Defender coin mech door question

gdonovan

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I have seen a bunch with stainless coin doors and some with the black coin doors.

Was there a production change late in the run? Curious as to know if both were correct.

Gary
 
The stainless steel doors are from earlier in the run, the black ones are from later. The stainless steel doors are identical to the ones Williams used on their pinballs for a LONG time.
 
The stainless steel doors are from earlier in the run, the black ones are from later. The stainless steel doors are identical to the ones Williams used on their pinballs for a LONG time.

Ah this would explain things.

I picked up a Defender cabinet this weekend and it had a black door. I assumed the door had been transplanted from something else till I looked close and there was no extra holes in the cabinet.

More research was called for!
 
Defender was part of a new upstart video game division at Williams, who were known for their pinball machines. (there was a Pong variant they put out previously, but I don't think it was mass produced)

since they had no previous "assets" to work with on the video game side, they basically started swiping parts off the pinball line to complete the game. the original silver doors were lifted directly from pinball. the sound board as well -- it and the speech add-on that was on Sinistar are the exact same boards you would find in a System 7 Black Knight. (and actually, there was a second rectangular sound board that was from the previous generation pinball games.)

the MPU (CPU) was allegedly supposed to be a pinball design as well, not sure if it preceded System 7 or if it was intended for the next revision, but the video side wound up claiming it. if you compare the reset circuits between the video MPU and the System 7 MPU, you'll see some peculiar similarities. the video MPU obviously needing video output and what was then a ton of ram was the major difference.

the boards are mostly arranged as they would be in one of the Williams pinball machines. the power supply looks similar but is used for much different purposes from their pinball counterparts.

the reason for the black door switch however was because at the height of Defender's production they were apparently churning out 2000-3000 games a week, and because they were robbing pinball of their parts, it was slowing pinball production. Defender ultimately was the bigger money maker, by virtue of its production run spanning about 128,000 units, so it kind of received priority. the concession was to change the coin door so they had the silver doors for pinball. in the later part of its run, they started using Coin Controls doors instead, which I think were the same as the ones Atari was using, albeit it had the pinball style test panel attached to it.

so when I say Defender was rooted in Williams pinball, this is what I mean. ;)
 
Hey gary, if you are going to be using repo parts, send me a pm so we can work out a price for your scratchnand dent toss aways. I'd like to save old scratch and dent parts from the landfill if I can.
 
Hey gary, if you are going to be using repo parts, send me a pm so we can work out a price for your scratchnand dent toss aways. I'd like to save old scratch and dent parts from the landfill if I can.

Not much to throw away I'm afraid, almost starting from scratch.

I have a cabinet in fairly good condition, speaker and grill with some trim, a coin door with no mechs.. and that is about it really.
 
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does having an early model with the silver coin door add any value? I would kinda assume they are more sought after? Curious to know because I have one. Thanks.
 
Does anyone know if I can fit a Defender chrome door onto a Williams Pin bot pinball table?
 

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Does anyone know if I can fit a Defender chrome door onto a Williams Pin bot pinball table?
I think the stainless door is smaller by about 1/4" of an inch in each direction.
 
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