Pinball machine owners list

[shutyertrap]

Shaneus - Great find! I think High Speed is a perfect first table, as it's not too mechanically complicated for a newbie to work on, the parts are readily available, and it's a great playing machine to boot!

As far as raised inserts and clear coating, I can't recommend enough this thread over on pinside...

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration

Vid has been guiding me through my own restoration on Firepower where I have already dealt with inserts and am about to do clear coat myself. It's daunting to say the least, but completely doable. As you depopulate the play field, and having read that thread, you'll soon be wanting to rebuild pop bumpers and flippers. Fortunately he's got guides on how to do those too!

Good luck, and enjoy.

 

[Mayuh]

And Oops again:

Update:
StarGod
Taxi
Bride
Demolition Man
Vpin 3D

And.... FishTales little work on the power board (as usual the GI connectors are burned), but perfect playfield (diamond plated) but for way less than €1000, I had to get it.

Now with 5 real machines, also I have to admit, I AM definitely collecting pins

Ah, come on.... Yeah, again!

Ripley's!

Dirty as hell, optos not working (due to the dirt I suppose) but the playfield is great! Pictures follow as soon as it's clean...

Anyone in desperate need of Italian ROMs?

 

[Carl Spiby]

I have a HS2 on loan at the moment. Took the head off and playfield out to take it upstairs to my spare room, just about managed it between 2 of us (took 3 hours!), I then spent an hour plugging everything back in last night to be greeted with this gorgeous sight

 

[Kevlar]

Well done Carl.

 

[Mayuh]

Cleaned, repaired a few switches, cleaned and re-aligned the optos, neutralized the battery acid. Under the dirt, the playfield looks like brand new. Wood is a little dirty around the hole, but no wear unfortunately I killed the hex space that holds both ramps right next to the bozo hole I have to make a new one.

I'm glad I got my hands on this Ripley! It's very rare here in Central Europe...

Photos are here... https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A25yeZFhd6iPz

 

[Kevlar]

Looking good Mayuh, I love my RBION. The sound was messed up on mine when I got it but a replacement U21 sound rom fixed that. It's easily the favourite of my machines. Do you intend modding it in any way? Ive replaced all the GI with LEDs on mine but I've had horrible ghosting when trying to LED the inserts.

 

[goforthewall]

I own a Rollergames as well as a Revenge from Mars. Both have quite a few failing switches, so the gameplay is getting less fun(ctional). Since all switches are soldered on it's such a pain to replace them for me :-( (definitely some great American engineering ) That's why I LOVE the idea of the P3 Pinball (http://www.multimorphic.com/). Such a great idea from an engineering standpoint. (Who ever engineered the way flipper fingers are fastened?? It's so stupid and counter-intuitive!) I really hope Gerry's ideas catch on. It's got a lot of potential that many people seem to ignore...

 

[Mayuh]

Looking good Mayuh, I love my RBION. The sound was messed up on mine when I got it but a replacement U21 sound rom fixed that. It's easily the favourite of my machines. Do you intend modding it in any way? Ive replaced all the GI with LEDs on mine but I've had horrible ghosting when trying to LED the inserts.

I don't like LEDs used in the GI. My eyes are extremely sensitive I only use LEDs where I don't have to look directly... But yeah, I added red led flashers already at the idol and vari target, which were left overs from my demo man modding session (https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A25qXGF1gHg6x). Maybe I use some slow color changers for the continent inserts. I wouldn't dare to use LEDs in the tictactoe area, as it'll flicker as hell even with those real good optiflux ones from camper. Same was with my Taxi. I just couldn't stand the LEDs in the middle. I love the colored flashers though

 

[Shaneus]

Congrats on getting a iconic and fantastic machine, Shaneus. I hope you two will have many quality fun hours together.

We already have! There are a few little things I keep noticing that a newbie pin owner wouldn't think to look for, so much so that I'd almost considered starting a thread on Pinside for things that a newbie should look out for that are rarely mentioned. In my particular case, the first thing that comes to mind is the foam behind the targets, or having targets that are too "springy"/forward and how they can cause airballs. Far more caused by that on the table than what I thought was the original culprit, the raised inserts.

But it constantly surprises me how I can just blow hours playing the one game over and over again. It's not even a "deep" game, either!

Shaneus - Great find! I think High Speed is a perfect first table, as it's not too mechanically complicated for a newbie to work on, the parts are readily available, and it's a great playing machine to boot!

As far as raised inserts and clear coating, I can't recommend enough this thread over on pinside...

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration

Vid has been guiding me through my own restoration on Firepower where I have already dealt with inserts and am about to do clear coat myself. It's daunting to say the least, but completely doable. As you depopulate the play field, and having read that thread, you'll soon be wanting to rebuild pop bumpers and flippers. Fortunately he's got guides on how to do those too!

Good luck, and enjoy.

Fantastic, thanks for the link! I'm already somewhat familiar with vid's threads, one being about rebuilding flippers (and upgrading System 11 old-style ones to newer Fliptronics) but I don't think I ever came across one regarding playfield restoration.

And yeah, you're very right about the machine itself... I don't think it could get more basic in terms of layout or features (the most complicated thing is the topper, which I managed to hack a light onto anyway) and as I go I keep finding things that I thought would've been difficult to fix but are actually easy (case in point: replacing globes, tweaking switches, a stuck solenoid).

