Another Williams Hyperball Tidy Up

[TUF-427]

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..

[TUF-427]

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Originally made out of Masonite had seen better days with a bit of warping and pieces broken off,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

[oldskool1969]

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.

[TUF-427]

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As soon as its withdrawn enough to clear the next ball gets placed on the magnet ready to fire..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

[TUF-427]

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

[Strangeways]

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

[MartyJ]

Always wanted one of these...

Played it to death when I was a kid at Rosebud.... Good fun

[ddstoys]

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;)

[ddstoys]

[ddstoys]

An original advertising poster

[Freiherr]

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.

[TUF-427]

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..

[TUF-427]

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

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.....

[ddstoys]

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

[TUF-427]

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