Sound Chip?

[monkeyboy]

I've found a Bally Flash Gordon pinball machine going cheap but the seller says it needs a sound chip. Are these easy to come by and install?

[new in town]

Action Pinball & Amusement - ROM Chip Ordering

Find out if he knows which chip has to be replaced.

More Info.

Internet Pinball Machine Database: Bally 'Flash Gordon'

Review of Bally's FLASH GORDON

Flash Gordon

PINBALL: Repairing Bally, Stern Pinball Games 1977-1985, part three

Verbage from the above Web Site. :

3r. When things don't work: Sound Board Problems.

The sound board discussed mainly here is the Bally "Squawk and Talk" (S&T) board (as used in most of their talking games) and the -51/-56 sound boards.

Can You Hear the Amplifier?
All sounds boards have an amplifier. If the volume pot is adjust, the "white noise" the amplifier produces should increase in volume. So before starting any repair, determine if the amplifier is working (can some "white noise" be heard?) If the sound board amplifier is making no noise, usually there is a bad pot, a bad speaker, a removed sound board connector, or a blown fuse.

Bad Speaker?
This happens more often than you think. A bad speaker, or a speaker with one broken lead can drive you crazy thinking the sound problem is a lot more complicated. Check the speaker first before proceeding.

Bad Pot?
There are two potentiometers on the S&Q board, one for the sound and one for the speech. Often these are mis-adjusted, or have developed a "dead spot". With the game off, turn the pots a few times. Then power the game on and adjust them as needed (usually both area nearly turned up all the way).

Sound Board Chip 86L93
This can be replaced with a 74LS93.

Cheap Squeak Causes No Score Display and bad CPU controlled Lighting.
I recently worked on Bally game with a bad Cheap Squeak. With the sound board plugged in, none of the game's score displays would work. Also the CPU controlled lighting was confused. If the sound board was disconnected, the score displays worked fine as did the CPU controlled lights.

[new in town]

You DO Want The Pinball


Eat More Ramen ! ! !

You DO Want The Pinball

Eat More Ramen ! ! !:


You DO Want The Pinball


Eat More Ramen ! ! !

Spoiler

How you Gonna get it up the Spiral Stair Case to the Man Cave?

[monkeyboy]

It won't fit up there, too many Pachi's already.

We have a small back room off the utility room that's filled with the wife's stuff (junk). Were planing a yard sale next week to get rid of it.

I'm already making plans to fill the space.

[daverob]

Flash Gordon uses the Squawk and Talk sound board, some of the chips on this board are very difficult to get hold of, but I've found that corrosion on the legs of the chips and the sockets they are plugged into causes most problems, so it could be a cheap fix (but also could be impossible to repair the sound board).

Do your research on price and budget for the cost of a replacement sound board, and if the seller's price still sounds good, then I'd say to go for it.

[KlickIt]

If you can't fix it yourself, send it here: The Coin-Op Cauldron: Pinball Board Repairs
Clive does great work and you know it will be fixed right. He installs new caps and completely tests it to ensure it works in a game. Takes about 3 weeks but it is worth it. I've used his service several times.

[monkeyboy]

The Flash Gordon pin was still for sale so I went to have a look at it. I found that there was no sound at all although there was white noise from the speakers but worse of all was that large parts of the play field were totally worn away. Something the seller had forgot to mention when I asked about the condition of the machine. So even at $300 I would consider this a parts machine. I walked away.

Did I do the right thing? I'm sure there are better machines out there for the same or a little bit more money.

[KlickIt]

If the only problem was the sound and the worn playfield then the machine was priced fairly. If it is your first machine and you want to use it to learn something about pinball repair it is a good place to start. If you are looking for a game to play for a while then I would spend more money and buy a newer machine. Typically if you start with one of these older machines you very quickly want a newer more sophisticated machine as the older ones getting boring pretty quickly. Also pinball can be more addictive than pachi and they are much more expensive. I started with one pinball and have owned at least 20 in the past 2 years and of those have kept 3 that I really love to play.

[new in town]

You did the right thing.

You could have purchased it and sighed every time you played it looking at the worn spots that no amount of Novis would fix. Take your time, save up a bit more $$$ while doing it. Another will come along.

[Ikaria]

I'd say you did the right thing. You kept your $300 to put towards a machine down the line that's something you really want!

[monkeyboy]

Thanks. I really like the look of Bram Stokers Dracula and they don't seem to be too expensive. I think I'll hold out till one comes along.