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Want to buy a pinball machine

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Is bump/tilt a part of the play strategy on all pinball machines? AFAIK, I've only played one machine in my life and that was pre-1960. Fantastic fun. That machine had two buttons, they activated the left or right side flippers, and there were IIRC 4 flippers on each side. Machine seemed to be in real good shape.

Edit: I'd much rather play that old machine than the F-14 Tomcat in the video. That only has one flipper on each side, the music sounds ominous. I wouldn't want a machine whose music wears on me. AFAIK, the machine I played in the late 50's didn't have music at all. I think it was probably a Gottlieb (?). It did make noises, bells (chimes?) would ring out every time you scored points, and it flashed a lot. I think the noises were generated mechanically, not electronically. Objects were struck by hammers, I'm thinking.
 
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Muse said:
Is bump/tilt a part of the play strategy on all pinball machines? AFAIK, I've only played one machine in my life and that was pre-1960. Fantastic fun. That machine had two buttons, they activated the left or right side flippers, and there were IIRC 4 flippers on each side. Machine seemed to be in real good shape.
Click to expand...

There is a real art to bumping. I never could master it. Every pinball machine is different too. Some you can move around and never tilt and others tilt at the slightest touch. Hardest part is you have to play the machine to get a feel for how the tilt is going to be.
 
Jeffg010 said:
There is a real art to bumping. I never could master it. Every pinball machine is different too. Some you can move around and never tilt and others tilt at the slightest touch. Hardest part is you have to play the machine to get a feel for how the tilt is going to be.
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The machine I played, I believe you could adjust the tilt when you opened up the machine.

Bumping was a subtle art. If you bumped the machine just right you could get a ball to move enough where it would fall where you could get it with one of the 8 flippers (4 on a side). You needed to have a deft touch because too hard a bump and it would tilt and the game was over.
 
lxskllr said:
I wasn't allowed to play it unless the operator was friendly. My government deemed pinball inappropriate for people under 18 years of age. My childhood was ruined by the government, just as my adulthood is...
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Where did you live as a kid? NK? USSR?
 
Rubycon said:
Love pinball!
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Same here brotha!!

I wouldnt mind getting some older (And in my opinion BETTER) machines!!!

I have Microsoft Pinball on my computer,i play that sometimes
icon7.gif
 
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Jeffg010 said:
There is a real art to bumping. I never could master it. Every pinball machine is different too. Some you can move around and never tilt and others tilt at the slightest touch. Hardest part is you have to play the machine to get a feel for how the tilt is going to be.
Click to expand...

If I don't get a TILT every now and then I'm doing it wrong.
 
Haha I remember Adam's Family. It will play the music and click the flippers twice. Used to mess with me.
 
Rubycon said:
Haha I remember Adam's Family. It will play the music and click the flippers twice. Used to mess with me.
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No lies, I had a game going on Adam's family that was easily 45+ minutes. A single game. Think I rolled the score, don't remember (I hit the max jackpot some 20 times, cleared the board 20 times). I had about 5 balls left and still going strong. A score that would surely have never been beaten.

Then this 10 year old girl came up while I was playing and hit the start button. The sheer laser beams out of my eyes and words or curse I don't remember, but she was crying within 5 seconds.
 
T2 is awesome. I was quite a fan of the Star Wars machine that was released around that time. Or, mid-nineties, anyway.
 
Thanks a ton guys. Now I really want to get some machines. I'm handy but the maintenance spooks me a bit in terms of time and finding parts.
 
spidey07 said:
No lies, I had a game going on Adam's family that was easily 45+ minutes. A single game. Think I rolled the score, don't remember (I hit the max jackpot some 20 times, cleared the board 20 times). I had about 5 balls left and still going strong. A score that would surely have never been beaten.

Then this 10 year old girl came up while I was playing and hit the start button. The sheer laser beams out of my eyes and words or curse I don't remember, but she was crying within 5 seconds.
Click to expand...

