HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: blake@ncrsna.stpaul.ncr.com (Tony C Blake)
Subject: Lamp Sockets & Playfield Wax
Summary: What to Do
Keywords: socket wax
Organization: NCR NPG StPaul MN
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 17:02:36 GMT

I'm in search of some net wisdom:

The lamp sockets on my Bally Strikes and Spares are getting
pretty bad and I want to replace them.  (They are the old
style sockets).  My first question is should I replace them
with the same style, or will I be a lot happier with the new
wedge style of socket?  Is there a big price difference?

My second question concerns playfield wax.  I've read in the
FAQ that Wildcat is great for cleaning and preserving the
playfield.  Up to now I've been using normal car wax, but it
doesn't do a great job of cleaning, and the playfield was
really dirty when I got the machine.  Can I expect the Wildcat
wax to do a better cleaning job on my playfield?

Any opinions are greatly appreciated!    Thanks.

===================================================================

Tony Blake                      NCR Corporation
blake@ncrsna.stpaul.ncr.com     Network Products Division
(612) 638-7259  voice           2700 Snelling Avenue North
(612) 638-8173  fax             St Paul, MN  55113-1784

===================================================================
From: omitchel@jarthur.claremont.edu (Ocie *crow* Mitchell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Auto-plungers
Date: 12 Nov 92 22:44:51 GMT
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711

In article <BxL6Jz.Cpw@csugrad.cs.vt.edu> kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer) writes:
>What about both?  I remember playing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pin a
>year or 2 ago and I'm pretty sure that you could shoot the plunger, but
>there was an auto-firing plunger there too.  Right?  I think that was a 
>pretty cool idea, and wouldn't mind seeing it in more games.
>

My Centaur (c1980) has that setup too.  You put the first ball into play with
the plunger, but during multiball (multi=5 balls :o) the balls are 
automatically launched.  It does it this way because you never physically 
"lock" balls during the game.  I don't remember how multiball works on tmnt.
is it the same sort of thing?

----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------
``What do you think sirs?''  -Joel (mst3k)    | .sig lite- all .sig no guilt
----------------------------------------------+------------------------------- 
   __             _ _ _                       | Ocie Mitchell
  / ')           ' ) ) )  _/_    /      /) /) | omitchel@jarthur.claremont.edu
 /  / _. o _      / / / o /  _. /_  _  // //  | Q:is that your real name? 
(__/ (__(_(<_    / ' (_(_(__(__/ /_(<_(/_(/_  | A:yes, it is my real name.
----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day)
Subject: Re: Loud pinball games...
Reply-To: oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day)
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 19:20:53 GMT

In article <BxID27.I6x@fc.hp.com> ec@fc.hp.com (Edgar_Circenis) writes:
> Bill Ung (ung@felix.filenet.com) wrote:
> > In article <SBB.92Nov4215646@panix.com> sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten)  
writes:
> > |In article <LFS.92Nov3162312@arcadia.mitre.org> lfs@mitre.org (Lyman F.  
Sheats Jr.) writes:

> > |One problem that's relatively new, I think: games these days tend to
> > |make all sorts of noise when they're in "attract" mode.

> > Hmmm, my HIGH SPEED (1986) has an option to make noise during attract
> > mode.

> Hmmm, My Black Hole (1981) has an operator settable option to have the
> machine speak during attract mode (up to once every ten seconds).  It
> says things like "Do you dare to enter the Black Hole" and "No one
> escapes the Black Hole".  Unfortunately, I cannot do justice to the
> incredibly goofy sounding speech that the old Gottleib sound board
> produces. :-)

Ye olde Haunted House is the same way.  However, I know of no pinball
that has reached the level of annoyance of the talking video game
"Super Basketball".  People used to put quarters in it and not press
start - just to shut it up!

