Found this about HB from Steve posted on RGP. It's a good read and another good story about introducing a game at show before the bugs are worked out.

"You said, "Hyperball is like Rapid Fire", John,  BUT.. it's more like "Rapid Fire is similar to Hyperball", :<))  Sorry, but the truth is the truth!  H-B was introduced at the fall MOA show of '81 and it was a showstopper.  The booth was crowded with everyone in the building trying to play it, and we only had ONE UNIT on a raised platform in the palatial Williams Booth.  It had a terrible ball feed mech and I, (or someone) had to stand next to the game and control 2 SECRET SWITCHES under the over-hang of the backbox.  (By the way, Hyberball had a very important first...I made the first pinball-like cabinet with backglass area speaker(s) aimed directly at the player, as well as the cabinet bottom.  From then on, my pins, (High Speed might have been the first pinball, but not positive, but it doesn't matter.  H-B was the first. High Speed (and everyone else's games) had a speaker panel in the backbox from then on....SOUND IS IMPORTANT!!

But,.... not if you don't LIKE the sound!!.....No one could really hear it at the show, but as you made shots, the 3/4" balls would fall onto a masonite panel that was sloped to feed the reloading mechanism, and the balls were loud!! WAK-WAK-WAK-WAK!!!!  The gun could fire 6 balls a second, and would make your hands tired pulling the triggers!!!!!

When the feeder malfunctioned and no balls would arrive at the gun, I could discreetly hit the motor-reverse switch to unjam the loading mech.  There would be an awkward pause, but I would just keep smiling as the game would stop and restart.  I could also reset eveything, but rarely had to hit that switch!!!  It was a CORPORATE CHARADE of the highest order.  We all (at Williams) wanted a huge explosion of publicity and we got it with H-B, but then, we couldn't deliver the product, because it didn't work.

A respected rival Bally designer and friend was watching me on the stand and pretty much knew something was up.  He was noticing that my hand would often rest on the game in an awkward position while people played it, but the line of players and the crowd H-B generated at the MOA show (as it was called then) prevented any real focus on me and my switch-work making Hyperball work as correctly as I could.  It was a tiring & intense situation for me.  Sometimes we had to open the game and add balls, because THEY WERE LEAKING INTO THE CABINET BOTTOM!!!!

Bally had nothing like it at the time....we got tons of orders for H-B, and then we proceeded to make a completely new loading system (Archimedian Screw) because the original SUCKED.  It took all the way to the Spring Show (ASI?  AAMA?) to get it right. (6 MONTHS!!)  Come Spring Show lo and behold, there was Rapid Fire at the Bally booth!! It had it's problems, but the Bally guys had made their own Hyperball-like game.  Our problems were mostly solved, but the screw mech should have had a better quality motor.  A secret:  Bally called the Rapid Fire development "Project Xerox" internally.  A good friend at Bally shared this with me, and we both had a good laugh years later when Williams bought Bally pinball.  He was the same guy who was suspicious of my "switch-work" on the show floor.      

Steve"

Quoted Text

From then on, my pins, (High Speed might have been the first pinball, but not positive, but it doesn't matter.  H-B was the first. High Speed (and everyone else's games) had a speaker panel in the backbox from then on....SOUND IS IMPORTANT!!

good bit of trivia right there!

Some plastics have been replace, put in new glass, brand new balls, new power cord, displays are in (thanks very much Tanman), boards are fixed, mechanicals gone over and repaired as required, all bulbs, switches done, coin door got a fresh coat, cleaned all around, just debating about pulling the handle assemblies apart right now, sandblasting and giving them a fresh coat of black paint. Not sure how far I am going to continue but I feel I am almost ready to move it to my buddies place.

Great work! Thread like this are very interesting for rookie like me Do you have "before" picture so we can appreciate more the repair/restoration work?

Quoted from Hyann

Great work! Thread like this are very interesting for rookie like me Do you have "before" picture so we can appreciate more the repair/restoration work?

Sure. Click on the images to get bigger pics. These are the ones I got from the seller showing the project. If you want any pics of the boards after they were worked on I can shoot that for you.

The handles are a very prominent feature on the machine so I decided to re-do them.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

The handles are a very prominent feature on the machine so I decided to re-do them.

What do you mean by 'redo'? That looks awesome. Did you rebuild them from scratch?

Well I cleaned it up without a complete tear down of that assembly but wasn't happy with the handles being marked up. So I tore it all down which was a matter of some bolts, screws, C clips and roll pins. Cleaned off the old paint on the handles and shot them with three coats of semi-gloss acrylic lacquer. In the interim I was able to better re-grain the stainless where the parts joined up. Also there were a couple of nylon shafts for the trigger assemblies that I got the opportunity to clean up while they were out.

If you look at the earlier pics you will see the paint worn through to the metal.

wow.  this has come a long way from when i saw it with dave at starburst.   great work glen.  hyperball is still one of my wifes fav's and i will sooner or later get one for her.