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Phoenix - WMS 1978 - picture heavy


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Here a WMS Phoenix from 1978 that I am working on. I'd like to have it going for a the Sydney Pin League meet in a month or so, which I think will happen, but I have a few projects on the go at the moment.

 

Bought it as a project with no boards, pretty dirty and a few parts missing. It came from a Melb bicycle seller - perhaps it's fair to say this fellow doesn't have the best reputation, but he was ok. Like most could have been more honest in the description - neglected to mention a few parts that were missing, most of those were visible from the add, but nicer to explicitly state I reckon. What I didn't like was a some cabinet rattiness that wasn't shown in the picture - now it could be coincidence that this corner was not shown in any picture I guess. He was also pretty shonky in claiming he could arrange transport - it never happened and I had to sort it - no big deal I guess, but misleading to claim he'd arrange it.

 

Anyway, the pin is an early WMS solid state, the first design by Barry Oursler - who also did Gorgar and Time Warp, both games that I have. Phoenix is bright pink, which is unusual and has two banks of four drops and two single drops.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7062_zpsfb0fbdaa.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7065_zps8f036e67.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7067_zpscc721922.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7068_zpsfebc930f.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7069_zps6f6f4619.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7073_zpsd3f7bf9d.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7074_zps46f884b3.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7075_zps6083a2be.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7079_zps0c4e588c.jpg

 

Sorry for the upside down / rotated pics- I can't sort it out on photobucket.

 

 

The muppets who brought it up from Melb for me managed to smash the plinth off - "it fell off" they claimed.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7089_zpse50f2a86.jpg

 

 

Playfield shots, nice and bright with no mylar excet for under the pops. The inserts are basically level so I don't need to do anything with them.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7091_zpsc322d6e5.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7092_zpsf6a35d28.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7094_zpsfa607037.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7097_zps3591ed37.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7098_zps27b82bbf.jpg

 

 

This is a little wire form ramp that runs up to a target - a bit unusal. You need to complete the five roll overs to light a letter in Phoenix and shoot the ramp to claim. Dropping either four bank of drops gives 2x, 3x etc and the inlanes rasie the single drops. I can't ever recall playing it bitd, but I have a liking for WMS pins of this vintage.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7100_zps8d6d6613.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7107_zps88a2e4be.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7108_zps4af28b4c.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7109_zpsfe9662e5.jpg

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I'll be interested to know how this one plays when it's done, if it has those 'oursler' outlanes.

 

Cool looking game I like it. I'm a BIG fan of multiple top of playfield rollover lanes, the more the better, especially when there is only one shot to get back up top to get to them. Not many of my games have this feature!

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Thanks for the comments and words of encouragement.

 

Cleaned and stripped the pf, lots of ball swirl visible in the yellows

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_7138_zpseecdd76d.jpg

 

 

amazing how much dirt gets in

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_0975_zps55432903.jpg

 

 

used magic eraser and eucalyptus oil - which came up well, only the left half of the yellow done below

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_0978_zps8177c766.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_0980_zps5a5cdc95.jpg

 

 

there was an old failing mylar ring around the low bumper

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_0999_zpse8e15868.jpg

 

 

pulled the mylar off

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1001_zpsd28398a3.jpg

 

 

goo gone to remove the glue residue

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1002_zpsb352984c.jpg

 

 

there's a couple of wear areas, which I'm not sure what to do about - might just put a protective patch on for now

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1007_zps04674e93.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1006_zps44473898.jpg

 

 

rebuilt and cleaned up the drops and cleaned and resleeved all the other mechanisms

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1050_zpsba99420c.jpg

 

 

one of the bits missing from the game was a four bank of drops, I had a parts pf that I grabbed these off

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1056_zpsb11edcfd.jpg

 

 

sadly the switch matrix wire colours didn't match up and the pf ones were clipped to short to extend to the drop pcbs

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1059_zps897f329e.jpg

 

 

it went in reasonably neatly which I was happy about

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1070_zps53a896a9.jpg

 

 

 

just a bit of dirt on the lamps

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1073_zps85196e33.jpg

 

 

washed all the plastics (although they still look pretty grubby in this shot)

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1023_zpsd15022d5.jpg

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I'll be interested to know how this one plays when it's done, if it has those 'oursler' outlanes.

 

Yeah it's interesting Brad - his games tend to have the thin metal strip dividers between the shooter lane / outlane and on the far lhs of the pf. Seems to me this opens up the bottom of the pf makes the angles into the outlanes wider. This is the case on Gorgar, Time Warp and Phoenix. Other games have a stip of wood maybe 10mm thick as the divider.

