Who ya gonna call?

Aside from some vague recollections of playing several games here and there, I didn't play much pinball as a kid. Most of my exposure came from a 1973 Gottlieb Big Shot that my dad picked up one holiday season. Still, the Atari and 8-bit Nintendo held most of my attention. I spent a lot of time in arcades, but by the time the 90's rolled around I was too busy dumping quarters into Mortal Kombat to notice the innovations in pinball that were taking place. Eventually all my favorite arcade haunts were gone and the chance to play new games went with them.

In early 2006 I bought my first house, which had a bar in the basement. I figured no bar is complete without an arcade machine. I found a cheap Street Fighter 2 (vid) for sale locally. Turns out the guy was an operator that was closing out. Within 2 weeks I had bought several arcade machines from him and started putting together my own basement arcade.

When I told my dad what I had done he offered me the old Gottlieb Big Shot to add a pin to the lineup. I had no idea he even still had it in storage! It was a crash course in EM pinball repair, but I did finally get it working again. The pin was such a hit that I became hooked and started looking into other pinball machines. Fortunately, living in Pittsburgh, I had access to an enormous number of games to see what I liked. Being a long time fan of horror films, I had an attraction to the darker/sci-fi themed games. I picked up a 'Tales from the Crypt' and a 'Twilight Zone' that first year and never looked back. I have also been playing in the Pittsburgh Pinball League ever since then and have made a lot of great friends!

By 2011 I was running out of ideas (and room) for games I wanted to own. I had come up with an idea on how to do a custom sound system and decided I was going to try to make a custom/retheme machine. My buddy found a trashed Flash Gordon and asked if I wanted it. Over a year later and it is now the worlds only Ghostbusters pinball machine!