Want to buy a pinball machine

[darkewaffle]

Love pinball!

My favorites were Gottlieb's Hollywood Heat, Williams' Terminator2 (on your list), Williams' High Speed (High Speed 2 was pretty nice too), and F16 Tomcat. Things to look for is the playboard wear and backglass paint integrity. Those are expensive to have restored but if you get one that needs work at a good deal you can be within your budget and have it restored working like new!

These machines are quite complex and if you need work on the CPU board /mechanicals it's best to find a good tech that can fix it rather than try to mess around with it yourself.

There are plenty of Youtube videos showing the gameplay and music of these classics in action.

Holy crap it wasn't until just now I realized that "High Speed" for the NES (which I loved and played to death as a child) was based on an actual machine, that's sweet.

 

[The-Noid]

Addams Family for <10k:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=addams+family+pinball&_sacat=13725&_odkw=&_osacat=13725

In terms of cost, it should be Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Adams Family, Theatre of Magic, in that order.

Twilight zone breaks a lot however...

 

[KeithTalent]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAP...tGAoG3rc9W%2FlTKRvF50%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Only 2500

Hey, I only need to drive to Illinois!

I can actually get one here, but I have no space for it. If I ever do, I will be buying a White Water and an SF2. One of these days...

KT

 

[Born2bwire]

Oh I freaking love Medieval Madness. So classic, though I was never particularly great at it.



I love how frenetic Whitewater is, plus I've always been very good at it, so that increases my love for it. Could play that thing for hours.

KT

That maybe my problem, I have played it on several occasions as it is often a machine used in the league matches, but I have never been very good at it. I should probably devote more time practicing on it but there are machines there that I like a lot more.

Whitewater and Dirty Harry are two machines that people seem to like that I don't like very much.

Hah, just remembered The Creature from the Black Lagoon. That is a fun table too.

What I would really love to play is Sorceror or Gorgar. The artwork on both machines is so fantastic, especially Gorgar. Before the age when you could use dot matrix displays and large amounts of digitized voices and sounds, Gorgar's backglass and playing field and the seven words it can say are so effective at conveying a narrative.

 

[The-Noid]

That maybe my problem, I have played it on several occasions as it is often a machine used in the league matches, but I have never been very good at it. I should probably devote more time practicing on it but there are machines there that I like a lot more.

Whitewater and Dirty Harry are two machines that people seem to like that I don't like very much.

Hah, just remembered The Creature from the Black Lagoon. That is a fun table too.

What I would really love to play is Sorceror or Gorgar. The artwork on both machines is so fantastic, especially Gorgar. Before the age when you could use dot matrix displays and large amounts of digitized voices and sounds, Gorgar's backglass and playing field and the seven words it can say are so effective at conveying a narrative.

I can play medieval madness until it gets boring. I have had over 500MM, my mother has had over 650MM. I think there are scores into the billions but you would have to sit and play for over an hour and it simply becomes boring, shooting the ramps.

The game is fairly easy to shoot around, not go for any objective and score huge points. The loop to the right (joust) and the catapult can be shot with almost 100% accuracy and simply score 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 for all of them.

 

[Jeffg010]

Also if you are looking for an old school game Prospector is pretty awesome as is the Kiss

Prospector
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1871&picno=36179

Kiss
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1386&picno=1329

 

[Born2bwire]

I can play medieval madness until it gets boring.

The game is fairly easy to shoot around, not go for any objective and score huge points. The loop to the right (joust) and the catapult can be shot with almost 100% accuracy and simply score 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 for all of them.

I'm talking about Whitewater, I would love to play Medieval Madness, but the company in our county that does the pinball machines at bars and stuff decided to sell their Medieval Madness table to a private collector. They've been doing that for a while where they will pull a very good table from circulation to sell it off at a very high price. I heard the other day that they had two Addams Family, one being a collector version, and sold the non-collector version for around $10K. The worst part is that they stopped buying new tables and are letting the maintainance slide. So now they only have older machines that are mediocre (with the exception of Theater of Magic, can't believe they haven't culled that one) which they are not properly maintaining and they complain that pinball no longer makes any money. We've already lost three machines this winter.

 

[The-Noid]

I'm talking about Whitewater, I would love to play Medieval Madness, but the company in our county that does the pinball machines at bars and stuff decided to sell their Medieval Madness table to a private collector. They've been doing that for a while where they will pull a very good table from circulation to sell it off at a very high price. I heard the other day that they had two Addams Family, one being a collector version, and sold the non-collector version for around $10K. The worst part is that they stopped buying new tables and are letting the maintainance slide. So now they only have older machines that are mediocre (with the exception of Theater of Magic, can't believe they haven't culled that one) which they are not properly maintaining and they complain that pinball no longer makes any money. We've already lost three machines this winter.

