For a short while I had titled this guide 'Zen and the art of troubleshooting early Williams SS games'. I was a bit too cute for my taste (like the logo isn't!), but I still like my original reason for the title: 'Why the title? Years ago I read the following definition of Zen: 'Zen stresses the importance of the enlightenment experience and the futility of rational thought...'. Well, if you have ever spent time troubleshooting a System 3 game, then you know that rational thought has nothing to do with the process and the only way that game is going to get working is through some divine enlightenment!'
Phoebe from Phoebe's Pinball Painting had a super sweet (restored and clearcoated) Alien Poker PF for $200 at the Allentown show today. It looked brand new. Replacement 1980 Williams Alien Poker plastic set. These are the last of the “Silkscreened” AKA “Legacy” set which have much more vibrant colors! 15-piece set, genuine 6-color ink silkscreened on laser cut PETG. Triple slings included, plus some doubled pieces. Vivid colors and brand new, perfect replacement for scratched, yellowed, broken, or incomplete Alien Poker. Williams Amusements Ltd have evolved from over 20 years buying and selling of coin operated arcade machines. We supply both the trade and the home market and export world wide. A one stop shop for ALL your arcade needs, we manufacture, refurbish and repair classic arcades and retro cabinets.
I started work on this guide because there were no other resources available on the Internet devoted to early Williams Solid State games. These games range from 'Hot Tip', released late in 1977, to Laser Cue, released in early 1984. Over 150,000 games were produced in this series, rivaling both the System 11 and WPC eras.
Unlike early Bally and Gottlieb games, there are no 'replacement' boards available for the early Williams games, so knowing how to repair the electronics on these games is a must if one is going to collect this era of game.
Location: Boulder, CO
Symptoms: Incorrect sounds
List of pinball machines Title Manufacturer Release date Ref. Heighway Pinball: February 2017: Alien Poker: Williams: October 1980: Alien Star. PINSCORE System model PS-8363-P will work in all of the following Williams pinball machines with CARD EDGE CONNECTORS on the master display controller board ( 5760-09461-XX): ALGAR ALIEN POKER.
The sounds on this pinball machine were working when the machine was first turned on. But after a very short time, the sound would go wonky.
After some discussion with the owner, we determined that the sounds themselves were not defective, it was just the wrong sounds playing at the wrong time. For example when hitting a particular target you’d hear the ball drain sound rather than a speech clip.
Pressing the self-test on the sound board yielded all of the correct sounds. This indicated that the sound select signals from the MPU board were not correct. With the oscilloscope, I looked for pulses on pins 10-14 on IC 10 on the sound board, while the owner triggered things on the playfield. Some signals were missing. When I checked the same signal at J3, they were present.
Williams Alien Poker Pinball Machine Games
The culprit was cracked solder joints on the connector. In the photo below you can see cracked solder around the top three and the bottom three pins on the connector.
Williams Alien Poker Pinball Machine
At the owners request, I pulled all of the boards out of the backbox and touched up any solder joints that looked suspicious. After that, the proper sounds sounds played at the proper times.