Maybe it's cabin fever from self isolating, but lately I've been playing this game a lot. Maybe it's from recently repairing and playing a Gottlieb contemporary of Spark Plugs... Chinatown. Games from that ear have their distinctive feel to them.
I just have this... I wouldn't say fixation, but interest for electro-mechanical horse racing games lately (not the pure mechanical ones tho).
I have Spark Plugs on the "B side" of the basement arcade. In normal times, I never think about this game, but these are not normal times.
Spark plugs has inverted impulse flippers. I like those. They give a whole other dimension to the flipper thing, you need to time your shots and flip wisely. Also, you can play the game one handed for ease of beverage consumption.
I just love seeing those cardboard nags advance step by step every time their respective pop bumper (or rollover) is hit.
Spark Plugs and Sea Jockeys share the distinction of having Win, Place and Show selections. Selections are pseudo randomised as the game starts during the reset cycle. Selections are changed with top center rollover also. Your selections need to cross the finish line in order to keep playing and win replays.
I really like the 3 selection feature, it adds a bit of a challenge once you get the first horse across the finish line, you want to keep playing and win more replays.
Win selection across the finish line scores 2 replays.
Place selection second across the finish line scores an additional 3 replays.
Show selection across the finish line third scores and additional 20 replays.
For a grand total of 25 replays.
All other horses crossing the finish line at any time during the game ends game.
25 Replays! That's not much compared to the bingo machines of the same era. However, I heard rumors that back in the day those horsey games were used for betting. Patrons would put money on on a horse with someone playing the game. Off game betting? That's possible...
The machine does have panel score display, but these scores are useless really.
The machine doesn't have a mechanical replay display. But the colored dots at the top of the backglass are backlit panels displaying the number of replays. On the underside of the cabinet. There's a knock off button.
I've had this game for a long time, since 2013... I was a different dude then... I was married, more hair, less beard and a lot less coin operated devices. Time flies! This game is rough cosmetically! But it works great, I've gone over this game a couple of times over the years.
Williams produced a bunch of horsey games in the early to mid 50's
The wiring on my Capersville looked a little ragged. It worked but it looked really bad.
The plan was to bring the game to the 2018 Canada Pincon pinball show.
I imagined the wiring would give out at the worst possible moment at the show.
A bit of refurbishing was in order.
Wiring Before:
Capersville coin door wiring before
Almost all the wires were broken. Most of them had the twist and tape routine.
The one wire that wasn't taped was barely holding by a strand.
I spliced and soldered the wires and finished them with some heat shrink tubing.
I even took the time to redo the wire dressing.
Repaired wiring
I finished the job by adding some nylon spiral wire wrap for additional protection. That way, it's unlikely the wires will get pinched in the door hinge.
Here are a few zip tie moments at Canada Pincon 2018. The event was held on June 2nd and 3rd in Vankleek Hill Ontario.
I had a few games in the free play area and a couple more in the history section.
Free play area
I did a few shifts of guide duty in the history section.
History section
The first Zip ties moment is out of my 1966 Bally Capresville. It was the simplest way to put the game on free play. A loose zip tie stopping the credit wheel to go down to zero. No bending switch blades, no messing with alligator clip test leads. Temporary. Does the job.
Zip tie in Capersville
The second one was out of my 1939 Keeney Thriller. The machine kept tilting because of low line power issues. Too many machines. Too long extension cords. The "hold" relay kept dropping out.
Solution: Zip tie on the switch for the relay hold in circuit.
Zip tie in Thriller
Sometimes, you have to improvise.
In french speaking Quebec, we call zip ties "Tie wraps". No to be confused with Thai Rap.
Thank you Paul Faris for the amazing Gothic / Biomechanical artwork of Centaur.
Art by Paul Faris
Bad move human!
Goth isn't just a style. It's a state of mind.
Old Goths dont die. They just stop wearing black all the time.
I always wondered if William Gibson was inspired by the woman on Centaur for his character Molly Millions / Rose Kolodny / Sally Shears in Neuromancer / Sprawl trilogy.
On September 2nd and 3rd was the 2017 Ottawa Pinball and gameroom show at the Nepean Sportsplex.
Game setup was on Friday the 1st. My contributions to the show were Bally Wizard!, Hokus Pokus and Delta Queen.
Friday Setup
Setting up my games
The show is an occasion for people of all ages to enjoy pinball in all it's forms. For the people from the pinball community, it's another occasion to hang out, chat, and drink beer.
There was around 100 games, some from as early as mid 1960's all the way to new games. All the games at the show were supplied by vendors, operators and the general pinball community.
My favorite game at the show was Williams Fan-Tas-Tic. I had never played it before. It's a lot like Williams Spanish Eyes, but with a bonus, left outlane kick back, right outlane return and a roulette.
Williams Fan-Tas-Tic
There was an IFPA sanctioned O-Town Throwdown Tournament.
When I started working on On Beam. I noticed some of the trip bank armatures looked a bit weird. Some were broken, some were replaced with some strange mystery part that sorta did the job.
