Southern Fried Gameroom Expo 2016

This summer I was happy to get to attend Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta with my family and along with fellow arcade and pin collecting friends.  These events are always better if you can share them! 

The SFGE folks put on another great show.  It is impressive considering this is only their (3rd?) year of doing this show  - just how well it all comes together.  In fact, this year the show moved to a new venue to accommodate the growth / popularity of the event.  

In 2016, the event was hosted at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta.

My family appreciated the new venue.   Spacious rooms and clean rooms, friendly staff and roomy venue area, all walking distance to a nearby mall via a sky-bridge with good eats and shopping.

Miles staging his Mario toys out, getting ready of a day of gaming fun.

Who doesn't like a glass elevator, except for maybe Wreck-It Ralph? Jena approved, though.

Opening day, a respectable line waiting for the doors to open.

The event coordinators handled the morning /day one rush and constant comings-and-goings with professionalism and efficiency.  An organized, well-oiled machine.    Speaking of machines, the repair volunteers did a great job of keeping games going throughout the weekend.

Tournament Play

There were some real proud-dad moments watching Jena play in her first ranked tournament match.  In fact, maybe I should have spent less time being proud and more time playing better; she qualified ahead of me in standings :)

JJP

Being a JJP loyalist / I would start off with JJP, right? JJP and Flip-n-Out pinball brought two Hobbits, a WOZ and a MMR.

Whenever I look at Hobbit, I'm struck with just how awesome the game looks.  It is gorgeous and it exudes quality in person.   I have complex opinions regarding this pin.  On one hand, I think it looks great / sounds great and it was quite fun to play.    On the other hand, I'm not really into Tolkien stuff, I'm not a LOTR or Hobbit fan.   I guess maybe a symptom of my rampant ADD, I've never been able to sit through the books or the movies enough to really care what's going on.

In fairness, my complex opinions towards this pin might be colored by a largely disappointing pre-order experience with a particular JJP Distributor.

In the end, I think The Hobbit, is much like LOTR, at least to me.  Whenever I'd play LOTR in a setting full of noise and distraction, I really didn't get the love that people have for the game.   As I got to play a few good examples of the pin and go through the modes, learn the shots LOTR opened up for me. "AHA! I get it now, this is a really fun pin."   

Same goes for Hobbit.  I don't think a show is the best environment to really experience what Hobbit has going for it.   You really need to hear it, see it and feel the shots as you go through mode progression to fully appreciate the game.   Hobbit is a great second game from JJP.    WOZ was a hard act to follow.   Is The Hobbit better than WOZ?   As a matter of opinion, I don't think it is.  But WOZ might also be among the best games ever made..  

Jack's presentation covered his storied history in the industry, a Q&A format with a follow-on slide deck of some of the awesome things going on at JJP.   They continue to build Hobbits, will be building more WOZ 75th games and are staging for their next title.  From the sounds of it, the next title will scuttle the preorder-payment model and follow a more concise announce / reveal, sell and ship schedule similar to Stern.     

If you've never met Jack in person, you should endeavor to make it to a show and get some face time with him.   He's a super-sharp guy and his influence has raised the bar for pinball in quality, innovation (and price..)  Jack is good people.

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters, the hype is real.     In my short time in this hobby, I haven't seen anything in the pin community like the response to this pin.    This show was the first change for many folks to get their first plays in one of several Ghostbusters games brought to the show by Marco Specialities.

Want to check out Ghostbusters LE? That's it in the center of the frame and this is the line to get to it.

The Ghostbusters pins at the show had a line behind them, constantly.    I would love to have gotten their play counts, though the SM VE next to it got around 500 plays for the weekend.   (Not as much as I would have expected)

My impressions?   Ghostbusters if fun, fast and challenging.  Ball times are generally short, less than 1/3 of folks appeared to start Storage Facility Multiball.  I noticed two people get Mass Hysteria, in the full weekend.   The artwork is.., well art.  Gorgeous.   Nearly TOTAN-level of gorgeous in my humble opinion.   

