Some important news was made public on Spookys latest podcast : Spooky teams up with Ben Heck and CGC to make a new pinball machine.
Ben Heck has worked together with Spooky in the past and had plans to design a new game, but due to the success of TNA (and then the run of Alice Cooper and now the insta-sell out of Rick and Morty), Bens game just didn't fit into Spookys production planning.
So having Ben design his game in cooperation with Spooky, but outsourcing assembly to CGC (who already have a lot of experience assembling pinball machines) solves this problem.
There's some speculation about what the new theme will be. Not Godzilla, as that license was taken by Stern. I wonder if someone at Stern now regrets the decision of not letting Spooky get that license. It looks like the license they did get (Rick and Morty) is much more successful, and now Ben getting his new game (and helping CGC get more business), must somewhat cost Stern in sales.
Another company who won't be happy with this announcement must be Deeproot. Ben had worked together with John Popaduik in the past - the title they've shown in preview RAZA (Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland) started out as 'Ben Hecks Zombie Adventureland', almost 10 years ago when Ben worked together with John.. A whole era later, and John and what's left of that design is now at Deeproot pinball and they'll have a big release event planned within less than 30 days.
It's probably no coincidence Ben now starts to tease his new design.. as this will take a bit of thunder away of DR. People have limited pinball funds, and need to make decisions.. but something available now or wait and hold that money for something that's being teased and might be a lot better.. do you buy DR's RAZA zombie game that was hot 8 years ago but the interest in zombie games is over (and Stern made the excellent The Walking Dead game to fill up the gap when no other zombie pinball machine existed), based on a design Ben was involved but which was reworked and watered down (I remember something about Ben having plans for a rotating mini playfield) ? or do you wait for the newest, hottest brand new design by Ben which may be a lot better and do have exciting new mechanisms ? I'm sure some people will wait and see what Ben and CGC releases before they make a decision on what to buy..
Showing posts with label pinball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pinball. Show all posts
Monday, March 2, 2020
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Receiving and unpacking a nib Spooky pinball machine
New article about how to set up a new spooky pinball machine.
I have some old articles in the pinball 101 section about opening a game, removing the glass, and so on.. this is a new article about setting up a new in box Spooky pinball machine.
It's especially for all those that are new to pinball and fortunate enough to buy a brand new game as their first machine.
I have some old articles in the pinball 101 section about opening a game, removing the glass, and so on.. this is a new article about setting up a new in box Spooky pinball machine.
It's especially for all those that are new to pinball and fortunate enough to buy a brand new game as their first machine.
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Spooky released Rick and Morty
The biggest news of this week (and maybe of the whole month or even this year) is that Spooky pinball announced Rick and Morty as theme for their next game. And all 750 available games sold out in less than a day.
This is amazing and congratulations to Spooky for having such a successful launch.
This demand is in big contrast to their previous games - of their first games they made only 250 and these sold out (but prices for used games dropped, so there's not much more demand), Alice Cooper is this week finishing its production run of 500 but there are still a few available.. TNA, Scott Danesi's previous game, also had a run of over 500 machines (around 550 if I remember correct). So a run of 750 machines, the largest ever for Spooky, of which the presales sell out so fast, was really unexpected.
Spooky did learn from the Alice Cooper release and didn't make the same mistakes. Whilst ACNC is an excellent game (and I am very happy to have one), the comments weren't very positive. It was shown with early code at shows, people could only play 1 ball to keep waiting lines short.. so the general impression was that there were bricked shots and it wasn't fun.
The ACNC playfield layout is quite difficult (all shots are tight), you need to put a few games on it until growns on you. You really need to learn the shots and be able to an start a mode, before you enjoy how great the game is. If you miss a shot, the ball will often just bounce around a bit and eventually drain.. so lots of people couldn't learn the game and kept in thinking the early code was all that was in (a major release is still planned). Btw I intend to post a review of acnc soon.
Team Spooky would also tell people that ACNC wasn't for everyone and one should play it before ordering. Production was delayed (due to the success of TNA), only the last months production got up to speed and games went out to the public and people got to know this machine well.. People were selling their pre-order spot because they lost interest, life changed, .. All things that didn't give ACNC a good impression.
