First pin - BSD!

ModCity

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I had a post earlier about a weird problem with my first pin ever, but I thought I'd do a proper post for it. Brought home a Bram Stoker's Dracula in pretty darn nice shape last Thursday. Great playfield, all the toys work. Cabinet sides are also very nice with just a few blemishes here and there. New DMD installed.

It could use a flipper rebuild and it has the Williams early-90s reset issue when my central AC runs, but most of the time it's fine. I did have some problem with the slide mechanism and getting the playfield back in the cabinet (the subject of my previous post), but right now it's working. Previous owners took really darn good care of it. Sorry for some of the blurriness on the playfield pic. Not sure why it came out that way.

Oh, and I'm remembering how bad I am at pinball! This thing brutalizes me on a nightly basis now :)
 

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Congratulations! This is a damn fine pin, and I've yet to become even remotely tired of mine. (I play it quite frequently.)

If I may make a suggestion, I'd replace those lightning flipper bats with black standard bats (with red rubbers). That looks really good on this pin, and since the game was designed with standard bats in mind, I don't feel it's a "cheat" to lose the cheap lightning flippers.

And trust me, the game will remain challenging enough even with the standard bats installed.
 
Very very nice cab - little to no fade. Hard to find like that.

Oh - and a great game too. I recently added one and cant stop playing it. Enjoy it alot - its an underrated classic.
 
Congratulations, excellent choice.

BSD is a game you either hate or love.. it can be great and the next game brutal and you don't score anything anymore.. mine'll probably never leave (although 2 weeks ago someone offered me crazy money for it and I was very tempted :)
 
Yeah, center bank is murder on the way back down. The outlanes can make you pull your hair out, too. find myself absolutely loving it while cursing it at the same time.

I'll be the first to admit I need more practice, though :)

I've thought about replacing the flippers but thought I'd see if these grew on me. Those out side ramp shots are harder than hell with them, though (especially that left ramp).
 
I can't understand the appeal of this game. I tried to play it and just didn't care for it. And yet, when I see one in person, I respect it just because of how highly regarded it is. I cant get past the shitty sound, but then that's what some people love about it! ;)

Congrats on the highly rated, super hard pin!!
 
I can't understand the appeal of this game. I tried to play it and just didn't care for it. And yet, when I see one in person, I respect it just because of how highly regarded it is. I cant get past the shitty sound, but then that's what some people love about it! ;)

Congrats on the highly rated, super hard pin!!

John,

I "fought" this game for awhile - didnt get it either.

Something recently clicked for me, and out of all the pins i've had over here, mostly a listers which are long gone, i take to this one more than i did the others.

Time will tell, but for now, i am playing it a heck of a lot more than other games ive had. Surprisingly, my wife who rarely plays is getting into it too....
 
Love this game! This game's got that rare balance of being crazy hard while being insanely addictive. It's like a slot machine, I'd always play it "just one more time", get my ass handed to me, then hit start again. BTW, is there some secret way to hit the asylum shot, or does it just have to fall in by chance?
 
I'm loving it so far. I don't know a high-percentage shot to hit the asylum. Even the manual refers to it as "falling into" the asylum, so I assume it's primarily a luck thing.

Replaced over 20 bulbs throughout the machine (though others seem to go out rather frequently - short somewhere?), fixed the yokes on the upper left pop bumper (ring assembly got torn apart somehow) and did a flipper rebuild. Only lights we didn't replace was one under the left target bank and the right pop bumper because the playfield stuff made it too tough to get to them. Will try again another time.

Rebuild included new plunger, hinge, coils, coil stops, etc. But when we installed the new coils we couldn't get them to re-align properly. Causes some binding and now both flippers are weak because of it, or at least we assume that's the cause. Turns out we had the sleeves in backwards (with non-flange end over the coil stop). Of course, we couldn't figure out why the sleeve was too long and prevented the bracket from lining up with the plunger properly. So we went ahead and shaved a bit off the end with a razor (I know, I know). Now that we have it figured out we're out of new sleeves and have to order more. Hopefully that will take care of the problem. Can't believe we didn't figure it out right away. Forehead slapping was designed for moments like this.

This table is tough. But addicting, that's for sure.
 
Congrats, Dracula is an awesome pin! It makes up for all the ball draining brutality when you stack the multiball modes. Good stuff!
 
Ok, another update in the world of newb pinball repairs.

I decided to look at some replacement flipper assemblies just to window shop, and noticed that the orientation of the coils on them were flipped from the way they are in my machine. On the new assemblies, the plunger enters on the terminal side and the coil stop is at the round end. On my machine, the plunger enters the coil from the round end and the coil stop is against the terminal side. That's how we found the original Williams coils mounted and we just went wire-for-wire when we installed the new coils.

So technically, the sleeves were inserted correctly but the coils themselves were in reverse. Checked the manual diagram and it confirmed that theory. We had consulted the diagram earlier but not for the coil orientation specifically and just missed it.

Questions-

1) Does anyone else with a BSD have their flipper coils mounted this way? Is there a reason for it?

2) If I want to flip the coils per the diagram, do I need to rewire it? EDIT: I think I've got the answer to this. Only one way to wire a coil like this, right? It should work installed in either direction, correct?

Any feedback is much appreciated!
 
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Yeah, your coils WERE mounted backwards. The wired end of the coil shouldn't be on the coil stop end of the assembly.

As far as wiring goes, on BSD the orange wire will be on the outer lug away from the bands of the diodes. The wire on each coil assembly with a yellow stripe will be on the outer lug towards the banded side of the diode. And the other wire obviously goes in the middle.
 
Congrats on the purchase! I've been playing BSD since it came out and I've owned one since 2004. The mist multiball is what got me hooked, and stacking multiballs.

They don't call this machine the drain monster for nothing. :)

As for the center 3 bank target I try to avoid hitting it for the most part. After you play it enough you'll figure out what shots can cause drains if you miss etc.

This game will test your pinball skills. If you just bat the all around you'll never get anywhere with this game.

It's never leaving my colleciton.

Chas
 
Just an update - rotated the flipper coils and got the sleeves dialed in. Flippers are firing hard and true. Such a dumb mistake, cost us hours of playing. I guess that's the learning curve, right?

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
 
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