The Southland Little Pro manikin golf game is restored :)
Just noticed I hadn't posted anything about it here the last weeks.
This was my christmas holiday project - it took me a few days to disassemble and clean everything. It wasn't too bad to get working (it's very simple technically).
Most things were working, it was more a matter of cleaning switches and adjusting, ..
It's a fun game, pretty easy once you get used to it, but still fun.
The TOP dvd about manikin games was a help. The resistor/varistor (whatever it's called) was also bad on mine, and another resistor too. Once these were replaced the golfer has enough power in his swing again to get the little metal balls to the end of the playfield.
Haven't had time to write something about it on the website, will do this once the gameroom is reorganised (now everything is too close together to make decent pictures).
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
some changes
It's been a while since I posted. As always I was busy with a lot of things..
We made some important decisions and changes.. as we put too much time in pinball and everything related we're stopping with some of these things.
Don't worry though - our pinball website will remain.
New articles will still be posted, especially in the newbie / technical / modification sections. (feel free to email me if you want to submit an article, ie if you made an interesting mod to one of your pinball machines).
Articles about new shows may be less updated.. Even from shows in 2007 I haven't put a lot of pictures online as some shows always have the same exhibitors as the past year. Not a lot of use me posting pictures of exhibitors at a show that were there too the year before and the year before and the year before.. you really should know what to expect now at a show..
What is stopped however is technical support by email. In the past I often got emails from people with a problem, and we tried to help them by email. We don't have time for this anymore. Only email me if you do have some pinball repair skills and need help troubleshooting something. But don't expect me to learn you how to use a dmm, how to solder and how to fix your pin by email..
I also had on my website that people in Belgium could email me to get contact information of someone in their neighbourhood that could maybe help them with a repair. Again no more time to answer all these emails - I put some links to official repair people in Belgium on my site that you can contact direct. Only if you're in my area (Antwerp) I may be able to help you.
Finally we won't have any 'open days' at our house anymore.
Our gameroom and collection is now private.. the past years there have been an immense growth of pinball collectors in Belgium. That's a good thing of course, but the disadvantage is that everyone wanted to come. If we announced that people could come for an afternoon of pinball, a few hours later we had already reached out maximum amount of people.. so 2/3rd of the people that asked we had to turn down, which sometimes also made us feel bad as there were good friends that couldn't come..
we just know too many people ? :( So as to not disappoint anyone anymore or have people think that we prefer person X over person Y, it's easier for us not to invite anyone over anymore, instead of worrying if someone is going to be mad at us because he wasn't welcome..
We're also selling part of our pinball collection. Maybe I will regret this, maybe I won't.. we'll see. We have for instance a beautiful Twilight Zone (it almost looks as new, is in our personal collection for +7 years now) but my wife or I haven't played it in years. We both have our favorite games, and some other games are just standing there, only to be played by guests. The gameroom is full, games are crammed against each other (I know it's only 2 months since we rearranged everything), so we decided to only keep those games that we really love and play often, and rearrange the interior. Some people don't understand this (most collectors want as many games as possible and always try to fit an extra game in their house) but that's their problem. We always bought games because we wanted them, for ourselves. Not because a game was a 'must have in a collection'.
Our promo plastics collection is for sale on ebay.be right now, and many spare parts I have collected in the past years will follow. If you need anything, feel free to email me, as I have a lot of spare parts, NOS and from parted games.
I'm also parting out a Funhouse. If you need pcbs (displays, sound board, ..) or playfield parts (plastics, assemblies) then let me know..
We made some important decisions and changes.. as we put too much time in pinball and everything related we're stopping with some of these things.
Don't worry though - our pinball website will remain.
New articles will still be posted, especially in the newbie / technical / modification sections. (feel free to email me if you want to submit an article, ie if you made an interesting mod to one of your pinball machines).