 

Cool looking game I like it. I'm a BIG fan of multiple top of playfield rollover lanes, the more the better, especially when there is only one shot to get back up top to get to them. Not many of my games have this feature!

 

There look like lots of ways to light the roll overs - 1 & 5 go together which is probably the skill shot to get one of them, 2 & 4 can be done from inlanes and there are a couple of standups above the bumpers for 3. You've go tto get all five done to gain a letter in Phoenix - someone on IPDB reckons this leads to either playing to spell Phoenix and gain extra ball or playing for the drops and hi score for replays. we'll see I guess.

Edited by Fire_Power
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Had to repair the plinth, just used some pva and a few nails to rebuild the frame

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1077_zpse756cd61.jpg

 

 

then glued the whole thing down

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1078_zps95bb1899.jpg

 

 

and clamped it down using the headbolts and a few peces of scrap wood

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1089_zpsafff8cb5.jpg

 

 

I installed the bridge rectifier inlet side fuses, which I think is a good idea on this vintage of games. I move the bridges out a bit, remount them with a smear of heatsink grease and cut the transformer wire so I can keep the same colour and gauge of wire which looks a bit neater. Probably should have been a bit more generous with the pigtail length. Most of the repair guides suggest 8A slow blow for the extra fuses.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1093_zps5844e138.jpg

 

 

Remount the transformer shield and since it was new game to me and obviously an import I go over very carefully the whole inlet wiring / fusing / / varistor / filter / switching / transformer links before powering up. Then I install in sequence and measure voltages as I go to make sure all is in order before plugging in the next part. When all is ok I connect the power supply board and measure voltages at the connecters - all seem ok, but I will eventually recondition the power supply board.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1096_zpsc2fbdbf0.jpg

 

 

There was a reasonably minor ball track across the pf top arch with some paint wear

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1099_zpsd27e14e0.jpg

 

 

I gave it a clean and a light rub back before touching up with enamel paint. It's a pretty close colour match straight out of the tiny little tin like we used as kids. Probably looks better in the flesh than the picture suggests. I'll polish the pf and try and move the top ball arch rail down a bit to move the ball contact point.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1100_zps45d3301d.jpg

 

 

These are the outline guides - shine up quite nicely!

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1103_zps6709f3fd.jpg

 

 

Clean up and reinstall the ball serve metal work

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1105_zpse524fdcf.jpg

 

 

and install the apron which is in nice bright condition. There's a little bit of sticker residue on it but past experience suggests you don't want to be too aggressive removing it or you loose paint.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1108_zps8416346a.jpg

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Have always loved this game - will be interesting to watch.

 

Bicycle seller is one of the more stereotypical collector guys I've ever met. Has a hoard of old Gottlieb's and 80's pins in warehouses that all need major work, but is really uninterested in selling them... would rather watch them collect dust in the cold. Perhaps he has a grand plan to fix them all magically one day?

 

Aussie Pickers would have a field day in there. They would certainly need more skill than I could muster. :laugh:

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  • 2 weeks later...

The cabinet was pretty questionable in the front right corner - the joint was opening up, there was a chunk missing from under the leg, there were a heap of crap nails visible from outside and the wooden triangular internal brace piece was split from where some gorilla had tightened the leg so much it almost pulled the leg plate through the wood. It was reasonably stable but I figured with every thing in parts that now was the time to try and fix or at least improve it, for if the game had made it's way into my games room I doubt I'd ever get around to it.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1169_zps0a28e0ca.jpg

 

 

I cut a new piece of timber for the internal brace and removed the old one with a chisel. I glued the new piece in and stuck some weights on to close up the corner joint and then screw the timber in place.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1171_zps7d322ecf.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1173_zpsd0e50979.jpg

 

 

After the glue set I drilled the leg bolt holes and fixed the leg plate in place. I filled the hole in the cabinet with builders bog and since it's hidden under the leg (and the bog was pink) I didn't worry about painting it. Structurally and aesthetically the whole thing is much better.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1176_zps3c2f12a8.jpg

 

 

Check the paint fade - it would have been a very bright cabinet when new! You don't see many pink cabinets.

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1178_zpsac77a8d1.jpg

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Interesting changes in playfield post fixing over time - most of the posts on this game are just secured with wood screws. In particular the posts on the low side of the top roll overs - on later machines these would be held down with tee nuts. They cop a pounding from the bumpers so I wonder how they'd stand up on a sited machine back in the day?

