Newbie just got Crystal Castles...

super8man

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Just added Crystal Castles to my pinball line up. Paid my Uncle in law $100. Nice to know it goes to family. The game was on location in Northern California for some 40,000 coins according to the counter. There are two small holes on the face where the lockbar was in place at some point in the past. The monitor has some burn in but its not very distracting...you don't see it much in gameplay...only when the bear walks to the next level. Sadly, the game sat in a garage for years on end and had at least 15 small wasp nests in it. Luckily, they did not attach to any important surface. They are all cleaned up now.

What a great game. Now I know why pinball died (just kidding but only sort of). The game is original but relatively beat up. However, the "patina" works for me. The bottom front corners of the cabinet are chipped off but otherwise it displays nicely. It resets itself after being powered on so I suspect the cap will need to be changed at a minimum. The marquee was not working as the transformer looked like it melted. I simply replaced the whole assembly with a $10 18-inch light from Home Depot. Works nicely. I stole the coin mechs from this unit and put them in my pins since they still use quarters to get credits. I'll probably do the Bob Roberts freeplay mod to allow Crystal Castles to go into attract mode. Looks like a great forum here for knowledge.

I have already learned that my trackball needs a 555 and not a 161 like I put in (it does not glow very bright).

Cheers and Happy New Year.
Mike

PS - Here's the game:

Video: http://www.flickr.com/photos/super8man/5313614579/

Far away shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/super8man/5313199233/

in play: http://www.flickr.com/photos/super8man/5313793850/in/photostream/
 
There is a video for CC on that Flickr link above...it's in the "set".

My "gameroom" (hahaha) can only handle my 3 pins and the CC. The only way I can grow the collection is to convince friends to buy a game and let me be their "repair guy."

My pin video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO00Web1Ui8
 
My Crystal Castles kept reseting too.
I ended up changing it over to a switcher.
Did the Pole Position mod on the AR boards.
Only difference with this game is there is a 10v feed to the PCB which I did with 12v off the switcher.

Hasn't reset since.
 
Congrats on the Crystal Castles. My cocktail was the first game I ever bought... overpaid for it, too, but I didn't know any better at the time.

The art on the stand-up is probably my all-time favorite. It is a huge part of my arcade nostalgia.

By the way, I am extremely jealous of that Gorgar. Looks great!
 
I agree the art on the uprights is some of the best. Congrats on the pickup. One of my all time favorites. Kerri369 should be weighing in at any moment now:)
 
Thanks! Yeah, it's nice to look at so it was easy to give my Uncle the $100 for it...though now I see a super nice CC on ebay in SoCal for $450ish in comparatively perfect shape!

It's funny, I had a friend over and was showing off my pins and commenting how they are nowhere near collectible in condition terms. (but they play awesome). He said he actually like the lived-in/patina look to them. So that was nice.

In comparison, the CC seems much more robust and sturdy. I had forgotten that aspect from back in the day.

Well, time to order a new big blue cap for it.

Oh, it seems that video games tend NOT to hold the high scores...too bad they don't have a battery in them to keep the score. Getting tired of seeing AAA as the castle outline on the attract mode/freeplay mode.

PS - is there a "goto" website for video game components? For pinball I use Marco, Big Daddy, PBR, GPE and others. Just curious if there is similar variety for arcade vendors. Google searches are much easier for "pinball" than "atari video game".

Cheers,
Mike
 
Oh, it seems that video games tend NOT to hold the high scores...too bad they don't have a battery in them to keep the score. Getting tired of seeing AAA as the castle outline on the attract mode/freeplay mode.
My Crystal Castles machine holds the top 3 high scores. As far as I know it's never been modified.
 
yes CC should hold the top 3 scores. It even works the #1 players initials into the top of the board on the 1st screen.
 
OK - That explains things better...I better try harder to score before the game resets itself. Thanks.
 
Thanks. I ordered the 27k cap for it today. Also stripped down the trackball assembly, washed and polished everything, lubed the bearings and carefully reassembled. Discovered the ball was not tracking to the right so I tore it out and swapped rollers and it's back to normal - just a lot cleaner and super bright (the ball). I still need a new ball but this one will do once I get the machine running normally (not resetting). When I do the cap I'll probably remove the extra plate between the cables and the motherboard. Also discovered I did have a T8 cool white bulb so I swapped that in and now it looks like it should (I removed the original fixture since the transformer melted back in its history). I polished the original red buttons with Novus and reinstalled them and took out the white ones I had in temporarily. Compared to working on pins, this is kinda easy (blissfully ignoring that monitor in there!).

In case I am repeating myself, oh well, I made my name the high score before it reset and it's still there. Nice. But only a measly 170K. Ha.

Cheers,
Mike

PS - One question: if one day the monitor fails and a cap kit does not help, are monitors still available? Or does the game get parted out and you move on to a different/same arcade unit?
 
PS - One question: if one day the monitor fails and a cap kit does not help, are monitors still available? Or does the game get parted out and you move on to a different/same arcade unit?

For starters parting a game is not a good option.
New monitor are not readily available but there are still enough original monitors to be had. Basically unless your tube goes bad, odds are your old monitor will be fixable. Even if the tube does go bad, it's possible to swap another tube in there to replace it.
 
Thanks - good to know. I hate seeing games (history!!) parted out or destroyed when it could be saved. It's a big deal in pinball too (especially the backglass). I like the burn-in...gives me something to think about while Bentley is wandering across the mazes.
 
I ordered the 27k cap for it today.

If you can still add to your order, I would suggest a AR-II rebuild kit as well. In some cases, a new Big Blue will be the simple fix (like it was for mine!) but in more cases people find that the bigger problem is the AR-II. I have a rebuild kit on hand or you can PM forum member Bit-Slicer for a back up one- he was just selling rebuilt ones for a decent price!
 
Yeah, I saw that board and thought "great - another SDB to rebuild" - using my pinball lingo.

It appears my board is the older, one-sided version:

5320144837_79884875de.jpg


http://www.flickr.com/photos/super8man/5320144837/in/set-72157625600390571/

and here's my power supply:

5320143711_3e46cfd051.jpg



Just uploaded more internal images here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/super8man/sets/72157625600390571/

Man, those monitors are scary looking...
 
Looking at your other pictures, I see you have an Electrohome G07 model monitor in there. Something to keep in mind is that it's very common for the original flyback transformer on this monitor to fail. Anytime I have a G07 in a game I plan to keep, I always replace the flyback just to be safe.
 
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