I did take some pictures with my old camera and they turned out poorly, so I've been fiddling with my new iPhone and the camera is really good - but I've had to muck around with settings etc etc..
The FINAL step for this machine was to install new legs (from PBR). Something interesting to note with PBR legs is that you CANNOT fit the original leg bolts. I like all my machines to have the original parts where possible, but the PBR legs have their legbolt holes TOO BIG in diameter. So the original bolts (14mm) don't fit, they cut into the holes and it just looks stupid. So I've installed the 16 mm legbolts commonly fitted to Gottliebs. I wanted to finish this game with PBR legs, and it just looks amazing.
I had a FRUSTRATING time troubleshooting a problem that I was suspecting was the switch matrix, but I could not narrow it down. The problem only happened when the second drop target (from the left hand bank) was dropped and you hit the rebound switch behind the target bank and you would score that value (500) AND the value of the left hand rollovers (1000). Indeed, it was the switch matrix, and I snipped the switch capacitors from the row and columns until I found the culprit - the topmost rollover had a faulty capacitor. I ended up replacing all of them and now the game is reliable.
I also removed the "Homepin" MPU board from the Viking, and placed it in this game.
The game is 100% working and is an absolute blast to play. It will be delivered to its new owner next weekend. I'm very pleased with the amount of work on this game and the results it has given me. There is no doubt, that FATHOM is one of the best machines ever made.
The next pics are taken with my iPhone - so I'm not sure if they are going to look great or not !
Thanks for following this thread and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did !
