A
V
COJNCO
Door Notes A
V
BY TODD ERICKSON
◊◊◊◊◊◊
The Coinco door, first
introduced by Atari, has
been a continued source
of irritation for me.
Cinematronics, Centuri,
Taito, Williams and
Gremlin are now or will
soon be using this door.
The most serious prob-
lem is the fact that the
coin ramp is not steep
enough. The door will
work fine when it is new,
but even a small amount
of dirt on the ramp will
cause the coin to hang up.
Subsequent coins will
completely jam the ramp.
This condition will now
lead to the next two prob-
lems. The door may get
kicked. (I know very few
people kick coin doors,
but it does happen in the
real world!) The coin
return cover may break or
fly off altogether. By bend-
ing the small bar in the
coin return area, the gam
may now be played for 1 ¢
instead of 25 ¢. At the
normal 50/50 split, it
becomes difficult to pay
for the game at ½¢/play.
Secondly, when the door
shell is bent, the coin inlet
housings are not parallel
to the inlet chute, causing
the button to stay in. Dirt
in the coin inlet housing
may cause the button to
stay in, also. By simply
cleaning the inside of the
housing, this will cure it.
If the coin entry button
stays in too long, the coin
return lever on the inner
panel and the rejector
operating lever may have
to be replaced. They will
lose their tension. The
coin return lever originally
had been riveted to the
inner panel sub assembly.
There has been a replace-
ment that will snap in
place.
As you can see, one
problem can cause
another with this door. It
may sound like this is a
marginal door, but it isn't.
It happens to be one of
the best doors on the
market but was never
debugged. We all have to
remember, in this industry
the manufacturers have to
get the games out while
they are hot, with or with-
out problems. I am sure
the tremendous demand
for Atari "Asteroids" has
created a few problems
for Coinco when they
were just beginning pro-
duction of the door. To
make a long story short,
there is now a new steeper
ramp for the door. Prior
to this, I lowered the front
casters to tip the game
back. The problem with
the weak coin return lever
has been solved with a
metal return spring for the
button (903494 ). These
can be obtained from
Coinco, free of charge.
The coin return bezel
which is now plastic will
become available in metal
shortly. The remaining
problem with the operating
lever on the rejector has
not been taken care of yet.
By using the new metal
return spring for the
button, I don't anticipate
any problems with the
rejector. The problem will
arise when placing the
5 300 rejector in other
doors.
Coinco now has a toll
free number, 1-800-325-
2646 to take care of any
questions that might come
up concerning their equip-
ment. I am pleased to see
them add this service
number. It is a tremendous
help, due to the large
amount of equipment the
company produces.
S*TJ OCTOBER 1981 7