This post will be my home for all things related to my Medieval Madness adventures in 2018 and 2019. It will include a running log of restoration & mods, repairs & more.
August 20, 2018
Lots of new pinball out there.. A steady stream of interesting-looking titles from Stern, the PPS Chicago Gaming remakes and others are the grease the move the wheels of collection turnover. A good time to buy pinball and sometimes a good opportunity to pick up classics that have been on the want-list for awhile.
I started the year with a pretty clear mindset in regards to the hobby and my intended acquisitions: Out With the New, in With Old. Coming off a disappointing ownership experience with JJP and having witnessed a friend having an even-worse ownership experience with a WOZ and battling Stern Spike Node-board failures on my Ghostbusters Pin, I decided it was time to take a break from modern pinball and pursue some 90's Bally and Williams classics.
Last year around this time it was Attack from Mars. This year, it is Medieval Madness!
Medieval Madness has been on my radar for a couple of years. But, my sleep number (the number of Pinball machines I can reasonably maintain at one time) is still 6. In order to buy Medieval Madness something had to find a new home. Both for space and because of the big hobby spend..
It all worked out that in one weekend Star Wars found a good home and the Medieval Madness transaction went through.
Archived photos from Pinside listing:
https://images.eyedyllic.com/Hobbies/Medieval-Madness-Pinside/n-3djLCC/
Shipping / Delivery
Medieval Madness was located in the Tampa area. I needed to get Star Wars to its new owner and Medieval Madness from Florida.
Plane ticket = $200
Rental truck from Tampa, with mileage = $500
Typical pinball mover dude = $275
STI - Not allowed on my premises anymore.
UShip - $800 avg quote
Roadie - $500, open pick up truck move with a tarp. No thanks.
RLCarriers - Retail $1600 on a pallet
Seller not willing to take it to Fastenal ($175)
This looks like a job for..
An arcade mover dude! I posted to the book-of-faces and the village and the four corners of the tubes that make up the internet. Bob Cunningham wasn't going to be in the area. Greywolf not coming down the panhandle anytime soon. Pinballs on the Move, no answer...
Mover Dude
The pinball move stuff stresses me out but the game made it and I'm happy..
[Steve Irwin Voice]: Hear we have medieval madness in its natural home…
..and here we have it on initial set up in its new home in our walk-out basement..
Survey of Initial Condition
Overall, I'm really pleased with the condition of the game.
ColorDMD included, LED OCD Controllers included, all things I typically do to games and reduce my shopping list burden on the receiving side.
The owner said it was a pinballbulbs.com kit and I found some of the color choices to be a bit much for my taste. A little too much UV and too much green on the castle. Green in the mote, full green strip under by the backboard support, green spots on the castle.
The Pinball Pro speaker upgrade was a nice touch, the sub almost feels like a shaker motor at times. Very nice touch and surprisingly good sound for a non-pinsound-based system.
Who Does Number Two Work For?
The Serial Number on the game is 53359100002. Production date 5/23/1997. According to IPDB, 4016 units were built with a production dated as June, 1997. Prototypes ran in March. Serial number 00002 with a 5/23/1997 mfg date. That makes this the second production Medieval Madness off of the line. (Probably) Inspected by.. you guessed it..
Number 2
Dialing it in
I added some warm tone LEDs back into the mix to reduce the UV saturation a bit and abandoned the green strip on the castle. I put in RGB changing LEDs on the castle spots and cleaned and waxed the playfield. Ordered what I needed from Titan to bring the rubber situation into my liking.
The scoop kick out beneath the left ramp (ejects into the orbit) has a tendency to shoot the ball into drain instead of returning to the left flipper. The joust / orbit however would return directly to the left flipper. The scoop appears to be kicking it out too hard and rolling down the inside of the joust orbit instead of against the rail itself.
After adjusting the scoop kickout tension bracket down a few mm, the gameplay feels a good bit more balanced.
Well, that's it for now. My last pinball purchase for awhile. I'll do some arcade-y things next, this fall and winter. Many incomplete projects over in that side of the hobby for me. :)
Addendum 7/7/2019
MIrror blade time!
PinballSideMirrors.com always seemed to me to be comparable quality with PDI Mirror Blades but at a slightly better price. Lately though Pinball Side Mirrors site hasn’t been rendering fully in most of my browsing attempts. As it turns out, Cointaker now owns PinballSideMirrors and they’ve rolled those products into their main catalog: https://cointaker.com/t/side-mirrow
You ever notice how immediately after upgrading a game, they have a tendency to set you up for a good game or two? As if to say “thanks!” it tee’d me up with an early Trolls! that led into a fully stacked multi-ball madness.