Ouch, at some point I believe my parents will pick up either Theatre of Magic or Twilight Zone. Let me know if they are selling the Theatre of Magic. It is a lot like Medieval Madness, so my parents had in the past never dealt with it, however my dad looks at them as investments you get to screw around with now. Like classic cars they continue to go up in value, year after year.

 

[Born2bwire]

Ouch, at some point I believe my parents will pick up either Theatre of Magic or Twilight Zone. Let me know if they are selling the Theatre of Magic. It is a lot like Medieval Madness, so my parents had in the past never dealt with it, however my dad looks at them as investments you get to screw around with now. Like classic cars they continue to go up in value, year after year.

Yeah, the three they pulled from the bars were Indiana Jones (the older trilogy machine), Monopoly and Rollercoaster Tycoon. All three needed fixing. For example, Indiana Jones always had a weak left flipper that couldn't make the ramps. Monopoly had troubles with the device that popped the ball out of the depression at the water works (so the ball would get stuck but it would pop out and resettle in the spot making the game think that the ball hit it again. So you could never get a lost ball and would eventually rack up as many points you wanted). I heard that they've sold Indiana Jones. I liked that table, it was a very fun IP and they had a lot of voices and fun modes. They replaced them with bowling games.

 

[The-Noid]

Yeah, the three they pulled from the bars were Indiana Jones (the older trilogy machine), Monopoly and Rollercoaster Tycoon. All three needed fixing. For example, Indiana Jones always had a weak left flipper that couldn't make the ramps. Monopoly had troubles with the device that popped the ball out of the depression at the water works (so the ball would get stuck but it would pop out and resettle in the spot making the game think that the ball hit it again. So you could never get a lost ball and would eventually rack up as many points you wanted). I heard that they've sold Indiana Jones. I liked that table, it was a very fun IP and they had a lot of voices and fun modes. They replaced them with bowling games.

I like the new stern tables. I have never seen a rollercoaster tycoon that actually worked right, however that always seemed like a fun one.

Indiana Jones had a lot of action. I was never quite good at it (high learning curve like a lot of the Stern stuff).

Monopoly always seemed a bit too bland...

 

[Born2bwire]

I like the new stern tables. I have never seen a rollercoaster tycoon that actually worked right, however that always seemed like a fun one.

Indiana Jones had a lot of action. I was never quite good at it (high learning curve like a lot of the Stern stuff).

Monopoly always seemed a bit too bland...

I think the latest Stern games that I have played were LOTR, Elvis and Family Guy, all were really fun but looking back I feel that they have eased up on the difficulty compared to the older games I am playing now. I find it interesting that they are making more options for collectors. I was hearing about the new AC/DC table and the additions they made to the Pro, Premium, and LE models. In the Premium and LE, they've added a lower playing field in the place of Angus' snarling face.

 

[KeithTalent]

There's a Creature from the Black Lagoon at the arcade on the way home from work (yes, amazingly, we still have an arcade up and running here). May need to pop by and drop some Qs in there.

KT

 

[spidey07]

I can't believe Adam's family goes for that much. It was a great game for sure, but it's ancient. There was a really fun James Bond game, it had a ramp that popped up on the play field and you had to launch it into the air to get caught by a satellite that had a magnet - fun game.

Here it is - Golden Eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7v67a1UqB0

 

[Born2bwire]

I can't believe Adam's family goes for that much. It was a great game for sure, but it's ancient. There was a really fun James Bond game, it had a ramp that popped up on the play field and you had to launch it into the air to get caught by a satellite that had a magnet - fun game.

Here it is - Golden Eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7v67a1UqB0

That's neat. I played No Good Gofers last night and they have a ramp that drops down (not as neatly integrated in the playing field as with Goldeneye) that allows you to shoot up into the back playfield to try and hit a golf cart, land on a ramp to try for a successive ramp shot, or to get into a drop for a hole in one. Lots of fun.

 

[Rubycon]

Anyone remember Earthshaker?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5gwFgu9QpY&feature=related

That thing would vibrate your arms pretty good!

 

[Born2bwire]

Anyone remember Earthshaker?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5gwFgu9QpY&feature=related

That thing would vibrate your arms pretty good!

Yep, I remember that one. I just played Road Show the other day which has a shaker too.

 

[ImpulsE69]

thanks to this post i have now been turned off of pinball machines lol

i'll pay the 50c.

Nah, don't let him scare you. Yes you can have issues, but the actual maint required is low once you've "shopped" them out. It's just home use, not arcade use.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I can't believe Adam's family goes for that much. It was a great game for sure, but it's ancient. There was a really fun James Bond game, it had a ramp that popped up on the play field and you had to launch it into the air to get caught by a satellite that had a magnet - fun game.

