Attila the Hun Update 01

Well so far today I got a good amount done. The boards have been shipped out for repairs and I got some information regarding the backglass. I went to Buffalo's biggest print shop and talked to them about doing a reproduction backglass. For starters, they wanted to charge me $100 just to do raw scans of my backglass for me. I said no way and went to my work. I was able to remove the top half of our Xerox copier and use the flatbed scanner to scan my backglass into the computer. It took 6 scans to get the whole thing. I scanned it in at 600dpi and each file was 50 megs! Wow. Now I get the fun task of stitching all 6 pieces together in Photoshop and then touching up all of the areas that the paint is missing or flaking. Once I'm done, I'll have a really nice looking full size digital replica of the glass. From there, I'm just going to have to take it to the print shop and have them apply it to a new piece of glass!

The copier after I ripped the top off.


This is one of the 6 raw scans. This image has been reduced by 80% to upload. So you can only imagine how big it is at 100% for editing. Also notice how many defects need to be corrected.

And My New Adventure Comes to a Frustrating Hault

Well...when it comes to electronics and circuitry, I don't have the patience. I spent the past two days with a multimeter trying desperately to get the MPU board on Attila the Hun to boot. No luck. Circuitry frustrates me more than anything so I've given up. I found someone on KLOV who wants to give it a shot for me. I'm mailing him the boards tomorrow and with any luck he'll be able to get it up and running for me. Once I have the game working, I can make the call if I want to go through with the restoration or not...I don't want to dump too much money into this thing. And on a side note, I might have found a local business who can reproduce the backglass for me! They're going to be giving me a call tomorrow morning to discuss it with me, I'll keep you updated!

Oh yeah, one more exciting piece of news for me. My PONG board is fixed! About a month ago I shipped it to a guy in Florida who repairs them. Next week it should be arriving and then I can finally play a game of Pong on my machine!

I hate you, stupid broken MPU board! (It's the top right board)

Blah, my multimeter, I hate you too!

A New Adventure Begins

Well, I went out and got me a new project today. It's a pinball machines called Attila the Hun, made by Game Plan in 1984. This is a Solid State (SS) game, as opposed to an Electo-Mechanical (EM) Game like I'm used to working with. Because of this, it's going to be MUCH more difficult for me to diagnose and repair. I've never seen a SS game before let alone work on one. Anyway, I digress...I bought this off of a co-worker for $75. Not bad...until I brought it home...For starters, it was kept outside. And it's in the middle of winter in Buffalo, NY. Not the place for a pinball machine to be stored. When I picked it up, it was covered in snow. I took it home and ripped it apart right away and let the snow melt out of it. Currently it's 100% not working and physically in VERY rough shape. Most of the backbox will need to be rebuilt as it's waterlogged. The circuit boards will need to be repaired, every bit of the machine needs to be cleaned (the playfield has stuff growing on it...ew.) This will probably be my most difficult restoration so far. My biggest concern at the moment is the backglass. From the front it didn't seem so bad. It looked like the paint was starting to bubble off, I didn't think it'd be a problem, I have fixes for that type of problem, then I saw the back of it...someone thought it'd be a good idea to put packaging tape and scotch tape across most of the glass. There's no way to remove that without removing the paint. So it looks like I'll either have to live with it looking bad, or find a replacement (not easy to do). I think my first order of business with this will be to get the electronics working BEFORE I start restoration work. The opposite of what I usually do. Anyway, I'll stop here before I rant too much. Hopefully by my next post, I'll have more of an idea on what I want to get done first. Here's a few pictures of it an hour after acquiring it.

Four-Five-Six is D-O-N-E.

Wow, this project went by quickly. I'm very happy that it's finished. Not that I didn't enjoy restoring it, It's just a blast to play! It's like gambling, VERY addicting. Since I've completed it, it's received hundreds of plays thanks to myself, my sister, and my cousin. This game is beautiful, and I'll be submitting photos to the IPDB so that if anyone else ever comes across one of these, they'll have some sort of reference. I'll be posting a YouTube video of the gameplay hopefully by next week.

Time to find a new project!!

Four-Five-Six Update 08

I got a ball lift!! I received a package yesterday afternoon from a very nice guy over at the rec.games.pinball group. He donated 6 different lifters to me and only asked that I send back the ones that didn't work! So after unpacking them and trying each out, I found one that fit perfectly. I'm very happy right now. This was the hardest step in the restoration because I really didn't think I'd end up being able to find one, let alone for free! Now that I have a complete working ball mechanism, I can finally finish this project.

Of all my mechanical problems, I've got it down to just two. Both of which are as simple as replacing a spring. So, in short, I just have to replace two springs, clean some light sockets. After that it just needs one final cleaning and then I get to put it together and play it! It's very exciting to see this finally starting to come to an end.

Four-Five-Six Update 07

I got all of the mechanical problems diagnosed...now It's just a matter of fixing them. Somehow it blew a fuse when I first plugged it in after it was back together, which is why the two systems were not working. I replaced the fuse and it worked..for the most part. Here's what's wrong

1. The score does not reset properly when a new game begins.
2. Skill points sometimes do not register and don't reset properly.
3. The "Special When Lit" lights don't always work properly. (FIXED)
4. Various light sockets need to be cleaned as they currently have a poor connection.

I figured out for the most part what's causing these issues, and for those of you who would like to know more about the mechanics of this machine, I'll go into a little detail on the specific issues (with pictures!)

