No wonder you have such a huge fan base. … you are outstanding at troubleshooting. … I feel a lot more empowered to tackle my machines after watching you track it down. Very educational and fun. Thanks Ronnie.
Keep these videos coming. The wealth of information im learning from them is great! Very happy to see a lot of these machines continue to live for many more years to come.
I always loved this machine and the artwork between the flippers always tripped me out and after all these years I just now, notices the back glass with even more explicit artwork.
Reminds me of a cassette recorder that had me chasing intermittent speed variations all over the board, because where I flexed it could be miles away from where the actual very fine scratch went through several traces. Wow, that took a while to find!
There are 2 lights right by the plunger that go on and flash once a ball is locked to alert the player. Also, the top saucer should kick the ball into the right side of the top bumper. Awesome to see your great troubleshooting! There’s a top bumper up there… the saucer… it can’t… you have bumpers… the ball… it kicks out… c’mon Ron…
Great job as always, Ron! Those intermittents can be tricky...the use of a simple finger can make all the difference! Thanks for recording and sharing your knowledge 👍
I think the inlane wireform are on the wrong side. The slight bend should be at the top of the wire. They came out to install the hardtop and were put back in on the wrong side. That's my 2 cents. Thanks for all the great videos!
Lol i was just getting ready to mention the bent pin guide or lanes I guess called and then you mentioned it. It pays to watch the whole video. Thank you I remember playing this as a wee child 40 some years ago
Xenon was one of my favourite machines to play back in the day. I am not hearing the "Enter Xenon", or the male and female "Ow", which I think were on the bumpers above the flippers. I also was big fan of machines that had weird things like the curved flippers on Time Warp, and the contoured surface of Orbitor 1. Others were Firepower and Black Knight. Thanx for showing and fixing these old pinball classics!
FOCUS YOU FU!!!!!!!!!! LOL AvE is hilarious. That is an awesome game. I did some research yesterday on Suzanne Ciani. Wow... strange to say the least. She was part of an awesome game. What in the heck walked in the store at the end. Didn't sound like they was huntin' arcade games. LOL
We have wandering bands of crazy people :) They were o.k. just out having a good time, they weren't hurting anything. Thank you for watching as always irieman442!
It sure looks like the distance between the flippers is further than other machines. Probably it just looks that way with that backside right there in the way.
I reckon you've got the best job in the world :) As you've been going through this one I slowly began to recall playing this a lot at University in 80-81. There were three of these machines scattered around the student Union bars, so the sound of "Lady Noises" used to echo round the place... Great video, I really enjoyed this one!
My memories of Xenon is how futuristic, sleek and sexy it appeared compared to all the other machines - back in god knows when. And how incredibly unforgiving it was to play. Xenon is a tease!
On the way to equipment failure, Digital suddenly becomes Didn'tgital (even if intermittently) , analog sometimes just gets rough at first (giving at least a warning). This is true more often then not, or I think I've seen it is so anyway. Drive safely!
I haven't commented as much because you haven't been giving me anything to heckle, Joe! Anyway, I have to say -- this pinball machine has VERY nice artwork and coloring I see you don't want to mess up! Keep up the good work, and help preserve what little original American art we've actually created in these last 50 years! This wasn't made in China, folks! At least this game wasn't inspired by a motion picture it doesn't look anything like! It's original and good on its own!
Artwork? You mean all the T&A? ^-^ Not complaining, mind you, i remember this game quite fondly from my teenage years. First time i saw this pinball game, i was there to play space invaders or defender, can't remember which, and this pinball game spoke and said: "Play ME!" in a very sexy voice. Not gonna lie i was tempted. I never played it (was terrible at pinball), but it was super distracting to say the least!
I love this pinball game This is the 1st ever multi-ball pinball I ever played back in 80, 81 whenever this came out. My 1st talky pinball was 8 Ball Deluxe although this one was cooler due to the synthesized female voice and more tantalizing to my 10 year old brain with its ahhs and ohhs.
JOE CLASSIC, Any reasons why the LM3900 Op amp go bad because they are texas instruments which should be good but they were made in Malaysia which might be the problem? Also the audio chip AY-3-8910 Address inputs#1 thru address input#5 are hooked up directly to certain solenoids in the playfields which are solenoids#1 thru solenoid#5? What I'm saying is only certain solenoids will trigger audio sounds?
