Wake me up when you're done

Many pinball podcasts and discussions have ruled out DMD games as being yesterday's titles. Light shows, Engaging sound and satisfying shots. That's what I look for in pinball.

Scared Stiff

This post will be my home for all things related to my Scared Stiff adventures in 2018 and 2019. It will include a running log of restoration & mods, repairs & more.

July 16, 2018

Well, I did it again.  I re-bought an existing title that I'd already owned.   First, it was Data East Star Wars.  (which, I intended to re-theme until I realized it was the nicest condition I'd ever seen for a DESW) .  Then, STTNG... and now, Scared Stiff.

My list of "wanted" pins is pretty small. One day talking with a friend, he asked (mostly kidding) - "Wait, you HAD a Scared Stiff and got rid of it?" 

The short version of the story was:  I sold a Scared Stiff, Monster Bash & Woz in a multi pin deal.  Double-dumbass on me for having gotten rid of it.  Especially having sold them to ride the NIB pinball wave.

I hadn't actually searched for-sale pins for a couple of months, instead saving cash with intention to buy something at SFGE in June.    As it turns out, the only thing(s) of substance I bought as a result of SFGE were new tools as a result of the Tubby Incident.

Following the trip down pinball-memory lane, I did a quick search for Scared Stiff and found two for sale.  One was a Bryan Kelly or HEP restoration for north of $12k.   The other, was this one:   https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/58351

Original photos from the pinside listing, I saved off to here: https://images.eyedyllic.com/Hobbies/Scared-Stiff-Pinside-Photos/n-nhnhFx/

Delivery / Shipping

After my last headaches with STI, I decided to give a reputable arcade & pinball mover a try, this time.   Bob Cunningham picked it up in the Rhode Island area on June 25, 2018.   It rode in his truck for about a week and landed at his warehouse in Kentucky.   He delivered it to me on July 12, 2018.      

Pros:

• Nice Guy

• Experience in the Industry in various capacities

• Preps games correctly (Blankets, wrap)

• Reasonably Priced ($275)

Cons:

• Depending on his route, can take awhile to get your game.
  (12 days to pick up, 18 days for delivery = 30 days total)

• He lost my game's legs
  (I had to wait another week for a pinball order to come in before I could actually start playing it.)

Scared Stiff at the pickup location in the Rhode Island Area

Scared Stiff, as delivered here on the Gulf Coast

Despite the leg snafu, I'd definitely consider using Bob again for a pinball move - seems like a solid dude.

Initial Survey of Condition

The machine's condition was better than I expected.   The playfield and backglass are really good.  They had partially LED'd the playfield, the backglass still had burning incandescent space heaters in it. 

The inner side board on the left has a non-structural crack that will fill easily enough. The left side, side art red color is faded by around 60% but the right-side isn't.  The cabinet is solid, no real damage to speak of.  The ramps are hazy.  The haze would flame-polish out but they have ball-wear lines that probably won't polish out without something creative and potentially friction-melty.

All switches and boards work, has all original boards which I see as a plus.  

The worst "hack" I've found if this fuse work which, honestly I respect versus the usual foil wrapped fuse or beer-tab solution to blown fuses.

I normally use p21s as a playfield wax, or the meguires carnuba stuff.  I know there are Brazilians if wax options out there (dad joke) but I had some of this Mother’s cleaner wax left over from another project and I found that it actually cleaned better than Novus 2.  

Don’t know if I’m ready to jump ship to Mother’s but I liked the early results using it like a cleaner.

Now, we wait for packages..

So far, zero games played while I wait on new legs and glass from Pinball Life. Did manage to get the ColorDMD installed. Ordered warm tone retro bulbs to kill some of the LED brightness.

From there Mind orbitz style slow color changing shooter knob from CoinTaker, dancing boogies and the skull pile mod along with some new plastics should round it out.

Takes a lot to whip a game into shape but once you get them to that point- worth it.

More to come..