Orin
--
************* "How about a little fire, Scarecrow?" **************
Orin Day, Code 664.1                    oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov
Hughes STX/NASA       GSFC Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
*******"Think that this is NASA's opinion?   NO, NO, NO!!!" ******
From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Stereo (Was: Re: Fish Flappage)
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:12:54 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <1992Nov10.093857.24810@cs.uow.edu.au> u9039899@cs.uow.edu.au (Darrin Jon Smart) writes:
|csilver@nyx.cs.du.edu (Cameron Silver) writes:
|
|I don't play DE machines that often but I've never noticed any stereo
|effects. I only knew they were stereo because of the messages on the
|machines themselves.

Right, I've never noticed a STEREO effect from any game either.

|When in a place that has both DE and Williams machines I notice the sound
|on the Williams ones first.

Really?  When I walk into a place, I usually, er, "bump into" the DE
sound first:  "Come again!", "Ow, quit it!", "Shoot the Transporter"
or "What Leo Wants, Leo Gets!".  As good as they sound, they're still
a tad repetitive.

|Personally I think manufactures would be better off using their resources
|elsewhere on the games.
|
| - Darrin
|
|PS: Where do Gottleib machines go to in Australia? Haven't seen one since
|1812... (and that was in Gosford!)

I dunno, what HAS Gottlieb done since Class of 1812?  That was a cool
game (IMHO), anyone know what they run for (since apparently, they
weren't all that popular)?

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com
From: bradam@twobits.Eng.Sun.COM (Brad Martinson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: High Speed Attract mode (was Re: Loud pinball games...)
Date: 10 Nov 1992 17:47:26 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: twobits

More subtle, but even "cooler" is the light show that HS shows after game
over.  The lights cycle through or four patterns - (from memory) left to 
right, then top to bottom, random flashes, and a nifty circular pattern
centered around the Tach in the center of the playfield.  It's details 
like this that make me really respect WMS.

The other stunning designed-in feature was the fact that I could step 
through the illumination test *one bulb at a time* - made it a lot easier
to find burnt out bulbs than on, say, my 1987 Premier Victory, which cycles 
through all the lamps quickly three times before moving on (automatically) 
to the coil test.  I was surprised, then awed at the detail of WMS software.  
But - enough gushing.  


 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 | Brad Martinson, XWindows janitor   SunSoft,Inc   brad.martinson@sun.com |
 |    Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc   #include <std/disclaimers.h>  |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
From: breitzsp@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Things to look for on a Pin
Date: 10 Nov 92 14:53:07 -0600
Organization: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

Howdy,
  I am looking at two pins tomorrow that would be my first pinball machines and
I was wondering if there was anything I should check on the machines that I
might not know about.  This would be my first purchase so please post the
simple things too if you could just to make sure I'm not forgetting anything.

Thank you in advance,
Scotty B
From: zweldron@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Matthew Charlap)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Dr. Who at Rutgers, and some comments
Date: 10 Nov 92 00:08:29 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

I have some more time now so,.....
Well, the College Ave. student center just got a Dr. Who in. It's pretty good,
but the voices are often unclear.
I find that some of the doctors (such as Pertwee- #3 for non-who fans) have
relatively useless abilities (in this case longer WHO time) while Hartnell (#1)
is great with the faster ESCAPE lighting.

I got really good at getting to the transmat area, quite an easy shot from the 
right flipper here. since 90% of the time the ball falls into the TARDIS from
this area, the extra escape letter each time really helps. The video mode, 
once I figured it out (about 2 tries for this) is also simple- on my third time
lighting it, I finished 7 rounds consecutively. I actually earned a free game
(at that time set at 142 Million) without ever getting Multiball.

Being able to change Doctors after locking a ball is helpful also- once the
second ball is locked, its nice to switch to Sylvester McCoy (#7) for those
extra time expansion factors. Once Multiball is begun, however, I find jackpot
is easy to get. usually I get 2 (minimum).

Now a couple questions about this pinball:
Patrick Troughton (#2) advances the 'Hang on' score faster. does he do anything
else? Also when do you get a 'Hang on' as opposed to a 'Collision' (you
get both at the 'H' lane)?
What causes the jackpot to reduce in value in Multiball?

