Gasp!

This is my first post using my new Christmas present, a spankin' new 20" iMac, which is pretty darned sweet.

The big news is that I have officially received my last part to get Doctor Who to work. I was emailing about this and that with the guy who sold me the speaker grill and mentioned that I had the mini-playfield motor but needed the cam. A little while later he emailed me back with a cam, but not the cam... it was one from the Ringmaster in Cirqus Voltaire. I told him, no that's not it, but thanks for looking... I had done all this myself, so I didn't expect anything. A few minutes later he emailed me another cam, and that was it! It was just $15 from Illinois Pinball Co., and I'd never found it because it's listed solely by its part number (A-15035) and name (CAM ASSY) but not by the game, and there was no picture. I had to change my pants, I was so excited. I ordered it that night and it arrived a few days later. If the speaker grill guy had been here I would have kissed him. mmmm-mwah!

So I got around to installing it tonight (I needed to get a few screws and things from my local hardware store). First I hooked up the motor and ran the mini-playfield test, and the motor ran. Then I attached the cam and worried it into position... it's a little tricky, but I did it by unscrewing the mini-playfield opto sensor and swinging it around, positioning the motor & cam, then swinging the opto back and screwing everything in. I put the playfield down, started up the test, and held down the flipper buttons (which you have to do to avoid crushing your hands)... and the crazy gizmo really worked! Then it gave me an error! That's great news, because the error is probably because the opto doesn't work. So I ran the test again, the playfield went up, went askew ever so slightly, then stopped and gave another error. This time, it wouldn't go down. I left it the way it was and didn't go in to see what was wrong, but still, I was reasonably flush with semi-triumph! Mini-triumph, even!

Which leaves me with this chilling challenge: To install the flippers over my Christmas vacation! Then assuming I can get the mini-playfield reliably running, I should have a fully working game.

The bad news is that the guy selling the Dalek topper did indeed relist it for less money... $5 less. Then some clown bid on it, which just enabled the guy's bad behavior. Sheesh.

Anyway, late now, so gotta go to bed. There's more purchasing of stuff to write about, just not now.

Why do I get the feeling that we've picked up another pathetic life form?

Because we have. Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man finally arrived yesterday, so I took a look. The first thing I noticed was that it reeked like a smoke filled room... the seller is obviously a good friend of the Tobacco Industry. The pictures from the auction really didn't adequately show the full extent of the playfield wear. But I've seen worse. And it's astoundingly complete -- I couldn't spot a single piece of hardware missing, not even flipper coils -- and the mechanicals look pretty clean. The only thing I couldn't find in the box was the right return lane clear plastic... I'm hoping the seller still has it and will mail it along. Of course, I sent this request after I left feedback mentioning the glacial shipping and distinctive odor. ^_^; We'll discuss in detail at a later date.

But the big news in Who-ville is the successful acquisition of a real speaker grill! Two of them went up on eBay within a few days. I bid on the cheaper one that included speakers, and ended up getting it with shipping for less than the opening bid of the other one (sans speakers). It arrived a few days ago and I installed it tonight while watching Bleach on Cartoon Network (which I've seen some of in Japanese, so I don't need to pay 100% attention to in English). After replacing most of the lights and one of the sockets, I found that almost everything works except for the Doctor 7 lamp. While I was there, I put #555 lights in all of the empty backbox sockets (which was most of them), then closed it all up. You have no idea how satisfying it is to get rid of the flimsy-ass thing I made. When I put the translite in, it sat squarely in the groove rather than sitting at an angle and looks like it will fall off if I look at it funny.

The expensive grill guy was also selling a Dalek for too much money (starting bid $100, and - surprise! - it didn't sell). I'm hoping he'll relist for a more reasonable opening bid.

What would a blog entry be without pictures! Here's the DMD shootout... mine versus the real thing. Can YOU tell the difference?!?


And here is the installed grill in the newly lit game. I took the pic without a flash, so it's blurry but shows the lights working. Hee!


This final note: I sold my spare Black Knight plastics last week... I got $110 for about half of them, which is great because I payed $100 for them 3 years ago.