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How to Install the Earthshaker Sinking Building Mod

Cary Hardy·video·20m 49s·analyzed·Dec 12, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.015

TL;DR

Complete walkthrough of installing Earthshaker sinking building mod with mechanical and electrical integration.

Summary

Cary Hardy demonstrates a detailed installation of the Earthshaker Sinking Building mod, which restores the original mechanical functionality where the Earthquake Institute building retracts into the playfield. The video covers mechanical assembly, rivet removal, wiring harness connections to the interconnect board, and playfield integration with emphasis on clearance testing and cable management.

Key Claims

  • The Earthquake Institute building was originally designed to sink into the playfield but is typically static in most machines.

    high confidence · Opening statement about original intent of the game design; this is a well-known restoration target in the community

  • The mod kit includes well-crafted heavy-duty mechanics, detailed instructions with pictures, washers, wiring harness, and requires Phillips head screwdriver and quarter-inch socket for installation.

    high confidence · Direct inspection and listing of contents during unboxing

  • Rivet removal requires drilling out with a 5/32nd drill bit, with hand drill being preferable to drill press for this application.

    high confidence · Direct demonstration of both methods during installation

  • The wiring harness connects to J12, J8, J19 on the interconnect board and J1 on the power supply board.

    high confidence · Direct observation during connection process with labeled connectors

  • System 11 cabinet design makes installation difficult due to cable and light positioning, particularly when mounting the unit through the playfield.

    high confidence · First-hand experience during installation and commentary on cabinet constraints

Notable Quotes

  • “Everything is, looks and feels heavy duty. I'm a little impressed honestly”

    Cary Hardy@ 1:15 — Positive assessment of mod kit manufacturing quality

  • “The objective is to remove this bracket right here that's what it looks like this whole plastic piece is going to be attaching to the new unit so we no longer need this”

    Cary Hardy@ 4:12 — Explaining mechanical disassembly logic

  • “Just if you're curious on what size I used 5/32nd. That's the drill bit size I used”

    Cary Hardy@ 5:48 — Specific technical detail useful for viewers replicating the mod

  • “It's going to be a tricky part for people right here is making sure that you have full clearance around the mech and it's not going to be rubbing against the playfield.”

    Cary Hardy@ 17:23 — Warning about the most difficult aspect of installation

  • “I would keep note over this line that's right here to make sure you're not touching that”

    Cary Hardy@ 17:55 — Specific guidance on avoiding mechanical interference

Entities

Cary HardypersonEarthshakergameEarthquake InstituteproductSystem 11product

Signals

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Original Earthshaker design intent included sinking building mechanism, now being restored by aftermarket manufacturer

    medium · Opening premise that this was 'original intent' of the game design; implications that most existing machines have static building due to age/wear

  • ?

    product_strategy: Detailed mod kit includes comprehensive instructions, quality mechanical components, and engineered wiring harness with labeled connectors to prevent user error

    high · Unpacking commentary on kit contents, politely labeled interconnect board connections, pre-made wiring harness with keyed connectors

  • ?

    technology_signal: Aftermarket sinking building mod for Earthshaker represents restoration of original game intent through modern manufacturing and electronics integration

    high · Mod kit restores mechanical functionality that was lost or static in original machines; uses modern PCB wiring harness and precision mechanics

