The Annoying Thing (Arcade Game)

The Annoying Thing is an officially licensed The Annoying Thing-themed Whac-a-Mole-style arcade game distributed by Coastal Amusements and manufactured by Feioli Electronic Co. The arcade machines were manufactured around 2006. The chassis and design of the cabinet appears to be based on a generic "Cats N' Mice" hammer game by Feioli.

Description

The cabinet is approximately 45" long by 32" deep by 60" high, weighing 265 lbs. It is mostly orange, with renders of Crazy Frog and the Drones featured on all sides. Anywhere where the cabinet says "The Annoying Thing," it also says "AKA Crazy Frog." During gameplay, yellow, red and blue lights flash on either side of the cabinet's top section. On the top are two speakers which play sound effects and music. Six Crazy Frog-shaped targets come out of the holes on the top of the cabinet, and can rotate to show a Drone painted on the other side.

What appears to be a picture of an early version of the cabinet features the background from Axel F on the score board, and more renders of Crazy Frog appearing on the front of the cabinet. No other pictures of the cabinet have this design, which suggests it is an early version. The same page mentions that one can "link up to 8 games for group play," but this is not actually a feature on the final cabinet.

Gameplay

There are six targets which can rotate while down and inside its hole. The front of each target is shaped like Crazy Frog, with the back having a painted-on Drone. The player must whack the target when Crazy Frog is facing them to gain two points. If a player hits a Drone, two points are added to the "points deducted" score. Additionally, if a Crazy Frog isn't hit after a certain period of time, a "ding ding" sound is played, and one point is added to the "deducted" score. As the game is played, a short clip of Axel F is played from the speakers.

At the end of the game, the deducted points are subtracted from the points earned, and if the player has enough points, a voice says "Go on! You can make it!" and the player can move on to a "second level." This second level is like a short bonus level where the targets move faster and the music plays faster. At the end of this bonus level, the final score is calculated, and the player is given a "grade" of diamonds, which determines how many tickets they will receive.

Technical Details

Each target is actuated by a solenoid which raises them from their pocket. A sensor below the target detects whether it is raised or lowered. If a target is supposed to be raised, then gets lowered (by the player hitting it), the player is either rewarded or loses points depending on if Crazy Frog or the Drone is facing them. The rotation of the target is handled by a DC motor attached to the target by pulleys, and the rotation is determined based on two micro switches on either side of the target, with one being pressed depending on which side is facing out.

The game will still function as normal if there are targets that are broken. The operator's manual states that a switch is added in the coils to "prevent it from overheating and burning out." Targets that can't detect if they are raised or lowered will "pretend" to work, but actually hitting them neither scores nor subtracts points. The manual also adds that during the game, if a head is pressed or pulled on, it will still function.

The operator of the cabinet may adjust various settings on the cabinet by adjusting DIP switches. These DIP switch settings include:

Amount of coins required to start the game (from 1 to 4 coins)
Length of the game (from 20 to 50 seconds)
The score required to unlock the bonus second level (30 to 60 points or no bonus level)
- The length of the second level (10 to 20 seconds)
The difficulty of the game (easy or difficult)
The length of music played before the game starts (short or long)
If tickets should be rewarded or not
- The number of tickets given per number of points earned (2pt/ticket up to 20pt/ticket)
- A number of "consolation tickets" given for playing (tickets given regardless of points earned) (0 to 12 tickets)
- Maximum ticket payout (16 to 20 tickets, or no limit)

Another setting the operator can set is the volume of the speakers, controller by a potentiometer on the speaker amplifier board above the main PCB.

Unless ticket payouts are disabled, the machine will not operate if there are no tickets in the dispenser, displaying error code "10" when booted up.

Locked behind the coin selectors are two buttons, "free play" and "test." The free play button bypasses the coin selectors and starts the game as if the player paid. The test button starts a sequence where the machine tests each of the six targets to ensure they rotate, raise, and detect hits properly. If one fails the test, an error code is flashed on the scoreboard until the machine is rebooted in the form of "X-Y"; X is the head number (from 1 to 6, starting from bottom left going counterclockwise) and Y is a number from 1 to 3:

X-1: "GO UP SENSOR ABNORMAL" - the sensor that detects if a head is raised or lower isn't functioning properly.
- Either the coil is broken and the head won't raise at all, or if it does raise, then hits will not be detected from this head.
X-2: "ROBOT SWITCH ABNORMAL" - the switch that detects if the target is rotated to show the robot isn't functioning properly.
- Either the rotation motor is broken or the switch is broken.
X-3: "FROG SWITCH ABNORMAL" - same as 2 but for the other side.

All parts are operator replaceable, and a parts list is included in the operator's manual. Coastal or Feiloli may offer replacement parts to operators.

Operator's Manual

A PDF scan of the operator's manual can be found here.

