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Stock or mod?

W

waynej4

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Oct 10, 2020
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Location
Chatham, Kent
Hi All,

Curious as to whether there is a concensus around upgrades/mods to pinball machines? Are these preferred or a No-No for most ?

I'm thinking along the lines of:
MPU boards - (e.g is Alltek for Bally's, or Modern day equivalent for Williams etc ok, or originals only?)
Colour DMD's (for me, personally, so far the best upgrade one can do on a Pinball machine!).
Sound boards (e.g Pinsound or original)?
Score displays (old Plasma style or new LED?)

etc....etc.....

That's assuming the originals were all still available, of course!

...Wayne
 
No concensus, personal choice, mine is:

Alltek or weebly board for the old ballys for sure add value and reliability - having said that, a decent original MPU card with battery off the board is probably good for another 40 years!
colourDMD is fantastic,
pinsound - if there is a deceent mix for the game
Im in favour of LED score displays over the old high voltage tubes - you can get rid of the nasty high voltage right back to the rectifier board on most games. Im addition you get a choice of colours.

Also I'd add - led lighting over incandescent in majority of games - some lend themselves to incandescent though.
 
I love mods. That said, I like my pins to be tastefully modded. So, attaching every licensed plastic model to your pin isn’t going to impress me much.

General consensus is that colorDMD is liked by everyone. More reliable boards for older pins, such as Alltek, are also popular, but no one seems to like Rottendog.

LEDs are a matter of preference. Some people hate them, especially for older pins. No one likes LED flashers - except me, but I play my pins in a brightly lit room.

No one seems to object to Pinsound.

Powder coating is, again, a matter of opinion as it can’t be reversed easily.

I also add other stuff, e.g. lighted models to indicate playfield features, resin signs, laser-cut plaques, lighted speaker panels, etc. It is a matter of preference. I love a fully-modded pin, especially rare desirable mods, but other people like stock.
 
AlanJ said:
Alltek or weebly board for the old ballys for sure add value and reliability - having said that, a decent original MPU card with battery off the board is probably good for another 40 years!
colourDMD is fantastic,
pinsound - if there is a deceent mix for the game
Im in favour of LED score displays over the old high voltage tubes - you can get rid of the nasty high voltage right back to the rectifier board on most games. Im addition you get a choice of colours.

Also I'd add - led lighting over incandescent in majority of games - some lend themselves to incandescent though.
Click to expand...
I’d agree with everything above. In addition if you do go down the mod route, I would fit a external power supply for mod that needs to be powered, in order to take the strain off the driver board.
 
5 must have mods for me are

1. ColourDMD
2. Shaker
3. Invisiglass
4. LED conversion
5. Speaker Upgrades

I have had no luck with pinsound and the support there has sucked for me on 2 occasions now. But that’s another story.

I like a Stern topper if possible but prices dictate that one. Otherwise I’ve made a couple of my own as I just like tinkering with pin projects.

I then go a little mad on stuff that’s not really needed but it’s just my thing I guess.

Speaker lights and inserts
Protectors removing metal washers
Some door and shooter bling but again this is more as it’s a tinkering thing I enjoy as much as playing the pin.
 
As said above, it's personal preference. As is the 'added value' argument.

My personal choice is to modify a game if I (as in me, it's my machine - i don't care what anyone else thinks) feel it improves the game play and/or aesthetics in a way that doesn't comprise the style.

I would say ColorDMD's & Invisi-glass are clear improvements, and they can be easily removed, so are favourable mods and do add value. Take 'em or leave 'em.

LEDs are Marmite - i like them, when used appropriately and not 'rainbow clown puke', nor flashy overbright stroby rubbish. This is why i like the OCD boards so much, they make LEDs look like bulbs - but better.

Playfield mods are a bit less clear - i prefer stainless steel ramp flaps over blue steel, for example. I like the idea of lighting up the Twilight Zone gumball machine - that feels like it should've been done at the factory, so that's cool. The AFM saucer GozMod, also cool and enhances the visual element. I do not like some of the plastic ****e mod makers sell which make some games look like a charity shop clearance table.

Replacing older components like boards or displays with newer better designs, that can't hurt can it? If the owner wants to do it, rock on.
 
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Stock for me all the way, albeit I have added some Pin2dmd's to some of my pins, but removed some as they don't fit the theme.I like to experience pins as they were designed where possible. You would not buy a nice vintage Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox and stick in modern amps and speakers, you expect a certain sound from those 1960's jukes.
Personal choice I guess, but have seen some over modded pins that I feel take from the experience.
 
Colywobbles said:
5 must have mods for me are

1. ColourDMD
2. Shaker
3. Invisiglass
4. LED conversion
5. Speaker Upgrades
Click to expand...

I wouldn't list Stern shakers as a mod, it's more that you're fitting a device/function that Stern decided to remove because they're cheap ****s. It's literally coded in!
 
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I, personally, like to keep as close to stock as possible.

Some playfield Mods are ok if they are not, in my opinion, tasteless (but I guess everyone's opinion of tasteless will differ)!

I guess a lot of it could also depend on the quality of the mods:
e.g. Alltek v Rottendog, Pinsound v TiltAudio, ColorDMD v PIN2DMD

I do like tinkering, so don't mind any of the above, and in some cases prefer the more "homebrew" approach. I guess when it comes time to move them on, this might not be the best approach though!

Also agree with @AlanJ , I think I prefer the LED score displays too. And LEDs for the more modern machines (didn't like them on the Zaccaria's).
 
Personally I don't quite get the idea of keeping a machine stock "as the manufacturer intended". In many cases the designer had other ideas or plans, but for plain old financial reasons they had to be left out. Therefore a stock machine as it left the factory was often not how the designer wanted it to be at all. So why be constrained by what the number crunchers demanded instead of modding a machine to something closer to what the designer intended?

Even if a machine is exactly as the designer intended it to be, I still don't get why it should be a virtue to leave the machine that way. Maybe the designer has different taste to me. So why shouldn't I take the stock machine as a starting point and run with it, improving it as I see fit?

Obviously anyone can, and many people do. My somewhat convoluted point is just that how a machine comes from the factory is pretty arbitary, with factors like the cost of various options and the imagination of the designer and the current state of technology at the date that the machine was made dictating what the machine ended up looking like. No reason to think that that was the best possible machine, and that it couldn't be improved by a few mods.

Anyway, each to their own. Everyone is free to do or not do whatever they want with their pins and enjoy them however they wish. Love and peace. Thanks for listening.
 
Do what you want - it is your machine.

I would say on a 90s DMD Bally/Williams

ColorDmd/Pin2dmd
Pinsound
New sub
New stereo speakers
Make my old LED speaker lights
Mirror blades or art blades
LED lamps

Do not care about replacing boards, most games that old do not have original boards.

Lucky to be in a position where I can fix most things, but I do not bother repairing the HV on DMD controller boards, at the end of the day - you do not need them with colordmds.

Phil.
 
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