Would You Like to Rent Some Pants and Other Travel Stories after something that happened to me in Peru. I used to travel the world and I tell stories and people would say, "Rob, you should write a book one day." And I finally got around to it. >> actually did it and I asked for a copy.
    7:33
    actually did it and I asked for a copy.
    7:33
    actually did it and I asked for a copy. This is what, copy number five? Off the off the press. We'll call it five, okay. >> You wanted to be number one.
    7:38
    You wanted to be number one.
    7:39
    You wanted to be number one. >> It's 5,005.
    7:41
    It's 5,005.
    7:41
    It's 5,005. That's what it is. >> have been the fifth person to say you
    7:43
    have been the fifth person to say you
    7:43
    have been the fifth person to say you wanted one, but this is not the fifth book in Okay. All right, well, let's get the signature and make it official. Come on now. To Mike My favorite
    7:58
    shenanigander flippin Haha, nice. >> mofo
    7:59
    mofo
    8:00
    mofo I know. It even rhymes. There it is. All right, cool. Now, I just got to remember how to read. That is the challenge. Okay, I took a little back Okay, I took a little back break, had a little snooze, and now I am back for some more action. Couple weeks ago, I knocked the freaking tin foil right off my chimichanga. So, now it's time to reinstall that. My poor chimichanga must feel so naked. There we go, that's much better. Leave, come to see me and hang out with me. What you going to do?
    8:38
    I'm going to leave. Okay. Good hanging out. Bye-bye. Okay, since my back is still semi-broken, I won't be lifting up any playfields tonight, including my getaway or my new Twilight Zone, but I did get new sound ROMs, and I think I'm going to go ahead and install those. And I do know that there is some corrosion in the battery zone and some fuzzy chips, so I'm going to have to try and clean that up a bit as well. And I think I should be able to manage that. Also, there was no keychain plastic on my Twilight Zone, and now there is. All right, I removed the MPU thinking I was going to change the sound ROMs, but uh of course the sound ROMs are on the sound board, not on the MPU. But, there is work that I wanted and needed to do on this thing. Actually, just last night I had the machine in attract mode, and it it beeping by itself. It was the diagnostic buttons. And there's a good chance that it's because of this. So, that is not very good news. So, it appears as though old batteries leaked and caused all this damage. And then someone changed this particular chip and then proceeded to stick on some new batteries and then they leaked all over the new chip. So, this has probably been double damaged and uh I don't know just how bad or repairable it is. I'm just going to try and clean it up for now. Um and remove this battery holder and hope for the best, but I do not have the skills to you know, remediate this whole board and replace all these IC chips, not without tearing up a thousand traces. Oh, yeah. And the reason why I suspect it could be this area of the MPU that is causing my cabinet switch issues, that's why. It is right in the danger zone. All right, check this out. Got the battery thing removed. And uh the damage is pretty extensive.
    11:06
    I am not equipped to uh deal with this. So, I either have to send it out, buy a new board, sell this one to help recoup the costs, or just kind of clean it up and hope it lasts for a while. I think I will at least try to just sort of clean it up a little bit while I decide what the uh ultimate solution is, but all this dark area of the PCB that ain't good. And obviously green is very bad. Let's have a look under this IC chip. Uh, more green. All right, I've cleaned up some of the corrosion. Now it's time for a little vinegar bath.
