Tower Of Terror (Addams Family Generator, etc.) info?

DogP

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Tower Of Terror (Addams Family Generator, etc.) info?

Hey,

Is there any info on the "shocking" games made by Nova Productions, like Addams Family Generator, Star Trek Borg Contact, Tower of Terror, Seat of Terror, etc?

I picked up a Tower of Terror this weekend, just because it's kinda cool, and was cheap... just looking for some info, like a manual, parts list, etc.

I see it has a smoke generator and a printer... I'm mostly looking for information on what to use. Does the smoke generator use fog machine liquid, or model railroad smoke... or are they the same thing? How about the printer... I assume it's thermal paper, but what size? Is there any sort of free play for it? If not, I was thinking about hacking the ROM to add it.

Information I've found so far is schematics here: http://ohwow-arcade.com/Assets/Game_Manuals/ADDAMS FAMILY GENERATOR.PDF , and I see this guys repairs the boards: http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/shocker.html .

My machine had (and still has) several problems. The volume was ridiculously loud, the display was really glitchy, one handle was dead, and the buttons don't work very well. I first unhooked the speakers so I could start troubleshooting without going deaf... found only about 7v going to the display. It turned out that the ground going to the display wasn't connected to the rest of the grounds, including the voltage regulator. The rechargable battery had leaked a little bit and ate the ground via... so I chucked the battery, repaired the via, and had good 12V (and I think the ground was also the root of my button problem). One of the 7805 regulators was also bad, though I'm not sure what problems that caused (I didn't trace it, but it wasn't the 7805 driving the main logic).

Having read horror stories about finding replacement handle motors, I decided to verify that my handle was dead, and not the driver board, so I swapped driver boards and the other handle worked! Whew... so I began troubleshooting the driver board and found two dead MOSFETs. I swapped a couple around, and it partially worked, so I'm pretty confident that replacing those MOSFETs will fix the problem completely.

I then plugged the speakers back in, hoping to troubleshoot that problem... and it was ridiculously quiet this time. I tracked that down to the volume control chip (TDA1524A), which may have also blown the digital potentiometer (it's supposed to output a ~4V reference to go to the pot, but was outputting ~10V, which is beyond the specs of the digital pot). If it's blown, I may just use a regular pot, since the software controlled volume is dumb IMO anyway.

So anyway, I've got the TDA1524A and MOSFETs on their way... hopefully those will fix the remaining problems. Along with looking for information, I just figured I'd share a little bit of repair knowledge that I've learned over the last few days.

DogP
 
The smoke unit should use the standard fog juice. If it has the metal container setup like the Addams Family one has to hold the juice, you want to check it for rust before you fill it up, if there are rust flakes you will probably need to flush the hoses to get it out of the smoke system.
 
I remember the first time i saw the Generator, it was very cool got a little printout after (still have it). i don't remember if he smoked or not (he was suppose to), the 2nd time i saw it was in the local mall and once again no smoke, and as a bonus this time no printout :(
 
Nothing productive to add as far as fixing the machine, but I've been surprised that I've never seen any pics of a home arcade with the Addams Family Generator next to Addams Family Pinball. For some owners of such a popular pin, it seems like an obvious thematic "next step".
 
The smoke unit should use the standard fog juice. If it has the metal container setup like the Addams Family one has to hold the juice, you want to check it for rust before you fill it up, if there are rust flakes you will probably need to flush the hoses to get it out of the smoke system.

Thanks for the tips... yes, it has the metal can. I'll remove it and clean it really well before I try using it. And lucky for me, it's almost halloween... which means it'll be easy to find fog juice.

I remember the first time i saw the Generator, it was very cool got a little printout after (still have it). i don't remember if he smoked or not (he was suppose to), the 2nd time i saw it was in the local mall and once again no smoke, and as a bonus this time no printout :(

Yeah, I played it a few times and always got the printout, but never saw the smoke. The printout isn't really that important to me, but still kinda cool... and since the hardware is there, I might as well use it.

Nothing productive to add as far as fixing the machine, but I've been surprised that I've never seen any pics of a home arcade with the Addams Family Generator next to Addams Family Pinball. For some owners of such a popular pin, it seems like an obvious thematic "next step".

Yeah, that's a good point. I imagine it's not a very popular "home use" kinda game though, since there's not a whole lot of (or any) depth to the "game". Maybe combine the shocking idea with trying to play the pinball. ;)

DogP
 
Yeah, that's a good point. I imagine it's not a very popular "home use" kinda game though, since there's not a whole lot of (or any) depth to the "game". Maybe combine the shocking idea with trying to play the pinball. ;)

DogP

Yeah, definitely little to no replay value... but a lot of people like to have games with a "low bar for entry" so guests intimidated by games can try something else in their 'cade.
 
Hey,

Is there any info on the "shocking" games made by Nova Productions, like Addams Family Generator, Star Trek Borg Contact, Tower of Terror, Seat of Terror, etc?

I picked up a Tower of Terror this weekend, just because it's kinda cool, and was cheap... just looking for some info, like a manual, parts list, etc.

I see it has a smoke generator and a printer... I'm mostly looking for information on what to use. Does the smoke generator use fog machine liquid, or model railroad smoke... or are they the same thing? How about the printer... I assume it's thermal paper, but what size? Is there any sort of free play for it? If not, I was thinking about hacking the ROM to add it.

Information I've found so far is schematics here: http://ohwow-arcade.com/Assets/Game_Manuals/ADDAMS FAMILY GENERATOR.PDF , and I see this guys repairs the boards: http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/shocker.html .

