Star Tech Journal

~ Willia1ns
Funhouse
Head Mod
Data East Simpsons
Drop Targets
Pat Lawlor
Williams Electronics
Chicago, Illinois
Amie Aarstad
Data East Service Department
Melrose Park,·· Illinois
PROBLEM
PROBLEM
The ball gets stuck in Rudy's head. Then you
need to take the head apart to free the stuck
balls.
Recently we have received complaints that the
drop targets used on The Simpsons pinball are
breaking prematurely. Our engineering staff has
investigated this problem and discovered that
some (not all) of these targets were not allowed to
cure long enough and this has caused them to
become brittle.
CAUSE
At differing times during the run of Funhouse
there have been different Rudy faces. The
problem occurs because Rudy's UPPER lip does
not extend far enough back inside his head. As
a result the ball can get air-born and skip up
between his lip and the curved metal bracket for
the in mouth kickout.
SOLUTION
To correct this problem we have increased the
plastic toughness of these targets 25% by
changing the material used to make them to a
plastic called Nylon 801 ST.
SOLUTION
~ immediate flxwould be to simply glue a small
piece of plastic to Rudy's upper lip ( remove the
face to do this). All you need add is approx 1/4
inch in length to his lip.
All new Rudy faces have the extended lip de-
signed into their vacu-fonned structure and a
new face should be available from your dis-
tributor. (This problem wasn't discovered until
well into production.)
801 ST is stronger due to its glass content. Toe
glass makes the target retain moisture which
keeps them from getting brittle prematurely.
No11:
This drop target will work in any Data East drop
target assembly ever made.
No11:
One nice thing is that the software in our new
system will allow the game to play with only 2
balls and varies the rules accordingly. By the
way .... model cement works just fine to glue the
piece to his lip or for the more aggressively
inclined you could pop rivet on a small piece.
MuRPHY's LAw #1301