So now, Rick and Morty. Totally different approach. It was kept as a secret, Scott Danesi's next game had as working title Haunted House Party. Last week Spooky announced the theme, and people were excited as it's a popular show. Production will also start very soon, the first games will go to customers fast.
Some pictures were teased (bottom of playfield) and soon more pictures and video clips followed. At the same time Spooky launched their Fang Club and pre-order was open.
With the previous games, existing Spooky customers had first option to buy a new release.
By now Spookys number of customers had gotten too large, so they couldn't keep this offer anymore. Therefor they started a club. Members are now able to pre-order a new game 2 weeks earlier before the regular public can order. Seems demand was much higher than expected, as hundreds of people joined the fan club just to order the Rick and Morty pinball machine, and it never got open to non-members (except for those who buy trough a dealer).
I have to admit I was not overly excited when the game was released. I am truly amazed by the huge demand.
OK Spooky is the popular manufacturer of the moment (and they deserve it - for example their customer support is great). Scott is also 'one of us', a pinball enthousiast who showed his home made game - and when demand became strong enough it went in production. And the rest of the team behind this title are also good, known people. So there is a lot of trust that they will deliver something good. That part I understand.
But still.. getting more than 750 people excited enough to pre-order, just by showing pictures and a few short video clips ?
FOMO must be strong nowadays.. (I have to admit I also ordered my ACNC as soon as it was released as I really wanted it, just based on the theme).
I guess Rick and Morty just isn't my cup of tea..
I know the show but I'm not a fan, I haven't watched a lot of episodes.
TNA also wasn't my thing - whilst gameplay may be challenging, for that kind of money I want more value. I appreciate what Scott created - and I'm very happy that in todays environment he can get his games produced and people want something different that they don't get with other manufacturers.
I'm more of the opinion that if I want a game that looks and plays like an older game, I'll just buy a cheap older game. If I spend a lot, I want it to have all bells and whistles and new things and as much as possible on it.
My Pinball Champ 82 is next to my Dialed In, and to be honest at the moment I enjoy PC82 more than DI. But that machine with the simple but addictive gameplay was also only a fraction of the cost of the complex machine with three screens and rgb lights and more complex mechanisms.
My very first impression after seeing the R&M teaser pictures, was that it's a cross between some 1980ies Gottlieb games and Data East Time Machine. It may be more complex, I hadn't studied everything in detail. But if I want to play that, then I'll buy these games (and have a few $1000 over).
I know I'm exagurating a bit - you can't really compare Rick and Morty to Time Machine (I hope.. ;) rules are very important, and you can't compare the gameplay and rulesheet of current games with a Data East of 1988.. but still, I want more physical value..
So I just don't get where all the excitement comes from, is it just the theme ? Am I really not the demographic for this game ? It doesn't matter, seems team Spooky has a winner in their hands and that's what matters.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Visitors from Finland, it's been busy weekend
We had visitors from Finland over this weekend.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by Teemu, as he was looking to buy pinball machines for sale in Belgium and the Netherlands and wanted some help finding them. Later Ari contacted me too, as he was going to go together with Teemu on this road trip.
This was great news. I had already contact by mail and on irc (#pinball) with Ari about 10 years ago. So I was looking forward to meeting him after all these years.
He's well known in Finland, he's a good player, and has a large website about pinball: apz.fi. (unfortunately almost completely in finnish)
Friday they arrived, we met and we already played some pinball.
Saturday we visited a pinball dealer here in Belgium where we filled their van completely :) Seeing five Medieval Madness pinball machines next to each other was impressive for all of us.
Later Peter from gamebunker.be joined us. The evening was spent in the historic city of Antwerp (you need to do some sightseeing and taste belgian beer), and we even played.. guess what, pinball.
Then we went to some bars in search of a bingo machine.. unfortunately in the first 2 bars we found that had them, all machines were occupied. So we played some Stern Iron Man pinball instead.
Finally we did find a bar with a bingo machine. Ari really wanted to play this type of machine on location..
After having watched people lose over 100 euro whilst we were playing a few games of pinball, we all were curious how well Ari would do.
Well he had been training at home, and said playing pinball had learnt him how to nudge a game skillfully. He put a bit over 2 euro in.. and in the end won 22 euro !