--Matthew
-- 
This is a test of the .signature 
If this were a real .sig file, something else would be here.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: drew@kinglear.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: Ignorance and TAF
Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 23:28:52 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.002625.25482@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> smarties@nyx.cs.du.edu () writes:
>
>
>..by the way, where I am, our common room charges 50p (that's about a dollar)
> a game for a shot at Whirlwind/Hot Chase/Party Zone. What are the comparative
> costs per credit (3 balls) for other places?

Ouch.  My favorite local arcade (The Pinball Pallace) has most most of their 
games (T2, TAF, Bride of Pinbot, HSII, Bansai Run, Funhouse) set up for 5 
balls / token.

In the entertainment classifieds of the Colorado daily, they've been 
having adds for 8 tokens / $1 from 4PM - 6PM weekdays.

So, if you buy your tokens at the right time, that's 12.5 cents per 
5-ball game.  

BTW, all the machines are in excellent condition, tilt is set resonably, 
replays are very variable (HSII was at > 100M a while ago, and T2 was 
set up with multiple replay levels), and the owners / managers are 
real good about taking care of problems.

Pinball Pallace is in the Pearl Street mall, in Boulder, at Broadway and Perl.

-- 
Boycott AT&T for their absurd anti-BSDI lawsuit. | Drew Eckhardt
Condemn Colorado for Amendment Two.		 | drew@cs.colorado.edu
Use Linux, the fast, flexible, and free 386 unix |  
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: mpalmer@encore.com (Mike Palmer)
Subject: Re: Kid (ie, Toy) Pinball Games In Sears Christmas Catalog
Organization: Encore Computer Corporation
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 12:31:01 GMT

jeff@godzilla.quotron.com (Jeff Marder) writes:


>or models to avoid?  Will ni-cad batteries work ok??              
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Probably, but Alkaline's will last a long time.
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Matches (was Re: New games)
Date: 11 Nov 92 00:26:07 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

I think it depends partially on the condition of the machine...

Here at school we have a T2 (remember that list of games that had all those
things wrong with them?) where the drop target (usually) doesn't work.  Well,
out of 5-6 games, the drop target worked ONCE and lit database.  So I shot
it into database, and wouldn't you know it - SPECIAL!

It's true that it could've been entirely coincidental, but I really think
that the game was glad to have the database actually light up so it could
give away a special.  Any thoughts?

keith
-- 
|kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu|"And the piano sounds like a carnival             | 
|.....Keith P. Johnson.....| And the microphone smells like a beer            |
|.1711 Whipple Dr. Apt. 11.| And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar  |
|...Blacksburg, VA 24060...| And say "Man, what are you doing here?" -B. Joel |
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: bcasper@eos.ncsu.edu (Brian Casper)
Subject: Re: Problem with Gottlieb "Force II" Pin
Originator: bcasper@c00100-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: bcasper@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 15:48:46 GMT


phillips@tegra.com (Steve Phillips) writes:
|>I've got a Gottlieb Force II pinball machine (circa 1979) which is
|>having some problems, and I'm posting in the hope that someone who
|>has worked with Gottlieb pins can give me a few ideas on fixing it.
|>
|>The machine was playing fine until a loose wire on the front door
|>(the 5V feed to the play/test switch) shorted out against the chassis.
|>Now, when I turn the game on, the solenoids kick as normally, but the
|>score displays all come on immediately, flickering at all zeros, and
|>the game wedges.

Sounds like it thinks the SLAM switch is in the SLAMMED poosition...  If
memory serves, it's a normally closed switch, so that would make it open.

|>
|>From the little documentation I have on this machine, I'm inclined to
|>suspect the CPU board.  However, I swapped in a working CPU (Control)
|>board and it did the same thing, so I've either burnt out two CPUs or
|>there's something else wrong with the machine.
|>

All of the coin door and cabinet front switches enter the CPU board through
the short connector on the bottom left of the CPU.  They each have a pull-up
resistor and some gate to bring them up to TTL levels.  I've seen these
resistors fail and cause problems, and I've also seen the TTL go bad - usually
from a direct short or similiar surge.  I believe they are 7417's, but there
might also be some 7400's down there as well.  Pray that the spidery looking
chips are not fried - replacements cost 1 arm and 1 leg.