Here it is - Golden Eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7v67a1UqB0

The price went up because it was one of the most popular sought after games. Same with TZ, MM, CV, ToM, Funhouse, etc.

 

[RearAdmiral]

My Parents have Star Wars (Data East), Jurassic Park (Data East), Medieval Madness (Williams), Addams Family Gold (Midway), Fireball (Bally), Elvira and Elvira Scared Stiff as well as a Mame Cabinet and a few classic arcade games.

My parents always loved Pinball and when they built their house they put an arcade in.

The main problem they have had an always had is they aren't very electronically oriented and things break quite often. You have to be able to find an electrician that is able to work on things, otherwise what my parents did is find the name of a guy that fixes vending machines and they have him over after working hours. Generally speaking every time I go to their house, one or two of the machines will have a switch broken because they guy hasn't gotten around to coming over.

I have a basic understanding of soldering and have done some more complex things (modded my ps2, which back in the day had 19 or so hard wires) and gave up after a while on the pinball machines when I lived at home. I would say the average amount of time that a machine fully works after being fixed is 10-15 hours. There are simply a lot of switches and the actual ball knocking into things makes wires come lose.

You also have to clean and wax everything quite often otherwise the playfield gets slow.

Overall, it is great fun but has to be a passion rather than something you think you can turn on and off every couple of months and have everything work.

The new Stern stuff may work a bit better however being that it is new tech inside.

Even the modern machines? So basically you are saying a machine will break every day in a normal arcade, that seems a little weak.

 

[The-Noid]

Even the modern machines? So basically you are saying a machine will break every day in a normal arcade, that seems a little weak.

I would say the half life of one of the older machines, from the 90's is around 5 hours before a switch breaks.

I can't think of a time I have played a pinball machine in an arcade that something wasn't broken or a light was out. Most of the time you just deal however.

The lights are fairly easy to fix, however are somewhat hard to locate nowdays. Most are automotive lights.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I would say the half life of one of the older machines, from the 90's is around 5 hours before a switch breaks.

I can't think of a time I have played a pinball machine in an arcade that something wasn't broken or a light was out. Most of the time you just deal however.

The lights are fairly easy to fix, however are somewhat hard to locate nowdays. Most are automotive lights.

Um..no. Arcade use is completely different than home use. All my machines except one were prior arcade use to varying degrees. Whats broke you fix, and if you're not abusing them, they are fine. Bulbs last forever, switches are fine. At most, you have to wax the pf 1-2 times a year and change the rubbers every 3-4 years if you want. OHH BUT - some have batteries on their boards. Those do need changed or they'll leak and ruin your boards. (Very important).

While, the condition of them when you aquire them makes a difference in what you will need to do, that is something you take into consideration before you buy them. I've had some of these games for 15 years and never had to replace any mechanical parts on them and they get played almost daily. (knocks on pressed wood)

 

[RearAdmiral]

Um..no. Arcade use is completely different than home use. All my machines except one were prior arcade use to varying degrees. Whats broke you fix, and if you're not abusing them, they are fine. Bulbs last forever, switches are fine. At most, you have to wax the pf 1-2 times a year and change the rubbers every 3-4 years if you want. OHH BUT - some have batteries on their boards. Those do need changed or they'll leak and ruin your boards. (Very important).

While, the condition of them when you aquire them makes a difference in what you will need to do, that is something you take into consideration before you buy them. I've had some of these games for 15 years and never had to replace any mechanical parts on them and they get played almost daily. (knocks on pressed wood)

Right. This is kinda what I was thinking. Well I'm going to check out a fish tales this weekend, so we shall see!

 

[alkemyst]

I would say the half life of one of the older machines, from the 90's is around 5 hours before a switch breaks.

I can't think of a time I have played a pinball machine in an arcade that something wasn't broken or a light was out. Most of the time you just deal however.

The lights are fairly easy to fix, however are somewhat hard to locate nowdays. Most are automotive lights.

We need pics now. First you have busted up machines at the 'rents, then you have a restored one. Now you are saying these machines die quick.

WTF?

 

[QueBert]

Visual Pinball looks bad ass, but I can't get it to run properly on my system. I posted a message on the VP forums but nobody seems to want to help a pinball n00b out

 

[The-Noid]

We need pics now. First you have busted up machines at the 'rents, then you have a restored one. Now you are saying these machines die quick.

WTF?

I don't think I have ever said they were busted. A switch will break or a light will go out. I don't know if that entails them being 'busted.' Also, I am anal to the max. With a switch out, the games are still in most regards fully playable (except the A in CHAOS goes out in Jurassic Park, which is a key switch and has a habit of breaking quite often because it is in play as often as it is).

Everyone that was purchased was restored, Jurassic Park and Scared Stiff actually came from France and Germany respectively.

My parents live less than two miles away, I will ask them if they care about pictures being posted tomorrow...