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In Progress F-14 Tomcat shop log

Snux

Snux

Registered
10 Years
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Messages
351
Location
Maidstone
Some of you may have seen occasional posts about my F-14. I'm working on a P-ROC conversion of the game, installing a DMD to replace the existing displays and an auto-launcher to increase the multi-ball options. Full rule-rewrite with new modes and so on.

However, my machine itself is a bit tatty to say the least. Nice new rules and display animations on a worn and beaten-up playfield just doesn't look great. So it's time for a complete shop job.

I suspect this will be like Trigger's broom in Only Fools and Horses. His broom was something like 20 years old and had only had 7 new handles and 5 new heads.

PPS have stated that repro F-14 playfields are up next, sometime in March hopefully. That was the catalyst to get started. So the metalwork is off at the powdercoaters to go a candy red. Side rails, lockdown, legs, apron, shooter housing and also the habit rails. The cab is going away for a refurb, and will be fitted with the new custom decals which Swinks designed for me and Jim printed.

I'll start to document some of the steps here as we go. The playfield swap is going to be a bit of a pig, I have one of the earlier F-14s with individual lamp sockets for all the inserts, many of which are corroded and need replacing. The F-14 uses every one of the 64 lamps in the matrix, that's a lot of lamps. I'll also document the installation of the auto-launcher, but the pure "P-ROC" coding work will be covered over on the P-ROC forum, I'll post a link to that later.

Why F-14? It's the game that got me hooked on pinball, back in the late 1980's at Warwick Uni where the Students Union had a line-up of 7 or so machines. It's fast and furious with great lighting. Adding a P-ROC and an autolauncher opens up a lot of other possibilities to get it even faster and add a lot more depth.

If you want to know more about the P-ROC on System 11 machines drop me a line; I designed the driver board which alongside the P-ROC replaces the System 11 MPU board. If you want to know more about P-ROC in general, take a look over at pinballcontrollers.com, or get in touch and I'll point you in the right direction.

This is a link to an old video to give you an idea.... my software development stalled for a long time while I designed the driver board, but will be getting back on track soon!


Mark
 
Nice, loving the Highway to the Danger Zone music :) Are you planning on having Top Gun music in the final game rather than F14's original soundtrack...maybe rip some of quotes from the film too?
 
Top Gun is a great source of stuff for the game, I'm intending to use some of the quotes and some of the video. It's quite easy to rip the video and convert it to DMD that the P-ROC can play. Here's a clip from the movie, I did it to test the DMD Extender but you get the idea. I'm also planning to rip the original sounds from the F-14 ROM (Pinmame lets you do that) and use some of those too.

 
Snux said:
It's quite easy to rip the video and convert it to DMD that the P-ROC can play.
Click to expand...
Christ on a Bike, are you serious dude? that means that with proc we can take any old video on youtube, say for example the hitler one where he rags on stern metallica code, and display it on the DMD? awesome if true
 
You can convert most video to DMD, but it's only of any use in custom new software. You can't use it in existing game code, so no modifying current stuff.
 
So the playfielld is out, top is more or less stripped, lots of parts going through the tumbler to get shiny. Deciided to spend some time on the coin door. Like most doors which are over 25 years old, it's pretty grotty and corroded in places.door.jpg
 
So, took it all apart, quick scrub with a brush to get the worst crud off, then into the bucket of rust remover. Some elbow grease and metal polish and we have a pile of shiny things..
DSCN4044-1.jpg
 
The door itself got a rub down and some new paint. I even found a new label for the diagnostic buttons by trawling around t'internet. Put it all back together with new sockets and I'm quite pleased with the result. It's the first older door I've stripped down and cleaned up.

Front -

DSCN4046-1.jpg
Back :

DSCN4047-1.jpg
 
Flipper time today. Managed to re-use 3 of the 4 base plates (one had snapped and been welded back together really badly) and had a spare lying around, they polished up nicely. The coils themselves cleaned up OK too, and by being a nerd and printing off new coil labels they look almost new. Just about everything else is new - end stops, plungers, flipper bats, switches.

So, nasty flippers all looking like this :
DSCN3935-1.jpg

So all of this stuff should make 4 nice flippers :

DSCN4076 (Medium).JPG

Coils came up nice with new wrappers :

DSCN4078 (Medium).JPG
4 flipper units ready to be installed later :

DSCN4079 (Medium).JPG
 
Lee ellison said:
I like what you've done with the coil covers , great job , how exactly did you do them , I could probably be a bit anal and do all of my covers , cheers lee
Click to expand...
You would be better off doing them with all the work you are putting into the restore.
Shame to have the scruffy coil papers letting it down.
 
You can download the wrappers from Peter's site here. In addition to the coil wrappers there are a bunch of other useful labels, stickers and such like that are useful when restoring machines.

http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/

On the left, scroll down and choose Coil Wrappers. The ones linked on the site don't have the Williams logo on, but they are available (for free) if you read the instructions at the top of the page. Each download has 2 pages, one with the coloured background and one without. So you can either print on white or coloured paper - I think the latter looks best. Cut the wrapper out, little bit of Copydex or similar, wrap it around the coil, job done.
 
Thanks , but how did you get the sizes and the williams logo ? , am I being thick here ?
Snux said:
You can download the wrappers from Peter's site here. In addition to the coil wrappers there are a bunch of other useful labels, stickers and such like that are useful when restoring machines.

http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/

On the left, scroll down and choose Coil Wrappers. The ones linked on the site don't have the Williams logo on, but they are available (for free) if you read the instructions at the top of the page. Each download has 2 pages, one with the coloured background and one without. So you can either print on white or coloured paper - I think the latter looks best. Cut the wrapper out, little bit of Copydex or similar, wrap it around the coil, job done.
Click to expand...
thanks , I,ll have a look and see what I can do , appreciate the help , lee
 
Been chewing over what to do about the display / speaker panel. It's going to have a DMD, and as a PC will be running the show there will be a separate amplifier, meaning I can have stereo sound. Pinball sound is never going to be outstanding I guess, but I found these speakers cheap on Ebay and although the pictures don't do it justice the red will be a fair match for the powdercoat. These are pictures of the first fit (needs some tidying), I suspect I'll put some plain covers on them for protection but so that you can still see the red....

This is the back, it's a butchered old panel I had..

DSCN4091 (Medium).JPG

and this is how it looks mounted in the F14 ...

DSCN4093 (Medium).JPG
I need to tidy up the screws and the cutout for the DMD needs redoing. I also have some red film for the display instead of the orange, just haven't been able to find it yet. And then probably some covers over the speakers to tone it down a bit.

Comments, suggestions and all welcome!
 
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