Tomy Astro Shooter Pinball
Tomy's Astro Shooter pinball is Atomic Pinball's big brother. Astro Shooter is a bit larger and has quite a few more features. In fact, calling this game a "toy" doesn't do it justice. If you love pinball but don't have the space or money for a real machine, Astro Shooter may be a viable alternative. I believe Astro Shooter was available during the 1980s and '90s, but is no longer produced. Astro Shooter does not appear to have been as popular as Atomic Pinball, but was also twice as expensive. I got my Astro Shooter second hand off ebay. Unlike Atomic Pinball, Astro Shooter requires an AC power pack and has no provision for batteries. If you'd like to learn about the workings of Astro Shooter, I suggest you first read my Atomic Pinball page.
I get a lot of email about lost power packs. The picture above shows the specifications for the power pack including voltage, current and polarity. Replacements should be available at Radio Shack or the like. I'd suggest taking the whole game to the store to ensure you're getting the properly dimensioned plug.
Lost your legs? The picture above shows the height and shape of a leg. The remaining dimensions can be ascertained from the leg sockets on the bottom of the game. Replacements could be fashioned from wood blocks or other suitable material.
Shown above is an instruction manual for Astro Shooter pinball. Click drawing for larger image.
The upper middle area of the play field is much like Atomic Pinball with three bumpers, but only one rectangular bumper (or "slingshot" as I call it). There are three top rollovers as well as a rollover switch in the right orbit. All these components score a point when hit. At the middle left are two kick out saucers. The saucers score extra points. It's possible to shoot the ball into the lower saucer, but the upper saucer can only be hit with a random ricochet. The most lucrative shot (and most challenging) is the left orbit. At the top of the left orbit is a cellar hole. The ball disappears down the cellar hole while many points are racked up and is then shot back out above the upper right flipper. The head features two sets of score reels. The lower reels score the game while the upper reels are manually controlled to keep track of the high score to date.
There's no scoring on the lower area of the playfield. The lower slingshots are just passive rubber bands and the in lane, out lane and shooter lane switches just trigger a sound effect. The lower area of the playfield also features a circular lighting effect. Two red lights chase each other around the circle and speed up when the cellar hole or kick out saucers are hit.
As with Atomic Pinball, I couldn't wait to take this machine apart. The head is designed to easily pop off for storage. Beneath the head is a plate held down to the body by three screws. After removing the plate, the "glass" comes out followed by the sheet metal playfield.
Right below that square circuit board is the beginning of the cellar hole trough. The ball rolls to the right into the white tab. The white tab triggers a mechanical delay arrangement that activates the upper right bumper for several seconds thereby racking up lots of points. After the delay the ball is lifted by the tab and continues down the trough into the yellow box where it's ejected by a toothed wheel from beneath that metal tab. The ball is ejected above the upper right flipper with enough speed that it's a challenge to catch with the flipper. Note the score shaft driving the blue gear at the upper left, which engages the score reels on the removable head. The three top rollovers trigger the left bumper. The right orbit rollover triggers the upper right bumper.
This shot shows how the bumpers and slingshot operate in a similar fashion as those on Atomic Pinball. The yellow box on the left is for the two kick out saucers. These operate similarly to the cellar hole mechanism, but the delay is shorter so fewer points are scored. The kick out saucers trigger the yellow slingshot.
Here's a close-up of the inner workings of the kick out saucer mechanism. The reduction gear train on the left engages the game's main drive shaft to supply power to the mechanism. When the ball lands into one of the kick out saucers the weight of the ball pushes down on the red arm which causes a small white gear to move down and transmit power from the reduction gear train to the shaft on the right. The cam at the far end of the shaft activates the yellow slingshot (shown in pictures above) for scoring. The cam also engages a linkage to shift the spinning light disk into high gear (see below). The spring-loaded cam on the near end of the shaft snaps the red arm back up, ejecting the ball and completing the cycle. Because of the reduction gear train's reduction, the shaft turns relatively slowly so the ball remains in the kick out saucer for a second or two while extra point are racked up. As mentioned above, the cellar hole mechanism works in a similar fashion.
The bottom of the body holds a spinning light disk. Note the gears right between the slingshot and bumper skirts that form a two-speed transmission for speeding up the disk when the cellar hole or kick out saucers are hit. To the right of the disk is the sound effects speaker. On the right and left are the rollover switches for the in lanes, out lanes and shooter lane. The machine has several unique sound effects for scoring, lower rollover switches, flipper action, ball drain and score reel reset.
