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Panthera Pinball Sound is Fighting Back! 😡🔊 Can I Get This Thing Working? Mars God of War is ready!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·22m 2s·analyzed·Aug 1, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.013

TL;DR

Panthera sound and prepping Mars God of War for sale with detailed diagnostics.

Summary

Mike Boon works on Panthera pinball (fixing sound issues with a faulty soundboard and power supply connections) and Mars God of War (which he confirms is mostly functional). He documents his diagnostic process, identifies bad diodes and a loose transformer connection on Panthera, and successfully brings Mars God of War to working condition for sale. He also catalogs his collection of playfield parts (Black Hole, Kings of Steel, Firepower, Xenon, Gold Wings) stored in his garage.

Key Claims

  • Trizone has been listed for sale with zero interest and zero hits despite $1,000 in parts

    high confidence · Mike Boon, opening statement about current inventory status

  • Panthera's sound issues stem from bad diodes in a bridge rectifier on the soundboard and a loose/unsoldered transformer connection causing arcing

    high confidence · Mike Boon, detailed diagnostics showing failed components and visible sparking/smoke

  • Mars God of War power supply had 'sus voltages' but testing showed voltages were actually good across the board

    high confidence · Mike Boon, voltage measurements on Mars God of Mars God of War (12V, 5V, 43V solenoid)

  • Mars God of War is mostly functional with displays, sound, general illumination, and tube light working

    high confidence · Mike Boon, hands-on testing showing game boots, plays audio, and ramps respond

  • Panthera locked up when credits were added, possibly due to soundboard or firmware issue

    medium confidence · Mike Boon, observing MPU crash during credit insertion and free-play jumper discovery

Notable Quotes

  • “I have already done that to Trizone and I've got a total number of zero interest and zero hits. So, I might have to lower my price.”

    Mike Boon @ 0:15-0:45 — Reveals market challenges selling used pinball machines even with parts value justifying the price

  • “And then the last, it's a very rusty, but still useful. Can you tell what it is? Have any guesses? It'll be pretty tough to tell, but it is Gold Wings.”

    Mike Boon @ ~8:30 — Demonstrates parts sourcing from defunct machines and the value of maintaining a parts inventory

  • “I noticed that um this bridge rectifier here, it's for um power supply soundboard. So, this guy could be suspect.”

    Mike Boon @ ~14:00 — Shows systematic troubleshooting methodology on vintage pinball electronics

  • “I heard a little spark and uh if you look closely that is not even soldered on. So that's probably uh arcing and not giving us the voltage we need.”

    Mike Boon @ ~17:30 — Critical diagnostic breakthrough identifying the root cause of Panthera's power/sound issues

  • “So, this is a good uh project machine for someone. I don't know what was going on with the random flippers not working there, but okay.”

    Mike Boon @ ~27:00 — Indicates Mars God of War still has minor issues but is ready for the secondary market

Entities

Mike BoonpersonPantheragameMars God of WargameTri ZonegameNightmare on Elm StreetgameRotten DogcompanyGreg Walkerperson[name withheld pending review]person/entityBlack Holegame

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Panthera soundboard has multiple failure points (bad bridge rectifier diodes, loose/unsoldered transformer connection, volume pot wiring issues) requiring extensive diagnostics and repair

    high · Visible arcing, smoke, bad diodes on soundboard, and loose transformer connection; sound still non-functional after repairs

  • ?

    operational_signal: Mike maintains a significant playfield parts graveyard (Black Hole, Kings of Steel, Firepower, Xenon, Gold Wings) for sourcing components like solenoids, switches, harnesses, and misc hardware

    high · Detailed catalog of 6 playfield machines being cannibalized for parts, described as 'gold mine' of components

  • $

    market_signal: Trizone listed for $2,350 then reduced to $2,250 despite $1,000 in parts value; zero buyer interest recorded, suggesting market saturation or pricing misalignment for lower-tier restoration projects

    high · Mike's statement: 'I have already done that to Trizone and I've got a total number of zero interest and zero hits. So, I might have to lower my price.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Mike has multiple machines in restoration queue at various stages: Panthera (sound repair ongoing), Mars God of War (nearly complete), Rock (boot issues), and Grand Lizard (planned)

    high · Explicit listing of restoration pipeline and move to list Mars and Panthera as 'working projects' for sale