Articles about new shows may be less updated.. Even from shows in 2007 I haven't put a lot of pictures online as some shows always have the same exhibitors as the past year. Not a lot of use me posting pictures of exhibitors at a show that were there too the year before and the year before and the year before.. you really should know what to expect now at a show..
What is stopped however is technical support by email. In the past I often got emails from people with a problem, and we tried to help them by email. We don't have time for this anymore. Only email me if you do have some pinball repair skills and need help troubleshooting something. But don't expect me to learn you how to use a dmm, how to solder and how to fix your pin by email..
I also had on my website that people in Belgium could email me to get contact information of someone in their neighbourhood that could maybe help them with a repair. Again no more time to answer all these emails - I put some links to official repair people in Belgium on my site that you can contact direct. Only if you're in my area (Antwerp) I may be able to help you.
Finally we won't have any 'open days' at our house anymore.
Our gameroom and collection is now private.. the past years there have been an immense growth of pinball collectors in Belgium. That's a good thing of course, but the disadvantage is that everyone wanted to come. If we announced that people could come for an afternoon of pinball, a few hours later we had already reached out maximum amount of people.. so 2/3rd of the people that asked we had to turn down, which sometimes also made us feel bad as there were good friends that couldn't come..
we just know too many people ? :( So as to not disappoint anyone anymore or have people think that we prefer person X over person Y, it's easier for us not to invite anyone over anymore, instead of worrying if someone is going to be mad at us because he wasn't welcome..
We're also selling part of our pinball collection. Maybe I will regret this, maybe I won't.. we'll see. We have for instance a beautiful Twilight Zone (it almost looks as new, is in our personal collection for +7 years now) but my wife or I haven't played it in years. We both have our favorite games, and some other games are just standing there, only to be played by guests. The gameroom is full, games are crammed against each other (I know it's only 2 months since we rearranged everything), so we decided to only keep those games that we really love and play often, and rearrange the interior. Some people don't understand this (most collectors want as many games as possible and always try to fit an extra game in their house) but that's their problem. We always bought games because we wanted them, for ourselves. Not because a game was a 'must have in a collection'.
Our promo plastics collection is for sale on ebay.be right now, and many spare parts I have collected in the past years will follow. If you need anything, feel free to email me, as I have a lot of spare parts, NOS and from parted games.
I'm also parting out a Funhouse. If you need pcbs (displays, sound board, ..) or playfield parts (plastics, assemblies) then let me know..
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
played Wheel of Fortune
Again some changes in the gameroom.
Diner unfortunately already had to leave.. it looked nice, was great fun to play, but because of personal reasons one pin had to go and this was it. It was my wifes decision to sell it (also to buy it in the first place).
The Bally 8 Ball has also been picked up this weekend so I now have finally room in the gameroom. I even have an empty space with Diner gone :(
Now I only need to clean up a bit again as there's too many things laying on top of the playfield glasses. Whirlwind is still open, need to solder in a new display glass.
I did put in the new LH6 eprom in Whitewater. Bought it from www.thatpinballplace.com
Very good seller - good prices, fast shipping, good communication, eprom was very well packaged (in plastic tube so the legs wouldn't be damaged and in a static bag).
Unfortunately it didn't solve my mysterious opto switch problem, I'll put in the cpu of the BSD and see what this does. I start to think it is related to the cpu as the playfield does look ok and in switch test the opto registers well..
I played Sterns Wheel of Fortune pinball machine this weekend !
It looks great ! Very colorful. I like the music, sounds, playfield layout, flow, ..
Don't know much about the game rules yet and the game wasn't updated to the latest version. It played very smooth though, I like the loop, I like the ramps, ..
Didn't get a high score, I did start a few multiballs. The outlanes and posts between the flippers are something you need to get used to but it plays well. The post between the flippers did save some balls (when I played Spiderman it usually didn't).
I'll try to put some pictures on my site one of the next days.
It's weird, everyone likes Spiderman, but I prefer Family Guy and Wheel of Fortune (and would consider owning them if they weren't so expensive new). Maybe in a few years..