My machine had (and still has) several problems. The volume was ridiculously loud, the display was really glitchy, one handle was dead, and the buttons don't work very well. I first unhooked the speakers so I could start troubleshooting without going deaf... found only about 7v going to the display. It turned out that the ground going to the display wasn't connected to the rest of the grounds, including the voltage regulator. The rechargable battery had leaked a little bit and ate the ground via... so I chucked the battery, repaired the via, and had good 12V (and I think the ground was also the root of my button problem). One of the 7805 regulators was also bad, though I'm not sure what problems that caused (I didn't trace it, but it wasn't the 7805 driving the main logic).

Having read horror stories about finding replacement handle motors, I decided to verify that my handle was dead, and not the driver board, so I swapped driver boards and the other handle worked! Whew... so I began troubleshooting the driver board and found two dead MOSFETs. I swapped a couple around, and it partially worked, so I'm pretty confident that replacing those MOSFETs will fix the problem completely.

I then plugged the speakers back in, hoping to troubleshoot that problem... and it was ridiculously quiet this time. I tracked that down to the volume control chip (TDA1524A), which may have also blown the digital potentiometer (it's supposed to output a ~4V reference to go to the pot, but was outputting ~10V, which is beyond the specs of the digital pot). If it's blown, I may just use a regular pot, since the software controlled volume is dumb IMO anyway.

So anyway, I've got the TDA1524A and MOSFETs on their way... hopefully those will fix the remaining problems. Along with looking for information, I just figured I'd share a little bit of repair knowledge that I've learned over the last few days.

DogP

Love that game and keeping it working is a problem but I have parts if you need. The problem other than the handles is the smoke machine drips on the MPU
 
I think some of us want to see what this is....pics please!
Cab:
attachment.php


(Dirty) Insides:
attachment.php


Smoke Generator:
attachment.php


On:
attachment.php



Love that game and keeping it working is a problem but I have parts if you need. The problem other than the handles is the smoke machine drips on the MPU
Interesting... I wouldn't have expected the smoke to drip to the PCB from there. Hopefully I won't need any parts, but good to know you've got some. At least so far, the boards have been pretty straight forward to troubleshoot/repair.

DogP
 

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Man I want one, specifically the chair one, but I would settle for what you bought. No replay value, for the average guy, but I love playing these things.
 
Man I want one, specifically the chair one, but I would settle for what you bought. No replay value, for the average guy, but I love playing these things.

Yep... I agree. And what'd be even more fun would be to modify it to incorporate one of those shocking pen kinda things on the handles... try holding onto it when it actually IS shocking you. :) Something like this Ramsey kit: http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=TS4 .

DogP
 
With small leaks the fluid flows along the wiring and down through that hole in flat wood part and then right onto the audio section of the CPU board. The vibration of the motor shakes the drops off the wires. Terrible design,they should have put the CPU board off center or but some sort of cover over the board to protect it. Or even ran the wiring so that the didn't need to cut the hole right over the CPU.

As soon as I hear the audio distort, I know that I have a leak again. So far, I've been fairly lucky and once everything dries out the audio returns to normal.


Interesting... I wouldn't have expected the smoke to drip to the PCB from there. Hopefully I won't need any parts, but good to know you've got some. At least so far, the boards have been pretty straight forward to troubleshoot/repair.

DogP[/QUOTE]
 
The arcade I went to growing up had the addams family one with Fester. It felt like shocking as a kid but as I got a bit older I figured it was just some really intense vibrating. Were there ever any older games that are similar that actually produced a charge? Just curious
 
When I was picking up some games from a operator he had one of these in his storage. I tried to get it from him but he did not want to get rid of it.
 
That's bad ass. I bet you can even hack the LCD so it looks like he's pissing smoke on you.
 
I had a brand new Addams and it made bank everywhere I dropped it. The mfg forced a high minimum volume which movie theatres hated, so I had to hack in a trim pot to reduce it. PM me if you need advisement on how to do this, glad to help. The handle grommets rot over time and need replacing. Nice score.
 
The arcade I went to growing up had the addams family one with Fester. It felt like shocking as a kid but as I got a bit older I figured it was just some really intense vibrating. Were there ever any older games that are similar that actually produced a charge? Just curious

I've seen some coin operated antique "shock therapy" machines... and then there's this game: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/eb06/ , which is a lot of fun.

DogP
 
I've got a couple updates... hopefully this information will be useful to someone searching in the future. First, I got a replacement volume chip (TDA1524A), and that works great now.

I also ordered a couple MOSFETs from the same place that I got the volume chip from. The originals are SMP60N03, and the ones I got were STP80NF03L. Their specs seemed similar, but it appears that they're not compatible. I think the reason is that I missed the one important spec... the original ones are Logic Level MOSFETs, the ones I got aren't. I ordered a pair of the correct ones from ebay... hopefully they'll be here soon and I can verify that's the only problem.

I also spent a little time on the smoke stuff. The smoke had hardened and clogged just about everything (canister, hoses, valve, heater, etc)... I got them all cleaned out, but it appears that the heating element burned itself out (it measures open circuit). I did some research, and the part is from a model railroad smoke unit... it's a Seuthe 500 "Super smoke generator".

I also looked at the printer. The controller board is labeled Telpar T260II. I determined that the printer itself is actually an Epson M260A, which uses 3" wide paper, and an ink ribbon (not thermal paper). The ink ribbon is ERC23. I ordered one of them for a couple bucks on ebay... we'll see how it works.

DogP
 
Oh, and after further investigation, my servo motor (that opens/closes the smoke valve) was dead as well. This is a standard cheap RC model servo... Futaba FP-S148. I had one laying around here, so I popped it in and it's working great now.

And yes... I see what you guys are talking about with the fluid dripping down the wire and onto the board. That's terrible... I knew the servo would be opening, so I put a paper towel down for it to drip on. But it hit the wire first, went through the hole, and dripped onto the board.

DogP
 
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