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.062

0:00
Here we are on Earthshaker. Now, the chances are if you own this game, more than likely your Earthquake Institute building is static, meaning it doesn't move. But, today I'm going to be showing you how to install the mod that allows the Earthquake Institute building to sink into the playfield, which, if you didn't already know, was its original intent. all right so the first thing we're going to do is get this play field up might be the first time i've ever had the play field completely vertical like this what we need to access is luckily all the way down here so oh man all right so this is not going to be as fun as I would like it to be. All right, let's go over what you're going to be getting inside of the box once you receive it. You're going to be getting this honestly very well-crafted mech. I mean, bravo. I mean, everything is, looks and feels pretty heavy duty. I'm a little impressed honestly so then you have your instructions that have pictures all throughout it we're going to be following this and then you're going to have two washers don't really know what those are for yet and your wiring harness this will probably be the last thing that we attach so all right let's get this out of the way for right now according to the instructions we're going to be needing a phillips head and a quarter inch socket so i believe we're going to need to access this whole mech i say mech it's not a mech right now but we need to remove the connector
2:23
that is inside this building right now. It doesn't look like that's gonna be as easy as I'd like it to be. Alright, now we need to remove both of these quarter-inch
2:53
all right according to the instructions we're gonna need to push this up through the top although I'm not seeing that possibility what's it catching on there There we go.
3:19
So that's been removed. I'm eventually gonna be doing a complete restore on this earth shaker, so I'm not gonna worry about getting this all cleaned up just yet.
3:29
But according to the instructions, I need to remove these two Phillips screws right here. And then I need to remove these rivets. A lot of you out there, that's probably gonna be challenging because I'm not sure how many of you have ever had to remove rivets before.
3:49
It's going to be fairly easy for me, so let's get these two Phillips screws out right now. Alright, so now those are removed.
4:03
I'm going to go ahead and, I don't need to, but I guess I'm going to go ahead and take this. Then typical. all right so the objective is to remove this bracket right here that's what it looks like this whole plastic piece is going to be attaching to the new unit so we no longer need this all right there's a couple of methods we can go about doing this rivet removal i'm going to i usually just use my hand drill. I do also have a drill press over here that would also work so we're going to try both methods and just see what happens.
5:04
Alright so by using that drill press I removed basically that washer portion which is holding that piece essentially in So what I going to do now is I going to use the actual hand drill and show you how I do it with this one over here.
5:37
So now that both of those washers There we go The rivets have been removed So needless to say Use the hand drill method guys. Just if you're curious on what size I used
5:55
532nd That's the drill bit size I used All right. Alright, so according to the instructions, I need to remove this side right here.
6:44
So, I don't know how long these screws are, but I may not have to remove it in its entirety, because the main objective here is just to get the institute building in the grooves that are located on these. and it looks like the screws are pretty lengthy so let's let's see here real quick so if i get this yeah so i need to get this in the groove but also get that portion in that slot so you've got this slot right here that this portion right here is supposed to go into guys that goes into that that stays in there this squeezes together on the other side so now that I'm in that groove I can hold this together and tighten these back up without actually having to remove anything. So with both of those tightened up the building is officially in the groove down there and the grooves on the sides and now we can test it to make sure it's actually going to work now we should be able to use a 9-volt battery oh that looks like it's working just fine to me nice and quiet too hold on let me get it connected again turn it around this way so you can see it
8:53
Oh yeah, that is nice. Stop it in the up position right there. Alright, so now I know that mechanically this thing should be good to go, and even electrically when it comes to just, you know, power. Alright, on to the next step. We got our back box completely opened up, speaker panels laying down because we're going to need to access the interconnect board that's down here. He has politely labeled every one of these to the correct socket that they go to. So that's honestly really good. Less likely for people to make a mistake. And three of these are going down here on the interconnect board. And this one says J1. This one's going to be going up to the power supply board up here. And we'll do that last. Like I said, we're following the instructions. So first up is J12, which is this one down here. All right, so J12. And then all you need to do is find the one that says J12 on here somewhere. J-19, J-12. All right and it keyed so shouldn be able to mess this up that how I got that installed there and I'm not too worried about wire management at this point because like I said I'm doing a complete restoration on this one so all this is gonna be coming out but if you're gonna be caring about your wire management then you might wanna do it right now. Next up is J8 and J19, these two right here.