-- 
-- 
Brian Casper                |   "I like to study psychologists.  It gives
bcasper@eos.ncsu.edu        |    good insight into what rats are thinking."
  Pinball Consultant        |     -  Dr. Oscar Wesler
From: buzz@apple.com. (Steve Bollinger)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: High Speed II split personality
Date: 9 Nov 92 20:26:26 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
X-Xxdate: Mon, 9 Nov 92 20:27:36 GMT
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A72409B872023847@pyd.apple.com>

When I first played High Speed II I dismissed it out of hand. I played it
a couple times, and didn't like it. It wasn't too tough or easy, just no
fun. No depth. I felt it didn't deserve the  High Speed name. Well I got
somewhat tired of TAF, finally, so I started playing High Speed II. I
love it. Lots of good targets to hit, and has a lot of the feel of the
original high speed.

So what happened? I went back to the arcade where I started playing
HSII and it isn't the same game! The Supercharger operates completely
differently! The 123 targets don't mean a thing. I've been informed that
the game which plays this way is a prototype.  What a difference a little
software can make.

I guess there has been some mention of this, but I just wanted to say
that the difference is night and day to me and the operators who have
prototypes that still have proto ROMs might as well have end tables.
What a difference a little software makes!

-Steve
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: gleeson@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Red Mountain)
Subject: Re: Stereo (Was: Re: Fish Flappage)
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 10:56:22 GMT

In <1992Nov10.093857.24810@cs.uow.edu.au> u9039899@cs.uow.edu.au (Darrin Jon Smart) writes:

>PS: Where do Gottleib machines go to in Australia? Haven't seen one since
>1812... (and that was in Gosford!)

Well, you were probably lucky to see that one. Premier/Gottleib don't have an
Oz distributor, and so their only pins that ever make it over here are special
orders from the U.S. And no vendor would go to that much trouble to get one
when they'd just have to go through the same routine to get parts every time
something breaks. The only Premier I've ever seen in Oz is a Surf'n'Safari
owned by a Melbourne pinball collector (and not for sale, either :-)

Marty.
---------------------=============***O***=============-------------------------
Martin J. Gleeson  | Computer Science, Melbourne Uni, Oz |    ...  __o    Outta
gleeson@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au |     E Pluribus Unix         |  ...   -\<,       my
"We gladly feast on those who would subdue us." - Addams |  ....(_)/(_)..  way!
 "I can't give you brains, but I can give you a diploma." - The Wizard of Oz
---------------------=============***O***=============-------------------------
From: breitzsp@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: High speed price?
Date: 12 Nov 92 04:29:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: cnsvax.1992Nov12.102908.2298
Organization: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

Howdy,

  I went out looking to buy a pin today and I found a High Speed
in good condition.  The cabinet was a little beat up but the playfield
was nice and clean.  He is asking $450 for it.  Now I have no idea if 
that is a good price or not so I appeal to the more owledgeable
pinball masses for help.  Is this a good deal? If not what is a good
price for a Original High Speed.

Thank you for your time,
Scott
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: jeff@godzilla.quotron.com (Jeff Marder)
Subject: Mail Orders/Catalogs + Where In LA to buy/rent
Organization: Quotron Systems, Inc.
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 19:08:08 GMT

two questions:

are there mail order centers where pinball machines can be purchased?
   are catalogs published??

where in Los Angeles can machines be bought or rented?  Are there stores
   or showrooms??


-- 
===========================================================
jeff@godzilla.quotron.com
Quotron Systems   310-302-4316
From: dstewart+@cs.cmu.edu (David B Stewart)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: New games
Date: 9 Nov 92 00:14:50 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

In article <1992Nov8.201358.3788@cbfsb.cb.att.com> yyz@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (donald.w.coons) writes:
>First Williams new pricing, now no matchs?

I don't know about the matches, but I know that the pricing is operator
configurable.  The operator gets to choose 25cents, 50/3-for-$1, or
50cents each, in addition to 3 or 5 balls for that price.

For the sake of those of us that never set these options ourselves, is there
someone out there that can give us all the operator options for a machine (say
TAF) just so that we can get an idea as to how much an operator can configure,
and how much the operators keep with the defaults.

