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Looking for a tabletop pinball suggestion or two.


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I found some images of the internals online. From the look of things,the design actually uses a piece of sheet metal with a perforation cut out as the 'switch'. I need to verify though. I'm going to do some tinkering and see what I come up with.

Check it for oxidation. If there's rust or black oxide on the steel (for copper this would be green or brown), you may need to lap the surface with 600 grit sandpaper. Then apply dielectric contact grease to the surface to prevent further oxidation. You can get a small tube of the grease at any auto part store. People use it on battery terminals and light bulb fixtures. Only use a very thin coat to cover the contact area. Avoid contact with plastic parts if possible. If you get it on the plastic, wipe it off and clean up with alcohol. Otherwise it may degrade the plastic with time.

 

Grease lasts a long while but may harden over time and increase resistance, so you may have to clean and retreat the contacts every 5-10 years or so as a routine maintenance.

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  • 4 months later...

Can someone help me locate a compatible power adapter for the Zizzle pinball machines? I isolated the issue my machine was having to the AC adapter. If I replace that, it should be good to go.

 

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Get a 24V bench power supply (make sure it is regulated / switching type) and splice the barrel connector from the old adapter into it. You will need a multimeter to determine the voltage is correct (+/- 10% or less) and proper polarity of the cable. The inside tip of the barrel is (+). I would recommend taking the adapter to RadioShack for replacement, but alas they no longer exist... :sad:

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Get a 24V bench power supply (make sure it is regulated / switching type) and splice the barrel connector from the old adapter into it. You will need a multimeter to determine the voltage is correct (+/- 10% or less) and proper polarity of the cable. The inside tip of the barrel is (+). I would recommend taking the adapter to RadioShack for replacement, but alas they no longer exist... :sad:

 

I don't think it needs to be that complicated. I was able to use an old cell phone AC adapter. The wattage was just too low. I just need another 120V 60W power supply with barrel connector.

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Oh man! I remember my brother having either an Atomic Pinball or something very similar. I have an Air Pinball I got for Christmas years back. I believe they came from Radio Shack. Dismantled it over the summer since it had battery corrosion. Got onto some wiring so I had to replace some wire and resolder a few joints. Only thing left is to get a replacement speaker. It fell apart when I removed it.

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The nameplate suggests a 24V supply rating. Most small electronics use 12V tops. You may get some mileage out of an old Laptop adapter. These generally output 19-20V at least 3A, a bit low on the voltage side but your pinball should work. You may find the actuators have less kickback though if undervolted. If you had trouble hitting targets, a stronger supply may be needed. That's why I suggested a 24V bench supply. Some you can dial in the voltage. I would be weary of going much above 24V though as with too much voltage, the actuators might overheat if energized for more than a few seconds.

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The nameplate suggests a 24V supply rating. Most small electronics use 12V tops. You may get some mileage out of an old Laptop adapter. These generally output 19-20V at least 3A, a bit low on the voltage side but your pinball should work. You may find the actuators have less kickback though if undervolted. If you had trouble hitting targets, a stronger supply may be needed. That's why I suggested a 24V bench supply. Some you can dial in the voltage. I would be weary of going much above 24V though as with too much voltage, the actuators might overheat if energized for more than a few seconds.

 

A generic, old laptop power supply worked. Thanks!

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  • 5 months later...

Oh man! I remember my brother having either an Atomic Pinball or something very similar. I have an Air Pinball I got for Christmas years back. I believe they came from Radio Shack. Dismantled it over the summer since it had battery corrosion. Got onto some wiring so I had to replace some wire and resolder a few joints. Only thing left is to get a replacement speaker. It fell apart when I removed it.

Wow, it looks really good. And I watched a video of it and it has very nice action. I want one.

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  • 2 years later...

Looks like a knockoff of the older Tomy atomic arcade pinball from the late 70s as it's just so similar in limitations and design right down to the 3 bumpers, 2 slings, 2 ramps, 5 digit score roller too.

 

I've yet to see something as nicely done as Tomy's mid80s sequel the Astro Shooter pinball which I've got.  It has just more features, places to score, etc.

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15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Looks like a knockoff of the older Tomy atomic arcade pinball from the late 70s as it's just so similar in limitations and design right down to the 3 bumpers, 2 slings, 2 ramps, 5 digit score roller too.

 

I've yet to see something as nicely done as Tomy's mid80s sequel the Astro Shooter pinball which I've got.  It has just more features, places to score, etc.