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Mike employs systematic troubleshooting approach: voltage testing on bridge rectifiers, transformer connection checks, MPU crash analysis, and swap-testing with alternate soundboards

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:03
All right, I'm back in the DUI garage and my goal for today is to try and get Pantherra its sound back and basically get Mars God of War and Pantherra listed on the market as working projects. I have already done that to Trizone and I've got a total number of zero interest and zero hits. So, I might have to lower my price. I mean, there's $1,000 in parts in this thing if you just include the Rotten Dog combo MPU and the displays. And that's like uh yeah, 1,000 bucks. So, I listed it for 2350, just dropped it to 2250. We'll see what happens. Nightmare on Elm Street is gone and delivered to Benzy. So, once I get this stuff sold, then I might move on to um rock. I'll set that up. and oh, Grand Lizard. So, I'll have my fun with those. This one's working. I don't think it needs a lot. Rock. Uh, when I picked that up a long time ago. It wasn't booting up properly, so it's going to need some attention. Not sure what just yet. Someone made a comment asking, "Oh, I wonder what the playfields are that are back here." So, here you go. We've got a black hole. Uh, lots of good parts on here.
1:57
And these are uh great to have for miscellaneous bits and pieces. There's a gold mine of parts. Uh, like this is uh Kings of Steel. So, I mean, if I need solenoids, switches, lamp sockets, miscellaneous screws, uh, it's just got a little bit of everything. How's the playfield look on this? Look at that. Playfield itself is in pretty damn good shape. I bet you a guy like Greg Walker from Fantastic Pinball might be interested in this, but I'm not quite done with it. Uh then I have a firepower. I got this with my quicks playfield in the in the same location and that's where I turned the populated mostly populated Quicksilver playfield into a complete machine that turned out amazing with the help of the Grazley garage. Uh this is a little bit bent, but this is a pretty good shape firepower. Usually this area here is pretty blown out. So that could technically be salvageable cuz the bottom look how packed this thing is. Holy crap. That is got a lot of stuff on it. So this I don't think I've There's a little bit of hackery going. Oh, what? This harness is something. Maybe that's for um I bet that's for Kings of Steel. So maybe I'll take that home. That could be good to either sell or use. Although I do have some wire harness stuff at home to to utilize if needed and when needed. This here, what is this again? This I believe is my xenon.
Kings of Steel
game
Firepowergame
Quicksilvergame
Xenongame
Gold Wingsgame
Rockgame
Grand Lizardgame
Benzyperson
Pinball Shenanigansorganization

high · Detailed diode testing sequence, transformer voltage measurements, soundboard swapping to isolate faults

  • ?

    product_concern: Rotten Dog aftermarket power supply design criticized for using unusual European-style fuses not readily available; may indicate parts sourcing or reliability issues

    medium · Mike's statement: 'I don't know why Rotten Dog would use this weird style fuse that you normally see on like Pascal boards from Europe'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Mike successfully converted a populated Quicksilver playfield into a complete working machine with external help (Grazley garage), demonstrating feasibility of custom restoration projects

    high · Explicit reference to Quicksilver project turning 'into a complete machine that turned out amazing with the help of the Grazley garage'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Mars God of War exhibits minor intermittent flipper glitches during testing but otherwise passes functional checks for displays, sound, ramps, bumpers, and slingshots

    high · Flippers initially unresponsive, then responsive; described as 'mostly functional' and ready for sale despite unknown cause of intermittent issue

