In Progress Stern Trident

[ronsplooter]

The new project arrived today and based on a very quick initial look it should be a good one I've not opened it up yet but cosmetically from the outside, cab looks good, playfield is great with only one bit of wear that's in a solid colour and hidden behind the pops and the backglass is decent (bit of crazing in some areas but nothing horrendous).

I know the boards are probably toast but I've got replacements incoming for everything plus some new displays. The plan with this is to update it with the Dick Hammil rules re-write using the Bally/Stern OS and implement the trough and auto-launcher to make it multiball The video after the pics shows what I'm going for!

 

[Matt Vince]

Looks like a fun project, I have a back glass for Trident but I doubt it is any better than yours as it also has plenty of crazing. Looks a fun game too.

 

[ronsplooter]

While I'm waiting on some waterslide decals for the Pyramid playfield I thought I'd start having a proper look at this. Took the playfield out and stripped the topside to see what I'm working with. It's obviously seen damp at some point as there's a bit of rust to deal with but the actual playfield is in great shape and will require minimal touch ups (the wear spot above the pops is the only real area of work outside of key lines etc) and compared to Pyramid this should be easy Not a great deal on the underside so it shouldn't take much more to have this fully stripped for cleaning.

 

[Jay Walker]

I should think you already realise, but the wear mark is most likely the landing point from the eject hole. I recall similar games like Wild Fyre having an adjustment screw incorporated into the end stop of the eject hole, though that may have been only for the yoked-together triple eject

A couple of things I hadn't realised;

• It's designed by Mike Kubin - I'd have thought it would have his favoured display layout, down the l/h side of the backglass, like Lectronamo, Nugent and Seawitch
• There are four slingshots and two bumpers, an unusual combination

 

[ronsplooter]

Yeah, standard kickout hole wear but thankfully only blue to colour match I'd never heard of Mike Kubin before but looking him up on IPDB he did Seawitch and Andromeda (for Gameplan), both of which I really like and he also did Magic as recently acquired by @8bit-1up

Should get some good action off the 4 slings

 

[Jay Walker]

Should get some good action off the 4 slings

And bonus build-up; I don't recall another game advancing bonus on the slingshots.

Looking again, the kickout wear would've been trickier if it was on that tentacle in the artwork.

 

[ronsplooter]

All of the main bits now removed from the underside of the playfield Time to break out the ultrasonic and the tumbler again

 

[Jay Walker]

I take it this is the game listed here recently, with a solenoid circuit damaged; one of the bumper coils looks burnt. The lower one, it didn't show so much before dismantling it.

 

[ronsplooter]

Yes mate, that's the one I've got a full set of working boards from @Nevin to swap in but it will nee a new bumper coil as the sleeve is welded to the inside of it Only board I don't have a replacement for is the sound board (which may be fine, who knows) but as I'll be replacing this as part of the Trident 2022 update it doesn't matter.

 

[Jay Walker]

The SB 100 audio wasn't all that much even in 1979. Considering that Williams and Bally audio boards had their own processor, while this doesn't even have an audio amplifier; I lost one sound effect on my Wild Fyre, and found that its 'amp' section had a broken capacitor - pushing on it had led to one of the leads breaking off the pcb trace.

 

[ronsplooter]

First round of playfield cleaning done and it's looking really nice already. Still more to do but this will only need minimal touch up work which is nice after having spent so much time on Pyramid

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Love this thread Chris This is good stuff for a MIA pinball mojo . It’s making me want to get my hands dirty again.

 

[ronsplooter]

Love this thread Chris This is good stuff for a MIA pinball mojo . It’s making me want to get my hands dirty again.

Do it! Do it! Do it!

 

[Arv]

Love this thread Chris This is good stuff for a MIA pinball mojo . It’s making me want to get my hands dirty again.

 

[ronsplooter]

Spent time in the garden yesterday stripping out the backbox and sealing backglasses. As with most bits on this game, they're rusty and will need the white vinegar treatment. The backglass is very unstable so I had to be really careful when handling it and I think I'm going to give it a 2nd round of sealer today just to give it the best chance. The good news is most of the major paint loss is in the non-illuminated areas so should be easy enough to touch up. The crazing in the illuminated areas will need thinking about, maybe time to try the transparent glass paints on this one