Agreed .... Asto Shooter is way more fun (I have one too) but in the Atomic pinball design style, I much prefer Stunt Jumper over Atomic

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  • 3 months later...
22 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Haha yeah... I saw that before, I was amazed at the detail they put into it.

 

I've been considering selling my Astro Shooter pinball, it just collects dust mostly.  Not wanting to deal with ebay though, too many cranks.

Astro Shooter is amazing, I love mine. You'll easily find buyers for it.

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5 hours ago, ComputerSpaceFan said:

Astro Shooter is amazing, I love mine. You'll easily find buyers for it.

Yeah I think it will go out.  I like it, but it's loud (as much the mechanical stuff on top of the audio even on low) and gets old fairly quick for me so it's just in the way as it eats up some good space.  It's still complete in its box too, not some beat up loose thing with the commonly missing legs issue.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Giving this thread a long overdue bump because I recently stumbled on a neat little tabletop pinball game from Brio, the company who makes the classic wooden Labyrinth game. 

 

 

There's no electronics at all and it doesn't play quite like real pinball, since the goal in this game is to shoot the highest value cellar hole targets you can and once you hit a target the ball is captured in the score indicator channels at the bottom and you move on to the next ball, but I like the wood table and overall design. It seems like it would have pretty good replay value too, since even if you did manage to shoot the highest value 100 point target 4 balls in a row you could just tally up your score then put the balls back in the loading tunnel and keep playing until you drain all 4.

 

I dig how quiet it is compared to Astro Shooter and the like too, and I think it could be a fun little toy to pass the time if you've got $72 that you don't have any particular plans for. I could see myself sitting down with this and a little calculator to keep track of my score and having a really good time with it. :)

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079X5HDWF/

 

Edited by Skippy B. Coyote
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You know I too forgot about this thread. :D

 

Earlier this year I came across this gem, yet another TOMY gem and this one quietly I've wanted for years.  I've seen one or two over a number that were overpriced badly and both high priced and not, in not great shape, worn, sticker issues, fade, etc.  This one was a find at an odd rare visit to a toy mall on the edge of town here about 4mo ago now I think.  I got this for a steal in my mind (25 or 35 I forget) but clean ones you can look up on ebay before shipping, yay. :)  It works perfectly, no damage at all, no fade, no quirks, just works.

 

And as pointed out in past posts, even above, TOMY stuff can be louder, and this one is no exception to that.  I'm on the fence saying it's as loud or maybe slightly more (motor, not screaming sound effects) than Astro Shooter.  The entire game works off this spinning rotor of a motor that moves fast, fast enough it gives good bumper and sling type action despite it just being all plastic with metal wraps on each to work as the score ticker for each place.  The spin is good enough, if you get into the wells on this you can spin up some points, and in time it will spin up and throw the ball into that lovely drop ramp to near the bottom of the table.  It plays better than Astro Shooter by far and others in the class, even some over, where it's more like those cheapo playtime(80s/90s) modern (TOTES) garbage with metal springs, balls, and little else which says a lot.

 

It runs on 2x C and 2X D cells one for the electrics (C) and mechanicals (D) and does it in style.

 

 

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Whelp, because I didn't understand how eBay's new offer system works I apparently just bought a pretty much new in box Astro Shooter for probably more money than I should have spent. 😅  

 

Here's hoping everything works fine and I'll be really looking forward to trying it out, since this will be the first tabletop pinball machine I've owned since Juke Jubilee reskin of Atomic Pinball that I had as a kid! It sure looks nice, in any case! :)

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Edited by Skippy B. Coyote
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@Skippy B. Coyote Well now that's a clean one, the model I had was an older one where the back board art for the score area had a different style logo and image, but same otherwise.  Piece of advice, leave the volume on low, because even low is somewhat ear shattering so I wouldn't advise maxing that out.  Not sure why they felt it needed to go to that level of pain but it's there.  The game plays well though, nothing crazy on features, more like a classic EM style table more or less as what you see is all there is.  The bumpers and things work nice, and if you can get it into that hyperspace it goes under the table for awhile, huge plug your ears style cycling sounds, and then it spits out on the other side adding a decent score boost.  That new colors thing is amusing, you can see what mine was, I guess they had left over boxes and put a sticker on it?  That back art in the box itself is how they came out originally.

 

I seriously suggest tracking down sonic, it's really solid if you're into these style of tables vs the ridiculous 1/4 sized stand up that basically are the astro shooter style on tall legs, the more complex and easy to break zizzles, etc.

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