Haha never had that happen but storms do knock machines out depending where you live. Reminds me of this epic KO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dcf7qiUlyY

😱

mmntech said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOUqRZkR8dE
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Haha yes indeed EPIC song, that's a great video too! Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:
 
gorcorps said:
Wow... people are making full blown virtual pinball machines:
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13146

I've played with the software on my desktop and it's definitely impressive. Almost makes me want to build one. For the price to make a full blown one though, I could have a really nice REAL pinball machine.
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The bottom pic in my posting on the 1st page of this thread is one of those virtual pins. I started building it last year. It's freaking amazing what can be done now. Sure, it'll never be a "real" machine, but it's getting closer by the day. There are some really talented people out there recreating real tables, and originals as well.

They are complete with nudging, "thumps" of slingshots and flippers, flashing lights, shakers, motors, knockers...you name it. Right now I'm working on adding a real EM bell assembly to mine that will play the bells while playing old EM tables on it (as far as I know no one has done this yet).

As for price, it depends on what you want to spend. I spent roughly $2000 building mine so far and it runs 95% of everything flawlessly. ALthough, it's a never ending hobby lol, but then I already have real machines. I would certainly suggest to anyone thinking about building one of these, to get themselves a real one first 🙂
 
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ImpulsE69 said:
The bottom pic in my posting on the 1st page of this thread is one of those virtual pins. I started building it last year. It's freaking amazing what can be done now. Sure, it'll never be a "real" machine, but it's getting closer by the day. There are some really talented people out there recreating real tables, and originals as well.

They are complete with nudging, "thumps" of slingshots and flippers, flashing lights, shakers, motors...you name it. Right now I'm working on adding a real EM bell assembly to mine that will play the bells while playing old EM tables on it (as far as I know no one has done this yet).
Click to expand...

That's awesome. One of my worries about owning a machine is getting bored with the same old game, and one of these virtual machines would help such a thing. It definitely won't feel the same as a lot of the allure of pinball is the mechanics of it all, but it can still be fun with a well done game.

It sounds like yours is still semi WIP, but at least working. Would you recommend such a thing to others? Seems like the cost is incredibly variable depending on the screens you use, computer you build, etc... so it could be viable for a pretty large range of budgets. Probably at least a grand though to play smooth 😱
 
Williams PB machines are my favorite. High Speed, High Speed 2, Dracula,Tomcat, Terminator 2. Lots of awesome ramps and multiball. I own HS2 and have for quite some time. Had a tech come out and fix a few things. Worked great and then I moved. Sadly it sits in storage collecting dust.....what a heartbreaker. 🙁
 
Love Pinball machines and will own some someday. Favorite ones include:

The Getaway
Street Fighter
Indy 500
Monopoly
Fish Tales

Hrm all that comes to mind right now but I could come up with more I'm sure.

I would worry about being able to repair them, because they have SO MANY working little parts and knick knacks. And they run into problems fairly often. Also I've noticed machines that get used a lot wear down the graphics in the middle of the table (above the flippers) and they don't look so great after a while. But I guess pinball machines in arcades get used a ton after 3-5 years.
 
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Jeffg010 said:
There is a real art to bumping. I never could master it. Every pinball machine is different too. Some you can move around and never tilt and others tilt at the slightest touch. Hardest part is you have to play the machine to get a feel for how the tilt is going to be.
Click to expand...
IIRC (I haven't seen it since about 1958-59) the tilt on the Gottlieb (?) machine I played was a broken circuit by virtue of a metal cone that was suspended over a ring. Adjusting the cone down dropped it into closer proximity to the ring, so less of a bump would cause the circuit to complete, triggering the tilt. I never touched it myself, but my friend's father (his machine) certainly adjusted it to his liking. I tilted that machine a lot of times. That guy played the machine very smoothly. He was a big man, and played the violin professionally in a famous orchestra (David Rose's, I think he may have been first violin), so he was deft, and he played that machine like he played the violin, very well and smoothly! He did the violin thing for the fun of it, he made his real money as a real estate developer. Had a real nice house that he designed himself. I kind of think that if I get a pinball machine it will be one of those old ones before they went really electronic. I don't want to hear music when I play pinball unless I play it myself.
 
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