August 10, 2018

More good progress on Scared Stiff

Cleaning and Mods

Shopping List

Chrome Legs: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-19514
Leg/Cabinet Protectors: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/PINCAB-G
ColorDMD: http://shop.colordmd.com/colordmd-replacement-display-for-scared-stiff-pinball-machine/
Pinball Life Lit Flipper Buttons: https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3760
Mind Orbits / Cointaker Slow Color Changing Shooter: https://cointaker.com/products/led-lit-shooter-rods
New Lockdown Bar (Pinball life "Seconds"): https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2061
New Pinball Glass: https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=768
New Bat Ramp (LSOG): https://littleshopofgames.com/product/scared-stiff-bat-ramp-with-decal-and-hardware-a-20754/
New Bony Beast Ramp (LSOG): https://littleshopofgames.com/product/scared-stiff-boney-beast-ramp/
New Crate Board: https://littleshopofgames.com/product/scared-stiff-crate-board-ssc001
New Dancing Boogies: https://littleshopofgames.com/product/boogie-man-for-scared-stiff-eatpm/
Robert Winter Dancing Boogie Extension Arms: http://www.robertwinter.com/pinball/ss/kitbm.html
Robert Winter Skull Pile LED Eyes: http://www.robertwinter.com/pinball/ss/kitled.html
Scared Stiff Slingshot Plastics: https://bit.ly/2KIpqh1
Clear Warm White Comet LED: http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/1smd5050.htm
Flame Comet LED: http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/fire.htm
RGB Color Changer: https://cointaker.com/products/ct-color-changer
Clear Warm White Retro Cointaker LED: https://cointaker.com/products/44-47-retro
Titan Pinball Glow Rubber Kit: https://www.titanpinball.com/kits/index.php/view/id/126
LED OCD Controller: http://ledocd.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=22
GI OCD Controller: http://ledocd.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=7
Power Splitter: https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=4234
Power Tap: https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=5037
LED Strip with Waterproof Coating: https://amzn.to/2AZFoDO
New Power Driver Board: https://ksarcade.net/rottendog-power-driver-for-bally-williams-wpc-95-a-20028-wdb095.html
New MPU Board: https://ksarcade.net/rottendog-wpc-95-security-cpu-plug-and-play-a-20119-a-21377-mpu095.html
Playfield Protector: https://www.playfield-protectors.com
Pinball Pro Speakers: https://pinballpro.net/shop/williams-wpc-complete-speaker-kit-swtr-hf/
Crate Decal (LSOG): https://littleshopofgames.com/shop/decals/decals-playfield-ramp/scared-stiff-crate-door-decal-a-21336-d/

I tried to "warm up" the tone of the pin. It already had LEDs but many were on the cool side of the spectrum. I tried both the Cointaker Warm Retro and the Comet Warm 1SMD and found them to be identical to my eye. Both are still a little brighter and blown out than I'd prefer. I have a GI OCD kit to put in the pin, which will give me better control over the GI brightness. Contemplated putting incandescents back in the GI, even. So far, I don't hate it but I'm not 100% satisfied. "Needs something". The flame flicker bulbs maybe interspersed? It would be pricey and may not play well with GI animations in the game..

Custom Paint

My friend, Nathan provided some inspiration with his background in imagineering-level yard haunts. He showed me plastic skeletons that he had tea-stained and melted plastic to them to appear fleshy. Googling some resources I found these helpful:

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Corpse-a-Skeleton-The-Quick-and-Dirty-Way-/
http://manningkrull.com/manningmakesstuff/making-plastic-bones-look-aged-dirty/

I re-strung the Bony Beast spine with thin picture-hanging wire and zip tied the LED strip at every vertebrae joint, pointing downward. Use the waterproof-type LED strips, they are more sturdy because of the plastic casing. I used Minwax Special Walnut Stain and a bristle brush. A light coating of spray urethane to seal in the stain.

Skull Pile

The game was wired for LED eyes in the Skull Pile plastic on the backboard but this was not included when the game shipped. A mountain of hot glue later, it is mounted and installed. I went a little overboard b/c the LED and wiring seem quite delicate and I don't want them moving.