 

Electronic board work was next for this - I used an ebay "unknown, assume faulty" mpu, which even after I paid for it the seller couldn't let me know what was potentially wrong with. Ah well, at least it was cheap and so after a careful visual inspection where I found a solder splash I decided to just be systematic and replace sockets, the inlet supply filter cap (C23), the blanking timing caps (C31 and C32) and install a memory cap for the battery - I like these, a couple of bucks and your set with no more battery worries and they seem to hold a charge for at least a month. The 40 pin header pins had been replaced previously so I just cleaned up some residue flux and reflowed a few dodgy looking joints. It had been used in Firepower with game roms so the J4 / J3 address link also needed to be changed. Testing with the test rom identiifed a failed pia, so replace that and all looked and tested good. The flipper and game roms came from Ken (@Skybeau on this forum) - cheap and fast - thanks.

 

Cleaned and polished up the plastics, they're nice and bright and in pretty good condition except for one break that I repaired with superglue.

 

I'm a fan of leds in these SS pins so used Cointaker mostly warm whites, a mixture of frosted and super brights, with a couple of reds for the colouered inserts. I think it looks pretty good and not too bright.

 

Gameplay is good - a recently waxed open playfield with clean and mechs makes it pretty fast. The bullseye shot up the ramp has a tendancy to drain sdtm. The centre post in front of the indivivual drops is fairly brutal at returning the ball rapidly straigh back at you. The outlanes are pretty wide, you seem to be better to just glance the single drops for 10k on the way to the top of the pf. The four bank drops on the side I tend to just allow to be hit until I notice there's only one or two to go for bonus multiplier. It pays to get the ball up the pf top to collect the rollovers and the Phoenix letters. It's a bit dead when you have both single drops and a few from the four banks down, so it pays to have a good shot up through the spinner.

 

The single drops only reset when you go over the rollover that corresponds to the drop - this is precisely true - the singles don't reset on a new game or a change of players - weird and I can only guess this was down to an oversight / production rush / percieved limit of an early SS machine or programming technique - anyway its odd. Both four bank drops reset on every new ball or game start.

 

It's also odd that any of the rollovers that raise the single drops cause the drops to lift irrespective of their state, so if the drop is raised and you go over the rollover the drop reset solenoid fires - this is esspecially wierd when you capture on the flipper and roll up the in lane then back down the inlane again - the drop reset fires twice. I'm thinking about installing a mod to prevent this - not really sure if I will or just leave it as it came from the factory. If you look at the way this vintage of drops work they have a fleeting contact for scoring and another contact for down - this down contact is normally seriesed up for target banks with multiple drops to advise "all down" - so they could have used the down on the single drop to enable the solenoid for reset.

 

These early sys 4 machines had an odd method of programming features - there are two set of dip switches on the mpu board, one acts as a code for the function you want to change and the other as the value for the function you want to install. (Flash was the first you could program through the coin door) Just to make thing interesting they use different number systems for the two seperate ideas - one is coded in binary the other in bcd. I've always thought this was crazy, but to add icing on the cake I've stumbled upon another quirk - you can set replay high scores by setting the function switch and the value - fair enough, but to disable the replay feature you set the value to all on rather than all off (which would be zero) as you might expect. The man who devised this would have been a legend in the lunch room!

 

Anyway some pictures of the finshed game. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

 

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1146_zps5ee457da.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1147_zps21932a6a.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1148_zps210c98ea.jpg

 

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1149_zpsa2212a7c.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1150_zps4ca18a71.jpg

 

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1154_zps9f706317.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1157_zpsdf5c6e19.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1158_zps8594ab36.jpg

 

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1160_zpsd78b4997.jpg

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/Phoenix/IMG_1165_zps994e58f6.jpg

 

 

Just got to get a sound card working for this, but it looks pretty good in my lineup I reckon.

 

 

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/Pinball_pictures/IMG_1189_zps25625998.jpg

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You gotta be happy with that Dave.

 

I have my days where I think about buying a DMD, but, I see pics like all the ones above and the chances of it happening are looking slimmer and slimmer.

 

Looking forward to seeing (and hopefully playing some time) the other Williams SS game you got waiting for resto.:060:

 

edit - So you can only reset the single drops by via the top 2 rollover lanes? Man that's a cool feature if that's how it is, make you learn to nail the spinner shot...

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  • 2 weeks later...

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