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Old 01-17-2012, 01:58 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
Quote:
Originally Posted by dewdude View Post
Wait wait wait.

EMs from the flipper era had a TON of stuff that was required to get the game to start. Score counters had to be at zero...there were switches for that. Bonus units had to be reset, player units had to be at reset position.

The only games where the scorebox (backboard) did nothing were pre-flipper games where everything was in the bottom of the cabinet.

Solid State games have the computer boards back there.

I can understand why no chimes were going off...the relays that fire those are in....the scorebox!

I seriously have no idea how you got that game working with just the playfield. It shouldn't be possible.
I agree. For one thing, the scoreboard, and all the sophisticated electronics required to operate it, are in the scorebox; how on earth can anyone know their score in a pinball game if there is no scoreboard? Shucks, even mechanical toy pinball games have some kind of scoreboard, if only a dial with a pointer. I had at least one of those as a kid.

Also, as you mention, there will be no sound (chimes, bells, etc.) from a pinball machine if the scorebox is not present, as most if not all the electronics and computer boards are located in there. How the game worked at all without the scorebox is a mystery to me as well. I would think the power supply for the entire game is also somewhere in there. Unless the playfield was somehow being powered from an external AC power source, I cannot for the life of me imagine how the thing would work, and again, the whole thing is pointless because there is no way to tell what your score is.

What happened to the scorebox for that pinball machine in the first place? Did you rescue the playfield from a trash pile or a landfill? I'd try to find the matching scorebox, as the machine is just about useless without it.
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Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

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