Comet was the machine that got me hooked on pinball back in 87 as a kid. My first machine was a comet bought for nostalgic reasons about 5 years ago, that packed up so I got another cheap and then managed to fix the first, so now have 2 working. One has a perfect ramp, but I use the tapered yellow rubbers (used on hurricane) at the entrance to the ramp to try and prevent a direct hit to the weak spot, seems to work and makes the game a little harder....

Yes! Comet got me hooked back in the day. I remember playing one at the local laundromat back in the day. I remember hearing "million...million...million" (the voice of Steve Kordek) and then making the million shot and the machine going crazy, wow that made my day! I remember the dunk the dummy voice taunting me, now we know it is Steve Ritchie. I remember staring at the backglass and wondering back then who would come up with that crazy back glass artwork, and now we know...Python. Thanks to Barry Oursler for a great design. I must have dumped enough quarters back then to buy the game. I sure hope the pinball magazine profiles Barry soon. After that, I got hooked on Cyclone. Today, I have a Comet in my home and it's not leaving. It is a little easy on the default settings, so I adjust all the settings to hard to make it more challenging in the home environment (cycle ramp and center ramp is not lit by default, you have to light them first, makes the million shot a rare occurrence). Still love playing it after almost 30 years.

What he said ^^! Love it!

Comet was one of my favorite games from when I was a kid. For a while, I shrugged off owning one because it didn't have multiball, but eventually I kept seeing it and was reminded of what an absolutely beautiful machine it is. I picked up a beater early this year and did a full job on it - basically everything just short of swapping the playfield, which fortunately was mylared. It's surprising how fun this game is - there are actually a lot of rules once you start paying attention to what does what. I hope to keep this machine for many years to come, as I enjoy admiring it as much as I do playing it.

Here are some pics of how mine came out:

3.png
1.png
2.png

-BB

Comet was a BIG money maker back in the day. We probably had 30+ on route.

A few months back, James "King of Cranes" and I put a bunch of pins in a 20something bar and Comet was the best earner of the group. Better than AFM, Shadow, TAF.....it still earns.

Very interesting. I feel it's a pretty "approachable" game - lots of newer games seem can intimidating to new players. Might be why it still makes money.

I just did a lot of work on my Comet!
Love it!
IMAG1805.jpg

I know of a comet in an operators warehouse that has been sitting untouched for twenty five years that is in great shape. The downside it's missing a backglass. I've kept my eyes open several years for a replacement but have never seen one for sale. If I find a replacement glass I'll go save this comet. The guy claims it was almost new when the glass got busted on route. He put it in the building and never bought a new glass.

My mom has a really nice Comet, pf and bg are pristine, plays solid and smooth. 2 score units went out so I am replacing them all with the LED kit. Should be pretty reliable. Interested in any reinforcements for the ramps.

Ok, I am in! I have a huge restoration job in front of me this winter but luckily the playfield is in decent shape. It's just everything else LOL.

Anyone here actually hit the million point shot?

Comet is my "Holy Grail" pin!! I have 2 of them. One nice one and one total turd! The cycle ramp and corkscrew ramp have reproduction replacements available that are made from pretty strong material. To date, still no replacement for the center ramp although you can find NOS ramps from time to time on eBay. Just get your wallet out and start crying.
I would pay good money to find a hidden treasure in a warehouse that just needed a backglass! The playfield paint is usually turned to dust on most of them and nobody has made a reproduction yet. What a shame! CPR.... HINT, HINT!!

I'm calling out Amarillopinball here, he should be in the club, or sell his to me and let me join

I've hit it only once. The game goes insane! Great light show and display animation for the time.

-BB

Ok I am in.

Yes , I have hit the million shot many times and it never loses it's luster. Right Flipper is the key.

The sounds of time running out gets the adrenaline pumping, just stay calm and get a clean shot off and hope you get lucky.

lots of times, but it's a joy to hit it. my neighbor's played great (until he dismantled it to get the pf clearcoated and hasn't reassembled it yet

Comet is the game that started the sickness for me. Super fun game!

I can't wait to get mine finished. Just got Centaur finished last night, so tonight is tweaks to remaining bulbs and switches and leveling, then probably a few hours of playing it. Then back to working on Comet next week. I just have to reassemble the top playfield and it is all 100% rebuilt and working, minus the MPU that is still giving me trouble.

I used Comet brand LEDS.
Superbrights with Faceted lens
Mix of blues and whites in the Comet name and orange and reds elsewhere in the same style.
It looks awesome when you hit the Million shot!