Diner unfortunately already had to leave.. it looked nice, was great fun to play, but because of personal reasons one pin had to go and this was it. It was my wifes decision to sell it (also to buy it in the first place).
The Bally 8 Ball has also been picked up this weekend so I now have finally room in the gameroom. I even have an empty space with Diner gone :(
Now I only need to clean up a bit again as there's too many things laying on top of the playfield glasses. Whirlwind is still open, need to solder in a new display glass.
I did put in the new LH6 eprom in Whitewater. Bought it from www.thatpinballplace.com
Very good seller - good prices, fast shipping, good communication, eprom was very well packaged (in plastic tube so the legs wouldn't be damaged and in a static bag).
Unfortunately it didn't solve my mysterious opto switch problem, I'll put in the cpu of the BSD and see what this does. I start to think it is related to the cpu as the playfield does look ok and in switch test the opto registers well..
I played Sterns Wheel of Fortune pinball machine this weekend !
It looks great ! Very colorful. I like the music, sounds, playfield layout, flow, ..
Don't know much about the game rules yet and the game wasn't updated to the latest version. It played very smooth though, I like the loop, I like the ramps, ..
Didn't get a high score, I did start a few multiballs. The outlanes and posts between the flippers are something you need to get used to but it plays well. The post between the flippers did save some balls (when I played Spiderman it usually didn't).
I'll try to put some pictures on my site one of the next days.
It's weird, everyone likes Spiderman, but I prefer Family Guy and Wheel of Fortune (and would consider owning them if they weren't so expensive new). Maybe in a few years..
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
gameroom reorganised
The gameroom is reorganised. One side now has all WPC games. Another game we bought is a Williams Diner pinball machine. Friends of us restored it (nos translight, some new insert decals, flamepolished ramps, ..) so it looks and plays very good. It's a nice feeling to buy a pinball game that doesn't need to be shopped, I can just put it in the gameroom and play it.. don't have to put extra time in to clean and adjust it.
In the past I preferred to buy bargains, games from operators and I would repair and clean them myself. But now I don't have any time anymore, so it's nice to buy a game that someone else has done all the work on, so I can just play and enjoy it.
On the other side of the room are all weird-sized games. Wide- and small body games.
Orbitor 1 and Black Hole have wide heads. All other games have regular or smaller then regular heads: Tommy, Little Pro, Outrun and finally Safecracker.
This means there are now 15 games in my gameroom :) It's nice to find space for an extra game in a gameroom of which I always thought it was full..
The heads are really very close together, and this extra game is only possible because Little Pro, Safecracker and Outrun are much smaller.. so I can't replace any of these 3 with a regular pinball machine. Not that I intend to ever sell my Outrun or Safecracker :)
My Fireball project game is sold :( I'll miss it but don't have time to fix it or place to set it up. Some day in the future I'll have room again for an electro-mechanical pinball machine..
The 8 ball project is also sold but still needs to be picked up. Once that's out of the way (it's currently in the middle of the gameroom) I will make some nice pictures of the gameroom, as the ones on my website are 3 years old now.
I also was able to test the Little pro. Good news is that it works on 220 volts and seems to run. You can start a game, a ball gets served and the manikin kicks it away. After 27 hits the game ends, so that part of the game logic also works.
What doesn't work is the switch that registers hole 1 (or the logic that registers a hit at any hole). Still need to troubleshoot this..
I was able to lift the playfield (wasn't very obvious): at both sides of the playfields there are 5 screws. 2 on each side are flatheads, you need to remove them if you want to lift the playfield.
Next step is to clean and shop this game and try to get it completely working..
In the past I preferred to buy bargains, games from operators and I would repair and clean them myself. But now I don't have any time anymore, so it's nice to buy a game that someone else has done all the work on, so I can just play and enjoy it.
On the other side of the room are all weird-sized games. Wide- and small body games.