10:55
J8 down here. Which one says J8? This one says J8. It's keyed just like the last one, so that goes there. it slides back into the board and this one right here is J 19 18 is it this it's got to be this one right here can't see it worth a dang where did that go this one's gonna be a little tricky to access it looks like because everything else is in the way this isn't gonna be as challenging for you guys at home because you're not gonna be trying to record this. So now that's in position. Now the only thing I've got left to do is power going to the power supply. So the power supply one is right here. Once again, keyed. and there we go so now we're all connected to where the game should know how to use it and then all we got to do now is just run this cable down through the back box underneath the playfield all right let's go to the playfield i can see the cables down here all right so that definitely should be plenty long enough to reach right there all right what's the next instruction say all right it says that we're going to test the unit using the game now so all right so i'm going to connect this to that.
13:28
And it says, hold the assembly loosely in your hand and power up the game. The Institute should reset automatically. The Institute will bob up and down once or twice as the unit homes itself. All right, here we go.
13:49
Well, looks like it did what it's supposed to do. So, we'll turn off the game now. Alright, so it looks like the unit should work. So the Institute is supposed to go back through this hole from underneath the playfield. Now the instructions tell me in order to make that happen I've got to remove this wire loom ring and this wire loom ring right here in order for it to get in there. Ouch! So I'm going to be removing this and there's another quarter inch over here. I'll be removing that so I can get this wire loom out of the way. I now have a fully assembled unit.
14:52
PCB board on the back, shielding on the front. Basically, what we're going to have to do is that we're going to have to make our way back into this game by maneuvering around all of the cabling and the lights all right so we're now in the slot and it also tells me that i'm gonna have to do a visual lineup to make sure that this is possibly not going to be hitting the ramp behind it It goes over that in the instructions And I guess you want to make sure that you not going to be hitting anything on the front whenever it's going back into the playfield. And I'm going to have to drill new holes it looks like man it's gonna be a lot easier on my new play field so I can get it on the rotisserie or lift this plate bill out of here so I could really access everything it just sucks the positioning of where this damn thing is and how these system 11s work I'm not just take it out of the damn cabinet plate field and flip it over just so i can easily do this all right so change of plans guys i have got the plate filled upside down utilizing my um uh plate field jacks i merely just wanted to get this on here to show you how i'll also uh use the battery trick again to lower this down so that way I can make sure that I've got full clearance of the play field but we're going to maneuver this if we can just these wires that are in the way are a major hindrance to this I'm going to put the wires above so I can actually see and that actually might be better because I can position it and the wires will hold it steady. Make sure it's not rubbing back there on anything. Yeah so this is definitely going to be a tricky part for people right here is making sure that you've got full clearance around the mech and it's not going to be rubbing against the playfield. Now I would love to tell you that this was easy but sadly it wasn't. Getting these two screws for this mount when you've got this bundle of joy right here in your way is not easy so this is definitely going to be a process especially if you keep the play field in the cabinet I would keep note over this GI line that's right here to make sure you're not touching that I don't see a reason for me to make sure that these are all nice and strapped down at least on this play field because I'm gonna be taking it all apart anyways. I've got the illumination for all those on this building all connected again. That connector is back in there so all I need to do is get the playfield swapped over, mount this to that connector, and I made sure I've got clearance for the front of the building so it shouldn't be rubbing on anything. Matter of fact I guess I can get the battery over here we can test it. Looks like smooth sailing, nothing rubbing against the playfield. All right, let's get this playfield back on the right orientation. All right, we're all connected back over here. Lower this playfield down. So something else they mentioned in the instructions is that the repro ramps sometimes they're a little wider so you got to watch out for this corner right here to make sure you're not going to be rubbing into those now I do have the repro ramp so I guess that's something I will be looking out for whenever I do that install but it looks like we got plenty of clearance right there alright guys we're gonna do we're gonna power it on now see how things look it looks like it's all honed up and we're gonna test it out in action now definitely curious
20:00
It looks like it works, but I'm curious about the guard rail up here. An adjustment to this right here or something. Make sure it's able to go a little farther over, otherwise sometimes it comes down here like that. But luckily it's got a built in, you know, ball search, so even if it was to get stuck right there.
20:36
So there is that. There you go. The sinking building mod is successfully installed.