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Star Trek: The Next Generation
| Manufacturer: | Williams |
| Model Number: | 50023 |
| Produced units: | 11,728 |
| Widebody: | Yes |
| Num. players: | 4 players |
| IPD No.: | 2357 |
| Serial Nr: | 52123281752 |
| MfgDate: | xx/xx/xx |
Star Trek used to be one of my favorite TV-series and although I'm no "real" trekkie I just knew I had to get my own ST:TNG pinball. More or less by chance I put a request on a forum and by the next day I had seen the game and decided to buy it.
The game was fully playable but was in serious need of some shopping. Just about all the plastics and ramps were broken. Fortunately the borg ship was in ok condition and had only minor damage from the hot lamps. Translite was almost in perfect condition and the cabinet was good all be it drilled.
This one is a keeper for now but I will be on the lookout for a better looking machine..
Thoughts about the game
This game is just plain and simply FUN. The music, sound and speech is top notch and really adds to the atmosphere of being aboard the Enterprise. The missions are fun and well made fitting the theme nicely, in no way do you feel they are out of place or fabricated.
Borg multiball is a blast when you lock the ball in the renegade ship having it shot back right at the flippers. Unfortunately I have not had enough time to reach final frontier yet but as soon as I receive new rubbers and a few missing parts I will get right on it.
Past & present issues
Trough opto board
This game came with a heavily hacked trough board and one of the switches was failing intermittently. Checking the infrared LEDs with a camera I quickly identified one with a loose leg. After replacing the broken LED the board was working fine.
Having seen the bad condition of the opto board I decided to do a complete rebuild and repair what I could. The board was soldered directly onto the wire harness and had to be desoldered before I could start working on it. Armed with new connecor, resistors and LEDs I finally desoldered all of the components and cleaned the board removing old flux and dirt.
After inspecting the now clean board I noticed several plated holes were damaged and had to be repaired using wires. Rebuilding the board took me just about one hour and I think it came out pretty good. The jumper wires are gone and with the new connector installed it really makes a difference. The board still looks like crap but it is not worth the time or the money to repair, I'd order a replacement board.
Maybe I will order a set of replacement boards but for now I will give the rebuilt board a last chance.
 Back side showing broken traces with jumper wires |
 Trashed connector and PCB tracks |
 Back side after rebuild. The flash really makes it look worse that it is |
 New connector and rebuilt traces |
Top diverter malfunction
After getting errors on switches #31 (Borg Lock) & #48 (Borg Entry) twice and having them check out ok I figured it had to be something else not working. Thats when it struck me that I had not been able to lock the ball in the borg ship even once.
The diverter solenoid was triggering ok so I pulled the playfield out to see if something was blocking the diverter arm. At a glance everything looked ok until it tried to move the diverter by hand, it was stuck! Using force I was able to move it just a little but not enough to let a ball through.
Upon disassembling the diverter assy it became painfully obvious that someone had greased it up a decade or so ago (Apparently they came like this from factory). This grease had now become more or less like superglue and was a bloody pain to remove.
After using excessive amounts or solvents and metal polish the assy was once again shining like new and would flick over really easy. After reinstalling it took me less than 5 minutes to lock the ball in the ship and hear Cpt. Picard say "All hands... prepare for multiball!" - Priceless!.
'Battle Simulation' cannon issues
In 'Battle Simulation' the left cannon would get the 'Neutral Zone' as target which is an impossible shot. This turned out to be a failed switch for the drop down target #57. After fixing the switch the game is again fully operational.
Broken solder joints
Broken solder joints seem to be a common issue with STTNG (or any pinball machine). I've currently found two lamp assys with cracked joints but I am sure there are more lurking.
13657 Lamp assy
The 'Return to duty' flasher was indicating there might be a broken bulb or a bad solder joint on the lamp assy. Occationally it would flash if the conditions were right but most of the time it didn't.
Upon removing the flasher bulb I could feel that the lamp socket was loose so I continued removing the complete lamp assy. All three of the solder joints were broken and the lamp socket was more or less connected to the pcb by gravitation alone.
Desoldering and resoldering the socket was quickly done and as a bonus I installed a new LED flasher instead of the old bulb.
 Bottom view showing the cracked solder joints |
 Side view showing how loose the socket was |
 Resoldered socket with a new LED flasher installed |
? Lamp assy
Issues that need to be fixed
Drop target assy
Broken and fixed with a screw driven into the pf (see pictures below) by some previous owner. Fortunately it seems they took care doing it and did next to no damage. Removing the screw did however make the eyelet assy (A-14913) inoperable and it kept falling of the mounting bracket.
Still thinking up a plan on how to repair the this..
 Screw hack |
 Worn out eyelet assy |
Broken screws on outlane posts
The two spacers and screws on the right outlane have been missing from the start and I figured I should order new spacers. Upon removing the screw from the left post to have it measured I discovered it had sheared off about 3mm into the playfield. I immediately checked the two holes on the right and sure enough they also had broken screws embedded.
Still trying to figure out had to remove these bastards..
I've also discovered that there should not be two spacers on the right and that the second hole was drilled by an operator trying to fix the broken screw with a new one. Unfortunately also the second screw sheared so now I have three of them embedded in the playfield.
Missing interlock switch
The switch is missing and the cables have been twisted together with some tape. I just need to order a new switch and re-solder the cables.
Cracked subway plastics
The plastic subway has cracked under the center scoop.