I couldn't hear the sound very well during the show but I recently found a GB in the wild at a Movie theater and got to enjoy the full sound experience - it sounded great.   I can see, though that some of the callouts and sounds might end up being repetitive after a lot of play.   

The pro and the LE played differently.  I think the pro was a little harder, though the LE was plenty difficult.  I *really* liked the magnetic slings in the LE.  They often worked like regular slings but when they didn't - it was cool. Something fresh, something different.   Apparently Marco set them to "Very Active" in game settings.

The LE/ Slimer Mech did experience some problems a few times during the show.  At some point they had to disable him entirely.  As far as I could tell, the pros experienced no problems.   Negative Reinforcement was spelled wrong on the pro. :)

I did get to put my initials on one of the games, though I'm sure I didn't hold GC for the weekend.

At one point, there was a Ghostbusters 1-Ball tournament.  I was proud of Jena for stepping up for some tournament action, this trip.   The the video below, the GB Pro I was playing was super-tilty, or maybe the sun was in my eyes?  Playing up-hill in the snow.... :)

I spent much of my pinball time at this show running back and fourth between Hobbit and Ghostbusters.   I liked them both but for different reasons.  

Which one comes home with me? For now, Ghostbusters.  I love the theme, the art is cool and it fills a play / gameplay style hole in my pin lineup.    

All in all, Stern has a smash-hit in Ghostbusters.  Now they just have to catch up with demand.  I expect they will be making this game for years.    Looking forward to my Premium in a few weeks.

WNBJM

What can I say about Whoa Nelly Big Juicy Melons?  I was surprised how much fun I had playing this title.  I don't think I'll ever buy one but I did really enjoy it.

...and at the end of the day, who doesn't like Big Juicy Melons?  It is summer after all..

Marco had an excellent showing at this event. Really appreciate the new titles they brought out for us to play!

Getting Our Game On

I tried to balance my time between pins an arcades because I really love both.   While most of the pinball tables constantly had lines, the arcades were quite accessible.

I would like to have one of these! Love these setups

I had to double check which finger was up when he waved at me.. Very movie accurate. :)

As always, a pleasure to meet a member of the 501st!

SFGE this year was a blast.  The weekend went by really too quickly.  As, I came home and flipped the lights on in the game room it was a bitter-sweet moment; a mixture appreciation for the fun games I have but sorry the fun weekend of arcade festivities was over.  

All the more reason to go back next year! 

Buying (and selling..) Pinball Machines

Buying a Pinball machine.  The act of researching, watching, finding and buying can be quite fun. The hunt is often more satisfying than the catch, in human nature.   It can also be daunting.

In the last 6 months I've had a mixed bag of experiences cycling out games from my game room. The experiences range from misleading sales tactics and downright nearly scam-like behavior on one end, to super smooth transactions with exceeded expectations on the other.    
I've been asked about this and so I wanted to write up some quick information to hopefully aide in your pinball-buying experiences.

Buying New

When buying a New in Box (NIB) game, you have a few options.  Buy from a retail establishment, buy from a distributor or buy from the manufacturer.

When buying from a Retail establishment, if local to you - you get the benefit of playing the game on site before taking it home.  If you live close, this may also extend opportunities for machine service over the life of the game that could be helpful / crucial - depending on how comfortable you are in tinkering with electronics.   Pinball machines break.   When they do, having a local option retail store to call for parts and service is a nice feature.

That said, not everyone has the benefit of a local retail establishment.

In these cases, buyers typically deal with Distributors.   Sometimes distributors might have retail storefronts but often times they do not.  On forums, people generally refer to 'their distributors' in ways similar to the way a person would refer to drug dealers and there are definitely some similarities. Often times distributor sales are 'loose' / gentlemanly agreements, struck by phone, private message, IM, email, text or in person at a show.

"Hey man. you got the stuff?" - "Yeah man, I got what you need. - $5500 for the pro model and it is TIGHT!"

You typically won't get a tremendous amount of technical support from a distributor but they will usually have the appropriate contacts with the manufacturer to get you in front of the right people, relative to your problem.