Orbitor 1 and Black Hole have wide heads. All other games have regular or smaller then regular heads: Tommy, Little Pro, Outrun and finally Safecracker.
This means there are now 15 games in my gameroom :) It's nice to find space for an extra game in a gameroom of which I always thought it was full..
The heads are really very close together, and this extra game is only possible because Little Pro, Safecracker and Outrun are much smaller.. so I can't replace any of these 3 with a regular pinball machine. Not that I intend to ever sell my Outrun or Safecracker :)
My Fireball project game is sold :( I'll miss it but don't have time to fix it or place to set it up. Some day in the future I'll have room again for an electro-mechanical pinball machine..
The 8 ball project is also sold but still needs to be picked up. Once that's out of the way (it's currently in the middle of the gameroom) I will make some nice pictures of the gameroom, as the ones on my website are 3 years old now.
I also was able to test the Little pro. Good news is that it works on 220 volts and seems to run. You can start a game, a ball gets served and the manikin kicks it away. After 27 hits the game ends, so that part of the game logic also works.
What doesn't work is the switch that registers hole 1 (or the logic that registers a hit at any hole). Still need to troubleshoot this..
I was able to lift the playfield (wasn't very obvious): at both sides of the playfields there are 5 screws. 2 on each side are flatheads, you need to remove them if you want to lift the playfield.
Next step is to clean and shop this game and try to get it completely working..
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Southland Little Pro manikin game added
This weekend we've bought a new game, it's a Southland Little Pro mini golf game, made in 1964.
I already knew it was for sale since Februari. We were a bit interested in it as it's a pretty rare game and from what I read it's fun to play. But it was a long drive, most of our weekends were already filled, and we didn't have space to put it. So I kind of forgot about the game.
Last week we got some magazines (Magische Machines by Henk de Jager) and in one of them the game was described. My wife therefor thought again about this machine and decided she really wanted to buy it. She phoned the seller and it was still for sale. We were just in time as their house was for sale and the machine was still in the basement.
So on saturday we went to buy the game. It's in quite good condition, legs are rusted and the bottom pannel had some moisture spots, but the rest of the cabinet is good, playfield is good, and backglass is perfect.
I haven't tested it (even haven't figured out how to open it) but it looks like it will work without a lot of problems.
We also got a large box of tokens. Not really valuable but we collect all different kinds of tokens and we didn't have this (they're from a company in London), and tokens are always useful (this Little Pro game needs them to start a game).
Problem is storage room.. but with some luck and reorganising the gameroom we can fit an additional game in there. I may also sell some of my project machines, I still have a nice Eight Ball and a Bally Fireball. Also have an Italian wallgame I need to fix up and sell (or sell as is) and two german wall-flipper games that I need to check if I can fix them..
I already knew it was for sale since Februari. We were a bit interested in it as it's a pretty rare game and from what I read it's fun to play. But it was a long drive, most of our weekends were already filled, and we didn't have space to put it. So I kind of forgot about the game.
Last week we got some magazines (Magische Machines by Henk de Jager) and in one of them the game was described. My wife therefor thought again about this machine and decided she really wanted to buy it. She phoned the seller and it was still for sale. We were just in time as their house was for sale and the machine was still in the basement.
So on saturday we went to buy the game. It's in quite good condition, legs are rusted and the bottom pannel had some moisture spots, but the rest of the cabinet is good, playfield is good, and backglass is perfect.
I haven't tested it (even haven't figured out how to open it) but it looks like it will work without a lot of problems.
We also got a large box of tokens. Not really valuable but we collect all different kinds of tokens and we didn't have this (they're from a company in London), and tokens are always useful (this Little Pro game needs them to start a game).
Problem is storage room.. but with some luck and reorganising the gameroom we can fit an additional game in there. I may also sell some of my project machines, I still have a nice Eight Ball and a Bally Fireball. Also have an Italian wallgame I need to fix up and sell (or sell as is) and two german wall-flipper games that I need to check if I can fix them..
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