My task was to convince the bar owner to pay us out. After needing to buy another drink he did give us a 20 euro bill. Not bad! Getting 1000% return on your investment isn't bad for 15 minutes of work..
Although it probably won't work every time;. but still, he did much better than some guys we saw losing over 100 euro in those bingo machines..
Maybe this is what pinball needs to become successful again: all the people that are addicted to bingo machines, in the hope to win some money. You're doing it wrong !
Bingo is a gambling game, but your skill can influence it a bit.
First learn to play pinball very well, and use the skills you learnt to earn money on bingo machines.
Sunday we all went to the yearly open air jukebox show in Rosmalen. We visit this show every year.
There were not a lot of pinball machines, even less jukeboxes than previous years. More rock&roll, rockabilly, .. I didn't buy a lot, just a manual for Funhouse and Orbitor One. I'm especially happy with the O1 manual (even it's german) as the game is rare and finding a manual for it is also not easy.. (I only had a bad photocopy of the german manual). Also met some people there that we see every year at the show..
In the afternoon we had to say goodbye as our visitors had to start their long trip back home..
Over the years we've already had some other pinball visitors from abroad at our house (Germany, Poland, Netherlands, United Kingdom), but Ari and Teemu from Finland came from the most far away..
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Indiana Jones redecal
Went yesterday evening to a friend to help him put new cabinet decals on his Indiana Jones pinball machine.
That machine was last summer at my house where we sanded and prepped the cabinet. Then he took it home, finally he had finished shopping the playfield.
I've only decaled one pinball machine before (also an IJ). We did the coin door part first, using the wet method. This means you put some soapy solution onto the wood first, so you can position the decal a bit when it's down. Then you really push it down and get all water out. It went well, it was correctly positioned, but the decal didn't stick as much as we liked. While cutting the edges you had to be careful not to lift up the decal and introduce bubbles.
We put the bottom cabinet aside with some heavy books on top of the decal and did the backbox next.
Both sides went on, this time dry. First we position the decal with protective backing still on. Make sure it overlaps everywhere. Then using masking tape I tape down one edge (top side as it is a bit wider than the bottom side). That way it cannot move. First practice, with backing still on, roll it over the cabinet to see we end up perfect like it has to be.
Pull back the protective backing and start rolling it in place. Eric kept the other end up in the air and pulled away the backing, while I pushed the decal in place and made sure we got no air bubbles. It all went very smooth.
Having done the backbox like this, we decided to also do the cabinet sides also dry.
Now the front decal stuck well btw, having dried out a bit and with the books on it.
The long cabinet sides are the most difficult to apply. You really have to make sure you are very straight as if you start a bit at a wrong angle, at the end you'll be off a large part (as the cabinet decals are so long) !
Again positioned the decals correctly, so the lines matched the lines from the front decal.. IJ cabinet decals from pinball.com don't line up perfectly btw, and to have them line up pretty close you'll see a white edge at the top.. but don't worry about that as the siderails goes over it so you won't see it anyway. But there's only one or two mm that you can move the decal around, it's a tight fit over the cabinet side. There's no room for mistakes !
Put on masking tape to make sure the decal stayed in position at the front. Then then usual process, Eric kept it up in the air, peeling the backing away and I pushed it onto the cabinet.
This also went very smooth.. in the end the whole process took us less than 2 hours.
(I think decaling itself was 1,5 hour, the rest of the time was putting the game in his living room, making preparations, ..)
Didn't take pictures, will try to remember when I go there next week to put the playfield back in.. a freshly decaled cabinet looks very nice !
btw: we worked with the cabinet put onto a thick blanket, we both wore wool sweaters, we worked over the decals, this resulted in static electricity !
We both were charged a lot, each time we touched something it resulted in a zap, folding up the blanket zapped us, .. good thing we didn't have to handle sensitive electronics and didn't touch the pcbs in the backbox.
That machine was last summer at my house where we sanded and prepped the cabinet. Then he took it home, finally he had finished shopping the playfield.
I've only decaled one pinball machine before (also an IJ). We did the coin door part first, using the wet method. This means you put some soapy solution onto the wood first, so you can position the decal a bit when it's down. Then you really push it down and get all water out. It went well, it was correctly positioned, but the decal didn't stick as much as we liked. While cutting the edges you had to be careful not to lift up the decal and introduce bubbles.