On that note, it's been such an odd journey of discovery. First stop was the system menu for free play, then working out how to remove the lock bar, THEN lifting the playfield... all stuff that's incredibly basic that one never thinks of (or even has to) until they own one themselves.

As much as I've been advised by my friend (who owns ~30 machines himself) that my first is going to be just a beater for fun and that's it, I think I really want to take care of this thing and have it running best I can. There's a guy down my way who restores pins (even redid a T2 that caught the eye of Steve Ritchie!) and I'm going to get a price on how much he could restore the playfield for, too. It's still in really good condition considering it's original, but I want it perfect.

Ugh, too many words. Apologies for the delay in the reply, too... it's been a while since I last checked this thread!

And with the cheapo topper replacement:

~$5 24VAC->12VDC converter from eBay
~$19 emergency light from DealExtreme

 

[ER777]

Ok, add me to the list as well. I kind of dove in head first and bought 3 games all at once yesterday. All 3 are good players condition games, with some blemishes on the cabinets and some fading but the playfields are in good shape and everything works correctly. I got them as a package deal for $4500, not bad at all.

No Fear
HS2: Getaway
Baywatch

Right now they're relegated to living in my garage because I couldn't get them up the front steps by myself. I had this old iron rental dolly that came with the van which weighed about 75 pounds itself and adding that to the weight of the game itself I just couldn't pull it up the steps. I'll have to get a better dolly and a second set of hands to get them inside.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

congrats! Id recommend a strap doly like for appliances.

 

[ER777]

Yeah, I'm looking at appliance dollies and just trying to decide how much I want to spend. I'd like one with the larger wheels and decent stair climber rails, they can get pricey though. I already spent a bunch on an ATV jack and a pin-lifter kit for it (which was a lifesaver).

 

[SpiffyRob]

Congrats and welcome to the club! Three great pins to keep you busy. Wouldn't be surprised at all if Baywatch becomes your favorite of the three. People who haven't played it have no idea what a deep game lies beneath that theme.

And yeah, seconding a proper appliance dolly and a strong second set of hands. My Royal Rumble is a widebody, and I'm not the strongest guy, but with a good appliance dolly and a partner, getting it up two flights of stairs was strenuous but manageable.

 

[karl]

Congrats ER777! Get ready for an excellent winter. Great titles. Never played Baywatch but I have heard that it is a lot better than the theme would dictate.

I was supposed to get AC/DC premium this month but circumstances was against me. Something good came out of it though. I got a Black Spider-Man instead and I am really enjoying it... A lot

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

ER can you rent a dolly? also if you make square frame from 2"x4" wood you can use that as a prop to get the back legs on, its cheaper than a ATV stand...refund!

 

[ER777]

Congrats and welcome to the club! Three great pins to keep you busy. Wouldn't be surprised at all if Baywatch becomes your favorite of the three. People who haven't played it have no idea what a deep game lies beneath that theme.

And yeah, seconding a proper appliance dolly and a strong second set of hands. My Royal Rumble is a widebody, and I'm not the strongest guy, but with a good appliance dolly and a partner, getting it up two flights of stairs was strenuous but manageable.

Thanks, it felt pretty cool to actually fill in something in the "my collection" section on Pinside. Yeah, I heard a lot of good things about Baywatch so it seemed like a good deal. Unfortunately I knocked something loose while fixing a playfield issue yesterday and now the coils won't fire.. the joys of ownership lol. I'll get it figured out soon enough though.

Man.. 2 flights, I'm glad I don't have near that many to deal with, just a few steps up to the front door.

Congrats ER777! Get ready for an excellent winter. Great titles. Never played Baywatch but I have heard that it is a lot better than the theme would dictate.

I was supposed to get AC/DC premium this month but circumstances was against me. Something good came out of it though. I got a Black Spider-Man instead and I am really enjoying it... A lot

Thank you! Man, someday I wish to be able to start getting A-list titles like those. I played Black Spider-Man a couple times at the home of the guy I bought the lifter kit from and it was sweet. I need to start off small for now though.. maybe a NIB in 2015 or so.. <**cough Hobbit cough**>

ER can you rent a dolly? also if you make square frame from 2"x4" wood you can use that as a prop to get the back legs on, its cheaper than a ATV stand...refund!

I might be able to rent a dolly, I hadn't really thought about that. I think I'd like to just have one though, just so I'd be ready to move pins in and out at any time (it could be useful for other stuff too I guess). I figure if I just bite the bullet and get all the gear now then I'm ready to build a bigger collection. I may get a classic arcade machine or two as well. A good multi-meter is next on the shopping list lol.. maybe a soldering iron after that.

I did consider a wood frame box instead of the pin-lifter but the guy that sells them is local and a great collector. He hosts tournaments at his house and stuff. So I figured I was not only getting a good device (got the tilter add-on too) but making a good contact in the process. He has an amazing collection and was a really nice guy so it was definitely worth-while.

 

[neglectoid]

you got a killer deal! i love no fear! get that puppy up and running.

 

[ER777]

No Fear is set up and I've been playing it a ton. It really is a great game. Shooting the jump ramp repeatedly is way more fun than I expected.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

I have an interesting encounter with NF...I played it in jail! We rigged a paper clipp to grab the upper left loop wireframe through the playfield glass trim....#1 score was CON

 

[ER777]

I'm not even going to ask.. lol