Pinball Machines

[hoopstar]

Anyone here collect older pinball machines?

I found one not so long ago out the back of an old, closed down hire place next to those big steel bins.. there was a whole lot of other junk including an old jukebox (very bad condition) and some old video machines (missing lots of bits)

Anyway, I went and picked the machine - it was minus it's legs, but the cabinet looked like it was in pretty good condition. The playing field was covered in a layer of THICK dust and dirt, the backglass (where the scores are shown) picture had completely flaked off and there was two missing circuit boards.
My initial reaction was I'd just picked up some rubbish that Im now going to have to get rid of..

The next day, I took the glass off the play field and gave it a quick wipeover.. to my amazement, it was in nearly perfect condition and the more I wiped the bigger my smile was.. After about an hour of cleaning, I was standing in front of a machine that could only be desribed as excellent condition (considering it's age)
The words GORGAR appeared on the side of the cabinet, so a quick scan on the internet revealed that this was a 1979 Williams pinball machine and actually was the first talking pinball every released.
The fact remained that I was missing two borads (CPU and Soleniod driver) and no ball. I called a local pinball repairer and he supplied me with two CPU boards (one for spares), the driver board, Gorgar game ROMs, pinball and circuit diagrams for only $100..
After a couple of hours of replacing some burnt transistors and repairing the power supply, I switched the machine on to hear the words.. "Gorgar Speaks" - I was pretty happy.. it still has a couple of bugs which I will get back to now and I also want to give the playfield a proper clean. Only then I will get some legs for it.
The only other thing that I needed was the backglass.. I have found a bloke in the US who makes reproductions of them that are better than the originals, but they're about $550 landed.. I figure I got the machine for nothing, spent $100 on it and another $550 only totals $650 for a machine that is a classic, in excellent conditon.. I will have to put a rubber kit through it and change some bulbs and then I will post some pictures..

Does anybody else collect/repair pinball machines?

[Falkor]

my dad has one, its an old machien not sure what year
called timewarp and we wanna get another newer one

where abouts do you live? theres a guy round here called the pinball wizard, he'll fix whatevers wrong with it

EDIT: Doh.. your in adelaide

[Yoda]

My dad used to own an arcade centre, and after shutting it about 2yrs ago, he is still trying to sell of the machines.. We had 3 pinball machines, and still have 2 there. I can fix *almost* anything in a pinball machine, just depends what it is really... They are abit more complicated then your normall arcade game. As long as I can see a diagram of where to find things, and the test function works, I can normally fix it.

Hoopstar, if yours has a test function, let it do a FULL test, it'll take about 5 mins, but it will run through all the solinoids, fuses, lights, everything.. and at the end should give you a report on the display

Have fun with it

[Pete of Meat]

Nice find hoopstar! That is the coolest toy.

After a couple of hours of replacing some burnt transistors and repairing the power supply, I switched the machine on to hear the words.. "Gorgar Speaks" - I was pretty happy

Ecstatic would be more like it

[Whitey Ford]

Ive heard through a friend of a friend that someone got one of those old arcade games and hooked it up to a reasonable puta with the controlls all working and stuff... they have like 3000 emulated games on the thing... plays like normal... just with a whole bunch of games... i thought it was such a cool idea.

Mike

[swatson]

i want a pinball machine but i am yet to find one thrown out but cant justify going out and buying one, a friend had a realy cool adams family one it had electromagnets in it, it was sweet it could turn the ball and make it sort of slow down ... pritty cool i thought

[Wojee]

I have been interested in getting myself a Pinball machine for years. I've also got a friend who asks me if I'd like to go partners in one every 12 months or so. The catch is he'd be keeping it at his house

I've done a little web-searching for a particular machine which I think was called "Carhop", but can't find any information on it. Also, I can't remember which table played ZZ Top's La Grange, which I'd love also.

[Guru-Choc]

Good find on the Gorgar, should be able to get a backglass cheaper in OZ somewhere.

"Ive heard through a friend of a friend that someone got one of those old arcade games and hooked it up to a reasonable puta with the controlls all working and stuff... they have like 3000 emulated games on the thing... plays like normal... just with a whole bunch of games... i thought it was such "

Program is called mame (www.mame.net), I brought a j-pac that plugs straight into a JAMMA harness and hooks you PC striaght into the cabinet, very easy to use.