We put the bottom cabinet aside with some heavy books on top of the decal and did the backbox next.
Both sides went on, this time dry. First we position the decal with protective backing still on. Make sure it overlaps everywhere. Then using masking tape I tape down one edge (top side as it is a bit wider than the bottom side). That way it cannot move. First practice, with backing still on, roll it over the cabinet to see we end up perfect like it has to be.
Pull back the protective backing and start rolling it in place. Eric kept the other end up in the air and pulled away the backing, while I pushed the decal in place and made sure we got no air bubbles. It all went very smooth.
Having done the backbox like this, we decided to also do the cabinet sides also dry.
Now the front decal stuck well btw, having dried out a bit and with the books on it.
The long cabinet sides are the most difficult to apply. You really have to make sure you are very straight as if you start a bit at a wrong angle, at the end you'll be off a large part (as the cabinet decals are so long) !
Again positioned the decals correctly, so the lines matched the lines from the front decal.. IJ cabinet decals from pinball.com don't line up perfectly btw, and to have them line up pretty close you'll see a white edge at the top.. but don't worry about that as the siderails goes over it so you won't see it anyway. But there's only one or two mm that you can move the decal around, it's a tight fit over the cabinet side. There's no room for mistakes !
Put on masking tape to make sure the decal stayed in position at the front. Then then usual process, Eric kept it up in the air, peeling the backing away and I pushed it onto the cabinet.
This also went very smooth.. in the end the whole process took us less than 2 hours.
(I think decaling itself was 1,5 hour, the rest of the time was putting the game in his living room, making preparations, ..)
Didn't take pictures, will try to remember when I go there next week to put the playfield back in.. a freshly decaled cabinet looks very nice !
btw: we worked with the cabinet put onto a thick blanket, we both wore wool sweaters, we worked over the decals, this resulted in static electricity !
We both were charged a lot, each time we touched something it resulted in a zap, folding up the blanket zapped us, .. good thing we didn't have to handle sensitive electronics and didn't touch the pcbs in the backbox.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Italian pinball championship
I'm preparing for the Italian Pinball Championship that's in Milan next weekend.
We're going ! Hope to see you there ?!
Heres more info about the italian pinball championship.
We're going ! Hope to see you there ?!
Heres more info about the italian pinball championship.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
new flipper rubbers and pinball rings in stock
Got a lot of new pinball rubbers in earlier this week.. almost didn't have any rings anymore in some sizes. Had them at a good price too :-) Let me know if you need a new rubber set for your pinball machine..
Thursday, February 18, 2010
pinball cut in half
Added a picture to http://www.flippers.be/basics/101-pinballs.html
of a pinball cut in the middle. Cool to see the inside, I always thought they were of the same consistency, looks like they are two different grades of steel around eachother ?
of a pinball cut in the middle. Cool to see the inside, I always thought they were of the same consistency, looks like they are two different grades of steel around eachother ?
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
WPC sound upgrade parts
Went to an electronic parts shop this afternoon..
(another shop I went to earlier this week was closed because of summer holidays.. how am I supposed to get any work done when I can't get the parts I need ?)
Bought new capacitors to try on the MM tweeter, will check if a 4.7 or 6.8 mfd one will block enough low sounds so the tweeter doesn't distort anymore.
Didn't buy l-pads but did get pots to check if I could plug it on R17/R39 like the ones pinball pro sells. Check the CV sound page at iobium.com btw for more information about this.
I hope to test everything it this weekend, before I leave on holiday.. Italy here we come !
Didn't have time this evening to already test the capacitors as I was home quite late.. went with a friend to an operator. I didn't buy anything (I don't buy or sell games, don't have the room to store them, and even if I wanted to buy a game I couldn't as I crashed my car earlier this week so couldn't transport it back home.. but I went along as I was curious to see what games were left.. I never say no to a warehouse visit). My friend also didn't buy any pinball machines as most of what available was only good for parts (and even then) and he didn't want to fill up his truck with 12 games to part them all out..
He did buy a NOS Bally Monte Carlo backglass for 50 euros. Not a bad score !