A Theramin... A THERAMIN? lololol I almost spit out my iced coffee Only maybe 13 people in the world know what that is and two of them are named Ron ...and the rest are about to show up hahaha
hahahaha there are certain games that they look o.k. on, and I don't mind them on any of the new ones, I just tisk tisk when people put them in an EM :)
Always enjoy these recordings and your attention to detail. The link is to another clip that shows how the sounds for this game were created. th-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/w-d-xo.html
So the pot may have gone to pot. Yeah, broken traces can sometimes be hard to hunt down. There are Commodore 64 repair videos. Some of those are in pitiful shape. Like the memory tests failing on many of the chips. On those, a lot of times, it is the memory. Some folks don't like MOS memory, but Mostek and some of the unbranded junk out there is even worse, and the boards would have a mixture of MOS, Mostek, and unbranded memory, with maybe some Japanese-made memory too. The Mostek ones and the unbranded ones will usually be bad. And then if that doesn't fix it, you'd likely have broken traces, and on rare occasions, maybe a bad logic gate IC nearby. With those, you'd need to change the chips, and in the process, it is easy to lift traces. So there will be bodge wires all over the place when one is done. And a lot of times, that might not be all that's wrong with the machine. Often, there will be garbled graphics or missing lines/pixels too, and that may be a logic gate or a bad trace. Believe it or not, other capacitors are polarized too, but for different reasons. An electrolytic capacitor may fail if wired backward. But with some of the other types like mylar, foil, and the wax-paper ones, there may be one connector that is closer to the outside of the capacitor. You'd want that connector to be the most grounded side so that interference would be less likely to get in. That is more important on hi-fi circuits. That way, the more positive side is shielded. If you follow Mr. Carlson's Lab, you can learn more about that and even about how to make a box to test this. I think you would hold the capacitor while you test it, and the side that lights up the most lights would be the outermost connector. Then you'd know where to mark it if there are no polarity marks.
I always used to like led's until they became bad replacements. These here a just about passable, I'm not complaining ...BUT. Cold-white (wrong color), terrible diffusion, flicker, bad control (always instant attack/never any decay unless augmented drive electronics), wrong brightness (per manufacturer/evil burn-out business) are very lousy problems! And I'm not even talking about pinball machines! Converting from tungsten filaments to led dies is no excuse to completely screw up the diffusion most of the time. At least they kind of got that done better in pinball machines then in many other things. ...and yes, maybe I like it a lot when it's done right!
On TH-cam there is actually a neat little BBC piece done back in the 80's about the sound design for this machine.
Awesome! I had no idea it was done by Suzanne Ciani no less! Find it at v=r28i-k3mL3o
No wonder you have such a huge fan base. … you are outstanding at troubleshooting. … I feel a lot more empowered to tackle my machines after watching you track it down. Very educational and fun. Thanks Ronnie.
Thank you Mark that's very nice of you to say
found a note from Joe in my wallet.. says "youre broke"
I swear I love these videos for the problem solving! I absolutely love it! You've made me want to fix these just because I love a mystery.
My 6-year old daughter is now saying “Come on people!” like Ron since I’m watching Joe’s Classic Video Game videos all the time! 😂
Come on Patrice what are... come on now Patrice's daughter, you can.... you can't do that, Come on now People....
Found out 30 seconds ago that my local pinball club (Bergen Flipperspillklubb, Norway) has a Xenon machine. I'm joining.
Well there you go!
Keep these videos coming. The wealth of information im learning from them is great! Very happy to see a lot of these machines continue to live for many more years to come.
I always loved this machine and the artwork between the flippers always tripped me out and after all these years I just now, notices the back glass with even more explicit artwork.
Reminds me of a cassette recorder that had me chasing intermittent speed variations all over the board, because where I flexed it could be miles away from where the actual very fine scratch went through several traces. Wow, that took a while to find!
I love the smell of pinball in the morning. Hope you all are good
We're all doing well, thank you for watching James!
It was fin to watch a person slowly loose their mind trying to fix something - we've all been there lol! Great job! Xxxx
There are 2 lights right by the plunger that go on and flash once a ball is locked to alert the player. Also, the top saucer should kick the ball into the right side of the top bumper. Awesome to see your great troubleshooting!
There’s a top bumper up there… the saucer… it can’t… you have bumpers… the ball… it kicks out… c’mon Ron…
Great detective work Ron. Stuff like that can be frustrating. I knew you’d figure it out though. Thanks for the video.
Ron said on numerous occasions he wouldn't post a video if it was still broke. I look forward to the outtakes with expletives haha
Nice to see the multi ball at the end. Great job ! Great machine !
Love your commentary and the way you explian everything...
Love that even the boards have cool names in a cool 80s font! Great repair. Loving the finger test!!
It's important to know the right amount of fingering required to get a result.
Great job as always, Ron! Those intermittents can be tricky...the use of a simple finger can make all the difference! Thanks for recording and sharing your knowledge 👍
I think the inlane wireform are on the wrong side. The slight bend should be at the top of the wire. They came out to install the hardtop and were put back in on the wrong side. That's my 2 cents. Thanks for all the great videos!
