BSOS Custom Paragon Pinball Update – New Modes!

Here is an update to my progress completely re-coding a 1979 Bally Paragon pinball machine, with an Arduino Nano, with all new rules and operating system. This game will be an enhanced version of the original with extra features and deeper modes, and 14-channel polyphonic CD-quality sound.

For more visit: https://pinballhelp.com/

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Pinball Stories #21 – A grail game from a special place!

I’m a firm believer of being patient in the pinball hunt. I’ve always wanted a Bally Wizard EM. It’s such a great game and has such beautiful artwork. They made a bunch of them so why has it taken so long? Because they’re an A-list game and often command A-list prices and I wanted a good deal. I waited and got more than what I wanted…

Here’s a video I did when I first picked the game up: https://youtu.be/kXVg88WqMIo

Diagnosing spinning score reels – Bally EM pinball

Here’s a video I made awhile back that I don’t see linked on my main site so I thought i’d include it. It’s a short video on how to diagnose problems with score reel switches when you turn the game on and the score reels just seem to spin forever and not reset/start the game.

Retrofitting Warm White and Cool White LEDs in Pinball Games

As I work on restoring another game (Bally EM “Air Aces”), I demo my approach towards making the game more reliable and stable by replacing many of the old bulbs with newer LEDs. I also show the difference between the warm and cool white LEDs and how they work.

Fixing Bally -35 reset issues and bullet-proofing the power driver board

I was having an issue with a Bally “Supersonic” pinball machine randomly resetting/rebooting. The problem was traced to irregular power coming off the driver board. In this video series I go over a necessary process to bring these old boards back “up to spec” as well as a few improvements that make the game overall more reliable.

The aftermath of an incomplete Bally-MPU board repair..

In taking an initial look at the latest game I picked up, this Bally “Mystic”, as always my main concern is checking to make sure there’s no significant battery damage on the game. What’s interesting is when I looked at the game, there was no battery on the MPU board. The owners insisted the game saved the high scores, but I didn’t see how? Was there a battery on the underside of the board? I had to pull the MPU out to see.

What I saw was a board that someone had repaired, that had leaking batteries on it. They simply pulled the board and replaced a few damaged components and did not put a battery back in. But they created another issue by not fully-cleaning the board, and as a result, the damage from the leaking battery, even though it was long gone, continued…