The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: TUF-427 on February 05, 2014, 12:21:40 AM
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Hi All I have managed to Aquire a Williams 1981 HYPERBALL,
one of the Lesser known Designs of Steve Ritchie, Williams attempt to make a Hybrid Pinball/Video Game
Loosely based I guess on Space Invaders type of theme except u fire 55 x 3/4" metal balls as fast as you can pull the trigger!!
My machine is "Basically Working" and all there but with the usual early Williams electronic problems and a few mechanical issues..
Couple of Pics as Purchased..
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First Job was the Ball Catcher Undertray,
Originally made out of Masonite had seen better days with a bit of warping and pieces broken off,
Cardboard stuck all over it..
So $15 worth of 6mm Marine Ply and a few hours Ive hopefully Fixed all The Ball Leaks,
You don't want to run out of Ammo @ 4 balls a Second *)*
Ball lift Mech in the corner of the shots was removed deburred and cleaned,
Previous owner seemed to think Axle grease was good for this..oily balls %.%
The Balls even found their way into the Cable sheathing,4th pic %.%
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I remember the WOW factor when this came out in the arcades. Bloody noisy,flashy and eye catching.
Thing is though, I didn't know what to do while playing it. Does anyone understand the rule set? Please explain !@#
I really would like to have another crack at it as it was fun shooting all those little balls around the place.
I will be watching this thread, good luck with it dude.
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The Hypercannon,
Pretty cool piece of engineering with a small magnet that holds each ball in place in the firing tube for the plunger to fire it.
Top loaded and the plunger allows the next ball to drop half way into the firing position By use of a stepped down Shaft,
As soon as its withdrawn enough to clear the next ball gets placed on the magnet ready to fire.. About 4 a second..
Looks like its had a hard life but still works ok.
Had a Modified bolt in it that had worn down So it wouldn't even strike the ball,
And the original plunger was sitting in the bottom of the cab in two pieces..
Welded it up short term to use and Test, will make another on the lathe..But has to be quite light,
And the plunger was actually made in two parts with the front half that strikes the ball non Magnetic Im guessing stainless
Tig welded Crack in the alloy retainer that holds the shooter tube..
Mounted to Playfield using needle roller and Torrington bearings on a steel plate, Staunch
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I remember the WOW factor when this came out in the arcades. Bloody noisy,flashy and eye catching.
Thing is though, I didn't know what to do while playing it. Does anyone understand the rule set? Please explain !@#
I really would like to have another crack at it as it was fun shooting all those little balls around the place.
I will be watching this thread, good luck with it dude.
Yea I know what you mean, Williams initial estimates for this machine were 50 000 units ! its sold about 4000 odd..
That's why cabinet designs for Firepower II etc look Somewhat Familiar..
Basically its a bit like space invaders,
You have an "Energy Centre" to protect from the lightning bolts that walk up the sides of the PF and then attack from the top.
Basically you have to shoot em with the balls thru the scoring holes before they get to the top and strike the energy centre..
There is other stuff going on too their Is an Alphanumeric screen (maybe the first of its kind?) in the Lower PF that gives you instructions,
Spell words etc to earn points and "Smartbombs" that kill all on Table.
Also reflex waves between attacks to score points on accuracy etc..
I think basically Williams made it to Fast and Too hard for the average Player to hold interest..
Most owners these days tame down the rules a little so Players can have a decent game...
Its Good clean fun I recon and Very Very Cool..And Noisy %.%
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An interesting game that was designed to attract video games back to pinball.
Here is some info on some mods etc - http://www.edcheung.com/album/album07/Pinball/hyperball.htm (http://www.edcheung.com/album/album07/Pinball/hyperball.htm)
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Always wanted one of these...
Played it to death when I was a kid at Rosebud.... Good fun
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Glad you finally got one Peter if you do ever turn up a new plunger on your can you whip up another one for mine? I have a little something to hang over mine once its going ill post a pic soon;)
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(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/05/y3ybujaz.jpg)
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An original advertising poster
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There was a Lahoods arcade on Beamish St Campsie and they had 2 HBs. This arcade was very interesting in that it had bingo machines, a couple of woodrails, some EMs and all the latest SSs back in late70s, early 80s. I did not mind HB as a novelty but the games for me went very quick and I always went back to the pinball machines.
Nice find and good to see you restoring one as it definitely has a place in the history of arcade games.
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An original advertising poster
Nice Mate!
Will make u a plunger too,, got a prototype done but its too heavy so going to refine the design a bit..
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An interesting game that was designed to attract video games back to pinball.
Here is some info on some mods etc - http://www.edcheung.com/album/album07/Pinball/hyperball.htm (http://www.edcheung.com/album/album07/Pinball/hyperball.htm)
Cheers For the Link ^^^
The Auto Fire looks interesting,mixed reviews from this some say its too easy to flood the Pf with balls then your shots only hit other balls!
I think to have a decent game on this you need to be fairly accurate with your shots..Laser aiming would be cool..... &&
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Lol not sure how accurate hyperball is but my Rapid fire you aim the cannon straight up the middle and keep firing you can hit most of the targets up the back without moving
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ok sorting one of the electronic problems in this game,
The lift motor run as soon as the game is turned on in game over mode,
And its only supposed to run once a game is Started.
Not much in the circuit, Transistor on driver board,and an opto isolator IC driving a Triac on the power switching/Aux driver board (lower left in first Pic)
Tested Driver board side works ok,
That leaves the Triac and the Almost unobtanium MOC3030 IC.
