Out with the new tokens and in with the old

 

A few months ago I got some new tokens for my Buffalo Arrangeball but after using them for a while...

I found they just didn't have the right feel to them.

They were too light. Too thin. Too new. They didn't feel right in the hand. Also, they were magnetic so they didn't work in any other of my Arrangeball games.

So comes along this token lot for sale on Yahoo Japan Auctions and I see that most of the tokens are old Arrangeball tokens. I win the auction and the package is delivered in the usual way.

 

Then comes the fun part. Unboxing!

It's always fun to unbox this kind of stuff. It's like some kind of care package / time capsule / Lucky dip / Red Lobster treasure chest. This package didn't disappoint.

The tokens were contained in a cookie tin and packed with old newspaper and adverts.

 

 

I always look through the old newspaper packing material In case there's something cool.

In this case I found an ad for the release of some new pachislo machine at some parlor. I'm keeping that!

 

And now: The Tokens

 

 

 

There was about 180 26mm blue painted Arrangeball tokens.

There were also a few other cool Arrangeball tokens: Taiyo, Three Star, Fuji (Sparrow ball token maybe) and even a Bunny Girl pachislo token. Nice!

 

 

 

 

These are going on the cool token shelf.

 

 

 

All the tokens were extremely grimy and had to be cleaned before I could use them.

 

 

These are the real thing. They look great, feel great with the wear and imperfections. These tokens are well used. They make the experience of playing these games feel a bit more authentic... Apart from the fact I didn't have to rent these tokens. It's tokens galore!

 

 

 

 

A nice pair of gambling machines, replacing bulbs and buying art

This is a bit of a miscellaneous January update...

A nice pair of gambling machines

I took my Bonanza Enterprises Deluxe Mini-Boy Twin Jokers video poker machine out of storage.

 

I'm playing it right next to the Derby Triple 300. Makes for a nice pair. What a difference a decade makes.

 

One is a relay computer. The other is a miniaturized video game.

 

 

Replacing some bulbs

 

One thing that really annoyed me about my Mini-Boy poker machine was that the lights for the "Deal Draw" and "Take Score" buttons were burnt out. These buttons are lit to prompt the player during game play. I've had this game for 7 or 8 years now and I've always dreaded having to change those burnt out bulbs. Super Miniaturized is synonymous with a super pain in the ass to fix. Everything is super cramped and fiddly.

First, I checked that there was actual power to the bulbs to make sure it wasn't some issue with the electronics / lamp driving circuit. There was a bit under 14 Volts to the bulbs. So it definitely was the bulbs that were bad.

 

The lit buttons use miniature wire terminal bulbs. I had some 2182 bulbs on hand that would do nicely.

To get to the bulbs I had to take the buttons apart. To get to the buttons, I had to take the front of the game apart.

 

I decided to take the whole front door off to make it easier to work on.

 

It's a spaghetti mess of wires in there!

 

 

I had to carefully take apart the buttons, clip the leads off the bad bulbs and solder in some new ones.

 

 

 

I'm pleased with the end result. The 2182 bulbs don't run hot and are of the same intensity as all the other lit buttons.

 

Now the game looks and plays like it should.

Buying and Framing some art

 

This all started when I was perusing a forum I no longer visit. There was a link to a fundraiser auction for a good cause I wanted to support. I looked at the items for sale and saw this art poster. I had to get it. Went way out of my comfort zone to collect it.

 

"The Garden of Pinball Delights" by artist Liv Garber

 

 

 

I wish I knew a bit more about this artwork. How was is commissioned? For what Pinball Degenerates event? If you have some information about it please post it in the comments.

I framed it and hung it in my office. Very nice addition.

I remembered I was gifted some artwork a few years ago. Bingo Row by Ryan Claytor. 

 

Since I had to go to the art supply store to get a frame, I got that one framed too and hung it next to Bally Bumper. I needed the change of decor.

Bingo Row was a gift from a long time reader. You know who you are. Long delayed Thank You!

Williams Upper Deck Pitch & Bat small repair

First post of 2026!

So the other day I wanted to play Upper Deck...

 

I got this game in 2019 and since I've first gotten it working. It's been very reliable.

So I start a game, press the pitch button. The game serves the ball. Press the bat button... nothing happens. 

The bat is dead!?

Re start the game, press the pitch button. The game serves the ball. Press the bat button, the bat works.

Pitch the next ball, bat. all good.

Another pitch, press the bat button. Bat is dead again.

What's happening?