Looks great. One of my favorite pinball machines.😀
Great fix! Looks like a fun machine.
Great table, played lots back in the day.
Man that sound board was an epic journey
We got there!
Lol i was just getting ready to mention the bent pin guide or lanes I guess called and then you mentioned it. It pays to watch the whole video. Thank you I remember playing this as a wee child 40 some years ago
Thank you for watching Timit Biscuit!
Xenon was one of my favourite machines to play back in the day. I am not hearing the "Enter Xenon", or the male and female "Ow", which I think were on the bumpers above the flippers. I also was big fan of machines that had weird things like the curved flippers on Time Warp, and the contoured surface of Orbitor 1. Others were Firepower and Black Knight. Thanx for showing and fixing these old pinball classics!
Thank you for mentioning "Orbitor 1," I remember a friend of my mother's had one at their house but couldn't for the life of me remember the name!
Very nicely put together video and very entertaining as well. Thanks for posting this.
Thank you for watching Kurt!
Great Journey. Thanks for all the details
come on Ron, go easy on Joe, his notes have been correct every time.
FOCUS YOU FU!!!!!!!!!! LOL AvE is hilarious. That is an awesome game. I did some research yesterday on Suzanne Ciani. Wow... strange to say the least. She was part of an awesome game. What in the heck walked in the store at the end. Didn't sound like they was huntin' arcade games. LOL
We have wandering bands of crazy people :) They were o.k. just out having a good time, they weren't hurting anything. Thank you for watching as always irieman442!
@@LyonsArcade love all the family videos. I can see you all restrain your humor.
Awesome repair. This one looks in great shape!
It sure looks like the distance between the flippers is further than other machines. Probably it just looks that way with that backside right there in the way.
This brings back the 80's good times !
The one thing I'd like to point out is it looks like C26 has a cold solder joint. You can see at 19:55 when you're zooming in on C25.
Is it even soldered at all (top side, might be on other side of board)?
Now I want to play it. Hopefully, my local pinball "museum" has one. I'll check next time I visit.
I reckon you've got the best job in the world :) As you've been going through this one I slowly began to recall playing this a lot at University in 80-81. There were three of these machines scattered around the student Union bars, so the sound of "Lady Noises" used to echo round the place...
Great video, I really enjoyed this one!
My memories of Xenon is how futuristic, sleek and sexy it appeared compared to all the other machines - back in god knows when.
And how incredibly unforgiving it was to play.
Xenon is a tease!
On the way to equipment failure, Digital suddenly becomes Didn'tgital (even if intermittently) , analog sometimes just gets rough at first (giving at least a warning). This is true more often then not, or I think I've seen it is so anyway.
Drive safely!
I haven't commented as much because you haven't been giving me anything to heckle, Joe!
Anyway, I have to say --
this pinball machine has VERY nice artwork and coloring I see you don't want to mess up!
Keep up the good work, and help preserve what little original American art we've actually created in these last 50 years!
This wasn't made in China, folks!
At least this game wasn't inspired by a motion picture it doesn't look anything like! It's original and good on its own!
Artwork? You mean all the T&A? ^-^ Not complaining, mind you, i remember this game quite fondly from my teenage years. First time i saw this pinball game, i was there to play space invaders or defender, can't remember which, and this pinball game spoke and said: "Play ME!" in a very sexy voice. Not gonna lie i was tempted. I never played it (was terrible at pinball), but it was super distracting to say the least!
I love this pinball game This is the 1st ever multi-ball pinball I ever played back in 80, 81 whenever this came out. My 1st talky pinball was 8 Ball Deluxe although this one was cooler due to the synthesized female voice and more tantalizing to my 10 year old brain with its ahhs and ohhs.
You got the sound board working well! I have a sound board with custom sounds for xenon. Let me now if you still have the machine.
I don't have it in anymore, but I may be able to talk the customer into buying one from you because he said it's flaking out again!
Clever sausage. Nice work.
JOE CLASSIC, Any reasons why the LM3900 Op amp go bad because they are texas instruments which should be good but they were made in Malaysia which might be the problem? Also the audio chip AY-3-8910 Address inputs#1 thru address input#5 are hooked up directly to certain solenoids in the playfields which are solenoids#1 thru solenoid#5? What I'm saying is only certain solenoids will trigger audio sounds?
It's broke !!! Not anymore - good job !
A Theramin... A THERAMIN? lololol
I almost spit out my iced coffee
Only maybe 13 people in the world know what that is and two of them are named Ron
...and the rest are about to show up hahaha
...and this Ron misspelled it too
I laughed at that too, Ron is smarter than he gives himself credit for
Nice game I think that game was first game from Bally that have talking feature😎👍
It's pretty legendary
Did you ever get a hold of a mortal kombat 3 machine?? Would be nice to see you review that. Or mk4.