The pinball buyer - distributor relationship is an oddly passionate one.   Everyone tends to believe their distributor is the best.   That loyalty is often paid in discounts for future purchases.  Buying from distributors is usually slightly less expensive than buying from retail. Average retail pricing for a Stern Pro model is $5500, where through a distributor it might $5200.  Premiums are running $7100 retail and $6700 through distributors, etc.  Pricing varies by game, by popularity of title, by model and by your distributor relationship.

In some cases, you will buy a NIB game directly from the manufacturer, especially in cases of preorders.  JJP (to date, anyway), Heighway, Dutch Pinball are good examples of this.  In these scenarios you will usually pay a deposit down on a game and be given a pay-schedule in which the game will need to be paid-in-full in time to ship.  Benefits of this buying method are that you could potentially save about $1,000 or more from the typical street pricing if you get in early and you may get your game before most retail buyers.   That said, you are also providing an interest-free loan of sorts to the manufacturer and often production and shipping estimates are the stuff of magic versus science.  

Distributors are basically in the same boat.  They will generally buy a bulk allotment of games from the manufacturer with a deposit and payment schedule and then begin marketing their allotments to the community through shows, events, social media, psy-ops and whatever other means that are deemed affective to separate you from your money.

The price you would pay directly from the manufacturer, versus buying from a distributor are usually congruent.    The distributors may have some wiggle-room but they aren't making a killing on games. Estimates are a couple hundred dollars per unit for their investment - which when you think about it - isn't a lot.

Distributors are an interesting bunch.  There are some distributors with Hatfield / McCoy hate relationships with other distributors and there are others that are just passionate folks that love Pinball and enjoy the hobby and thus coexist peacefully with their distributor brethren. 

Here are some distributors I've encountered.  Shop around and go with the distributor you feel comfortable with.  The user-drug dealer relationship is a tenuous one. :)

Trent @ Tilt Amusements - www.tiltamusements.com
Michael @ Automated Services - www.pinballs.com
Melissa @ Cointaker - www.cointaker.com
Terry @ PinballLife - www.pinballlife.com
Jason @ ClassicGameRooms - www.classicgamerooms.com
Jack or Jen @ Jersey Jack Pinball - www.jerseyjackpinball.com
Pinsider: Doughslingers - www.pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/doughslingers 
JJ @ GameExchange - jjb@gameexchangeofcolorado.com
Joe @ PinballSTAR - www.pinballstar.com

There are others as well but I have had specific interactions with this list of distributors.

When buying a game, ask specific questions that you need answered and be sure pay close attention to the answers. (Specifically, if they are actually answers or deferrals of the questions).    

I have encountered distributors that can be particularly misleading with optimistic-sounding non-answers to simple questions like, "When can I expect to receive my pin?"  One in particular reminds me of Bill Clinton.  Someone that everyone says is a great guy but is a master of dodgy non-answers with a smile.

"Did you have sexual relations with this woman?"
"Well, define sexual relations?"

Buying Used

Most people buy games used.   This is where most of us start out, unless you just have an unusually tall stack of cash to throw away.    Buying used, you usually find the games you are looking for from a number of common sources.

Craigslist
eBay
KLOV
Pinside
Mr. Pinball Classifieds
local forums, groups, clubs, etc.  
 (eg, gulfcoastpinball.com, gapas.net, the village, etc)
.. or used from shows, shops and retail

If you are buying your 1st pinball machine, the number one piece of advice I can give you is - find someone local in your area with more experience and bring them along.  An extra set of experienced eyes can help you to avoid a costly fixer-upper and those extra set of arms will come in handy loading and unloading your new toy in the event everything goes as expected.

It Just Needs a Fuse

There is a joke in this hobby (arcades and pins).  I saw this post recently: it was a pile of melted metal and broken glass on the floor with a for-sale ad, "Arcade Monitor, needs work: Probably just needs a fuse."

