Pinball Vacation, Episode 1

So today was the first day of what I have decided to call my Pinball Vacation. I actually have a bunch of other stuff to do, like clean the house, catch up on laundry, and take the dog to the vet for his annual physical; however, Dog Care, Cleaning, and Laundry Vacation just doesn't play well with the whole pinblog theme. For more on those subjects, feel free to browse Nikki's Blog. Extra special bonus: Nikki delves into her fertility treatments in loving detail, another topic I am also unlikely to cover with sufficient depth.

So the verdict on Day 1: Success! I started off easy by completing a long simmering project, collecting and editing the Doctor Who pinball music. There was a bit of panic early on when I realized that I hadn't recorded the DW theme, which is pretty crucial. So I set up one of the old laptops and re-recorded it while I ate lunch. I also took the opportunity to record music for Scared Stiff, Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, and Tales of the Arabian Nights. Each one took about 15 minutes to record. Editing the files took about 30-45 minutes, not counting a couple of early false steps caused by Audacity being kinda goofy. Here is the result... it sounds pretty good, but there is a click at the beginning of each track that I'm not happy with. While I was recording, I found slightly higher pitched versions of a lot of the DW music... now I'm starting to think that those are separate tracks intended to be played through the smaller speaker to give the music more depth. Not today, though.

Just that would have fulfilled the terms of my contract, but I pushed further... rargh! I decided it was time to do something about the coin door on DW. Currently, the coin door switch consists of the two wires shunted together, so when I want to "open" the coin door, I disconnect the wires. Also, the coin door buttons are sitting inside where the coin box goes. All of these are connected to the Coin Interface Board using alligator clips with pieces of cardboard in between to keep them from shorting. Calling it half-assed would be an insult to partial glutes everywhere. I would say that it could not possibly be more than 18%-assed.

So I pulled the door off, and pulled the frame of the door off the old parts machine. I also disassembled the door & frame that I bought on eBay a few years ago that I got the buttons from in the first place. Amazingly, none of the frames or doors are remotely similar. The frame from the parts machine has a mount for the door switch, the others don't. The eBay door has a mount for the buttons, mine doesn't. My door has two quarter coin mechanisms, the eBay door has one solid state mechanism for Francs. None of the coin units look like they will work on any door but the one they came from. Quel dommage! Anyway, I'm done for tonight, but the plan is to use the parts frame with the switch mount and the eBay door with the button mount and just accept the Franc slot for the time being, then jettison the alligator clips in favor of a real connector. And I have to take the dog to the vet, get some laundry done, and go with my wife to see Monsters vs Aliens. Zut alors! Oh, and get used to the Franc slot so I can stop ejaculating in French.