A diagram of the target assemblies.
- A brief description of how they work
A diagram of the coin counters and coin selectors
DIP switch settings tables
Troubleshooting guides for test mode and start-up error codes
Diagrams of the PCBs and fuses
Spare parts list
Head numbers
Instructions on how to remove top panel
Instructions on how to assemble the hammer
Exploded diagram of the whole cabinet
Parts list with quantities

MeloNinja's Cabinet

December 8, 2021

This section will be written from my point of view, and I'll update it as time goes on. I bought this cabinet on December 2, 2021 on eBay for $200. Considering how much of a good deal it was, and how close it was to home (only an hour and 20 minutes' drive) I bought it almost immediately. I picked it up in Pennsylvania on December 4, 2021. The owner had done pop-up carnivals and had many other arcade equipment as well. However, he died two years ago, so his arcade cabinets and other equipment were being stored in a barn (where this machine sat for two years.) His son had to clean out the barn so started listing everything on eBay, and I just happened to be searching for Crazy Frog things on it at the right time.

Its serial number is F24T-0125 and was manufactured in November 2006 in Taiwan (where Feioli is based in).

Testing the cabinet for the first time, I noticed several problems. It was filthy, given that it was sitting in a barn for two years, but I cleaned it up best I could. The decals are in pristine condition, I'm super happy with how nice this cabinet looks. I did find that the even-numbered heads all did not detect hits, while the odd-numbered ones did. I believed this to be something wrong in common with all three heads, like a wire connecting the three gone bad. This would cause the test mode to fail with code 2-1. I emailed Coastal Amusements' service email, and was told I needed to get replacement sensors. At the time of writing this, I never got a follow-up from the person in the parts department (who was CC'd on the email.)

I created a short YouTube video showing off the cabinet (embedded on the right.)

A few days later, one of my friends who helped me carry it into the room it is currently in (this was a four-man effort, this cabinet is heavy!) accidentally turned the cabinet off and on again too quickly. I was careful to let the cabinet fully power down before turning it on again, but my friend made a fatal mistake which I can't blame him for. After this, the cabinet would not boot properly anymore, and on the off chance it did, the audio would start to crackle until it eventually stopped responding.

Thinking this was a problem with the power supply, I decided to try to test voltages with a multi-meter. However, this was again another fatal mistake, as I accidentally must have touched a live AC terminal to ground or somewhere else it shouldn't have been, causing a giant spark to fly from the power supply. Currently, not only will the machine not boot, but there is no power to the lights either. Long story short, I killed it by being stupid.

I will have to see about getting some replacement parts for it then. I'll need those three hit detection sensors, and probably two new power supplies and an anti-interference board. Hopefully, those were the only things I killed, and I didn't kill the motherboard. If I did, it would suck, but all is not lost. The rest of the components are in working order, so I would have to reverse-engineer everything, and could probably program a Raspberry Pi to work as the brains. Hopefully, though, I will be able to find replacement parts through Coastal or Feiloli.

January 21, 2022

I actually did not kill the cabinet thankfully. Turns out, it was a 10 amp fuse that blew on the power socket when shorting live AC to ground. I don't know if spending an extra $180 on a new power supply and anti-interference board was necessary. I ended up replacing both anyway. I also realized that the crackling and dying problem was because of a stupid mistake I had made with the anti-interference board. There are three power sockets on it, but I did not realize that two of them (which the two power supplies were plugged into) was set to turn on with a delay, while the last one turned on instantly. What I must have done was plug one of the power supplies into the instant turn-on socket, and the rest of the lights turn on with the delay along with the second power supply. Luckily, nothing broke.

The cabinet sat for a good while, but I finally got around to replacing the three broken head sensors, and now all six heads detect hits. The game feels much more complete now. That being said, there's still a few issues. Some of the heads don't turn properly, due to a few reasons. Some heads are just gunked up with crap, so the bearings are sticky and won't move. Some of the pulleys got grease on them so they slide and don't turn the heads too. Lastly, at least one rotation motor (on head 4) is completely dead. I'll have to do some testing on that. Also, head 6 thinks I hit a drone when I hit Crazy Frog, so its wires might be backwards.

I made an update video showing the game working fully.

Gallery

Front of each target, broken off of another machine.
Back of each target, with a Drone painted on.
The full arcade cabinet.
The score board. Eight different diamond "grades" depending on how well you do. Unsure what the time increments are.
Top of the machine. Six targets to hit.
"How to play" in three easy steps!
Left side of the cabinet.
Right side's the same as the left.
Front of the cabinet. Here's The Holiday Thing and Boss Drone!
Behind the coin selectors is the coin collector box. Note the instructions how to clean under the frog heads. Looks like they whited out "mole" and replaced it with "frog."
Inside the ticket dispenser. I don't have any tickets (yet).
Back of the machine (with covers removed).
Power port, serial number, and date of manufacture.
Peeking inside from the back!
Motherboard PCB. Designed by Feiloli. Interestingly, has a date of May 29, 2001. Looks like this board can be swapped between other Whac-a-Mole style games, with the "FROG" ROM chips being placed in.
LED driver board (right) and speaker amplifier board (left).
Two power supplies. Left (main) supply outputs 5V and 12V, powering the main board, audio and solenoids. Right supply outputs 12V, powering the scoreboards and rotation motors.
Inside the cabinet with the top removed. Clear view of the internals and rat's nest of wires.
Each of the parts of the target assembly.