Ok.. a little background into how this game came together.
As mentioned before, it started out as a Gtb Charlies Angels that was in very poor condition, that I picked up at the same time as my Buck Rogers and Solar Ride. I actually went to buy the Buck Rogers only (for $100 not working but complete), from a caravan park in Laurieton (NSW midnorth coast). On arriving I saw the Charlies Angels sitting outside the gamesroom, with a water damaged backglass (it had been rained on, half of the art gone), and no boards, displays etc. Also he had the Solar Ride he was selling for $150 (working but memory problems).
Anyway after looking at and buying the Buck and Solar Ride, I was offered the Charlies Angels for free! Who was I to complain? I then borrowed an F150 ute from my cousin to haul them home. The CA sat in the shed for a few months while I got the other two going, and deciding what to do with it.
At one point I considered trying to restore the CA as well, as I had played and liked this game. It had a really nice pf which I ended up raiding for parts (im kinda sorry I did that now). But the backglass was shot and I thought id never find another so at that point the plan to build my own game was hatched. Id already built several smaller 2/3rd size pinball games since getting hooked on pins a few years prior to this one. All but one of these had since been scrapped so now I had a desire to create a full size version!!
First thing I did was come up with an interesting pf layout. Not long before starting this id played Haunted House and was very taken with the idea of a smaller pf below the main one.. so this idea was a must! I decided to be a bit different and turn it round opposite to HH. I actually started with the lower pf design and layout. Drawing it out onto a piece of plywood I had on hand, and drilling and cutting for the parts before hand painting the artwork (id already decided on a space theme as it was simple to draw spaceships and planets etc, and id found the Star Trek poster that I used behind the backglass).
A mixture of Gtb, Stern/bally and Wms parts went into the game. Originally I had bumper assys from a Stern Dracula on the main pf, and one from the CA pf on the lower pf. Recently I changed these to newer style Wms/Bally bumper bodies and clear blue caps. On the lower pf, drop targets, stand up targets and flipper assys came from a Dracula pf. The slingshot kicker and lane kickers came from a Wms Superstar pf and the Dracula pf respectively. Some of the coils were rewound or made from scratch as needed. The kicker for the top kickout hole (obscured by the piece of Perspex top right in the 2nd pic, put there to keep the ball from jumping out), was hand made.
The main pf I made from mdf board… not ideal I know, but its held up well over the years. Once again hand painted… spray painted much of the art masked off and sprayed, and some of it hand drawn. Some of the lettering was hand written and the rest done with rub on transfer lettering. Automotive acrylic spray paint and sharpie pens were used before being clearcoated with acrylic then mylared. The window is 3/16’’ Perspex recessed into the pf. Drop target assy, slingshot kickers, and main flipper assys are from the CA pf, the latter using bally/stern coils. Because I used a Stern transformer I couldn’t use the Gtb coil on the target bank so I hand made my own coil from scratch. Standup targets are from the Superstar and Dracula pf’s. The brackets for the slingshot coils (from the Drac pf), had to be cut, bent and welded to clear the lower pf, my brother helped me with this as he was the welder in the family.. so that was the only work not done by me. Lamp inserts for both pf’s came from the CA and Drac pf’s that the other parts came from.
Much trial n error went into the placement of some of the posts/guides etc to get the best game play possible. Pics below show the underside of the pf’s, wiring etc. Notice in the top left of the last pic the Up Kicker and pvc tube to direct the ball. And YES it was a royal pain in the arse getting it to work reliably! I used a modified Gtb bumper coil bracket to hold the Wms coil and microswitch.
Next post I’ll go into some detail about the electronics.