Not that he really needed it, but Monte Carlo has nice artwork so it's nice to hang in a gameroom against the wall as decoration.. and a NOS pinball backglass is a rare find..
Don't remember exactly what other backglasses were available;. about 5 other pinball backlasses, mostly of electro-mechanical games (stuff like Capersville, Super Circus,.. ), and a lot (50 or so) bingo backglasses (mostly Bally) and backglasses from other vintage amusement games like bowlers..
Bingo machine backglasses are something I'm really not interested in myself so we left them there in the basement.. there was also another room with a lot of bingo backglasses from parted games.
Just checked ipdb.org and the super circus backglass is already 50 years old.. and has quite nice artwork too.. maybe I should've bought it ? maybe next time..
There were a lot of neogeos (with 4 games) and some mortal combats (ultimate mk and mk2/3 if I'm not mistaken) also available.. not in mint condition, all faded, came off location.. but still interesting for some people as it's a popular game.
Today I also searched a bit on rgp and other sites about the door flasher mod on Twilight Zone that's also I intended to do for a looooong time now.
Last year I parted out a Funhouse, and kept the flashers that are underneath the clock so I could them for this mod.. only have to test on how to connect them exactly..
Did anyone buy the pingizmos door flasher mod (they don't exist anymore ?) and want to tell me how the wiring is exactly ?
(another shop I went to earlier this week was closed because of summer holidays.. how am I supposed to get any work done when I can't get the parts I need ?)
Bought new capacitors to try on the MM tweeter, will check if a 4.7 or 6.8 mfd one will block enough low sounds so the tweeter doesn't distort anymore.
Didn't buy l-pads but did get pots to check if I could plug it on R17/R39 like the ones pinball pro sells. Check the CV sound page at iobium.com btw for more information about this.
I hope to test everything it this weekend, before I leave on holiday.. Italy here we come !
Didn't have time this evening to already test the capacitors as I was home quite late.. went with a friend to an operator. I didn't buy anything (I don't buy or sell games, don't have the room to store them, and even if I wanted to buy a game I couldn't as I crashed my car earlier this week so couldn't transport it back home.. but I went along as I was curious to see what games were left.. I never say no to a warehouse visit). My friend also didn't buy any pinball machines as most of what available was only good for parts (and even then) and he didn't want to fill up his truck with 12 games to part them all out..
He did buy a NOS Bally Monte Carlo backglass for 50 euros. Not a bad score !
Not that he really needed it, but Monte Carlo has nice artwork so it's nice to hang in a gameroom against the wall as decoration.. and a NOS pinball backglass is a rare find..
Don't remember exactly what other backglasses were available;. about 5 other pinball backlasses, mostly of electro-mechanical games (stuff like Capersville, Super Circus,.. ), and a lot (50 or so) bingo backglasses (mostly Bally) and backglasses from other vintage amusement games like bowlers..
Bingo machine backglasses are something I'm really not interested in myself so we left them there in the basement.. there was also another room with a lot of bingo backglasses from parted games.
Just checked ipdb.org and the super circus backglass is already 50 years old.. and has quite nice artwork too.. maybe I should've bought it ? maybe next time..
There were a lot of neogeos (with 4 games) and some mortal combats (ultimate mk and mk2/3 if I'm not mistaken) also available.. not in mint condition, all faded, came off location.. but still interesting for some people as it's a popular game.
Today I also searched a bit on rgp and other sites about the door flasher mod on Twilight Zone that's also I intended to do for a looooong time now.
Last year I parted out a Funhouse, and kept the flashers that are underneath the clock so I could them for this mod.. only have to test on how to connect them exactly..
Did anyone buy the pingizmos door flasher mod (they don't exist anymore ?) and want to tell me how the wiring is exactly ?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Black Hole
Haven't posted a lot the last weeks.
We've been busy redecorating the gameroom.
The walls and ceiling got a new color, even some flashy 70ies wavy wallpaper.
This weekend I finally started on my Black Hole.
About 1,5 year ago I had taken all parts off the playfield, but then put everything in a box.. Other games also had small problems so I worked first on those, and just didn't want to start on the Black Hole.. because this is a large project.
Even shopping the pin, cleaning all parts, assembling everything back together is not something you do very quickly. It takes a lot of time..