After furthur testing it turned out to be the Ic,so found some in EU that would post here reasonably. had to buy 10 so got plenty of spares now %.%
Also changed Triac for good measure an equivalent to the original is a fairly common part
Also notice the large transistor on the board,
this is the upgraded MJ10005 20A one that fires the Hypercannon. Early games only had a 10A prone to failure..
Pics #*#
And a youtube link of lift motors first test
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Next Job was making a new Hypercannon Plunger,
These originally were 3 piece afffair with a non magnetic tip and lightened as much as possible.
Mine had some rough looking bolt that had worn down to a useless Knub,
But lucily it had an original plunger sitting in the cab,but broken in two..
I roughly welded it back together for my sample to measure off..
For the prototype Ive used a 7/16 hi tensile bolt for the body and threaded it 5/16,and 1/4 at the rear for the guide shaft..
made a threaded and bored tip out of a 304 SS 5/16 bolt.seems to work as good if not better than original..
more pics
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Nice work on the plunger.
Your issue with the lift motor reminded me of my issue which I also believe is that IC at least I know where to get one when I finally dig it out
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Nice work on the plunger.
Your issue with the lift motor reminded me of my issue which I also believe is that IC at least I know where to get one when I finally dig it out
No probs Mate Will add it to your Plunger when i finish it ^^^
Ok heres a quick vid of the Proto in action.
Fires as fast as I can pull the trigger and "reasonably" accurate.. prob a target width or so in it..
The edge lanes seem incredibly hard to hit..balls keep getting in the way..
quick Vid
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That looks great ^^^
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Always wanted one of these.. im fed up with being told I cant have everything
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'Firing on all cylinders' like it was meant to. Nice work. I love to see original life brought back to these oldies.
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Wondering how the plunger affects the ball wear ?
Would a replaceable brass tip prolong the ball life.
Have you got any spare ic`s for sale or could you provide a link to buy them.
Your hyperball looks mint compared to my project.
What are your thoughts on playfield wear, i was thinking mylar or thin plastic overlay sheet as I don`t think they will reproduced.
Darren
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Wondering how the plunger affects the ball wear ?
Would a replaceable brass tip prolong the ball life.
Have you got any spare ic`s for sale or could you provide a link to buy them.
Your hyperball looks mint compared to my project.
What are your thoughts on playfield wear, i was thinking mylar or thin plastic overlay sheet as I don`t think they will reproduced.
Darren
My rapid fire Playfields was melted and warped so I made up a new one from polycarbonate I think it was called ill most likely do the same to the hyperball when the time comes
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Nice work on the plunger.
Your issue with the lift motor reminded me of my issue which I also believe is that IC at least I know where to get one when I finally dig it out
No probs Mate Will add it to your Plunger when i finish it ^^^
Ok heres a quick vid of the Proto in action.
Fires as fast as I can pull the trigger and "reasonably" accurate.. prob a target width or so in it..
The edge lanes seem incredibly hard to hit..balls keep getting in the way..
quick Vid
Looks great. I have played Daniels Rapid fire, but that looks a bit quicker firing, also I like how you can see the balls on the left hand side, look forward to playing one
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Wondering how the plunger affects the ball wear ?
Would a replaceable brass tip prolong the ball life.
Have you got any spare ic`s for sale or could you provide a link to buy them.
Your hyperball looks mint compared to my project.
What are your thoughts on playfield wear, i was thinking mylar or thin plastic overlay sheet as I don`t think they will reproduced.
Darren
Hey Darren welcome to the forums,
Ive pretty much replicated as close as possible the broken original sample I got with the machine apart from making the tip thread in instead of being pressed and brazed .
Lots of guys have modified damaged plungers with nylon, rubber and brass but cant really find much feedback on how accurate they are afterward.. !@#
I thing Ed Cheungs link Strangeways supplied earlier in this post has a bit on what he did to his plunger, along with the autofire mod...
my new tips out of 304 Stainless which I think will be slightly softer than chrome steel balls hopefully..
fairly sure the hollow tip serves two purposes, to lighten it up for one and to give it more accuracy by sort of "cupping" the curve of the ball as it strikes it..
I read an article from Steve R somewhere on Hyperball that stated the prototypes were poor performers and dreadfully inaccurate,
so the HyperCannon was totally redesigned by a Mechanical engineer at Williams,
where design changes like the flared barrel etc were made to make it a better thing.
The PF like Dan has said is 5-6 mm red Perspex,
only thing that would make it hard to replace simply is that the insert masking with all the lightning bolts etc is directly applied to the underside of it....
I think its pretty durable thourg just some novus plastic polish bought mine up really well.
Pm me if you would like to sort an IC out..
Peter
Ps heres some of the ball deflectors I originally removed and remade, everything in this mechanical monster cops a hiding!
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heres something different being done to a Hyperball
http://backalleycreations.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/buzz-lightyear-hyper-ball-one-step.html
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Small update received these in the mail finally today from the states, very good repros of the original by a HB owner on a Us Forum.. ^^^
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(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/05/y3ybujaz.jpg)
Man, I don't know how well I'd be able to take it with me, but I'd love to think it wouldn't be a hassle to bring it on my trip to the Texas Pinball Festival and get Steve himself to sign it! I think the look on his face would be priceless %.%
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Wouldn't be hard to roll it up into a small poster tube ;)
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I love the sound on this beast
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I love the sound on this beast
But all it does is shoot balls.... *)*