Star Tech Journal

Status: Data East Solid State Flippers
Pete Gustafson
Data East Pinball, Inc.
Melrose Park, Illinois
FOUR YEARS AGO, DATA EAST PINBALL DIDN'T EXIST.
Today we are the driving force behind pinball for
the 90's. We arrived at this position by doing one
thing very well ... we listen and we react. You
won't catch us standing still. We have a simple
rule here, "lead, follow or get out of the way."
FEATURES
Distributors and operators have told us what
they want to see in a pinball game and we
delivered with features like:
Moos
Below is a procedure for modifying the Solid
State Flipper board from the first version used in
RoboCop to the latest one used in Back to the
Future.
Our experience with our solid state flippers has
been excellent. Since introducing it in RoboCop
we have discovered better and more reliable
ways to get the flippers to operate in a manner
that players are accustomed to.
-Factory applied mylar. Regardless of what
you've heard, mylar is the longest wearing sur-
face for a pinball playfield, period.
Specifically, we changed the cabinet flipper
button from a leaf switch to a micro switch which
prevents dirt build up and minimizes adjusting.
Then we found an even better micro switch with
gold instead of silver contacts. We also madd
some improvements to the PCB design. These
changes completely eliminate very rare symp-
toms which did 'not cause a service call but did
effect flipper feel and possibly earnings.
Take a look under the playfield of our first game,
Laser Wru:- and then do the same to our latest,
Back to the Future. If the back glass didn't say
Data East, you wouldn't know they came from
the same factory. They don't look the same
because we continue to bring you the improve-
ments you've asked for.
These changes did not all happen at once. The
bulk of them occurred between RoboCop and
Phantom of the Opera. Look your boards over
carefully to see what changes are necessary. All
BITF games have the version F flipper boards.
No updates are necessary for BITF flipper
boards.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE LATELY? l'M GLAD YOU ASKED ...
What follows are the symptoms and solutions for
the problems we have discovered.
- Guaranteed solid state flippers that have no end
of stroke switches to ever clean or adjust.
- Quick-Loe which allows you to set up and break
down the back box without head bolts.
-New super tough nylon plunger and ball cup for
our Vertical Up Kicker. The material is 50%
stronger and 100% thicker than what we origi-
nally used which means longer life in the field.
-New allen head screws for attaching the flipper
coil stops to the flipper base plates. The problem
of the heads stripping on the old phiUips head
screws is gone.
-New self test features that pinpoint problem
switches and even tell you when the playfield
needs cleaning.
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SYMPTOM
Very intermittently while playing, the player may
see the flipper react in one of three ways:
1. Give a weakjlip.
2. Give a double flip.
3. Flip quickly and return to the rest position
without the player releasing the flipper button.