    11:58
    And if it's bubbling, that means it's working. All right, now time to uh clean everything up with some isopropyl alcohol. I typically like to use the good stuff, but I bought this recently and I don't feel like just dumping it into the sink so that I can fill it with the good stuff. So, 70% it is. And although this is cleaning up all right, it's definitely not a long-term solution. It may work, it may not. May last a week, it may last a year. Who knows? We'll find out though, and if I can get some more life out of this, I'd be happy. Okay, I got my chip legs cleaned up. The top of the legs are a little crusty still, but I don't really care about that. It's the legs that matter. So, I will install that. >> [snorts]
    12:56
    And the good news is that damage
    12:56
    And the good news is that damage didn't come down all the way to the switch connectors, and they're still nice and shiny, which means that they're good. And the uh female connectors should all be good, too, and I won't need to re-pin those. Okay, my board is all dried up using this handy tool. Now it is time to add a battery pack. And it is a good idea to use matching colors to extend the wires cuz these wires are too short. So, I am using a matching pair of white and red wires. I won't need to install a diode on this battery pack because on these WPC MPUs, there is a diode right here that prevents any charging attempts to the batteries, which could explode them. And now for some color matching shrink tube, I picked green to match the color of the corrosion. Okay, so you just solder the black lead, which is now red and white, into the bottom left, and the red lead, which is now red and white, into the top right, and should be good to go. Also, it's a good idea to potentially add a little connector on this line here, which I did not do. Okay, I got the MPU reinstalled. I left one battery out so we can see what happens when you power it on without batteries, which is the case that I had when I got this back in the basement. I did not have batteries installed. So, let's see firstly if the machine still actually works
    14:38
    Yes, it does. And that's what it says when you don't have batteries. So, now I will pop in the battery and see if uh that actually worked. I completely forgot this ribbon cable and it still worked. What is that for? I don't know, some auxiliary board or something. I just remembered when I was having the weird symptoms in the phantom switch closures, this um button stopped working. So, I want to turn on the machine and set the time and date to see if it saves it, but uh let's see if this button even works. Turn on the machine.
    15:24
    We should get our factory settings restored. message and now let's see if I can navigate testing revision Whoa, that's loud. Let's turn that down. Now let's see if this button works. Yay! test report gumball enter switch Uh time and date not set. Okay. Let's remedy that. Okay, I can't find time and date, but I did find minimum volume override, which means when I turn the machine it's going to be loud unless I override it. So now I can turn it below Uh let's go back here. I can turn it
    16:11
    below I think it's like eight or something. You can't turn it this far down unless you override it. I guess at the bars they wanted it nice and loud, so it came factory settings like eight or nine or whatever it is. Anyway, so now that I have it set for uh let's go We'll put the volume at six. And we know we've got the override turned on, so let's turn off the machine for 5 minutes, then turn it back on and see if our battery thing actually worked. Okay, it's not been quite 5 minutes, but close enough. Let's turn on the machine. See if we get the factory adjustment message. We do not. That is good news.
    17:11
    Look at that, it saved. I just turned it up one notch. And >> [music]
    17:16
    [music]
    17:16
    [music] >> let's [snorts] go
    17:20
    let's [snorts] go
    17:20
    let's [snorts] go to adjustment standard and go to Where is it? Minimum volume override is a yes. So, that preserved. Okay. Okay, we're going to do one last test and see what the voltage is that is going to the batteries and make sure it is proper. It's supposed to be about 3.5. You're probably not going to be able to see anything, but uh I got to just check the voltage at pin 28 of the RAM chip, which is U8. So, let's see.
    18:17
    I think that's okay. I found the time and date setting. There we go. Time and date set. Okay, now let's remove the soundboard and actually change the sound ROMs. All right, here we have the soundboard and I am running L1 sound ROMs. And here we have the L2, which is the latest and greatest. I've no idea what the difference is, but uh probably some improvement. And these came from Dave Astill@pinballrom.com.
    19:00
    So, I probably could have done this in the machine, but uh that would have been a little more awkward. So, I'm going to do it on the bench. And I really do got to get rid of this vinegar. It is getting kind of nauseating. Okay, I got my sound ROMs carefully Notches are even on the right side. So, let's stick this in and probably not notice any difference. Check this out. I was just making sure the fuse values were correct. These are both 3 amp slow blows. I haven't checked if that's what they're supposed to be, but I am suspecting they are correct, but look at this. We have a minor explosion here. So, I think that is called a tantalum capacitor. And I remember once upon a time I turned on a T2 that had been stored for a couple decades and one of the tantalum capacitors exploded. Ready? 3 2 1.
