It’s time to cast my attention to the top area of the Dracula playfield. This section contains quite a few assemblies that will need to be looked at. There are assemblies for a drop target, three pop bumpers, a VUK, ramp diverter and also a ramp lift. When you add all that to the assemblies covered in the previous two updates, it’s amazing how much they crammed in to the game. Can you imagine Stern putting this much in to a single game these days? It would give their number crunching team nightmares. There’s a lot of work to get through, so time to get started.
rails
All posts tagged rails
With work coming to a close on Corvette, it was time to start giving some attention to the next machine in the queue. Next up is a Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The game was originally released back in 1993, with over 6800 machines made. This one has some great shots on it and plenty to do. I’ll be giving the game a full rebuild, with all assemblies to be removed, cleaned and worn parts replaced. All playfield parts will be removed, cleaned and many new parts added also. There are some additional presentation things to do on the game too, so this one is going to keep me busy. Time to get started!
Batman Forever has been cleaning up really nicely. The game is in excellent condition, which makes my task easier. In this update, i’m now going to work through the last of the playfield assemblies so I can begin getting everything back together for a proper test. That means for this progress report, I’ll be covering the top playfield section. This includes the VUK, ramp diverter and three pop bumper assemblies. I already covered the orbit rail, saucer assembly and upper left and right playfield / plastics in a previous update, so won’t need to worry about those now. There’s a large ramp and rail that will need to be removed first, but from there it should be smooth sailing.
I had planned to begin this update with a really bad pun, but I’ll save you the anguish and get straight in to the good content! This update will be focusing on the assemblies in the lower section of playfield, along with cleaning up the drop target areas. I’ll also the look at the upper orbit shot as some screws that attach the metal rail to the playfield live under plastics in the mid section – so easier to do that all now in one go. The game has been played a lot over the years, with broken plastics across most areas of the playfield. The sling shot and return lane plastics are cracked or missing a few pieces. The bikes are still in one piece though, which is good news.
Time to wrap up the work on Apollo 13 and get it back into one piece for testing. First item on my to do list in this update is the rocket assembly, as it’s the last outstanding part of the playfield to get a clean. Then I can go through the process of getting everything back together (which is mostly the rails) and test the game. The end is in sight, which is exciting as I’m keen to play (…test) it. Time to get started! The rocket ship is the shot responsible for working towards the 13 ball multi ball mode. There is a ramp you shoot the ball up and a small assembly at the top which traps the ball, updates the countdown and then returns the ball back to the player. It is connected to a motor below the playfield, which performs a lift off and drops the ball into the large red ramp below the playfield.