So I open up the game.

I start with the obvious stuff: (I.e. Bullshitting my way through the repair)

Clean the end of stroke switch on the bat unit.

 

Clean the switch points on the Pitch Relay, the Bat Relay and the Bat Button Relay.

 

Close up the game. Try a new game... and the game behaves exactly the same as before.

But I also notice a pattern:

When the bat was inoperative, if I kept pitching balls, after the 3rd strike, an out would register and the bat would work again for a couple of pitches... interesting.

Time to look at some documentation:

I had a PDF copy of Upper Deck's manual but no schematic.

The sequence of operation of the Pitch Unit, Bat Re. Bat Button Re. and Bat Unit coil is clearly explained:

 

I check the Pitch Unit:

 

Everything checks out good but still the bug remains.

I look on IPDB.org for a similar Williams pitch and bat game that might have the schematic.

1971 Williams Action Baseball had the schematic and close enough features so I can use it to aid my troubleshooting.

 

The bat coil is a 110 Volt coil.

It is energized by way of 2 switches on the Bat Relay, then by a switch on the Bat Button Relay. Then through a large variable resistor (for bat power operator adjustment). Then the circuit goes parallel through a 4 Ohm 10W resistor and a Mix unit switch. An finally through a fuse before reaching the coil.

So I start checking:

All the relay malarkey has been checked already. All good.

The variable resistor and the fuse are good. Connections are solid.

 

The Mix Unis is a bit gummed up, it didn't actuate smoothly. So I cleaned it and changed the coil sleeve.

 

Then I check the 4 Ohm 10W resistor and the resistor is bad. Open circuit.

That explains the intermittent failure of the bat. The mixer's role is to vary the power of the bat coil on a pseudo-random basis. By opening and closing the Mix Unit switch parallel to the 4 Ohm resistor, the circuit either goes through both the mixer switch and resistor (making the resistance practically zero) or through the resistor only, in the later case with the blown resistor, the circuit couldn't complete to the coil.

 

 

I didn't have a 4 Ohm resistor on hand so I had to order one. In the meantime I temporarily bodged a 3 Ohm resistor, just to be able to play the game until I fix it properly.

Here's the final repair:

 

I like Upper Deck. It was William's last Electro-mechanical Pitch & Bat game. It has the running man unit, electronic sound AND bells, two rows of targets, pseudo-random curve balls and a cool back box light animation for home runs.

My example is a bit of a rough. The head is missing the neck, the backglass is bad and the cabinet is pretty poor. But it's a keeper. I have fond memories of playing another Upper Deck at a pinball show against someone else. I was in the moment, just enjoying it.   

Holiday Bubbles

 

What do Bubbler Jukeboxes, Hand Boilers, Drinking Birds and Holiday Bubble Lights all have in common?

 

 

 

Answer: They all use the chemical Dichloromethane for effect.

Here's brief explanation of the working principle taken from the Wikipedia page:

"The chemical compound's low boiling point allows the chemical to function in a heat engine that can extract mechanical energy from small temperature differences. An example of a DCM heat engine is the drinking bird. The toy works at room temperature.^[18] It is also used as the fluid in jukebox displays and holiday bubble lights that have a colored bubbling tube above a lamp as a source of heat and a small amount of rock salt to provide thermal mass and a nucleation site for the phase changing solvent."

I just love watching the bubble lights doing their thing and I love the lights and sounds from a bingo machine.

It got me thinking... I should combine both as some absurd ASMR video.

Kinda like the Fireplace channel (the only TV channel I would willingly watch) but with Bubble lights and a bingo machine noises instead. Warm lights, clicks and pops.

It's time for a new holiday tradition!

Miscellaneous November Update

November sucks! It's cold. It rains. It snows.

Daylight is down to nine and a half hours and getting shorter everyday until winter solstice.

It's a difficult time of the year.

I realized I haven't posted anything here in awhile. Things have been a bit slow machine wise.

So here's a bunch of little things I've been fiddling with lately:

 

Nishijin Circuit Racer in my custom cabinet:

I installed Circuit Racer in my custom pachinko cabinet.

 

 

Also, as can be seen in my original post for the game, It was missing all the aluminum trim on the lower ball tray.

So I found a tray that had the trim I needed.

 

 

I Ginger-carefully removed the trim, and installed it onto Circuit Racer. It really improves the overall look of the game. Especially since this is pretty clean example.

 

Kyoraku Oryusan in the ball lift frame:

 

I installed Oryusan in the ball lift frame.