Other Stuff

The coffin door was a little fidgety. The door pops open and the coffin inhabitant yells "boo!" and horizontally rotates to allow a ball to eject from beneath. It would often hang open after ejecting a ball. When another ball ejects while the door is open, it ejects the ball over the lane guides into the drain. I replaced the vertical hinge pin, straightened the horizontal hinge pin flaps and replaced the horizontal pin with a new one.

Finished it out with a color-changing LED spotlight on the sarcophogus face.

Clips

Addendum 9/3/2018

Added GI OCD and LED OCD modules.

Addendum 2/18/2019

Powering the LEDs on the beast ramp

Addendum 2/22/2019

Inspecting the Power Driver and MPU, I noticed a ton of odd board hacks. Thing is, the game is playing fine… but the hacks include straight-wire replacements on resistor banks and complete bypass of fuses. I sent both boards off for repair but his repair queue is ~3 months, so I ordered replacement boards.
Maybe a waste of time and money since the game was playing fine but those fuses & resistors are there for a reason, ya know? :) My best guess without schematic diving is that they were bypassed for features not necessarily used in WPC-95 on this game.

Power from a DK Power Tap to an 8-way splitter and we power the LED controller from that splitter. (roughly 12v)

Addendum 5/10/2019

Touch up Time

I’m not super OCD about making a game that is based on a beat-up crate look like it is brand new. But - the reds were really faded on the cabinet - and that part did stand out. Re-decaling a cabinet is a time suck nightmare and at the end of the day: you have a decal’d cabinet.

A friend offered to help in this respect and Greg was kind enough to lend me some of his time and considerable skills to fill in the reds!

It turned out waaaaaayyyyy better than anything I could have done on my own. Pretty stoked with the result and bonus - originality & no covering decal! :)

Playfield Protector

Addendum 5/17/2019 - More Touch up

Now that the reds had some time to cure, I went back with an airbrush and three or four light coats of clear to lock it in. My game will spend the majority of its life in a dark dungeon basement but it sure is nice to have the reds livened back up.

6/13/2019

Speaker-Time. I have been impressed with the Pinball Pro premium system in my Medieval Madness, Scared Stiff now has the same system. The Scared Stuff Multi-ball will really rock now. :)

Installed Pinball Pro Premium Speaker Kit

Addendum 7/7/2019

Mirror Blades & Shipping Prep for SFGE.

Packed and ready for SFGE. My Scared Stiff on the right, Cody’s Drop-target equipped Firepower on the Lef!

For SFGE 2019, I was hoping to equip Scared Stiff with a set of Pingraffix Mirror BladeSkins. If you’ve never seen them - click that link - they are awesome.

Sort of the best of both worlds between regular art blades and mirror blades.

Unfortunately as of time of this writing, they’ve been out of stock for about 2 months. I reached out but doesn’t seem like they were able to get a supply of Mirror blade, in time. I ordered two regular mirror blades from Cointaker but by the time they arrived, I’d already packed up Scared Stiff for the show.

I’ve considered bringing the regular Mirror Blades with me to the show to install them there but I also don’t want to be a bad game-bringer neighbor and be in the way for the install.

Will play it by ear, I guess.

God of War, A Dad's Review

God of War (PS4, 2018 Santa Monica Studio) is the best console game I've played in 20 years. 

I've loved console games for as long as there have been consoles and gamepads for my fingers to fondle.  My relationship with consoles have been largely cock-blocked by the universe to prevent me from becoming the bleary-eyed, [late-to-work because i stayed up all night playing <whatever>] gamer-addict that I'd otherwise be naturally inclined to become.   

As a teenager, I really couldn't dedicate expansive amounts of console-gaming time because of job, chores, school, or mandatory family time.   As a young married adult, the Unreal Championship matches were thread like a needle between crazy-work hours and date-nights.  Bottle feedings instead of clan raids, tech start-ups for business equity instead of leveling up my Call Of Duty [x] stats.   

Milleniuals call this Adulting, right?..   

I do, occasionally get to eek out a mastery of a beloved title.   Played some Call Of Duty at a middle-high-level.  Tournament-level Halo before it jumped the Cortana-Terminator shark...

