Kevin Steele, Saturday, 15 October 2005 We present to you a detailed look at "pinball mods," specifically a collection of mods for the 1993 Bally "Twilight Zone" pinball. Prepare to get lost in the zone...the Mod Zone!
RetroBlast! The Mod Zone: Enhancing Your Twilight Zone Pinball
Quick Jump:
by Kevin Steele
Last Updated October, 2005
Introduction
I am, for lack of a better word, a "tweaker" — I
very rarely can leave anything "as is," and always seem to have
some idea on how to make something better. This, of course, means that
in addition to such things as overclocking my PC, I've gotten into "modding" my
pinballs, adding new features or refining existing features on the machine
(see my "Dr. Who MadLights Mod" article
as an example of my pinball tweakery).
This tweaking hobby
of mine has perhaps reached its zenith with my recent acquisition of
a Bally 1993 Twilight Zone pinball machine, one of the most heavily modded
pins of all time (not to mention one of the most popular pins of all time!)
I present to you a zone, a zone full of mods...
The Twilight Zone pinball is one of the most "mod-friendly"
pins you'll ever find: from the sheer number of playfield toys, to the
"curio shop" theme which lends itself to decoration, to the vast number
of "nooks and crannies" in the playfield design onto which you can mount
things. Also, as owners have discovered gameplay annoyances, they've
fixed it. Any design shortcoming has had a homebrew fix developed to take
care of it.
As for me, I knew right off the bat that I was going
to want to add a few mods to my Twilight Zone. Amazingly, those "few" grew
to over a dozen modifications and improvements to my machine, all added
within the first week of ownership. This "roundup" article summarizes the
mods I've added as I've been helplessly sucked into the "Mod Zone," from
which there is no escape...
Pinball Life Gumballs
The first thing I decided to "mod" was the
gumball machine: it just looks incredibly bare in its "stock" configuration.
Luckily, several companies have put out "gumball kits" which
allow you to add a little color to the gumball machine.
By far the best of the bunch in my opinion are the polished
gumballs available from Pinball
Life. These marbles have just the right size and
sheen to pass as genuine gumballs.
Pinball Life Gumballs
Installing them isn't hard at all: you simply unscrew
the top of the gumball machine, then push the gumballs into the side sections.
Note that if you use your bare fingers, you're going to get some scratches
and scuffed knuckles — it's a tight fit, and not that easy to just
pop the balls in. I used a socket driver to push them in: the end of the
driver held the balls securely as I squeezed them in.
I only filled the gumball machine half way, which in
my opinion looks better (and lights up better using the Gumball Light kit
below!) A full bag of glass gumballs (enough to fill both sides
of the gumball machine) sells for $4.95. It's a simple and colorful addition
to the machine.
Martin Reynolds' Gumball Light Kit
Okay, so with the gumballs installed I had some color
in a previously drab corner of the playfield. Problem was, that corner
of the playfield is so dark that you really couldn't appreciate the new
splash of color.
The solution? A "gumball light kit," which adds some
lighting to the otherwise dark gumball machine. There are several kits
out there: from Pinball
Pro, PinGizmos, and Martin
Reynolds.
In my opinion, the kit from Martin Reynolds stands head
and shoulders above the other lighting kits, for a number of reasons.
Martin Reynold's Gumball Light Kit
What are the reasons that this kit stands alone? First
off, the kit is "all inclusive", including a professional looking
circuit board with four ultrabright white LEDs on the sides and six red
LEDs in the middle section (there's a reason for this, which I'll get to
shortly). The assembly comes with a detachable connector, all the wiring
needed, black and white zip ties, and even a pre-notched gumball guide
plastic (all the other kits require you to cut/grind/saw your existing
guide plastic).
Second, the light is more than a simple "always on" light:
the center red LEDs are designed to flash when the gumball is ready to
be loaded with a pinball. This is tied into the existing "load gumball"
light.
Red and White LEDs
The kit is fairly easy to install, although there is
some minor soldering involved in attaching the wiring harness to both the
GI lighting (for the white LEDs) and the gumball sign light (for the "load
gumball" light). It only took me a few minutes to install even with the
soldering, and the instructions (provided
on the web site) are clear and concise.
The effect of this lighting kit is immediate: the gumball
machine glows with a cool white light, and the entire corner of the playfield
is illuminated, bringing it out of the murky darkness.
Gumball Machine lit and ready for loading
Click the "Play" button to view the Gumball Light in action