You'd be surprised how many of these are actually out there. People listing trashed out, ragged out games that do not work with assurances that "It just needs a fuse."   I fell victim to this a few years ago, buying a pinball machine.   "It just needs a $3 part."    $1200 game + $1600 in parts, I had myself a $2800 game worth at most $1400 to the typical pin buyer.  Oops.

This is where having an experienced local group of pinball enthusiasts come in handy.  Have someone come with you to look at games and be objective about the condition.

Buying Machines Remotely

If you are buying a machine from afar, get lots of pictures and video (lots!) in good light and bad light.  Have them take pictures of the boards in the backbox, of the playfield with power on and off, beneath the playfield, etc.    Look for honest sellers that are upfront about machine shortcomings.

Seek out honest answers with targeted questions like:

"I understand no game is perfect, if you were to keep this machine, what are the three things you would fix or change about it?"

"Tell me about the last repair, what broke, who fixed it and how long ago did this occur?"

"Take pictures of the worst aspects of the machine. The warts. Then, in a separate email, take and send pictures of your favorite (the best) parts of the machine."

Be sure to get pricing and move logistics out of the way and get all questions answered.    If you or the seller make assumptions, these assumptions can lead to unfulfilled expectations and a sour experience.

When paying for a remote-purchase, there is no fool-proof and 100% safeguard for your transaction.  I've used Paypal, wire transfer, bank check, personal check, square payments and cash for deals.  Coincidentally there are scams targeting Paypal, wire transfer, bank checks, personal checks, square payments AND cash.  

If you don't have a good feeling about the seller or buyer, just don't do the transaction.  There are plenty of pins out there 

Price Police

Here in 'murica, people are allowed to ask whatever they want for their belongings.   They aren't obligated to bend to the buyer's will or even base their prices in reality.   I can list a pack of gum for $1,000.  If someone buys it, it was a $1,000 pack of gum.  Most likely, no one will.   

All too often on the internet, for sale-sale posts and classifieds, people have the tendency to hijack for-sale posts with discussions about pricing.   Make no mistake, this is a shitty thing to do.. So, don't.  

If you are selling and get low-balled, respectfully decline the offer.   If you are buying and low-balling compared to the seller's price point, be polite and justify your pricing without insulting the seller or their pin.  

At the end of the day, if someone doesn't want to sell you their pin for what you are willing to pay, drop it.  Don't stalk them across the internet.  This community is too small and this asshole-ry will come back to haunt you.
 

There are only a few pinball millionaires

If you have dreams of buying pinball machines at a low price, fixing them up and selling them for a profit, I have bad news for you. 

It is not a sustainable business.

The only pinball millionaires today are making pinball machines or are major distributors with large retail frontage.   The fixer uppers / pin flip isn't going to return you windfall profits.  

Let's look at it:

If you bought a Williams Indiana Jones Pinball machine for $3500, which is about half market price for that game.
You "shop it" (deep cleaning) - costs you about $60 in supplies and 16-24 hours of labor
You "LED it" with new LED lights, costs you about $225 in supplies and 4 hours of labor
... then there are the real repairs.   
If nothing else is wrong, you got a pretty good deal.  You have around ~3800 and less than thirty hours invested.  But, pinball machines break and pinball machines that are for sale for a song are usually broken.   

Coils will cost about $6/each, Power boards, $350 for new, $225 to repair, Main boards, $450 for new or $225 for repair.  DMD's cost about $200, playfield glass about $65, playfield-specific parts can be $100-$400 depending on rarity of the title and parts availability.

So, you may have a $3800 game, worth $5500 but you also have about $1200 in risk sitting there.  Your potential profit was only $1700.   And your labor was free, if you did the work yourself...

So, even buying a game at a great price, you might make a little money on the sell but more often than not you won't make anything if you factor in your labor, parts and shipping on those parts.   ..and to reference our example to drive the point home - there are no $3800 Williams Indiana Jones games out there.  Even a Williams Indy in poor condition, sellers typically ask for the market average.

Which brings me to..

figuring out fair pricing

There are numerous sources for pinball and arcade pricing on the internet. Consider these to be more guide than gospel.