    19:59
    And we got explosions. That's probably what happened here. It didn't stop the functionality of the sound, but I think I probably should replace that. So, I did some research and these are indeed 1 UF 35 V axial tantalum capacitors and I should replace them with 50 V variety. Uh it says that if you just just replace one, then another one might explode. And then if you replace that one, then maybe another one will explode. And there's like 10 of them on this board. I don't really want to do that. So, I'm hoping if I replace that one or maybe even those three, that might be okay. So, now I need to find me some capacitors, which I doubt I have in stock, but I'll take a look. Sadly, I checked and I do not have any of these guys in stock. So, I'm going to wrap up the video for now. In the meanwhile, enjoy a little short story from Rob Noel's new book. I think a good way to end this video is to actually read one of Rob Noel's chapters, the first one. The chapter named after the book or the book is named after the chapter. Either way, would you like to rent some pants? Here we go. Lima, Peru is a city of 7 million people or so, dirty, beautiful, rich, poor, chaotic, and all, well, more chaotic all at once. Somehow, I had lost a little bit of paper that I needed for me to leave the country. I have no memory of losing it, nor any memory of what it felt like when I learned I couldn't leave the country without it, which must have been annoying. I just remembered what I did about it. I should also mention that I should read this quick. I like to logically tell people that the best time to travel the world in your 20s is in your 20s. If you wait too long, it's too late. Somehow, at an early age, I knew the time to travel the world was now. So, this is Rob in his 20s. I took a green VW bug taxi across the city to go to some government office that could resupply me with a little piece of paper I needed. When I approached the front doors of this imposing bit of Latin American bureaucratic architecture, the security guard lowered his machine gun to block my entrance and shook his head. Without a word, he then pointed the gun, using it only as a pointer to my legs. As so often is the case in my life, I was terribly underdressed. His message was clear, no shorts allowed. Ugh. Rejected and dejected, I began to walk away. I know I had having been so dumb and have taken such a long and expensive taxi ride for nothing. But then I heard the voice call out, "Sir, sir, would you like to rent some pants?" It was coming from a man behind a newspaper booth. Those booths used to see back when people read newspapers, selling papers from around the world, as well as chiclets, ice cream, and shockingly pornographic comic books. I have pants for you. Apparently, I wasn't the first nor the last fool to show up in an inappropriate attire. So, he sizes me up, hands me a pair of pants from his collection of both women's and men's rentable clothes and puts me behind a dirty little curtain for a change room and I quickly reap- reappear with some dignity of sorts. Not the best fitting pants, but they were pants. So, I again approach the doors of the government offices and the security guard gives me a wry smile and welcomes me in. I find the right door and the right counter and tell the man there who will call Senior Alejandro Marquez Velasquez Gonzalez why I am there and what I need. He tells me ever so politely that he indeed can sign some little bit of paper that without I cannot leave the country, but he's about to have lunch and could I please return in an hour. Wanting to slap him, all I could do was say, "Certainly, sir, and I hope you enjoy lunch thoroughly." Then I returned to my man at the newspaper booth and, as is my nature, made some friends. We chatted. I told some jokes. I bought a round of ice creams for some kids and a few adults and I happily passed the time. An hour or so later, I easily passed security and returned to Senior Alejandro Marquez Velasquez Gonzalez. "How was your lunch, sir?" I inquired. "Excellent, thank you. Now I'm ready to sign your paper." He pulled out a very nice pen, took a short but dramatic pause, and then in the most flowy and dramatic fashion, he produced what I would say was the longest and most beautiful signature I've ever seen. It became abundantly clear why asking him to create it on an empty stomach would be unthinkable. It was a work of art and he a master calligraphist. And with it, I could now leave the country. I went back to the booth to return the pants and my ever so industrious capitalist friend tried in a very friendly way to charge me double >> [laughter]
    24:53
    [laughter]
    24:53
    [laughter] >> as I had entered the building in his
    24:55
    as I had entered the building in his
    24:55
    as I had entered the building in his pants twice. I reminded them that I purchased about a dozen ice creams, a few packs of Chiclets, and quite a number of their beloved Inca Koalas, a disgustingly sugary yellow soft drink that tastes like bubble gum, and must have the Incas rolling in their tombs. And for this I should be forgiven the second charge, to which he agreed. I left his booth, now able to leave the country thanks to my man's help, thinking, "You could tell this tale in a business school. Business 101, where there is demand, supply will follow."