    • 3:59
    It's getting really heavy on my gut here. A lot of things are poking into my uh body. Uh this playfield's not in remarkable condition, but again, good for parts. And then the last, it's a very rusty, but still useful. Can you tell what it is? Have any guesses? It'll be pretty tough to tell, but it is Gold Wings.
    4:32
    Check that out. Very rusty gold wings. Anyway, that's what's in the Playfield graveyard. So, I'm going to move on to uh Panther. See if I can get the sound to work once and for all. I'm Mike Dus and this is Pinball Shenanigans.
    5:11
    Here's a brief summary. When I turned on the machine before I smelt burning, I finally narrowed it down to these two diodes, which form a bridge rectifier on this soundboard. I popped in this other soundboard that I've never tested before just to see what would happen. Nothing happened. So, I brought this board home, replaced the bad diodes, popped it into the machine, and maybe somewhere around that time I lost my 5 volts. I have an aftermarket rotten dog power supply and you can see clearly that 5V LED is not on. So I'm guessing that maybe this fuse is blown and this is a really dumb fuse. Is that a fuse or is that uh one of those inductors? It could be an inductor actually. Maybe it is a fuse. I'm not sure. I don't know why Rotten Dog would use this weird style fuse that you normally see on like Pascal boards from Europe. I do have some of those style fuses at home. That's not helpful right now. So, I do have a completely refurbished system 80 power supply and I have an my old Mars God of War power supply that says it works but sus voltages are good. Why is it sus? I don't know why it's sus. Um, but I don't really want to blow up either board really. But if I'm going to blow up any board, prefer to blow this one up. So maybe I'll pop that in and see what happens. Okay, I just have the uh input connector connected on this old Mars God War power supply. Not this Mars God of War, my other old one. And let's see what happens. Thinking that LED should light. Got a 5V LED, a 12vt LED, but uh that does not appear to be happening. H okay then. I'm not probably going to be able to do this onehanded. So, I'm going to have to um come back and let you know what I find. All right. Well, looks like uh I'm not getting a whole lot of voltage according to this. The leftmost wire should give me 12 volts. I got one. And the uh end connector should give me eight for my displays. I get one uh there. I got 43 volts for solenoids. This should also be 43. Yep. And then here's my 5 volts.
    8:40
    And another five volts here, looks like. So, it appears as though the power supply is not the issue. I got to go further downstream. All right. So, I noticed that um this bridge rectifier here, it's for um power supply soundboard. So, this guy could be suspect. So, just for SMGs, let's test these other bridges. It's marked here that this is the positive lead. So, we're going to stick the negative lead on that. And then we're going to go like this. That's a good reading. Now, we're going to go like this. And that is a good reading. Now, we'll move over to this guy. Do the same. That is good. That is good. Now, I got to switch my leads. One moment. Okay, now I've connected the red lead to the negative side. And again, this is basically testing four different diodes. And look at that. They are all good. Let's go over to this guy.
    9:59
    They're all like identical. E 486. That's almost suspect in and of itself. Okay, now for the big test. So I think a positive is this odd leg here. So that means we get to stick this here. Oh, you can tell by the green wire, too. That's negative. So that should be positive. Right now, let's see what we get. I haven't tested this yet, but this is my prime suspect right now. That is a good reading. Maybe a little lowish, but not really. What about this guy?
    10:42
    That is also a good reading. All right, let me switch my leads. Okay, now I've got negative lead on the positive terminal and let's see what we got.
    11:00
    That seems okay. We may be a little low. Hm. I think that bridge seems to be fine. So now what? This transformer
    11:19
    Uh it's not really a good sign. Maybe I'll check the voltages right off the transformer. Okay. I was just trying to figure out which uh terminals I need to measure. I had the machine on and I was kind of moving this wire and I heard a little spark and uh if you look closely
    11:48
    that is not even soldered on. So that's probably uh arcing and not giving us the voltage we need. Hopefully that transformer isn't uh dead, but my mother's calling. I'll be back. Okay. Yeah, I also forgot to mention that not only was there a little spark, there was a little puff and plume of smoke. Just a very faint one, but uh that's remedied. It's a good connection. Now, I don't know if I should be I don't really know which terminals to measure for proper voltage here. I mean, this is red and white. This is white, red, white, red. So, maybe these two lugs, but and they're both thicker compared to all the other wires, which are a little thinner. Um, but I'm just going to turn on the machine and plug in my Mars God of War power supply and see what happens. I just plugged in the power supply just with the residual voltage. You can see that LED. I think both of them actually lit up just very faintly. So, that might be promising. All right, let's turn on the machine. Look at that. We got both voltage lights on. Okay, I think I'm going to connect the rotten dog power supply up and see what happens. Okay, I just got the bottom connector connected. Let's see if we get both of our LEDs. Look at that.