I think for many of us geeks-turned-dads, the barrier to entry on satisfaction for modern console games is they [have been] heavily multiplayer focused with lopsided matchmaking that requires an extensive time investment to not be frustrated.  Part of why I like arcades and pinball so much.  Coin up, play a match and move on.    For those single-player campaigns of console games that I have played, they seem shallow and a little too "on-rails" to feel any stakes for the characters.

That's what makes the 2018 PS4 release God of War such a breath of fresh air.    It feels like a game made by dads, for dads and shows a keen meta-awareness of these frustrations and solves many of them.

Don't get me wrong, I started off skeptical. 

As a fan of the original series, the smash-and-squish-and-crush rage-monster Kratos gameplay, I immediately started to side-eye this game from the first moments.  An older, kinda craggy and slow looking Kratos hugs a tree.   

In my mind:

  Wait.  I finally get to play Kratos in 4k and he is literally a tree-hugger now?  WTF is this?  The same dude that would essentially destroy the cosmos to get       revenge.  The blood thirsty Ghost of Sparta is a peace-loving tree hugger AND he's tied up in Norse mythology now?!   I AM OUT!

Then.. I played it... and it is awesome..  

The story is epic, engaging and oh - so - good..  Krato's cringeworthy screaming-one-liners from the earlier installments have been replaced by the  vocal talents of Christopher Judge (Teal'c from Stargate SG-1).    The difference is welcome and immediately noticeable.      Chris brings Kratos into a fully developed character but still maintains the often-funny use of shortened sentences and clipped delivery.    "Indeed."    The delivery is somewhere masterfully between barely-bottled rage or zen-master calm.

The story carries you through a father-son adventure that navigates partially remixed aspects of Norse mythology.  The overall story has a ton of heart - great character beats and is a fantastic ambassador to the Norse mythos.    

I went in with an unfamiliarity with the norse mythology and left wanting to learn more.   I highly recommend Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman for those of you left with a thirst for lore in this topic.   The charming Marvel-imagined Thor is replaced with the more-ominous but equally dull equivalent from Norse myth.  More of a dumbed-down Jason Momoa than Chris Hemsworth.  In the God of War franchise, the gods are vengeful, spiteful, mean-spirited assholes.  The game remixes aspects of the mythology in service of story and it works.

Kratos' new weapon, the Leviathon axe, is more like Jarnbjorn than Mjolnir and completely different than The Blades of Chaos.    You might say, it is not as clumsy or random as the Blades of Chaos.  An Elegant weapon... for a more civilized age..   Once you get acclimated, it is pretty awesome.  If you find yourself missing the circular-360-spastic glory of the Blades of Chaos, well: hang in there.  They have something in store for you, too. 

The world is expansive and you are free to explore it. It includes a myriad of travel dynamics, side quests and hidden treasure.  Some of these will keep you playing even after the primary story-line.     The main story is 16 quests and took me about 6-8 hours, spread out over a week on medium-low difficulty.  Some parts had me contemplating turning it to the lowest difficulty.  I easily spent over an hour on one um, 'mini'-boss. 

Can your kids play it?  Well, that's a parenting decision you'll have to make based on your sensibilities and the maturity of your kids.  The M rating alone, typically means No - not for kids.  If you are a strict sort of parent that shields your kids from the secular evils of the world, you won't want them playing.   If you are a "video games as a babysitter" sort of parent you'll probably let them play.  If you play video games with your kids, it is an opportunity to pass the controller back and fourth and talk casually about the violence and language when it arises and how they fit into your world view.     You do: you. :)

God of War has always been a mature franchise.    A little sexual innuendo, language and gore were staples of the franchise.  This one has no sexual content or nudity (some muscular dudity, though) some language and plenty of gore.   The majority of the language in this game comes from the blue dwarf, Brok.    I feel like the M rating is mostly attributed to a handful of F-bombs from this single character and is mostly gratuitous.   

The majority of the gore is in the creative deaths of mythical creatures and bad-guys.   Game-of-thrones inspired ice zombies spirt blue blood, etc.   There are a number of brutal hand-to-hand fistfights with powerful humanoids. There is head smashing, limb-breaking, stabbing and a particularly messy impromptu cardiac procedure with one large foe.  It doesn't "sound" like the gore is tamed down but it did "feel" a little more tame than previous games in the franchise.