Finally, here's a picture of the score reels with the rear access panel removed. Like Atomic Pinball, the first three digits are one reel. So ignoring the two least significant digits, the game scores from 0000 to 9999. The blue gear here in the head meshes with the blue gear in the body shown above. The top reels are manually adjusted to record the high score to date.
Astro Shooter includes two circuit boards. The bottom board contains no electronics and merely interfaces the ribbon cable with other components. The upper board (shown above) takes care of power distribution, sound effects and speaker amplification. The top side of the board is straight forward, easily decipherable and populated with replaceable components.
The underside of the board shows what is probably a surface mount sound IC concealed under a round blob of black plastic. I don't know what kind of chip it may be or how it's connected. Even if I did, the IC is an unserviceable component.
Here's a schematic of the circuit. Voltage from the ON/OFF switch is fed to polarity protection diode D1 and then distributed across the top to other components via a resistive divider circuit. Circuitry at left is for speaker amplification. Circuitry in the middle is a primitive power supply for the IC. Remaining connections feed switch inputs to the sound IC.
Some Astro Shooters apparently had an "ON/OFF LIGHT" to indicate when the game was turned on. Mine does not. However, as shown above, my game does have a pedestal lamp holder between the power input jack and the on/off switch. There's also a hole punched into the top left of the playfield, which exposes the top of the pedestal. My game does not appear to have ever had the light. I guess the bean-counters wanted to save a penny or two. Shown below is a clip from an alternate user's manual that indicates the position of the "ON/OFF LIGHT".
Shown above is an alternate circuit arrangement from a different game. This circuit is considerably more complex and exerts control over the game as well as generating the sound effects. When the power switch is turned ON, the little red light begins to blink, but the motor does not start. To start a game, the reset lever must be pressed. This closes the switch contact on top of the circuit board and tells the circuit to turn ON the motor and start a game. The circuit also counts the number of balls lost. When the fifth ball is lost, the game is over and the circuit turns OFF the motor. The reset lever must again be pressed to start the next game.
Here's an Astro Shooter with an alternate art package. Image courtesy of Jonx from Switzerland.
Yet another alternate art package. Image courtesy of Jonx from Switzerland.
Astro Shooter was offered with a different theme and art package called "American Pinball". This version appears to be considerably rarer than Astro Shooter. Check my American Pinball web page.
Astro Shooter was offered with a different theme and art package called "Pirate Treasure". This version appears to be considerably rarer than Astro Shooter. I could use a better picture of Pirate Treasure if you have one.
Astro Shooter was offered with yet another theme and art package called "The Price is Right". This version appears to be extremely rare.
This is The Franklin Mint's Coca-Cola Collector's Pinball (click for larger images). This is something I stumbled across while roaming about the Internet one day. Apparently this item was offered in 1997. The left image is supposed to be an ad from a 1997 issue of TV Guide magazine. This game can sell for several hundred dollars, but clearly it's just a repackaged Astro Shooter.
Around 2009 Astro Shooter was "re-imagined". This time it's by Franklin Sports and called Homerun Action Pinball. Don't confuse Franklin Sports with the Franklin Mint and their Coca-Cola game shown above. Unlike all the other versions of Astro Shooter shown above, this new product appears to have been mechanically redesigned. What jumps out at me are the top two round bumpers, which appear to have been replaced with the boring passive rebound springs that so typify crappy toy pinball games. As a pinball geek I must protest. Springs suck! Accordingly, I can't see how this game would be as much fun as an original Astro Shooter. The bottom round bumper and rectangular bumper mechanisms also appear to have been redesigned. The head is completely different. Digital scoring has replaced the old mechanical scoring. Elaborate sound effects are advertised. The game has been adapted to run on 4 "D" batteries. An optional AC power pack can be purchased separately. I would guess that the new power pack outputs 6 volts. So don't try using the 9 volt pack from an original Astro Shooter.
It would appear that Franklin Sports has "cheaped out" on at least some of the mechanics that made the original Astro Shooter such a charming game. If anyone out there has played this new game, I'd be interested to hear your opinion of it.
Homerun Action Pinball. Click image for a really big picture.
Homerun Action box art.