[hoopstar]

Guru-Choc I am also in the (early) stages of building a MAME cabinet.. how much did the J-pac cost you landed here in Oz??

Are you building a cabinet or just the control panel??

[Guru-Choc]

J-pac was $135 landed from memory. Make sure your cabinet can do 1 v video out, otherwise you need to do some tweaking to the chassis to make it display bright enough.

http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm read the messageboards there.

I just got a 26" LAI cabinet, 2 player 6 buttons, will redo the control panel when I find time, I am a sheetmetal worker by trade so a nice stainless steel one is in order

[hoopstar]

I am actually going to be building a cabinet from scratch...!! I have rung around a few stores here in Adelaide for cabinets, and they all want waay too much for the things.. one place wanted $300 for an old low boy with a non working monitor - I promptly told him where and what he could do with his machine..

Another place wanted $600 for a cabinet with a working 26" (I think screen) but wouldnt included a coin mech for the price..

When you consider that you have to redo a good percentage of the cabinet (paint job, controls, etc) then it looks less attractive option.
I think I should be able to build the cabinet for around $150-$170 and the controls will cost another $120 (from Happ) + the I-pac.
I think a Palsonic 26" will work nicely as these have S-video in and only cost around $350...
The project will be a long one - at the moment, I am just collecting parts as my measely budget allows

[Yoda]

hahah coin mechs, I have a box of about 20 or so Here beside me, and the programmer for them..

I was stuffing around with one a little while back trying to make a pc power up with one

They are MicroCoin ones (just the brand name)

[hoopstar]

Then I think you should send me one cause I'm so nice..

..and you'd know that it'd be going to a good home and make a sad Mame addict very happy!

[mod]

I scored myself a 1986 Williams High Speed pinball machine for $150 bucks, many years ago. It was missing the back glass and the main transformer was blown. After years of storage I finally pulled it out and started restoring it.

As of today, I managed to find a replacement transformer in the Netherlands, this cost me about $100 including shipping to get. For the back glass I managed to find an original from a firm in Queensland for $600. The wife would not let me spend that much so I had to pass up on it, bummer .

After some more searching I found out that bumper action amusements have a site at www.pinballart.com.au where they sell remakes of popular pinball back glasses. I found one for my pinball so I ordered it which came to about $120.

About a month later I finally received it, apparently the translite was made in America and the reason I had to wait so long for it was that the manufacturer sent a Getaway translite instead.

Two more items to get, one was a red top dome to cover the rotating light. I managed to find one on eBay for $30.00 landed. The other was a piece of glass cut to size for the back box which covers the translite. I got one for the price of a beer .

So after all this time I have a pinball that I absolutely love playing and it only cost me a total of $400 + 1 Beer.

Great, but there was another cost that I did not consider.
When I was a teenager back in the 80s I had a job in a local butcher shop earning about $30 per week. Every Friday night after work, I would head on down the local arcade and yes, this is where I spent my money. Further more it was actually this pinball that sucked in most of my earnings!

The total amount of money that I actually invested in this machine I will never know. What I do know is this machine has my youth in it; therefore it has sentimental value for me.

Thanks for reading my little blurb about my pinball. I invite others to come out and share their stories of their time and money spent playing these fun machines.

Cheers,

Mod.

[hoopstar]

Nice find indeed mod..!!

Sounds like The Netherlands must be a pinball Mecca. After searching Ebay, the internet and EVERY pinball place in Australia pretty consistantly for the last couple of years for a backglass in reasonable condition, I found (well actually he found my "wanted" ad in the Pinball Classifieds) one... In the Netherlands..!!

He snapped some piccies of it and emailed them to me - I was a bit nervous that I was going to get ripped off, but had to risk it...

For $300 AUD, he sold me a SOLID 9.5/10 Gorgar backglass, created it up and shipped it to Australia - he also threw in a complete playfield plastics set which are in very good condition, two displays and a "I Love Pinball" sticker... Needless to say I was over the moon..!!

We have since become quite good email buddies

Like you mod, I think the searching and finding things for our respective machines makes the original find/purchase all the more sweet .