after procuring the replacement MPU and driver boards, with the power of a 2732 Firepower combo rom, Mark’s Basement Arcade that was doing the playfield swap ran into issues getting that setup to work. we had a contingency plan if in the event this somehow wouldn’t work (even though I tested it and it booted on the bench): another Rottendog MPU327-4 from World Cup that was in Gar’s basement. with Midwest Gaming Classic on the horizon in about a month, the pressure was on to get Firepower working. so Gar snatched the game from Mark so I could work my usual mischief. yoinking the Rottendog board out and putting the original hardware in, everything worked for me instantly. the playfield wasn’t totally done being set up, some of the metal parts needed adjusting still. some visual aids:
the new playfield is otherworldly looking. the FIRE and POWER inserts required modification on the lamp boards, the lights weren’t supposed to always be on. the left ball lock and ball eject metals were adjusted by me and Gar did the rest of the final adjustment since Mark wasn’t able to finish it.
Gar used the new LED score displays from World Cup. there was nothing wrong with the old ones, these just look even better for the application.
the old playfield, minus its full mylar overlay.
this solo Rottendog MPU/driver combo board looks strange. how strange it looks was part of the impetus behind me wanting to revert Firepower back to original hardware in the first place.
I need to make fancy rom labels for it someday. I still can’t believe how clean these came out.
I’m proud of this arrangement. this is from when I reinstalled the original hardware, but before I added fuses to the bridge rectifiers (see more down below)
in spite of the fact the boards were tested in Blackout for over a month, one of the drive transistors shorted and wound up nuking one of the kickout coils. I haven’t checked but there’s a possibility it was an unused coil on Blackout. which kind of doesn’t make sense given I tested all the drive transistors in there.
the diode breaking in half was probably a byproduct of the coil being stuck on. it was so hot I wound up removing it from the bracket and leaving it in the bottom of the game to cool off overnight.
the replacement coil. Mark installed plugged on all the coils to easily swap them out. the wires were too short on the old one though, so I ran new wires and redid the plug.
I made an effort to recalibrate the LED displays sourced from World Cup in the windows. they were very off before.
I went to Eugene Jarvis’ Raw Thrills panel at MGC and when he came into the room he tapped me on the shoulder and told me that he saw The Garcade Firepower and thought it was awesome. he then asked me to make his like that, which I had to tell him my work was exclusively in the backbox and that if he wanted the playfield to look like that he would need to talk to Gar. I got him to autograph the backbox and the instruction card (not pictured)
in all, Operation Firepower was a success, and I ran into a lot of people at MGC that raved about its awesomeness. I only wish Steve Ritchie were there to sign it also. the original hardware worked perfectly throughout the weekend without any other parts getting nuked.
Blackout was inserted into the story from the very beginning as it served as the test fixture for the procured replacement Firepower boards. I don’t remember what got the game pulled from the floor, maybe it was to make the Firepower quest easier to manage, but I uncovered some pretty glaring issues. the flipper plates had screws that fell out, and I wound up stealing a short lamp socket off the old Firepower playfield since we apparently only have the long ones and the “dead” lamps were irritating me.
here’s the empty screw holes in the flipper plates. surprisingly the wood wasn’t stripped out, which makes the screws falling out a little unusual.
the bridge rectifiers for the solenoids and lamps on all Williams solid state games up through System 11A don’t have fuses. this can be volatile and dangerous in the event one of the rectifiers shorts out. best case I think you’ll have melted wires; worst case, there’s legend your game’s domicile can burn down.
I’m told Blackout will grow to full size again. it’s pretty telling when children have to bend over to play it with those silly short legs.
the System 6 saga will continue, as it is now a trilogy…
more to come