Monthly Archives: January 2015

Zaccaria Pinball Machines

Posted on by
3

I’m currently doing some repair work on a couple of Zaccaria pinball machines for Lyons Classic Pinball. Zaccaria was an Italian pinball manufacturer and it’s interesting to see a few features that you don’t usually see on U.S. made pinball machines.  The pinball machines are Time Machine and Farfalla (which translates to Butterfly in English), both of which were manufactured in 1983.

Backglass for Time Machine

Backglass for Time Machine

Both machines use a neon tube for a light source around the perimeter behind the backglass. The backboards are made from a vacuum formed plastic which makes them three-dimensional.

Backglass for Farfalla

Backglass for Farfalla

Both machines have an elevated shooter lane that allows for a wider playing field that takes up the full width of the cabinet.  Where ever there is a location where the ball needs to come down to the main playfield, a wire ramp lowers by the weight of the ball, allowing the ball to roll down rather than being dropped.  This saves wear and tear on the playfield.

At top of photo, a wire ramp that lowers the ball to the playfield without dropping it.

At top of photo, a wire ramp that lowers the ball to the playfield without dropping it.

On some dual flipper games like Captain Fantastic, the ball can be lost between the flippers.  On Time Machine the outer flippers have some extra plastic on them allowing the player to trap the ball on the inner flipper without it draining.

The dual flippers on Time Machine are designed to not let the ball drain between them. On the far right is the flipper at rest.

The dual flippers on Time Machine are designed to not let the ball drain between them. On the far right is the flipper at rest.

At the time, Zaccaria was into making pinball machines with transparent upper playfields.

Upper playfield of Farfalla. Note again the wire ramp that lowers the ball to the main playfield without dropping it.

Upper playfield of Farfalla. Note again the wire ramp between the flippers that lowers the ball to the main playfield without dropping it.

Time machine has a transparent playfield that raises and lowers.

Center playfield on Time Machine in the raised position.

Center playfield on Time Machine in the raised (“Future”) position.

Center playfield on Time Machine in the lowered position, allowing access to the targets at the top.

Center playfield on Time Machine in the lowered (“Past”) position, allowing access to the targets at the top.

On most U.S. pinball machines, the ball count starts at 1 and goes up from there.  On these Zaccaria pinball machines, the ball count display starts at 3 and counts down, giving you the number of balls remaining.

Many Zaccaria pinball machines have a feature called “Game Time Bonus”.  On the final (3rd) ball, the game time bonus counts up.  It increments every time a target is it.  The better the player plays the final ball, the longer time they have for the bonus ball.

Game Time Bonus in bonus ball count down mode.

Game Time Bonus in bonus ball count down mode.

The bonus ball is the 4th ball played (assuming you weren’t awarded any extra balls).  As soon as the ball is shot, the counter starts counting down.  The idea is to better your score with time remaining.  When the time runs out, the flippers go dead and no more scoring occurs. One cool thing with Time Machine is that if you get the game to go “into the past”, the countdown stops and you can play the bonus ball as long as you stay in the past. As soon as you return to the future, the countdown continues. If the ball drains before time has run out, you get another ball. So in effect you have unlimited balls as long as time remains.

Farfalla has flippers beside the outlanes which under certain circumstances allows the player to save the ball.

Farfalla has outlane flippers allowing the ball to be saved.

Farfalla has outlane flippers allowing the ball to be saved. The flipper ‘flips’ up to the left.

The outlane flipper is armed by a playfield switch located directly above the flipper in the outlane.  Once armed, the flipper can only be used once. You have only a fraction of a second between the time the flipper is armed and pressing the flipper button. The odds are against you, but the ball can be saved.

How many pinball machines have a Love theme? (From Farfalla).

How many pinball machines have a Love theme? (From Farfalla).  In spite of the theme, the game is fun to play.

Another interesting thing, these machines have a headphone jack mounted next to the coin door.  I know of several tech companies which have pinballs for their employees to use when taking a break. A headphone jack would be handy. Instead they turn the volume down to where you can barely hear it.

Both machines have very colorful artwork and we might convert them over to LED lighting.

At present, LCP hopes to bring both of these machines to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown in June.

 

Rockola 1488 Jukebox (1960)

Posted on by
2

Location: Henderson, Colorado
Symptom: Turntable speed too slow

One of the most common problems of Rockola jukeboxes from the mid-1950’s through the 1980’s, is the turntable not turning at the correct speed. This is almost always associated with the old rubber grommets that hold the turntable motor.

Height comparison of new turntable motor grommet with old grommet.

Height comparison of new turntable motor grommet with old grommet.

The turntable motor basically hangs from three of these grommets.  As the grommets age, they get dry and brittle and shrink and the motor gradually sinks.  I assume the weight of the motor is not evenly distributed among the three grommets because it seems like 2 out of the 3 are in worse shape. This causes the motor to tilt and the shaft is no longer aligned properly.

This photo only shows two of the grommets, but you can see that rear grommet is more compressed. The motor has already been removed.

This photo only shows two of the grommets, but you can see that rear grommet is more compressed. The motor has already been removed.

What’s worse is that many of these jukeboxes are designed to play 33 RPM records. The motor shaft has two milled diameters, the bottom one is for 45 RPM and the top one is for 33 RPM records. As the motor sinks, the idler wheel begins to ride on the 33 RPM portion of the shaft.

Generally these grommets are easy to replace. The motor will be mounted in a variety of ways depending on the jukebox, most using screws or shafts with spring “E” clips. One source for new grommets is here.

High Speed, Pinball Machine (Williams, 1986)

Posted on by
Reply

Symptoms: Some game-play functions not working, display issues, flasher bulbs not working.
Location: Frisco, Colorado.

When entering the test menu, the machine displayed a number of switch error codes. These switch error codes were causing the game to play incorrectly, for example, not diverting the ball to the “hide-outs”.  Although the error codes indicated 4 switches, only one was not working.  Ramp switch #42 wasn’t working, which prevented the ramp ball diverter from actuating, which caused the machine to think the other switches were also bad because the ball never rolled over them.  I cleaned switch #42 (very stubborn) and got it working.

Some segments of the alpha-numeric displays were not lighting up.  I traced this to cracked pins on the display tubes themselves.  I was able to repair some pins by soldering, but there was one pin broken right at the glass and couldn’t be soldered.  The owner deferred further repairs to the display. The options would be to replace the glass display tube or convert the game to new LED displays, such as PinScore.

When testing the bulbs, I noticed that none of the flasher bulbs were working. In this particular version of High Speed, the flashers are connected in series with a non-standard 7 volt bulb, #63.  Most pinball machines use 13 volt #89 bulbs for flashers.

The problem with bulbs connected in series is that when one bulb burns out, the other bulbs in the string stop working as well. This makes it difficult to determine which bulb is actually bad.  In High Speed, the bulbs are connected in pairs.  To make matters more unintuitive, the pairs are interleaved.  So for example, the 4 bulbs for the left center playfield are paired 1, 3, and 2, 4.

I had to take each bulb and test it with an ohm meter to determine the bad bulbs.  Once I got good bulbs paired with good bulbs, the flashers started working.  Since the whole theme of the game is associated with being chased by the police with flashing lights, I can’t imagine it was much fun to play without the flashers.