Based on my initial glance at this manual, the photos match mine, minus the 130-25 cents stickers, which must have dried out and fell off long ago.
What a GOOD eye Ken! The one on the right in my photo, which would actually be the left outside. That one, as I recall, is the one that indeed rejects quarters a lot! The coin door is the one area I have yet to work on. I will check it out closely, both of them ASAP. Never even made it to my other project today or any fun stuff.
Great to hear from another Atari pinball enthusiast! Thank you! Wow, you have a significant collection of Atari pins plus you at least "had" a Hercules! I would like to just see one in person. Funspot / American Classic Arcade Museum in the US State of New Hampshire has one. Someday I would like to take road trip to see that place.
Hi Ken,
Ken,
OK to test the .07 cent trick, the first roll of nickels I opened had a 1964 nickel. I also had plenty of of full copper pennies (1981 or earlier in general). The .07 cent trick does NOT work on any of my Coin Mech, Inc, 130-.25 cent mechs. So, despite their age, they must have been at least modified by the operator(s) in the field, back in the day, to reject the 1964 nickels. I did check the 1964 nickel thickness against others and even some brand new 2012s (the last year my son and I were searching bank rolled nickels for those Silver war era nickels of the 1940s I mentioned previously) and, indeed, as you stated Ken it is clearly thicker than all the others. Even thicker than the brand new Brilliant Uncirculated 2012 ones in the roll. I don't have a micrometer to give the exact thickness but, by placing a 1964 US nickel along side others you can clearly see it is indeed thicker.
I switched them out for the ones I had in my spare Owl Eyes coin door off a Kee Games Super Bug. But, they too looked the same as the ones in pictures except neither of these were missing the #4000 Separator assembly. I had no way of knowing what the date cutoff for the old type was or is. I just thought my A.A. or the old Super Bug mechs might be old enough, or they were operator modified.
Of course, the primary purpose of any of these games, pins. video or whatever coin amusement, was to make the operators $'s. So naturally anything that lost revenue had to go or be resolved / fixed ASAP. In regards to my Airborne Avenger, from what I have gathered, many Atari pins simply didn't hold up that long in operation. Judging from all the missing parts mine "had," I figured this one may have broke down, early in its life, then just sat having parts robbed off it. And maybe, whatever location(s) that machine had been on, perhaps(?) the .07 cents trick had not yet been discovered with it. Though, if other Coin Mechs of the same were in use on other amusements (Older ones) I am sure word spread like wildfire of it, the way to cheat and get a game for a lot less! And operators knew this too, so it was resolved early on. Who knows, but your knowledge of it was worth a try just to see if the Coin Mechs in mine were the ones. Like I said I didn't know the cutoff date or, for that matter, what those older mechs looked like. Only that that they were Coin Mech, inc 130-.25. It wasn't like I had to invest much time trying. I already had the needed items. Plus, Ken, you motivated me to finishing repairing my A.A. coin door. As of yesterday afternoon I have most of the final repairs / replacing missing parts done on it. Today we'll see, I may finish it. The coin reject plungers / pins were also missing. Along with a number of retaining nuts on the back side of the owl eyes coin inserts. Fortunatey, the donor owl eyes door I have has all the needed parts.
Hello again,
