Data East Simpsons is another pinball machine that my wife and I played in college.  I looked for a decent one for several years.  They show up periodically, but they are often trashed!  It's either the playfield, the cabinet or both that are in poor shape.  I was very happy when one became available locally that was in pretty good shape.  It certainly needed a good shop job and the playfield had been touched up in a few places, but it looked like it would clean up nicely.  It was by far the nicest one I had seen.  All in all, DE Simpsons is not a super complex game.  It's the integration of the theme that makes this a worthy addition to a pinball collection.

Here are some interesting aspects of Simpsons Playfield artwork is really fun to look at.  Tons of stuff to see. The Simpsons music is integrated into the game perfectly It has a cool Bart Simpson topper Rather than regular bumper caps, this machine has nuclear power plant bumper caps!  Way cool. Two vertical up kickers Two separate ball locks, one on each side of the playfield Eight (count 'em) drop targets!  Three in the center of the playfield and 5 more on the right of the playfield.

The two leftmost bowling pins were clearly a poor reproduction.  The left picture below shows the original drop targets and the right picture shows the restored drop targets.  In addition to new decals, I replaced the plastic drop targets.

Replacing the drop targets is very easy.  Here are the steps.  A picture of the 3 drop target mechanism follows.

1. Loosen the two hex nuts on the back side of the drop target mechanism.  This allows the drop targets to be removed from the drop target mechanism.

2. Disconnect the spring from the drop target.  Each drop target has a curved piece of plastic that the string attaches to.  Simply push the spring toward the target and move it around the curved plastic.

3. Pull the drop target up through the top of the playfield.  It comes right out.

I had never seen this myself so I took some pictures to share.  The first image below shows the PCBs behind the backglass.  This is followed by a picture of the front of the door behind the backglass and the backside of the door.  Finally, there is a picture of the alphanumeric display board.

It appears the Data East uses a simple cardboard tube to increase bass response.  My (very) informal analysis showed that this tube does indeed improve bass response.  A picture of this bass-tube is shown below.  If you look down into the tube, you can see there is an opening.

Here are some pictures of the back of the playfield.  This first picture shows the back of the playfield.

In the following picture you can see a previous owner used blank paint to repair the playfield.  While this repair isn't obvious when the game is put together, you can see the previous owner didn't repair Moe's shoulder.  Instead, black paint was used over his shoulder.

This second image shows another small repair done by a previous owner.  The waterfall just below the spinning target is half missing.

Yes! But these really don't do justice to the size of this ramp.  It is really huge.  It's the largest pinball ramp I've seen.  The entrance to the ramp has a hidden plastic piece shows a Behemoth RV (I think).

In order to remove the big ramp, the smaller green wireframe must also be removed.  Below is a picture of the green wireframe.

It's individual piece of plastic that attaches with 4 screws.  The first two pictures below show the front and back of this piece.  The third picture shows what the playfield looks like when this piece is removed.  Finally the fourth picture shows the assembled Millions piece.

Not surprisingly, yes!  Homer and Bart are happily providing the player with some useful information.

I'm just getting started.  Here are some pictures.

Yes there is!  It's the only pinball machine that I own that actually has a backglass!  I'm specifically not using the term translite.  A translite is a plastic-like substance that has the image printed on it.  A translite is placed behind a separate piece of glass to give the traditional backglass look.  Data East Simpsons has the artwork printed directly on the glass.  Another cool aspect of this backglass is that it is mirrored.  Many of the Simpsons characters are outlined with a reflective surface.  Finally, it's a large backglass compared to Williams translites.  This is because the backglass includes the area that a 1990 Williams machine would use for the dot matrix display.

You may have noticed that the Simpsons backglass image on my home page is the same size as the other Williams translites.  This is because I cropped the image to be the same size.  It looked awkward being the only image that was a different aspect ratio.  For your enjoyment, below is an image of the Simpsons backglass.  Some parts, such as the Data East logo did not photograph well... I blame this on the mirrored backglass!

I'm no Simpsons expert, but I've managed to identify the following characters from the backglass: Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie, Krusty the Clown, Slideshow Bob, Moe, Barney, Milhouse, Edna Krabappel, Mr. Burns, Waylon Burns, Apu, Grandpa, Patty & Selma Bouvier, Santa's Little Helper, Snowball II, Otto.

Please let me know if you can identify: Guy with saxophone, twin girls.

Pretty sweet.  See for yourself...

Sure! Here is a picture showing the bottom of the Simpsons playfield.

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Have any comments, questions, or just want to say "Hi"?  Drop me a note using pinball@aaarpinball.com.  I look forward to hearing from you!  If you drop me a note, I would appreciate it if you let me know how you ran across my web site.