Category Archives: Bally35

How to add a switched power outlet to your pinball machine

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These days modding games is all the rage: adding fancy toppers, custom lighting, subwoofers and powered speakers and more. But many pinball machines don’t have a facility for you to plug in extra stuff in your game. Many games do have a “service outlet” inside the game, but this is what’s called “un-switched” meaning it’s on all the time – mainly so technicians can use a soldering iron on the game with the power off. In this video I go over the process to tap into the switched power lines of the game to add your own extra outlet(s) that come on when you turn the game on.

Fixing / Rebuilding Stuck Pinball Flippers on Early Ball/Stern Solid State Games

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This is a short video going over the steps to repair/rebuilt/refurbish early solid state pinball flipper assemblies, such as those on Stern and Bally games (but this also basically applies to most pinball machines). I go over the process specifically on a Stern Trident and show the specific style of plunger and assembly they’re using, but most games use similar parts. You can use these techniques to rebuild/refurbish pinball flippers on most games.

Also, there’s another thing I don’t cover on the video that may also be a cause for stuck/sticky flippers, and that’s crud around the flipper button. Sometimes the flipper button assembly can be dirty and the button may stick – that can also cause the flippers to not behave properly, so be sure to check and clean the flipper button regularly too!

Rebuilding Drop Target Assemblies on Early Stern/Bally Solid State Games

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Here is a series of three short videos covering the process of removing and refurbishing the drop target assembly on early Stern/Bally games. This is done on the Trident I’m working on restoring.

After unscrewing the switch stack and the reset coil, you can remove the drop target assembly from the game. Then you an remove the individual drop target coils from the assembly by unscrewing four small screws.
Note the inner plate behind the drop targets that has slid down – this is what the switch stacks screwed into, so you’ll want to connect them back to the assembly first, before putting the individual drop coil bank back in place.
Since I wasn’t replacing the targets, I simply soaked the assembly in hot soapy water, then made sure to dry it completely before applying some dry spray lubricant. I also shortened the springs by just a tiny amount to make them work better. If you have replacement targets, they should be removed and replaced, which is done by removing the retaining clip and axle holding the assembly together at the bottom.

Pinball game not starting? Switches not working? Here’s a trick that may work!

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I’ve run into this problem at least 3-4 times in the last month with different early Bally/Stern solid state games: The game boots and appears to work but you can’t start a game and/or many switches/buttons don’t seem to work? Before you dive deep, try this simple, easy trick.

Be sure to subscribe: https://youtube.com/pinballhelp?sub_confirmation=1

which connectors on the Bally/Stern MPU board go to which areas of the game.

Prototyping A Brand New Mata Hari Ruleset!

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I’ve been working on a new project that I’m very excited about. There’s been a movement to create an inexpensive, non-destructive and simple way to mod early Bally/Stern solid state games and add more features. In this video, I demonstrate an early prototype of the system used to modify a Bally Mata Hari pinball machine to include new features such as a skill shot, modes and even a wizard mode.

Want to learn more about this project? Visit: https://github.com/BallySternOS

Repairing/Replacing a Stern/Bally Power Supply/Rectifier Board

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As part of the ongoing restoration of a 1979 Stern “Trident” pinball machine, here’s a series of videos outlining how to replace the rectifier board on these games. This varies a bit between Stern and Bally due to wire color codes. References are here.

Source: PinWiki

1979 Stern “Trident” Pinball machine First Look!

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Let’s pull a game out of the barn and see what we have? Peer over my shoulder as I take a look for the first time, at a picked up game and see what it needs to be restored. From beginning to end, I will chronicle my progress taking a non-working game and making it play.