Ultimately, the themes of the game story are about family, honoring those we've lost and aspiring to be better than we have been.  Excellent work Sony Santa Monica Studios.    Speaking on behalf of all of the Dads I can speak for - you rock and I'm looking forward to the next installment in the franchise.

My Dome / Environmental Game Pod - 4 years later

Just floating this out there..

Thinking about parting with my Prototype Dome Environmental setup in order to re-arrange the space a little / make it less cramped. I'm pricing it at $2800 obo.. Partial trade for games on my list:

(DK Cabaret, Ms Pac Cabaret, Galaga, Tempest, Ice Cold Beer or Zeke's Peak, Street Fighter II)

I'm also considering just stowing it away for a season and picking it back up as a version-2 enhancement down the road... but where does one store a 60+" Dome? :)  

The backstory was, I left from a Dave & Busters and after playing Mach Storm and Star Wars BattlePod - I got the wild hair to try to build something like it but that would support any HDMI input source.  

The dome was formed and cut to my specifications by SSD Plastics and Design in Denver, CO.
 

Projection

Mach Storm and The Star Wars Battle Pods both use an NEC NP-PE401H 4000 Lumen 1080p projector.  They use direct-projection through what is essentially a planetarium fisheye lens.  The design  is nice because it puts the projection booth above the player and frees the floor of the cabinet from obstructions.    The downside is that a Hemistar 180degree planetarium lens starts at about USD$8500.  The lens reduces the brightness by a factor of ~40% and limits the projectable area.    This means the projector is essentially 2400 lumen and the resolution is downscaled to 720p.

My dome operates off of reflected-projection.   The wonderful concept of light traveling directionally in vectors means that if you'd like to project onto a 180degree surface, you can bounce the light off of a 180 degree reflective curve.   The light bends and reflects back in proportion to the angles and VOILA! - science is awesome.

Upsides to this:

• Very little reduction in light intensity

• Very little reduction in projected size

• Cost. 180 degree mirrors are cheaper than planetarium fisheye lenses.

Downsides to this:

• Mirror and Light at your feet.

• You can't sit with your knees closed without making leg-shadow-puppets in the projector reflection.

• Image quality is directly related to mirror cleanliness, especially on white scenes
  

More about my dome

The seat, is from a Mercedes sports car, the enclosure was hand built. Prototype-level woodworking, not spit-and-polish of a commercial product but about as good as most arcade cabinets we encounter in this hobby.

A couple videos:

Hydro Thunder Gameplay Example

Star Wars Racer's Revenge:

link to video: https://images.eyedyllic.com/Hobbies/The-Dome/n-89bNkQ/i-Nf975tD/A

WipeOut HD:

Link to video: https://images.eyedyllic.com/Hobbies/The-Dome/n-89bNkQ/i-5HHqkSX/A

High Res Photo Gallery:

https://images.eyedyllic.com/Hobbies/The-Dome/n-89bNkQ/

Game Systems / Interior Capability

Electronics:

Optoma 3D 1080p 3200 Lumen Projector
Klipsch ProMedia THX Speaker System
Wii U
PS3
xBox 360
Spare Circular Mirrors
Experimental Lens (for direct projection prototype, future enhancement)

Seeing the World through a GoPro

If you've ever been to an IMAX, you know somethings translate well to the dome distortion and other things: not so much. 180degree dome distortion works great for flight-type applications, especially in cases where the horizon is expected to curve.    Space-stuff is awesome.   Walk-around-type 1st or third person games are hit-or-miss.

I, umm.. piloted a drone once from inside the dome and that was... surreal.

Logistics and Qualification

I've observed that folks that are prone to motion sickness can't last in the dome for very long.  On the other hand, I've seen kids disappear into the dome for hours on end.   If you are prone to motion sickness, this probably isn't for you.

This is not a completely novice ownership experience.    It measures about 60" deep by 75" wide.