OT: Sort of... LOOK WHAT I JUST BROUGHT HOME!

[electricprune]

This thread bums me out. It makes me miss my original Black Knight machine. In my opinion, ther greatest pinball game ever!

 

"Will you challenge the Black Knight again?"

 

They had a nice Black Knight there for a great price. $1000

The last Black Knight I saw sell was about a year ago at an auction my wife and I attended and it sold for $2500

 

 

 

Wow, I paid $500 for mine in '94 or '95.

[thehumantorch]

The convention was definitely a lot of fun. Free play was set on all the machines. Although cool, there's no way I'd buy a mechanical machine simply because they weight a ton and I don't know anything about fixing them.

 

Eight Ball was the first fully digital machine and was the highest produced. That was the last one my parents kept before finally selling it also. In pinball "speak" the referencing mechanical versus digitial means that instead of circuit boards and digitial LEDs everything was done with mechanisms. Scoring on mechanical machines is like a car odometer where each number clicks around. Usually the body of a mechanical machine is FULL of mechanisms whereas digital machines are just circuit boards and are relatively light.

 

 

My favorite pinball machine from my youth was Nipit. It was the game that the Fonz played on Happy Days and the first multiball game I ever met. How difficult is it to maintain a pinball machine? Is it reasonable to buy one and keep it running without a degree in pinball management?

[The Troll King]

The convention was definitely a lot of fun. Free play was set on all the machines. Although cool, there's no way I'd buy a mechanical machine simply because they weight a ton and I don't know anything about fixing them.

 

Eight Ball was the first fully digital machine and was the highest produced. That was the last one my parents kept before finally selling it also. In pinball "speak" the referencing mechanical versus digitial means that instead of circuit boards and digitial LEDs everything was done with mechanisms. Scoring on mechanical machines is like a car odometer where each number clicks around. Usually the body of a mechanical machine is FULL of mechanisms whereas digital machines are just circuit boards and are relatively light.

 

 

My favorite pinball machine from my youth was Nipit. It was the game that the Fonz played on Happy Days and the first multiball game I ever met. How difficult is it to maintain a pinball machine? Is it reasonable to buy one and keep it running without a degree in pinball management?

 

Older machines from the 50's-80's can be a little more difficult to maintain. If you find one that's in good shape (play field isn't all cracked, backglass looks good, and all the switches/mechanisms work) taking care of them is pretty easy.

 

It's a good idea to replace the rubbers and clean the machine. The best pinball cleaner/wax is called Mill Wax. Replacement parts (including rubbers and the wax can be found on http://www.marcospecialties.com/ )

Marco also has a nice complete LED replacement set for the score displays for under $200

If you can solder you can fix a pinball machine.

 

www.cointaker.com has really nice sets of LED bulbs you can use to replace the incandescent ones in the machine. I haven't converted my machines yet but I'm going to. I met these people yesterday and asked them how difficult it is to convert and to my surprise there's nothing to do but plug the LED bulbs in all the sockets. What's nice about this is not only to they require less power but they also don't burn as hot which helps protect the backglass and the plastics on the field from yellowing or discoloring.

 

Most machines from the major companies (Bally, Williams, Stern, Gottlieb, etc.) all used the same circuit boards from company to company so they are interchangeable and replacement boards are still made by small Mom and Pop companies. One of the better companies for boards (and actually better functioning designs) is www.rottendog.us

These folks carry board for just about any machine.

 

http://www.ipdb.org/ is also a great source for schematics and manuals for just about every machine ever made. I prefer owning originals when I can which usually can be found on eBay or from Marco.

 

The best suggestion I can give is don't settle for a machine as you'll eventually find what you're looking for at the price you want to pay.

 

Also I should add the machines from the 90's to present usually average about $3000-5000 with some rare underplayed examples selling for as much as $10,000. The bad thing is that these machines are a little more pricey but the good thing is that they rarely breakdown. When they do though it's best to actually hire someone to come out and fix it. Most people that fix machines travel and they charge very little to fix them. Another plus is that there are some really cool machines from the "modern" era. Elvira (2 machines) the Stern Playboy from 2002, Lord of the Rings, Spider-man, etc. They are definitely cool machines and many were sold directly for home use rather than arcade. I wouldn't mind having either of the Elvira games but they do seem a little too "slick" and "polished" almost like they aren't really pinballs.

 

There's an auction that my wife and I have attended that usually has several dozen pins available. I'd say 85% of them are modern games.

[thehumantorch]

The convention was definitely a lot of fun. Free play was set on all the machines. Although cool, there's no way I'd buy a mechanical machine simply because they weight a ton and I don't know anything about fixing them.

 

Eight Ball was the first fully digital machine and was the highest produced. That was the last one my parents kept before finally selling it also. In pinball "speak" the referencing mechanical versus digitial means that instead of circuit boards and digitial LEDs everything was done with mechanisms. Scoring on mechanical machines is like a car odometer where each number clicks around. Usually the body of a mechanical machine is FULL of mechanisms whereas digital machines are just circuit boards and are relatively light.

