So this was a good occasion to Fiona to whip out the paint brushes and make it look good again. Somebody had tried (unsuccessfully) to cover it up with what looked like a permanent marker. The wear on this machine had worn away the artwork, exposing the wood underneath. Depending on how the kick-out arm is shaped, the wear may be in slightly different locations from machine to machine. Most of the pictures I've seen online of other Trident machines have wear in a very similar location. This kicks the ball up and out of the saucer, and sends it airborne for a fraction of a second until it comes down onto the playfield and into one of the pop bumpers. It seems that Trident was particularly prone to damage at the top of the playfield near the kick-out saucer. Older solid state games always have some level of damage to the playfield artwork, just by virtue of the number of plays they have had. Playfield teardown is relatively simple as long as you take photos to remember where everything goes. Like most classic Stern games, Trident is simple machine with a single-level playing field, no ramps, and no weird playfield mechanisms.

I decided to give the machine a clean first and do a couple of cosmetic repairs before getting into the nitty-gritty of the electrical repairs. This would be where most of the work was involved. There was a lot of electrical work to be done on this game as the wiring had been hacked up in various spots.

At least I won't have to worry about replacing any! However, there was an ugly side. I haven't seen plastics on a game this old in this kind of shape before. They almost looked brand new and were bright white on the edges. The playfield was a little dirty with some inserts cupped and some damage to the playfield near the saucer, but the cabinet was still nice and sturdy and the plastics were in fantastic shape. Apart from the apparent burned out coil, the game was actually in very good cosmetic condition.

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