I always waited to start this until I would have a few days off so I could work on it without many interruptions, but this just doesn't happen.
So I'll work now every evening a bit on it.. After 3 hours of work the small playfield is about 80% assembled again.
Still need to put on some plastics, new lightbulbs, and check the bottom side.
Then I can reassemble all parts on the main playfield.
Biggest issue then will be the electronics.. but I now have spare boards out of a Gottlieb Spring Break pinball machine I parted out so I should be covered..
(does anyone need plastics or playfield parts from a Spring Break ?)
We've been busy redecorating the gameroom.
The walls and ceiling got a new color, even some flashy 70ies wavy wallpaper.
This weekend I finally started on my Black Hole.
About 1,5 year ago I had taken all parts off the playfield, but then put everything in a box.. Other games also had small problems so I worked first on those, and just didn't want to start on the Black Hole.. because this is a large project.
Even shopping the pin, cleaning all parts, assembling everything back together is not something you do very quickly. It takes a lot of time..
I always waited to start this until I would have a few days off so I could work on it without many interruptions, but this just doesn't happen.
So I'll work now every evening a bit on it.. After 3 hours of work the small playfield is about 80% assembled again.
Still need to put on some plastics, new lightbulbs, and check the bottom side.
Then I can reassemble all parts on the main playfield.
Biggest issue then will be the electronics.. but I now have spare boards out of a Gottlieb Spring Break pinball machine I parted out so I should be covered..
(does anyone need plastics or playfield parts from a Spring Break ?)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Orbitor 1 speaks
My Orbitor 1 speaks !
Sterns Orbitor One pinball machine was designed to have a speech board, but not every game had this one installed.. like my machine. It only had a soundboard.
Last year I had already bought a speech board from a Flight 2000 but I had only the board itself, and not the flatcables to connect it to the lamp driver board. And I had once read on rec.games.pinball from someone who also wanted to upgrade his machine, that there was an additional connector needed in the wiring loom which wasn't present.
So it wasn't a matter of just plugging it in, therefor I never put any time in it.
Last week however I acquired a Stern Freefall. This game also had the sound and speech board installed and had the complete wiring in the backbox. Its condition is too bad to repair (very worn playfield, ..) so I was going to use it for spare parts.
Now I had a full set of board and the complete wiring.. so this week I worked every evening on retrofitting the speech board in my Orbitor One.
I'll make detailed pictures and write an article for my website in a few days..
but the good news is that it was much easier to connect the soundboard than I thought it would be, as the missing connector actually was present in the wiring !!
It was just very well hidden :)
Update: here is the article on about adding a speech board into a Stern pinball machine.
Sterns Orbitor One pinball machine was designed to have a speech board, but not every game had this one installed.. like my machine. It only had a soundboard.
Last year I had already bought a speech board from a Flight 2000 but I had only the board itself, and not the flatcables to connect it to the lamp driver board. And I had once read on rec.games.pinball from someone who also wanted to upgrade his machine, that there was an additional connector needed in the wiring loom which wasn't present.
So it wasn't a matter of just plugging it in, therefor I never put any time in it.
Last week however I acquired a Stern Freefall. This game also had the sound and speech board installed and had the complete wiring in the backbox. Its condition is too bad to repair (very worn playfield, ..) so I was going to use it for spare parts.
Now I had a full set of board and the complete wiring.. so this week I worked every evening on retrofitting the speech board in my Orbitor One.
I'll make detailed pictures and write an article for my website in a few days..
but the good news is that it was much easier to connect the soundboard than I thought it would be, as the missing connector actually was present in the wiring !!
It was just very well hidden :)
Update: here is the article on about adding a speech board into a Stern pinball machine.
Monday, May 19, 2008
I found Rudy from Funhouse pinball
A picture I made yesterday at the Open Air Jukebox show in Rosmalen..
I'm sure this is Rudy from the Funhouse pinball machine..
Sure he looks a bit older and clearly had a bad hair day.. but it's really him !
:-)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Fireball is in the house !
I have a Bally Fireball pinball machine !! (again)
I'm happy :-)
This game was on my wish list for a long time.
I found a project machine for a good price. But it is a serious project.
No backglass or legs. The seller said it was in a garden shed for a while, which can be seen.. rubber rings became brittle and some even melted ! Cabinet is also faded, the blue looks a lot lighter than I remember from other Fireballs.