Pinside "Archive" / Pricing
PinballPrice.com
The Mr. Pinball Price Guide (book form)

For pricing, condition and title popularity tend to play the biggest role in pricing.
Stern produced 400 Tron LE's and amongst the pinball community the game was a smash hit.  It is common to see a Tron LE* sell for $9,000+

  *the feature matrix between an un-modded pro and an LE may have also contributed to Tron's value inflation.

Typically, a Stern DMD pin in good condition will sell for $3500-$5000, depending on the title and condition.   The most popular titles, Metallica, Star Trek, AC/DC, etc might sell for nearly $6,000 if they are nice examples with the right mods.

Williams / Bally DMD games will usually sell for $2,000-$4000, depending on condition.   A few titles are exceptions and will sell for $6,000-$9,000. (Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, TOTAN, Scared Stiff, etc)

Pinball 2000 sort of fall into their own category.   Pin2k Star Wars Ep1, usually will go for $2000-$2600, depending on condition, while Pin2k Revenge from Mars will usually go for $3000-$4000.

LCD Games like Wizard of Oz, Hobbit, Full Throttle, Alien are typically selling used for $7500-$8500.   Stern is expected to release an LCD title in 2016 but those prices are expected to be aligned more towards Stern's baseline / other SPIKE games.  Probably +/- $600 f

Boutique / limited run games like those from Spooky Pinball will usually sell used for more than their retail (+/- ~$9,000) prices.    Dutch Pinball & Heighway could fall into this category but as their production numbers aren't (as) limited I tend to lump them in the LCD games grouping.

Shipping and logistics

When looking for games, the natural tendency is to favor local ads, something you can drive to within a day.   I will admit that I tend to associate an 'opportunity value' to something local, when looking for a game.  If I can get it today, even if it costs a little more than I expect it should, I tend to favor the instant gratification over the out-of-region buys.

That said, if you open your searches to include out-of-region sources and consider shipping the pin, you will have a better selection to choose from. 

When shipping a pin, you can choose a 'legs on' move, a 'palleted' move and there are some 'other ways'.  

For legs-on move, you put the head down, wrap it in a moving blanket and a mover comes for the game.

The most common provider of this service is:

NAVL / STI  - Contact Michelle @ mbianchi@precision-nal.com / 630-352-3312
- I've found average prices are about $475 for this service.

You can pallet a game and ship via a pallet.   To do this, you secure the balls and loose items, take off the legs, wrap it moving blankets, cardboard optional, wrap it in pallet wrap and secure it to a pallet.   The back of the machine will be resting on the pallet, the legs secured and bundled to cabinet bottom with pallet wrap and/or cardboard and tape.   

RL Carriers is a typical conveyance for this method and prices start around $300.
Pinball companies usually by freight in packs from Freight brokers.   Ask around, you may be able to find better pricing than you can find going straight to the shipper.

Another way to ship a palleted game is to use a service like Forward Air.   It is a depot-to-depot shipping service.  The idea is, you locate a local depot and deliver the palleted game to that depot.  Forward Air, then ships the pallet to the depot closest to the destination and the buyer then picks up the game from their depot.  The average price for this service is about $275 cross-country.

There are pinball-specific moving services, run by operators and pinball industry folks. One such offering is Pinballs on the Move.  You basically schedule a buy during one of his routes and if the source and destinations are reasonably within his route, he will pick up your game and deliver it for a reasonable fee. ($275 ish, if my memory serves)

Finally, in the crowdsourced economy you can sometimes find folks willing to move a game. Try Craigslist from the seller's city, you can often find folks out of work, looking for side work and willing to do a regional pin-move.   

Services like Roadie (think of it like uber but for packages) are growing to include pickup-truck sized loads.  Today, you can likely leverage these services for a pinball move - in the future, the freight business will look more like Roadie or even to some extent: uShip than RLCarriers, FreightQuote.com, etc. 

Sum it all up

If you are getting into pinball for the first time, welcome to hobby!  

If buying used, find a bring an impartial (ideally pin-Educated) friend to help judge condition of the game.

