Sega/Stern South Park – fixing opto/ball trough issues

In this video I pull a game off route and work on it. Discussing the unusual playfield hardware used by Sega/Stern. There was a problem with the optos in the ball trough causing problems making the game kick balls out onto the playfield unexpectedly. The game displays “too many balls” when there is the proper number installed.

The Great Switch Matrix Wild Goose Chase!

Here are six videos of an 8 part series of clips I shot this past week while working on restoring a Bally Theatre of Magic game.

What’s interesting about this series is you can really follow along with me as I fumble around trying to figure out what’s wrong. This is an all too common path many enthusiasts take which often leads them back to the beginning of the trail and emphasizes a number of common troubleshooting principals.

At this point, I have a working game except for two minor glitches with switches: An opto in the ball trough is not working, and it’s causing the game to kick balls into the shooter lane when powered up, and the EOS switches on the flippers are not being registered by the MPU. The solution to both of these issues was finally found and may or may not be what you expect. Watch the series to find out!