More importantly, I noticed that the first armature, on top of being all messed up, was missing a small 90 degree piece of metal that would stop half of the trip bank from resetting when the reset motor was running. Without that small 90 degree piece the game would never work properly.
The other trip armatures were not a problem to replace since I had a bunch of spares from parts machines as they are commonly used in later bingo machines.
The first armature is cactus but the 4th trip has the part I need
Serendipitously, I also noticed that the 4th armature was the wrong kind installed for that trip, but it was the correct armature I was missing for the first trip. The 1st trip required A-261-12. The 4th trip had a A-261-12 but required a A-261-11. So my missing part problem was solved...
A hodgepodge of armatures
From the Bally 1976 parts catalog
This whole story of the A-261-12 in the wrong place got me thinking. How or why was it installed in the wrong place, yet so conveniently...there for me to use it to fix the game?
Maybe it goes back to when the machine was assembled at the Bally factory. Maybe the factory worker assembling the trip bank ran out of A-261-11 and installed a A-261-12 instead.
Maybe that factory worker was really a latent precog. That he subconsciously knew that by installing that part, he would save a lot of grief to one of the future owners of the game that would be stuck with the broken missing part. Maybe the factory worker's precog ability subconsciously guided his hand to the wrong parts tray.
Maybe I got the part in there. That is the future me, reflecting on how I once had this On Beam game but that it never did work properly because of the missing part. But fortunately for the future me, Time Travel technology would be available, allowing the future me to go back in time, get that armature, hastily install the part in the game before I would first acquire the game...
Maybe it's a different me. That is, an analogue of myself in a parallel universe. Very similar to this one except that the Time Travel equations and all the other technological details are commonly available. In this parallel universe, time travel tourism is not illegal but strongly frowned upon. Unfortunately for my parallel self, the missing armature is no longer available in his universe. Therefore, it was simpler to go back in time to get the missing part. Maybe this other self from the parallel universe built a time machine to go back in time to the Bally factory in 1969 for a tour of the plant on the day that my On beam was being assembled. Maybe my other self distracted the factory worker at a critical moment, resulting in the wrong armature plate being installed. Unfortunately for my parallel self, he built his time machine from cheap eBay parts. Resulting in a faulty time machine that not only travels through time but also through parallel universes. He ended up in this (my) past timeline, similar enough to his own timeline for him not to notice the shift until he travelled back to his own present where he would find his On Beam still missing the part. Thinking his time altering actions were all in vain.
Eventually the Time police caught up with all these timeline altering shenanigans. To return the equilibrium to the timeline, a Time Police constable installed in my On Beam a faulty A-261-12 armature that broke soon after I got the machine working.
Fortunately for me in this timeline, Pinball Resource has the part in stock. I ordered a bunch. Apparently, PBR bought a parts inventory from a defunct amusement operator, the armature was part of that inventory lot, but maybe there's a lot more the this story....
Maybe one of my time travelling parallel self stepped on a cockroach in 1969 that wasn't supposed to die. It died only because of the On Beam armature saga. Maybe it resulted in a similar timeline chain reaction as in Ray Bradbury's short story A sound of thunder?
But I think the most successful canadian pinball manufacturer, or the one that produced the most electromechanically complex games was the North Star Coin Machine company of Montreal Canada.
Robert Baraké wrote a good article one the North Star coin machine company: Montreal's silver marble games If you want to read a bit on the history of Montreal's pinball manufacturer and his personal adventures, I highly recommend it.
If you don't want to go through the whole article here's a condensed version of the story of the North Star coin machine company:
On November 17th 1947 a ban on the importation into Canada of all non essential goods was ordered to conserve a dwindling US dollar supply. Pinball machines and other coin operated devices were included in the list of non essential items affected by the embargo and could no longer be imported into Canada. The importation of metal pinball parts was still allowed however.
The brothers Jacques and Gerard Tremblay, that were Laniel employees at the time, saw the ban on importation of pingames as a business opportunity. They founded the North Star Coin Machine Company of Montreal Canada.
North Star Released two models, Sea Breeze and Richelieu. The machines were assembled in old army barracks. The company re-purposed Gottlieb cabinets and parts from 40's games. The art was done by their brother in law Louis Leger. Less than a thousand games were produced in total.
The gradual lifting of the embargo started July 1st 1950. Nonetheless, the canadian market was quickly flooded with low priced used US games. The orders for North Star pingames dwindled and the company folded. The Tremblay brothers remained in the Amusement industry as operators for decades to come.
So this is the History of the North Star games.
My history with the North Star Games started somewhere in 2012 or 2013. I dont remember how or when, but I think it was while perusing the IPDB. At that time, I thought it would be completely impossible to own a North Star Game.
Then in December 2014, I decided to show up to a Friday night pinball meet at Robert Baraké's loft. At the time I didn't really know Robert, but we later became good friends.
Here's a short video from youtube that gives an idea of how those Friday pinball meets colloquially known as PowWows (PW) could be. Anyway, It was at Rob's loft that I first saw a North Star pingame in person. The game was Richelieu
On January 23rd 2016 I went to the North Star machine a Piastre's grand opening. The pinball bar is named in honour the the defunct Montreal pinball manufacturer. For the occasion, both the Sea Breeze and the Richelieu were on display. Thinking that would be the closest I would ever get to the North Star games, I had a picture of myself taken with the games.