 

 

My favorite pinball machine from my youth was Nipit. It was the game that the Fonz played on Happy Days and the first multiball game I ever met. How difficult is it to maintain a pinball machine? Is it reasonable to buy one and keep it running without a degree in pinball management?

 

Older machines from the 50's-80's can be a little more difficult to maintain. If you find one that's in good shape (play field isn't all cracked, backglass looks good, and all the switches/mechanisms work) taking care of them is pretty easy.

 

It's a good idea to replace the rubbers and clean the machine. The best pinball cleaner/wax is called Mill Wax. Replacement parts (including rubbers and the wax can be found on http://www.marcospecialties.com/ )

Marco also has a nice complete LED replacement set for the score displays for under $200

If you can solder you can fix a pinball machine.

 

www.cointaker.com has really nice sets of LED bulbs you can use to replace the incandescent ones in the machine. I haven't converted my machines yet but I'm going to. I met these people yesterday and asked them how difficult it is to convert and to my surprise there's nothing to do but plug the LED bulbs in all the sockets. What's nice about this is not only to they require less power but they also don't burn as hot which helps protect the backglass and the plastics on the field from yellowing or discoloring.

 

Most machines from the major companies (Bally, Williams, Stern, Gottlieb, etc.) all used the same circuit boards from company to company so they are interchangeable and replacement boards are still made by small Mom and Pop companies. One of the better companies for boards (and actually better functioning designs) is www.rottendog.us

These folks carry board for just about any machine.

 

http://www.ipdb.org/ is also a great source for schematics and manuals for just about every machine ever made. I prefer owning originals when I can which usually can be found on eBay or from Marco.

 

The best suggestion I can give is don't settle for a machine as you'll eventually find what you're looking for at the price you want to pay.

 

Also I should add the machines from the 90's to present usually average about $3000-5000 with some rare underplayed examples selling for as much as $10,000. The bad thing is that these machines are a little more pricey but the good thing is that they rarely breakdown. When they do though it's best to actually hire someone to come out and fix it. Most people that fix machines travel and they charge very little to fix them. Another plus is that there are some really cool machines from the "modern" era. Elvira (2 machines) the Stern Playboy from 2002, Lord of the Rings, Spider-man, etc. They are definitely cool machines and many were sold directly for home use rather than arcade. I wouldn't mind having either of the Elvira games but they do seem a little too "slick" and "polished" almost like they aren't really pinballs.

 

There's an auction that my wife and I have attended that usually has several dozen pins available. I'd say 85% of them are modern games.

 

Thanks for the great info.

[Prince Namor]

Years ago when I had my comic shop in Southern Missouri I had a vendor bring in some game machines (split earnings 50/50) and one they brought in was an original KISS pinball.

I think they wanted $1500 for it.

As many quarters as I put in that thing on slow days, I should have just bought it!

Anyway I found some pics of the thing from some random sight...brings back memories:

 

[underthebigw]

 

Well, I've searched long and hard for this machine at a reasonable price and I finally brought it home tonight.

 

I went to a pinball convention today and bought it there.

 

There's a story behind this machine. When I was a teenager we had 15 pinball machines that I took care of, rebuilt, repaired, repainted, etc. and this machine was one of them.

 

My mom got sick of all of the machines in the house and my parents decided to give away 6 of the machines to my Aunt and Uncle who have a foster home. Seeing as how my Aunt and Uncle aren't mechanically or technically inclinded my parents had to give them the machines that were in the best working condition!

 

Meaning... the machines that I had spend the most time on repairing and cleaning!

This was one of those machines. Not only were production numbers on this machine fairly low but my begging only caused my parents to conclude that I was just being a perverted teenager. The machine is once again mine.

 

 

and this is comic related, sort of... Little Annie Fannie is hidden on there.

 

Don, I am insanely jealous. This, Mata Hari, and Bobby Orr's Power Play are my favorite machines from the late 70's. The Elton John machine is pretty high on my list. I always thought I'd have a couple of these by this point in life, and have come close a number of times. Closest I came was on a sweet Fun House, perhaps my all time favorite machine.

 

By the way, that's a tremendous price. It sounds like you can do a lot of the work yourself, so you are all set.

 

Paul, Power Play was one of my favorite games that we had when I was younger. That one went to my Aunt and Uncle also.

 

They did not have one at the convention but they did have these:

 

 

 

The Mata Hari looks somewhat beat, but the Capt. Fantastic looks great, especially the board.

 

True story--when I was a punk teenager, the bowling alley we went to had all of the machines I mentioned. If you simultaneously touched the Power Play and one of the vending machines, you would get a shot of juice that wasn't quite excruciating. Clearly, something wasn't grounded. This was a source of constant amusement for about 4 years.

 

Looks like prices are much cheaper in TX. Prices up here are insane, and no better at the Allentown, PA annual show.

[namisgr]

Eight Ball is a classic, but my alltime favorite is Cyclone.

 

 

[AGGIEZ]

Awesome Cyclone! I see Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Billy Idol...who else?

[Senormac]

That Cyclone game looks cool. Fireball had this spinning rubber disc in the middle that would send your ball in a crazy direction.

 

 

 

[Subliminal]

Mata Hari was one of my favourites. I religiously played the Star Trek machine too