The good news is that all plastics are ok. Playfield is reasonable, some paint starts to flake off at the bottom, but not much more than I saw on another Fireball.
This is the fourth time I have a Fireball in my house and I hope this one will be a keeper.. that'll probably depend if I find time to repair it or if it'll still be in a corner in the gameroom in a few year from now..
First Fireball I bought was years ago, but it had a broken backglass and didn't play well. I didn't know anything about e-m's, couldn't fix it and I sold it to someone who did have a spare backglass.
Second Fireball wasn't mine, a friend had found one for sale for $100 in my town, so I picked it up for him.
Third Fireball was 2 years ago, but also wasn't really my game. Got it from a friend and I could buy it if I wanted, but the game was also not working and the playfield had a bit too much wear for what I was looking for and considering his price. So after a few weeks he took the game back..
I'm happy :-)
This game was on my wish list for a long time.
I found a project machine for a good price. But it is a serious project.
No backglass or legs. The seller said it was in a garden shed for a while, which can be seen.. rubber rings became brittle and some even melted ! Cabinet is also faded, the blue looks a lot lighter than I remember from other Fireballs.
The good news is that all plastics are ok. Playfield is reasonable, some paint starts to flake off at the bottom, but not much more than I saw on another Fireball.
This is the fourth time I have a Fireball in my house and I hope this one will be a keeper.. that'll probably depend if I find time to repair it or if it'll still be in a corner in the gameroom in a few year from now..
First Fireball I bought was years ago, but it had a broken backglass and didn't play well. I didn't know anything about e-m's, couldn't fix it and I sold it to someone who did have a spare backglass.
Second Fireball wasn't mine, a friend had found one for sale for $100 in my town, so I picked it up for him.
Third Fireball was 2 years ago, but also wasn't really my game. Got it from a friend and I could buy it if I wanted, but the game was also not working and the playfield had a bit too much wear for what I was looking for and considering his price. So after a few weeks he took the game back..
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Spiderman pinball machine
The new Spiderman pinball machine by Stern is out on test.
Pictures can be found on sites like pinballnews.com.
With the newest Spiderman film now released and breaking box office records, this looks like a very good license for Stern ! Let's hope the machine goes out of testing phase and is actually released and put on location by operators very soon.
The pinball machines is based on all 3 Spiderman movies btw, and not on the original comic book series (the Gottlieb Spiderman pinball machine made in the early 1980ies is).
I'm looking forward to seeing this on location..
(I still haven't played Stern previous pinball machine, Family Guy)
Pictures can be found on sites like pinballnews.com.
With the newest Spiderman film now released and breaking box office records, this looks like a very good license for Stern ! Let's hope the machine goes out of testing phase and is actually released and put on location by operators very soon.
The pinball machines is based on all 3 Spiderman movies btw, and not on the original comic book series (the Gottlieb Spiderman pinball machine made in the early 1980ies is).
I'm looking forward to seeing this on location..
(I still haven't played Stern previous pinball machine, Family Guy)
Friday, April 13, 2007
Screen printing
Worked yesterday further on my 'secret' article. Almost done now !
I think I will put it online this weekend and if I get new information I'll just update it.
I've added something important: the difference between process and spot screenprinting.
I knew about it before but didn't really research it. Now I did and it's more important than I first thought..
so a quarter of the article completely changed, some new interesting historic details were added, some new pictures, ..
My domain name www.flippers.be exists for 3 years now, so that article is a nice present to myself :)
The content btw is much older, I think I already started in 2000 or 2001 on my personal webspace with the 'newbie pages to pinball' (now renamed to pinball basics).
Something completely different but also pinball-related if it has to be, our fridge came back from the painter yesterday. It looks cool, identical color of the new kitchen cabinets.
The painter said he also has once clearcoated a pinball playfield and it costs about 75 euro to do. Interesting to know !!
I still have a Bally Eight Ball (with The Fonz on the backglass) in almost perfect condition, so when I restore that game it's a good candidate to have the playfield clearcoated.
Still haven't had time to set up the new Whirlwind. The gameroom is in the winter also being used as storage room. First have to take out our bicycles, get rid of the empty cabinet of a Williams JokerZ I parted, and then I can set it up. Can't wait to play it.. but I have to as other things have priority.
