The Aussie Pinball Arcade

Aussie Pinball Forums => Technical Matters => Pinball Repairs / Problems & Assistance => Topic started by: Retropin on December 30, 2008, 11:24:48 AM

Title: Balls???
Post by: Retropin on December 30, 2008, 11:24:48 AM
Working on a Bally SPECTRUM..

Have it to a point where it is 98% working, but......

Does anyone know just how many balls were meant to be installed in this game??/  The manual doesnt state it and i KNOW it is meant to be more than 1.

Reason i ask is that, i either have the wrong number of balls in the machine ( have 3 in there at the moment) or, i have a switch matrix fault.

Ive installed up to 5 balls in this game and this seems to confuse it, as you end up with 2 balls in play.. and this isnt a multiball game.

My feeling is that its meant to be 3, but clarification of this would be good as i would  then know 100% that its a switch fault.

At the moment with 3 balls, the game comes to a standstill when they are locked in a kickout...add a 4th ball to another kick out and game gets underway again, but then it will come to a halt again if all 4 are locked.

Theres some vital piece of information that i am missing here...
Title: Re: Balls???
Post by: illawarra_steelers on December 30, 2008, 11:29:13 AM
Hi Gav,

Just did a search on RGP and came up with this:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/browse_thread/thread/1f64c31f50dfc401/f0f5ce1bc95b8a34?lnk=gst&q=SPECTRUM+balls#f0f5ce1bc95b8a34
Title: Re: Balls???
Post by: Retropin on December 30, 2008, 12:26:02 PM
mmmmm....switch problem - was hoping for thr REALLY simple fix!

Thanks Tony
Title: Re: Balls???
Post by: ajlaird on December 30, 2008, 12:34:55 PM
I found this:-

"Spectrum is a 3 ball game with a codebreaker theme from Bally. It was designed by Claude Fernandez, and the art was done by Margaret Hudson. Claude also designed such games as Flash Gordon, Elektra, Baby Pac-Man, and Phantom of the Opera. It had a production run of 994 machines, with rumors of a significant number of machines never being sold (see rumors). It was a complex game that didn't perform particularly well on locations.

Spectrum was a unique game for several reasons. Although there were three balls installed, only a single ball was intended to be in play at any time. Secondly, no plunger is present on the machine. It is an Add-A-Ball machine, which was rarely used in the 1980s. There are no outlanes -- balls can only be drained between the flippers. Finally, the absence of a plunger will confuse most people at the beginning of their first few games."

Hope that helps a bit - confirms the three-ball bit. Maybe one of the kickouts has a faulty switch??
Title: Re: Balls???
Post by: Strangeways on December 30, 2008, 02:41:52 PM
mmmmm....switch problem - was hoping for thr REALLY simple fix!

Thanks Tony


Spectrum is unique and intriguing machine. Expect the faults to be unique and intriguing as well !!

Gav - No "resto" thread ?? I was looking forward to it !