Star Tech Journal

Q & A On Data East Pinball
Solid State Flipper Syste111
An ongoing and interesting discussion has been taking
place on STAR*TECH Journal's electronic bulletin
board (BBS} lately. The subject is the evolution of Data
East's solid statejipper system.
The following questions were asked by Mitch Schleis,
Desert Music & Games, Palm Springs, California, who
works for a small vending company and has been
trying to stay with one pinball brand (Williams) to
minimize parts in stock. Advised of the inter-
changeability of many Williams parts and Data East
parts, his main concern, at this point, is the new solid
state flipper assembly of Data East.
QUESTION
#1
Am I the only person having problems with Data
East's new solid state flippers? I have heard nary a
word from others. I know it is a new system with some
bugs, but shouldn't they have been exterminated
after 3 production games?
ANSWER
Reinhard Bangerter
NDI, Laguna HUls, California.
Mitch, I am not with Data East nor am I endorsing a
particular companies product but I will provide my 2
cents as to what I do know about Data East solid state
flippers.
Side by side, I have always found the Data East S.S.F.
to be much stronger that it's equivalent Williams
flipper but that's because of the coil windings-not the
system. And just as with any game that has had a lot
of play, replacing the coil (SS or EOS) will restore
much of the lost strength.
This excess strength is the main problem I have had
with all Data East games. They break their plastic
(Green) links usually within the first two weeks.
Always in the same place too. Once replaced with
Williams (Black) part -no more problems.
ANSWER
Brian Schorr
Land of Oz, Stockton. California.
I too have had, read that carefully, HAD some prob-
lems with the 1Y-FFASI Flipper, but a few revisions
here and some elbow grease there got my Phantom Of
The Opera up and running purr-fectly. Check the
connections on the flipper board located on the inside
left side of the game. Also check for a bad solder joint,
(one problem I found) on the resistors. Change the
micros for complete piece of mind. This should fix it.
I have had no problems since and NONE on my Back
To The Future.
ANSWER
Concerning their implementation. Data East appar-
ently tested the S.S.F by making about 100 games
with it while they were still selling games with E.O.S. 's
so there are Monday Night FootBalls and Playboys
and other games from that era that have various
versions of S.S.F. Data East was there to help with
any problems operators were having with this new
baby including replacement boards and complete
flipper assy's.
Apparently, after enough testing they went into
complete production with Robocop. My experience
with the solid state flipper has been pretty good. The
main problem that has plagued the system from the
beginning is the flipper switch on the cabinet. The
early test games came with blade switches with gold
flashed points. These caused problems so Data East
switched to micro switches.
They must have had a bad batch because the micro
switches on games like Robo Cop and Phantom Of The
Opera will cause the problems you have been having
-weak and intermittent flippers.
Peter Gustafson
Data East Pinball Melrose Park, Illinois.
I have read your BBS message and am quite con-
cerned about the problems you have encountered
with the solid state flipper. We have gone through
several design changes with the solid state flippers
and with Back To The Future we feel quite confident
we have got the thing working as advertised. I would
very much appreciate your calling me at 800/542-
5377 so I can get the particulars regarding the
problems you have encountered with Back To The
Future.
I have spoken to our board repair facility and they
have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of
advance replacement requests for solid state flipper
boards since starting production of Back to the
Future. In addition
the number of calls regarding flipper problems has
been significantly lower for Back to the Future when
compared to past games utilizing the solid state
flipper system.