The good news is yesterday a set of SafeCracker antiqued tokens arrived. I ordered them last week from http://www.pinball.com Got them in a week, that's pretty fast.
They really look great.
The bad news is that one of them is wrong !!
Instead of the Getaway truck token that was antiqued in the original set (shows a truck in 3D), the Armor Truck token has been antiqued (shows a truck from the side). This Armor Truck token was not antiqued originally..
I think I will put it online this weekend and if I get new information I'll just update it.
I've added something important: the difference between process and spot screenprinting.
I knew about it before but didn't really research it. Now I did and it's more important than I first thought..
so a quarter of the article completely changed, some new interesting historic details were added, some new pictures, ..
My domain name www.flippers.be exists for 3 years now, so that article is a nice present to myself :)
The content btw is much older, I think I already started in 2000 or 2001 on my personal webspace with the 'newbie pages to pinball' (now renamed to pinball basics).
Something completely different but also pinball-related if it has to be, our fridge came back from the painter yesterday. It looks cool, identical color of the new kitchen cabinets.
The painter said he also has once clearcoated a pinball playfield and it costs about 75 euro to do. Interesting to know !!
I still have a Bally Eight Ball (with The Fonz on the backglass) in almost perfect condition, so when I restore that game it's a good candidate to have the playfield clearcoated.
Still haven't had time to set up the new Whirlwind. The gameroom is in the winter also being used as storage room. First have to take out our bicycles, get rid of the empty cabinet of a Williams JokerZ I parted, and then I can set it up. Can't wait to play it.. but I have to as other things have priority.
The good news is yesterday a set of SafeCracker antiqued tokens arrived. I ordered them last week from http://www.pinball.com Got them in a week, that's pretty fast.
They really look great.
The bad news is that one of them is wrong !!
Instead of the Getaway truck token that was antiqued in the original set (shows a truck in 3D), the Armor Truck token has been antiqued (shows a truck from the side). This Armor Truck token was not antiqued originally..
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Warehouse find.
Been busy the last weeks with a warehouse find.
Technically it was not really a find as we know the operator for many years, and he contacted us. My wife had met him years ago at a distributor when she was there to buy some parts.
He asked for help to sell some machines as he really needs the space and wants to get rid of some machines very fast. He has everything, pinball machines, old and new, but also a lot of old arcade video games. So we made a few phone calls to people who can buy a few dozen games at once..
And by coincidence another operator I know told me last week he will clean out his warehouse in about 3 months.
I'm really curious to visit that warehouse and take pictures. He said there are a lot of old pinball machines but even (broken, incomplete) jukeboxes and even some slotmachines and jukeboxes. You never know what treasures I'll find ?!
I don't have room in my gameroom (or a truck to move everything or the 10.000's of euros needed to buy big lots of machines like this) but just walking through hundreds of old arcade games, hunting for that one special machine, is always nice.
Pictures of a similar warehouse find I had a few years ago can be seen at this page.
The article from my previous post will have to wait for a few weeks. It's almost finished but I want to wait on the feedback of someone and that can take 2 weeks or more..
Technically it was not really a find as we know the operator for many years, and he contacted us. My wife had met him years ago at a distributor when she was there to buy some parts.
He asked for help to sell some machines as he really needs the space and wants to get rid of some machines very fast. He has everything, pinball machines, old and new, but also a lot of old arcade video games. So we made a few phone calls to people who can buy a few dozen games at once..
And by coincidence another operator I know told me last week he will clean out his warehouse in about 3 months.
I'm really curious to visit that warehouse and take pictures. He said there are a lot of old pinball machines but even (broken, incomplete) jukeboxes and even some slotmachines and jukeboxes. You never know what treasures I'll find ?!
I don't have room in my gameroom (or a truck to move everything or the 10.000's of euros needed to buy big lots of machines like this) but just walking through hundreds of old arcade games, hunting for that one special machine, is always nice.
Pictures of a similar warehouse find I had a few years ago can be seen at this page.
The article from my previous post will have to wait for a few weeks. It's almost finished but I want to wait on the feedback of someone and that can take 2 weeks or more..
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