Of course,several times in the same game too!

alright I am in the club now. I have a nice comet, but the mylar is a little dirty/bubbled. Thinking I will remove, but still too chicken

Comet is a classic. I spent a lot of time on that pin in it's prime.

Absolutely beautiful. I like LEDS, but I think your regular lamps suit this game better.

If anyone needs parts:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fs-comet-parts

I grabbed one last week from an estate sale.

Playfield has very little wear. Perfect backglass.

Still has the mylar on it in decent condition.

Just had to replace a couple bulbs and install a battery and it works 100%

20141005_003124.jpg

Nice grab there!

Thanks!

The PF art really is fantastic on this game. Great flow, colors, and a fantastic balance of busy and clean. Python really was a great artist, and this was his first pin too! It is just very inviting and pleasing to look at.

are there any cliffys that could fit the center ramp?

I don't know, but you could always reinforce it with some thin aluminum sheeting on the opposite side. My entrance is cracked, so I epoxied a thin sheet on the opposite side and now I'm going to glue a thin sheet of clear plastic on the top side that meets up with where the ramp cracked. Not pretty, but functional. Also need to build a gate for it too from the same stuff, along with wire gates. I just build missing gates from galvanized steel wire.

If anyone in the Chicago suburbs is craving a game of Comet... you can play it at the Underground Retrocade in West Dundee, IL.

http://undergroundretrocade.com/

Hey Dummy!

Any great Comet Playfield restorers out there.? Just asking... PM me please..

We have 3 in various conditions...

Have a nice mylared example for color matching , etc... ... Let me know.

NT>

This is the first pin I purchased. This is the best pin I have played to teach someone new to pinball how to play. It has some pretty long ball times and you can teach ball control on this machine pretty easily. Great bang for your buck.

Good luck with that post pass...

I am a kinda shitty Comet restorer. For great, you'd have to ask Vid.

Speaking of "shitty", did you know that the bouncer "Tiny" from Wayne's World was Meatloaf?
hqdefault.jpg

Wayne: Hey, Tiny, who's playing today?
Tiny: Jolly Green Giants and the Shitty Beatles.
Wayne: Shitty Beatles? Are they any good?
Tiny: They suck.
Wayne: Then it's not just a clever name.

Count me in the club. I bought one a couple years ago. It had sat on Craigslist forever taunting me. So I bought it in a moment of weakness. Two of the displays were bad, so I bought the Pinscore LED kit and put the original master and the 4 displays on eBay. Net cost to go to LEDs was less than $25 (YMMV). I think they look great.

I picked up a Cyclone to go with it and now they are both hounding me to get a Hurricane to finish the set. How come you can't just buy 1?

I love mine though. I just finished replacing the flipper switches and EOS on both flippers because the flippers were playing weak. Question for other owners. The schematics show there is a capacitor (220mfd at 100V, IIRC) but there is nothing on either set of flippers. Is this capacitor supposed to be there or not? If it is, could somebody post a pic of your flippers so I can see how it is supposed to be wired in?

Thanks.

ken

Count me in the club Too! I picked a comet just about 2 years ago - locally just to get my hands on a "REAL" Pinball Machine !!! Lol. I have to admit it was just Ok, I thought maybe playable and fun enough to stand up to home use only. Well tore it down after first night and party and have been working on it countless hours/weeks/months since(for 2 yrs remember). I have went through everything on this COMET...I mean EVERYTHING! I watched PinballMiked fabulous MB Restore videos before owning my first pin and was blown away with the complexity/challenge it would be to do a pf swap and restore to that level. Well that inadvertently instilled in me the desire to restore a pinball machine and "This is what has been so great about owning this Comet is the many hours of laboring on and old game and being truly rewarded when I was done and topped it off with a cometpinball.com led's transformation!!!
Well here it is I hope you guys like it! - And wanted to give a very special thanks out to Mike D. And VID1900 for helping me along with all my stupid questions! THANKS GUYS

Count me in, love those system 9`s.

FINALLY. I just got the million point shot for the first time ever, and logged a high score, after many attempts.

ALTHOUGH, I am super sad that you can't add initials to the high score

Hi,

I new to pinball; just picked up a comet in fair condition. One big problem was the backbox was not laid down correctly and was it was ripped out. Can someone show me, from the back, what should be on the backbox and what should be on the cabinet. I will add what I have later today.

I'm in??

MM

Out

You just carve them into the side of the backbox along with your score.