~dave
From: v125kjg8@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Curtis R. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Pins in Bflo area (are they really illegal?)
Date: 5 Nov 92 03:50:00 GMT
Distribution: wny
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <BwHJ1p.HDx@acsu.buffalo.edu>, hennessy@acsu.buffalo.edu (DOG BASEBALL!!!) writes...
>	I was wondering if there were any cheap pin places in the Buffalo
>area?  all the pins in the suburbs (amherst, williamsville, tonawanda) I've
>seen were all 50/75/100...  and a friend of mine who works at Westworld arcade
>says that they dont' have pins because they're illegal by city ordnance in the
>city of Buffalo.. is he shittin me?  maybe this contributes to the price of
>pins (even older games are expensive)

I heard about this all the way back in the mid-70s, actually.  But then when I
got to Buffalo in the mid-80s, I noticed a plethora of video games, but no
pinball.

The original reason for banning pins stems from an argument that pins
constitute gambling (after all, you are putting money into a machine in hopes
to play sufficiently well enough to get a special, or to get a free game from a
match score).  I don't buy this, nor did someone else that I was discussing
this with quite recently.

So you and me have to retreat to the 'burbs to get our pin fixes, I guess.

  --Curtis (first time in this newsgroup!)
From: marston@coos.dartmouth.edu (David Marston)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: summary of Expo talks?
Keywords: published in coin slot
Date: 8 Nov 92 04:03:35 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

In article <1992Nov5.141654.23751@linus.mitre.org> hal@gateway.mitre.org
(Hal Feinstein) writes:
>
>For the rcp [sic] readers  who are going to Expo, I wonder if anyone might 
>either tape the talks or maybe even write up a summary of the talk 
>for the Trader or Journal?

Past Pinball Expos have been exhaustively written up in _The_Coin_Slot_,
a hobby publication that covers both pinball and gambling coin-ops.
That will probably happen again this year--I'll check with Russ Jensen
to confirm his plans.
.................David Marston          uunet!dartvax!coos!marston
                                        marston@coos.dartmouth.EDU
From: zweldron@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Matthew Charlap)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Dr. Who at Rutgers, and some comments
Date: 9 Nov 92 03:40:06 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

Well, the College Ave. student center just got a Dr. Who in. It's pretty good,
but the voices are often unclear.
I find that some of the doctors (such as Pertwee- #3 for non-who fans) have
relatively useless abilities (in this case longer WHO time) while Hartnell (#1)
is great with the faster ESCAPE lighting.
I'll comment more later- I gotta go right now...
--Matthew
.

-- 
This is a test of the .signature 
If this were a real .sig file, something else would be here.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: dstewart+@cs.cmu.edu (David B Stewart)
Subject: Re: Fish Flappage (repost?)
Organization: The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 20:30:37 GMT

In article <1992Nov6.232025.10584@quorum.com> hempling@quorum.com (David B. Hempling) writes:
>
>One more thing: Is it possible to hit the 'extra ball' target 
>from the left flipper? I've only been able to do it 'backhanded'
>from the right.

Yes it is possible, but not easy on some machines.

I have access on two different Fish Tales here. On one of them,
the extra ball target is very sensitive, and thus even a partial hit
will trigger it.  On this machine A shot just to the left of the
casters club will work.  On the other machine, the target is less
sensitive, and a direct shot to the target will just miss the
target and hence not work.  For this machine, I have used the
following not-too-easy shot (but I have gotten it a couple of times):

Go for a ricochet shot off the laneway heading for the long cast.
(in other words, shoot just a little too wide for the long cast,
but not too wide that you hit the fish.  Here is a poor ASCII diagram:


	    Caster's Club
	       |
	       |   to long cast 
	       |  / / 
	       v / /
  EB target   /0/ /
	    o/-/ /
             .
	      ./   <--- Aim for right here
	     . \
            .   \ fish
           .     \
          .
        ball


If you hit at just the right place (of course, takes practice to figure out
that exact place) the ball will bounce right to the EB target.  This is yet
another typical FT shot, where you need a perfect shot to score!

~dave