RetroBlast! The Mod Zone: Enhancing Your Twilight Zone Pinball
The first thing I discovered after powering it on, unfortunately,
is that the LEDs used by the Rottendog board are standard, highly-focused
directional LEDs, rather than wide-angle LEDs or "inverted cone" LEDs
(which diffuse light in a full 360 degrees)
The fact that these are focused LEDs means that while
the LEDs can be blinding when looked into directly, from the side of the
LED very little light is actually emitted. The
LEDs are installed at a 90° angle,
so that the vast majority of the light is aimed away from the front
of the clock (where you want it).
Four highly-focused LEDs
Unfortunately, because of this focused light you can't
just aim the LEDs towards the front: you'll get four very bright dots on
the clock face, and not much else. I expected this problem after seeing
the board, and used some fine-grain sandpaper to rough up the surface of
the LEDs a bit, which helped a small bit with diffusing the light. Unfortunately,
I still felt the light was too dim on the clock face.
Where there's a problem, there's a solution, and I found
it in some 10mm ultra bright white LEDs from Quickar
Electronics — at 16,000 mcd, they were plenty bright, and with
a 180 degree viewing angle, the light would be properly diffused throughout
the clock casing and face.
New 10mm 180° LED vs. original 5mm version (sanded down)
It took a little while to unsolder the old LEDs and install
the new 10mm ones, especially since the leads on the new LEDs were thicker
than the holes on the PCB (a problem that was rectified by a Dremel tool
and a little patience!)
The New, Improved LED Lighting
The results? Better than I could have hoped for: the
new 10mm LEDs lit up the clock face with a nice, even white light. It was
exactly what I was hoping for, and I definitely recommend this "mod of
a mod" upgrade.
Before and After: original clock board with one burned out bulb (left),
the replacement board (center), and the modded replacement (right)
One other thing to note about the LEDs is that their
"white" light is actually a colder looking bluish white, while
the standard lamps give off a "yellowish"
white light. This does make the clock stand out a bit on the playfield,
although since the gumball lighting kit I installed also gives off the
same bluish white light, the two toys seem better matched now on the playfield.
I'm even planning on replacing the bulbs in the street light over the Power
upper playfield with white LED bulbs to further color-match the various
playfield locations.
Click the "Play" button to view the Clock in Action
In the end, with the Rottendog Amusements clock board
I feel I got a very reasonable bargain ($79.95 + $8.75 shipping), but
I do feel the LED choice needs to be improved.
Backboard decal from Pinbotz
One purchase I made before I even had the pinball in
my possession was a backboard decal from PinBotz.
I've seen their work before (see review),
and I knew that the decal would add a nice splash of color and detail to
an otherwise blank backboard.
PinBotz Backboard Decal
The decal was fairly easy to install (at least, it was
easier than my goofed-up AFM decal install, when I installed it upside
down!). I unscrewed the backboard, removed it from the machine, installed
the decal, and re-attached the backboard. The style of the artwork really
complements the pin.
The backboard decal sells for $19.95 plus shipping.
Orbit Pinball Plastic Protectors
Another "immediate buy" when I knew I was getting a new
pinball machine was a set of pinball plastic protectors from Orbit
Pinball.
After seeing how fantastic the Attack From Mars protectors I purchased
from Orbit looked (see
review), I knew I had to have a set of Orbit protectors for the Twilight
Zone.
Orbit Pinball Protectors
The Twilight Zone set of protectors includes five plastics:
both slingshots, the slot machine, rocket ship kickout, and right targets
(near the player piano). The protectors are laser-cut polycarbonate, designed
to extend past the exposed edges of the plastics to protect them from
those nasty airballs.
At $30 + shipping, this is great insurance against future
damage, and it even looks stylish. Frank Gant's protectors are another
mod that, to me, looks like they should have been included standard from
the factory.
Diverter Magnet
The Pinball Pro diverter magnet is another mod born of
player frustration, this time of balls bouncing back out of the diverter
after a well-placed shot up the right ramp.
The solution? A small magnet
attached to the back of the diverter, which provides just enough "grab"
to keep a ball in place until the diverter can dump it back onto the
playfield (well, the ceramic powerball isn't affected, but the other 5
metal pinballs are!)
Pinball Pro Diverter Magnet
The diverter works like a charm, and installation was
ridiculously simple: you simply peel and stick the magnet in place. At
$5 with free shipping, this mod is a no-brainer and really does improve
gameplay.
"Anti-Bounce" Post for Rocket
Ship
Another gameplay annoyance is a ball that pops out of
the rocketship kickout area before getting launched across the playfield:
Not only do you miss an easy way to add another Hitchhiker to your score,
but the ball has a nasty habit of bumping against the top of the right
slingshot and bouncing straight down the middle, right between your flippers.
Players have tried various fixes, and I found a simple
one — adding a second minipost behind the upper right flipper slows
the ball down so that it always lands in the kickout.
The only problem was finding the right kind of minipost:
you need to swap out a playfield screw for the post, so you need a minipost
with wood threads. With a little searching, I found a minipost
with wood threads at Marco Specialties.
Anti-bounce Post for Rocketship kickout
Installation took seconds: unscrew the old hex-head screw,
screw in the post, and put on a minipost ring. I'd recommend that you use
a 23/64"
minipost rubber instead of the more typical 27/64" rubber, as there's
just enough room with the 23/64" rubber for the ball to roll past
the post.
Click the "Play" button to view the "Anti-Bounce" Mod in Action