42:04 Multi Ball
Yup!
Nice video. It sounds now how it should. Somebody seems to have set it to 5 balls/game.
Yes some people prefer more bang for their buck :)
Yes. I suppose.
I grew up playing pinball in the 70’s, and it was always 5 balls a game, so I have all of my machines set to 5 balls.
Awesome game xenon!
Just saw your Odyssey2 the voice video... Lmao just got one today for my o2.. It's epic lol!!
I absolutely love this game
Somthing Strange. Like ghostbuster
(RULE 1) Avoid getting almost killed always!
I try not to get almost killed every day!
Hey Ron!!
Hi Jason!
A fantastic machine!
yo yo yoo yo yooyoooo where you get them blue drop targets????
I want one of this game!!! To cool!
LEDs! Ron's bane!
hahahaha there are certain games that they look o.k. on, and I don't mind them on any of the new ones, I just tisk tisk when people put them in an EM :)
Memory targets? I would had thought that Stern Electronics had a patent on that back then.
They probably had some kind of variation making it possible to do...
Those top buttons, that also drop the corresponding drop target, are a pain in the rear to adjust properly!
“FOCUS you ….!”
Come on people...It's a great day for Xenon!
It's always a great day for Xenon though!!!
👍Perfekt!!!
Thank you Ringo!
multiple repaired solder joints are the worst. very tricky to get right
33:34......Well if it doesn't like being touched, then don't be touching it! :)
Was anybody else yelling at the screen... just touch it!! Come on touch it!
Broke no more ... Victory Victory !
Thank you BC Stargazer!
Always enjoy these recordings and your attention to detail. The link is to another clip that shows how the sounds for this game were created. th-cam.com/video/r28i-k3mL3o/w-d-xo.html
So the pot may have gone to pot.
Yeah, broken traces can sometimes be hard to hunt down. There are Commodore 64 repair videos. Some of those are in pitiful shape. Like the memory tests failing on many of the chips. On those, a lot of times, it is the memory. Some folks don't like MOS memory, but Mostek and some of the unbranded junk out there is even worse, and the boards would have a mixture of MOS, Mostek, and unbranded memory, with maybe some Japanese-made memory too. The Mostek ones and the unbranded ones will usually be bad. And then if that doesn't fix it, you'd likely have broken traces, and on rare occasions, maybe a bad logic gate IC nearby. With those, you'd need to change the chips, and in the process, it is easy to lift traces. So there will be bodge wires all over the place when one is done. And a lot of times, that might not be all that's wrong with the machine. Often, there will be garbled graphics or missing lines/pixels too, and that may be a logic gate or a bad trace.
Believe it or not, other capacitors are polarized too, but for different reasons. An electrolytic capacitor may fail if wired backward. But with some of the other types like mylar, foil, and the wax-paper ones, there may be one connector that is closer to the outside of the capacitor. You'd want that connector to be the most grounded side so that interference would be less likely to get in. That is more important on hi-fi circuits. That way, the more positive side is shielded. If you follow Mr. Carlson's Lab, you can learn more about that and even about how to make a box to test this. I think you would hold the capacitor while you test it, and the side that lights up the most lights would be the outermost connector. Then you'd know where to mark it if there are no polarity marks.
A disk cap C26 looks like it has a cracked solder joint
I always used to like led's until they became bad replacements. These here a just about passable, I'm not complaining ...BUT. Cold-white (wrong color), terrible diffusion, flicker, bad control (always instant attack/never any decay unless augmented drive electronics), wrong brightness (per manufacturer/evil burn-out business) are very lousy problems! And I'm not even talking about pinball machines!
Converting from tungsten filaments to led dies is no excuse to completely screw up the diffusion most of the time. At least they kind of got that done better in pinball machines then in many other things. ...and yes, maybe I like it a lot when it's done right!
27:35 LOL
Hello
Yodelayheehoo
Busy
Hello Lil Everette!
Just wanted to drop this here. th-cam.com/video/Cb2W75VbYCM/w-d-xo.html Suzanne Ciani making the background sounds and voices for Xenon
"focus you fuck!" ~ AvE
check out video on TH-cam..... entitled... Suzanne Ciani Creates The Soundtrack For A Pinball Machine ... made xenon voice?? cool!
Master volume needs to be louder. You can barely hear her voice. It should be louder than that.
You think so?
@@LyonsArcade yes
i would have replaced all of the sockets and cleaned the areas around them just to be on the safe side but thats just me
You think so?
C'mon now... people. Quick question: What products do you use to clean an old arcade machine like, say... Pac Man? I would appreciate the help. :)
Left plastic ring fixing the tube is at a wrong place