 

 

Oryusan was what finally motivated me to buy a Silver Orange ball lifter after all these years of wanting one. So, naturally, it was the next game to go onto my test platform I cobbled together in my previous post.

 

These newer pachinko machines with the fever modes are impossible to appreciate, as in really experience the gameplay, without some sort of ball lift system. The machine's prize hopper is too small and the machine quickly runs out of balls as soon as you achieve a fever mode.

BUT I didn't just install the game. I bought two more Orange ball lifts: One that is complete with the proper prize hopper paddle switch and one that had the overflow blocked off.

 

I modified my platform to accommodate the second lifter. As the first lift fills up with played balls, it overflows into the second lifter. Excessive balls overflow into a couple of boxes. That gives the whole setup amazing capacity. I admit that TWO Silver ball lifts is a bit of a Pachinko Nerd Flex but now I can play through a 15R and not run out of prize balls.

 

 

I wired a timer so that when the prize hopper paddle switch closes the first lift will run continuously and the second will run 15 seconds ON, 15 seconds OFF until the prize hopper is filled. That way is prioritizes the first lift so that it empties first.

The one down side of my new system is that I occasionally have to manually empty excess balls if gameplay goes on for too long without a significant win.

 

It's crazy how many balls these newer pachinko machines can gobble up!

New tokens for Satomi Buffalo Arrangeball:

I got some 26mm tokens for the Buffalo Arrangeball. I like 'em.

I want each machine to have it's own token model to make things more complicated.

Bally Miss Universe side art:

 

This is a bit off topic.

 

I recently watched, for the first time, the 2001 movie adaptation of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

 

I know... I'm about 25 years late.

I thought the titular character totally looks like the side art of the Miss Universe bingo machine.

 

I just had to share it.

🎵Through the dark turns and noise of this wicked little town🎵

Silver Orange Pachinko Ball Lifter Setup

I bought a Silver Orange ball lifter from Yahoo Japan Auction.

I've been waiting a very long time to find a really clean example. These ball lifters have always been relatively expensive and they usually look like they spent some time at the bottom of the ocean. So when I saw this one come up for sale I had to get it and bid accordingly.

Super Clean!

I foolishly thought this would be plug and play, but it rarely is with stuff from YJA. Despite what the auction listing said.

The unit had no low ball level switch, no elevator start prize hopper paddle switch and the wiring was a bit "unconventional ".

No big deal, I can make this work.

I looked trough my stash of micro-switches and found one that would do for the low ball level switch. Even found some JIS screws for it.

 

Then I fabri-cobbled a prize hopper start switch from junk I had around. It's more of a proof of concept really. It just clips to the side of the hopper. Eventually I will make a switch paddle that sits at the bottom of the hopper. But for now this will do. It works-ish.

It's a case of " 60% of the time it works every time "

With the switches done I setup the elevator on the back of the Heiwa, directly on the floor as a kind of test mule. I played the game a bit and quickly found out that the lifter's hopper ball capacity was pretty low and that balls ended up on the floor by way of the overflow, rolling everywhere. So to make the setup functional at all, I had to make some kind of platform to set the game and elevator on with enough room to have a box to catch from the overflow.

I didn't want this to turn into some kind of life ruining project. I wanted to be able to swap games easily. I didn't want to go out for building supplies, so I had to work with what I had at home. AND I'm not a woodworker. I had to work with what tools I had on hand.

This is what I came up with. Some scrap 2x4 lumber, plywood from an old bingo machine backdoor and some old shelving brackets. It even has levelers. For tools I used a circular saw, a miter saw, a jig saw, a hole saw and a a drill. It took longer to build than one can imagine, I had to do a lot of measuring to make it as straight and square as possible with my limited resources. For some reason I had "Some Kind of Stranger" by The Sisters Of Mercy playing in a loop while I built the platform.

It does the job. It's not perfect, but it works.

Playing impressions using a ball elevator:

It's a bit of a zero sum game. True, I can play longer, I don't have to manually refill the prize hopper, the elevator does that for me. BUT as I win more balls, eventually I have to add balls to the lifter hopper. The won balls need to be replaced, sometimes faster than I can play them. So it's not some kind of magical device that allows you to play forever. It's not a closed system.

In my opinion, In the current setup, this kind of elevator is more like a cool artifact from the old pachinko industry days. A collector piece: more form than function. I like it nonetheless.

🎵 And I know the world is cold, but
If you hold on tight to what you find
You might not mind too much 🎵