Alright, first up is the score reset problem. If you take a look at the first picture here you'll see a wheel with a lot of teeth. Each time you score a point the solenoid "A" engages and advances the wheel one step clockwise. When the game is reset, solenoid "B" engages and lifts arm ("C") causing a spring which is behind the wheel, to spin the wheel counterclockwise back to its start position. The reason that the score is not resetting for me is that the spring has lost its...springyness...When the arm is lifted, there isn't enough force to counter-rotate the wheel. Hopefully I can take it apart and maybe give the spring one extra wind, we'll see.

Number Two...The skill points not registering...This is something I was really hoping not to have to mess around with. There's a HUGE rotating disk with a million wires coming off of it, and about 4 total solenoids controlling this system. So far all I've been able to diagnose is why the skill points sometimes don't register. If you look at the picture you'll see a solenoid connected to about a 6'' long metal rod. When you get a skill point, the solenoid pushes that rod out advancing the wheel by one step, and hitting a set of leaf switches. That part works fine. But once power is cut to the solenoid, the rod doesn't retract. Hopefully it will be as simple as replacing that spring next to it which is used to retract the rod.

Finally, the "Special When Lit" mechanism...I already fixed this one, it was a pretty easy fix. Each time you score a point, a solenoid advances this wheel by one step. (Sounds familiar doesn't it?) But with this one, it moves two connectors across rings of contacts, each connected to a wire. Each set of contacts determines which of the special lights are turned on. Each time you score a point, the lit lights change. I used a burnishing tool to clean all of the contacts, as well as the two connectors that slide across them. It works great now.

Anyway, hopefully over the next few days I'll be able to get these issues resolved and be one step closer to finishing this project.

Four-Five-Six Update 06

Cosmetics done! Yay! That was a LOT of work but it was worth it, the thing looks great! The backbox was just as dirty (if not worse) than the rest of the cabinet...After cleaning it I put the playfield back together, and put the whole thing together to start doing some tests.

I'm still missing the ball lift and the proper shooter gauge but while I wait for those parts, it's a great time to get started with the mechanics of the game! I don't have any schematics so diagnosing and tracing wires is going to be extremely difficult for me.

I kept the backglass off so that I can more easily watch and change out light bulbs as needed. After quite a bit of testing, I've got a list of issues to fix. The two most important ones would be the entire "Skill Point" system is not working at all. Also, the blocks 1-6 do not light up when the corrosponding bumper is tripped. I have no clue where to start on those two problems so I'm going to have to trace the wires and find out which relays go with those systems.

Four-Five-Six Update 05

Ok, got quite a bit done...First off, yesterday morning I went out and bought a rock tumbler. Supposedly this will help remove rust and polish all of the metal pieces that I have. It uses ground walnut shells and a high vibration to clean the metal. I put the first batch of pieces in yesterday, and I'm going to let them run for 24-36 hours. Then after that, I'm going to put all the playfield springs in for probably about 12 hours.

Also, I'm finally putting the cabinet back together. The legs are finished, and the first batch of parts is clean. Look how shiny the leg bolts are! And lastly for this update...I cleaned off the woodrails for the sides. Wow did that make a difference. I didn't realize how dirty they actually were until I cleaned them up. Again, I used a magic eraser and Novus #1, but this time I also gave them a little wood polish afterwords.

Four-Five-Six Update 04

Well today at work I decided to recreate the Instruction and Scoring cards. I work as a graphic designer so it wasn't much of a task for me to make these. I scanned them in and then traced over them (while matching the fonts) in Adobe Illustrator. I printed them on an off-white Ivory color to better match. (Straight white would have looked pretty bad). As soon as I get some pushpins I'll attach them to the playfield!

Four-Five-Six Update 03

The legs are complete! I ended up using no stain and just poly. That's how they originally were. I put 3 total coats of poly on them and sanded with 220 grit sandpaper between each coat. They look pretty nice...here's some before/after shots. Also, on a side note, I opted NOT to touch up the paint on the playfield, so I ended up just cleaning the whole thing with Novus #1 and then waxing using Mother's Carnauba Wax. It looks good, next up will be polishing the metal and plastic pieces and putting the playfield back together.

Four-Five-Six Update 02

While I wait for the poly on the legs to dry, I cleaned up the cabinet and playfield...I'm now in love with Novus #1 and Mr. Clean Magic Erasers! They did wonders...check out the before/after pictures of the cabinet! Sorry, I don't have a decent Before photo for the playfield and sides. Once I get the game back together, I'll be doing the same process for the backbox of the machine. Still on the fence about touching up the paint on the playfield, I experimented a little and not only is it very hard to match the color exactly, when I put a little on the playfield, it just isn't working out. I don't want to ruin it so I might leave it as is for now.

Four-Five-Six Update 01

Well, today I got quite a bit of work done on the legs. I started by sanding all the old poly off of them, and then from there I smoothed everything out with a finer sandpaper and then injected glue into the cracks and clamped it, I'm going to let the glue dry overnight and tomorrow I'm going to refinish them with the new poly I bought.

Getting a jump start on Four-Five-Six

Well...I've ripped Four-Five-Six into as many pieces as I could. I'm going one section at a time and am going to clean it all up and make it nice. I'm starting with the playfield. I just ordered some cleaner and wax, along with new rubbers and new balls. A few of the guys at the Arcade-Museum forums gave me some leads as to where I can find a replacement ball lift so hopefully one of them will pay off. Sorry about the low resolution of the photos, didn't have my camera on me, had to use my cell phone. I'm also on the fence whether I should try to fill in a few spots on the playfield where it's worn down. Also, I have to think about touching up the paint, I don't want to ruin it.