    13:40
    Well, I think we got our 5 volts back. The the main question is will we have sound? So stay tuned. Hey, I didn't mean to hit record. Okay. Well, got the rotten dog all connected. Let's see if the game boots up like it used to
    14:03
    before I connect the soundboard. Cuz if there's something wrong with the soundboard, I could take out the power supply. But all right, we have a track mode again. We're moving forward again. I like that direction. Okay, now for the big test. Let's see if we have sound. 3 2 1. I don't know what my volume pot's saying. If it's full blast or low or high. Don't know if they're supposed to be sound yet. But there should be when I hit start, I would think. So, let's see what happens. Don't think we have any credits. We do not. So, maybe we should have sound now.
    15:00
    Okay, it's possible we don't. Let's see if we have credits. At least we got two. What? What happened? Did we start a game? Didn't mean to start a game. Don't have a ball in the machine. Maybe that's part of the problem.
    15:23
    Okay, it looks a little strange. We have our voltages. Let's hit start.
    15:39
    Do we have any smoke happening in here? It seems as though our CPU locked up. Great. It seems as though when I add a credit here, it was crashing the MPU. So, I removed the soundboard in case that was the culprit. Then I remembered that this little jumper here is supposed to be a free play jumper. So I shouldn't really need to add credits. So with the soundboard disconnected and a ball installed. All right, I figured as much. We're back to life here. Now let's try that with the soundboard in. Okay, soundboard connected. Let's see if the machine dislikes it. Okay, powering on. Should technically preserve the credits. Player three display needs to be receded.
    16:41
    Now, this is the big test. Well, for starters, the power supply didn't crash, but maybe as soon as I hit the start button, the sound is going to want to do something, and that may cause some problems. So, let's find out. 3 2 1
    17:04
    Okay, I would like to I would have thought that there would have been sound by now.
    17:11
    As soon as I hit a switch, will I get sound? No. Uh,
    17:22
    okay. So, maybe there's more damage to this soundboard than those two diodes. Or we need to maybe the the volume pot itself is a problem. Remember the wires were all cut on this. Why? Good question. But uh messing
    17:59
    does not seem to do anything. All right, just for SMGs, let's try with this other untested soundboard.
    18:09
    Highly doubt it, but you never know. No sound. Okay, I'm going to pause on Pantherra. I need to do a little more investigation and or soundboard repair or volume pot replacement before I think I'm going to be able to get this to uh have sound. Oh, remind me to grab my tools out of here. So, I'm going to move over to Mars, God of War, and pretty sure this is uh mostly functional, the exact state I want it to be in. We've got displays, we've got general illumination, we've got the tube light, got sound, credit display,
    19:01
    and we don't have flippers. What happened? That's amazing. Okay, let's try this again.
    19:17
    Come on, flippers. Hey, there we go.
    19:17
    Come on, flippers. Hey, there we go. Okay, not sure what the heck happened there, but uh let's see if everything works.
    19:29
    Uh, one pop bumper, two pop bumpers. Not too happy.
    19:43
    All right, that allows
    19:43
    All right, that allows >> this lock.
    19:50
    Knocking down those targets.
    19:50
    Knocking down those targets. We got the speech. We got the sound. >> We'll knock down
    19:56
    We'll knock down
    19:56
    We'll knock down these guys. That allows this lock to be ready. Oh, okay. There we go. Took a second.
    20:20
    And this is sling there. That works. Uh,
    20:20
    And this is sling there. That works. Uh, switch there. That switch needs a cleaning. That switch needs a cleaning. Those ones are okay. All right. Now, big money shot. I didn't think I heard the spinner. So, maybe that needs adjusting. Here's our three ball multiball. The the ramp moved up and down. So, that's good. That's working.
    20:56
    So, this is a good uh project machine for someone.
    21:03
    I don't know what was going on with the random flippers not working there, but okay. I'm going to leave that and the other stuff for the next guy to uh figure out. So, I'll spend a moment to uh take some photos.
    21:26
    take a little video and then I will post this guy up for sale. You should buy it. Okay, that's a wrap for this episode of the Diamond Garage. I got my photos and video of Mars God of War. Going to throw that up for sale and then I'll do my research in Pantherra and give it another go before I give up on it. But giving up is no fun. So stay tuned for some more Panther shenanigans. Good thing you reminded me cuz I was literally about to leave. I almost forgot.