If buying new, balance your retail options with distributor options.  If you need service after the sale and have a local retailer, consider retail. If you plan to service the machine yourself or have a repair dude in mind, enjoy the price-benefits of buying from a distributor.

Respect that people have the right to assign value their stuff.   Bring supporting materials to justify your offers and in the end of the day, whichever side of the transaction you are on - respect the buyer / seller position.

Expand your searches.  Consider buying regionally or even nationally.   Here on the Alabama Gulf Coast we are (often) limited in our local selection.  Buying a machine nationally opens up your options.   Get lots of pictures.

Shop around for shipping alternatives.

A Busy Spring in Pinball

Spring was an active season for Pinball.   If you haven't heard, Pinball is in a resurgence!

An interesting short on CNN about pinball (aired this week):

In 1940, pinball machines were banned in New York City. Like most contraband, this simply pushed pinball underground. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the "Salvage for Victory" campaign called on Americans to turn in scrap metal to bolster the war effort.

Also, meet the Pinball World Champ for this year: - Robert Gagno in the video below.   He's awesome.

WIZARD MODE is the story of Robert Gagno as he rises up the ranks of the international pinball circuit while striving to gain his independence and transcend the label of autism. This is a short film version of our debut feature length documentary of the same name. To contribute to the feature-length documentary go to: http://igg.me/at/wizardmodefilm www.wizardmodefilm.com Follow us on social media to stay up to date with the film: https://www.facebook.com/wizardmodefilm https://twitter.com/wizardmodefilm https://instagram.com/wizardmodefilm/ A special thanks to Mac Demarco and Captured Tracks for letting us use the song "Cooking Up Something Good" Produced with the support of TELUS Produced and Directed by SALAZAR Editor Greg Ng Assistant Editor Graham Fortin Composer Edo Van Breemen Associate Producer Sara Wylie Sound Design and Mix Oscar Vargas and Eugenio Battaglia www.salazarfilm.com https://twitter.com/salazarfilm https://instagram.com/salazarfilm/

Texas Pinball Festival in March was a great success.  

Right now, Stern, Jersey Jack, Heighway Pinball, Dutch Pinball, Chicago Gaming/ PPS and Spooky Pinball are all building / shipping pinball machines!   A year or two ago, to think 6 active Pinball companies would be rolling in 2016 would have been the short bet.  Exciting stuff!

In the spring JJP started shipping the long-awaited Hobbit Pinball machine. With JJP's penchant for quality and innovation, this game is sure to be a hit.

At TPF Stern announced and revealed their Ghostbusters Pinball game.  Hand-drawn artwork on the playfield and cabinet by Zombie Yeti, epic theme and great early code - will make this Stern's highest selling game.    Limited Edition's sold out in 1/2 a day.

Heighway moves on from Full Throttle and is in development of Alien pinball.  Another awesome theme for pinball, it'll be great to see how this game comes together.

In the Spring, Dutch Pinball hosted a factory tour and just recently started shipping The Big Lebowski.    The callouts / audio potential alone will make this a fun pin to check out!

After a rocky start, PPS / Chicago gaming is shipping the highly anticipated Medieval Madness remake pin.    It is exciting that this fun pinball machine has been remade in NIB-awesomeness.

Looking for Contributors

Are you really passionate about Arcade and Pinball machines?   We are looking to open up this site to outside contributors, to give you a platform for blogging about your Arcade and Pinball Shenanigans!   (We are also looking for people that are interested in taking part on some video streaming episodes, be it to check out your collection, talk about collecting or industry news.)

Interested?  ping me to discuss: bill.dodd@graffitilogic.com

Saying Goodbye to Tron!

Packing up Tron Legacy Pinball for Legs-on freight pickup.

This weekend, I packed up Tron for its legs-on move to a new owner.   It was fun!

December was Awesome - Happy New Year!

December was a fun month for my arcade and pinball collecting shenanigans..   I took advantage of some time away from being a programmer @ work to being a nerd @ heart. :)

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Star Wars AND Pinball in the Same Month?  Yes, Please!

We hosted our local pinball and arcade group in December.   It was nice to get to hang out with friends and just play.

