Questions about gameplay
Despite the fact that I’m in the process of restoring my TAF, I’m still finding the opportunity to play it.
Two things have struck me as strange whilst playing, however: firstly I can’t seem to advance the THING lights on the backbox; secondly the top left flasher and train crash flasher (which are both connected to the same circuit) don’t appear to work during a game, but are fine during the flasher test routine.
So I asked on RGP what should make the THING lights advance and what should make the top left flashers flash.
Well it turns out that the THING lights advance every time the left ramp (red staircase) is is shot and the top left flashers flash every time the bear kick ramp (blue staircase) is shot.
As I haven’t managed to shoot the red staircase yet (the flipper seems weak) I verified the operation of the red staircase and the THING lamps by sending a ball up the ramp manually. It all worked perfectly. And then I noticed something strange:
The upper right flipper wasn’t fully retracted in its resting position when de-energised. In fact it was about 5 mm advanced at its resting position. Could this explain the reason why I wasn’t able to shoot the red staircase?
Lifting the playfield (having removed the balls!) I attempted to adjust the flipper (my first ever attempt). My first try wasn’t too successful (I didn’t tighten the flipper finger enough) meaning the flipper changed its position after a few flips. However having tightened it properly I was actually able to flip a ball up the red staircase – even during a normal game – but it was a really difficult shot (no wonder it’s worth 1 Million points!).
As far as the flashers are concerned, having identified what makes them flash, I established that they were in fact flashing, but very dimly.
I’ve asked the question on RGP and now have a few pointers on what to check for.