In April 2016 I got my own North Star Richelieu. My friend Rob had a second Richelieu. He wanted a good home for it and he offered it to me. Obviously I took the game. It's sitting in my office as I write these words. It's a very slow project. It's missing a few parts and I insist on finding period correct parts for it. Hopefully, I will find the right parts in the near future and get this gem to play again.
Richelieu in my office
In May 2016, I had the chance to meet Mr. Jacques Tremblay. I listened to his stories and got to ask him a few questions about North Star's manufacturing techniques. I'll save that story for another day.
Mr. Jacques Tremblay with James Schidlowsky by Williams Major League at the North Star pinball bar
In September 2016 I had a very special repair job. A North Star Sea Breeze. Only 2 are currently known to be still in existence. The other one is at the Musée des Civilisations in Quebec City. This Sea Breeze is going to a private collector who wanted the game to be fully working. My friend who was selling the game couldn't work on it due to time constraints so he brought the game over at my place so I could take care of it.
Sea Breeze in for repairs at my place in the middle of the living room
So 2016 has been a very interesting year for me in regards to the North Star pingames. Less than a year before, I thought I would never own one. Now, at the end of this year I've had both models in my house and I'm the owner of one of the few remaining Richelieu games. Feels like I've gone full circle. I goes to show what kind of crazy and interesting hobby pinball repair can be.
Here's a picture of Nip-it with two multimeters and the PF apron removed.
Let me explain a bit.
I'm play testing the game with an intermittent problem and I need to know the exact moment when the Outhole relay and the 2nd ball relay are energized. I obviously can't play the game and look at the relays at the same time. The solution: put a multimeter on each relay set on ACV.
The interplay of these two relays is critical for the proper operation of the game. The Outhole relay, 2nd ball relay and the ball trough switches affect the ball count unit stepping up and the multiball logic of the game.
I'm playing the game and paying close attention to the actuation of the aforementioned relays by way of the meters when a ball drains. All in the hope of catching the bug.
Barreling down the 401 in a black minivan. Drift Stitching on the front bumper. A hula girl on the dashboard. Industrial metal on the stereo and a bingo machine in the back. A ribbon of bitumen connecting my place to the church of the silver ball in Mississauga Ont. that was hosting a pinball Swap meet September 24th 2016. A fast paced drive: gasoline for the van, apple fritters and coffee for the driver. The expectations were low but the road speed was high.
I got to my hotel around 5pm Friday. Checked in. I the parking lot I ran into my good friend and mentor Robert Baraké of Montréal Pinball. We drove over to the Church of the Silver Ball to meet up with Mike and his crew and set up th 1954 Bally Surf-Club that I brought over from Gatineau. The rest of the evening was uneventful. We hung out, had dinner, hung out some more and called it a night.
R.A.B. by the Sienna with the Surf-Club
The morning of the swap meet I was there half an hour early. Anticipation on the pinball hunt coursing through my veins. Lots of interesting stuff. Oddities and Pre-war stuff. Sporadically throughout the day I showed some interested pinheads how to play the Surf-Club. James Schid of Pinball spotting came by with some friends. I hung out a bit with Rob of Credit dot pinball spreading the shady gospel of bingo machines to anyone that was interested.
Vendors at the Swap Meet
Games for sale
At the beginning of the day, I loaded the surf-club with a bunch of credits, but soon noticed that people would start a game and, not knowing what to do or being unable to figure out where the flippers and flipper buttons were hidden, would just leave the game idle with the first ball still in the shooter lane. So I knocked off all the credits and taped a sign to the game: "Ask J-F (pindude152) how to play --> Space invaders T-shirt" Cuz, of course, I was wearing the cliché space invaders T-shirt.
The Surf-Club behaved badly twice! That game used to be so reliable! At one point the game locked up at payout because the leather clutch washers for the replay cam were due for some neatsfoot oil that I brought just in case, so I fixed that quickly. Later in the day the gearmotor for the ball lift broke down and that was all for the day. Thankfully, I have 2 spare ball lift motors in the workshop for games of that era.
Mike of the Church of the silver ball decided to have silent auctions for the games he had for sale. Silent auctions aren't my thing but those were his games and his shindig so he was free to sell them as he pleased. He had awesome weird stuff for sale. True connoisseur projects that you rarely see for sale. It was a treat just browsing.
At the end of the day I left with a 1936 Bally Challenger payout one ball game and a 1959 Keeney Little Buckaroo flash slot machine console. The van was full. Excited about the new projects! Later I had a tasty dinner with Scott Warlock and R.A.B.
Drove back home Sunday. Uneventful drive with a van full of goodie. As I write these words, the games are still in the living room with no place to go. Ah! the glorious obsession. A good weekend all in all. I got some positive feedback about bringing the Surf-Club. I saw a glimmer of the bingo machine bug in more than one pinhead that tried it out. It was worth it just connecting with other collectors.