Gulf Coast Pinball and Arcade - December Meet-up Good turnout to our December 2015 meet - up: 15 or so pinball and arcade gaming enthusiasts..

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We also added a game to the mix, kind of a complicated story but suffice-to-say a Wizard of Oz pin from Jersey Jack Pinball now occupies our space.  We are stoked!
 

As you probably know.. One of my passions aside from technology and photography, is pinball. (and arcade stuff in general) (More stuff on that here: www.billsarcade.net I recently came into a game with the most incredible lightshows, and I wanted to share it with you.

WoZ has been out for awhile, I'm a bit of a latecomer to this game but I like that every time some tech blogger heralds that "Pinball is Dead or Dying" some awesome local American company pops up and shows otherwise.   Between Stern Pinball's release cycle of popular culture licensed titles and Jersey Jack's innovation and focus on a polished end-project: It looks like Pinball is very much alive.

During the break from work we tried our hand at Broadcasting pinball games on Twitch, which has been educational and interesting.   Should come in handy for recording tournament matches in 2016.

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Coming into the New Year, I've decided to let my Tron Pinball game find a new home.   

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We'd gotten it in a series of trades and I modded the crap out of it. In the end, though I think I had more fun working on it than playing it.   Best to get something in to play to put in it's spot.  I have some good ideas on that.. :)

Anyway, I hope your New Year is excellent.  Looking forward to 2016!

Bills Arcade, Walkthrough 2015 (in 4k!)

End of Year - 2015 - A Quick tour of our home arcade-game room.

Periodically on weekends where we have all of the games going, like over Thanksgiving, I like to do a quick walk through and show the games in our collection.  It's interesting because over time, the room changes as new games come in and old games cycle out.  (Though, these days it is more IN than OUT ;)  )

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this brief walkthrough of the games in our game-room.

Pirates!

Recently, I found a Pirates of the Caribbean for sale a couple hours away.  A friend and fellow pinball-collector, Marshall and I made a trip to Mississippi to get it.

I wasn't really looking for a Pirates but the prospect of a well-priced Home-Use-Only machine within driving distance was too good not to check out.    My whole family is all about Disney and love the ride, so it seemed like it would be a good fit for our game room.

I usually expect pinball machines to be in a condition that is less-than-advertised.  I was surprised to find this machine was more-or-less as described.   It had 1700 plays and was running original game code.

There were a few issues but I don't think the owner even realized them.

The first thing that I noticed was that the DMD was "off'.   Some screens looked fine, while others seemed jumbled.  It seemed like the screens that used the most dots where the ones that showed the problems most prominently.   

I hoped it was just a connection but the data connection to the DMD was quite solid (and hot-glued).   

PinballLife.com carried a perfect, drop in replacement for this older-model stern game.   It was about $100 and worked perfectly.

While we were playing the game, I could hear a coil energizing but didn't immediately work out which one it was.    As it turns out it was the right pop bumper.  Once we got it home, after a few games played the machine started to pop Fuse F8 immediately on powerup.

Using the coil matrix I unhooked everything on that fuse until we found the right pop bumper coil to be fully seized.

The replacement coil (a $12 part), I already had but after replacing it I noticed it stayed engaged whenever the game was powered up.

The coil matrix charts in pinball manuals are super handy in showing you how your coils are switched and where they get their power.  In this case, Q10 was the driving transistor.  

Since the coil was stuck energized, I replaced the Q10 transistor.

Stern electronics are incredibly reliable.  I was reminded of why this in trying to remove the transistor.  The board solder took quite a bit of coercion to get heated enough to pull the old transistor.   

Putting it all back together

I added warm-white Cointaker Retro LEDs to the inserts and some green spotlight LED's to accentuate the ship and Kraken.

New playfield glass, replaced DMD, a coil and a transistor, Cointaker LED's and red super-bands. The end result turned out pretty good!  In this photo we are still using Incandescents in the GI, I'm experimenting with various LED's to try to retain that 'candle-lit' quality that is pervasive to the ride and the movies.