Earthshaker was the first pin to get me hooked on pinball. I was in college and in between classes, I would often hang out at the campus food bar. One day there was a shiny new pinball machine in the corner. I had played pins before, but never enough to really understand or appreciate the rules and gameplay. Well after my first dollars worth of quarters I was hooked. I must have spent an entire semesters worth of book money. I had every high score n the machine and played every day. Such fond memories. 30 years later, I am finally ready to start looking for one. I Hope when I find one, it will be just as enjoyable as the first time I played one back in 89.

Hey I am finally a proud owner of an Earthshaker! This may be embarrassing but I have always thought when you lock a ball and the cabinet shakes, the voice yells out "Donkey Kong!". My girlfriend thinks it says "Earthshaker". How the hell does earthshaker sound like donkey kong??? Do I have a mental block or something? What is actually being said?

Scoot.

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I always thought Donkey Kong was just something quirky that was said. I absolutely hear that every time. I cannot hear Earthshaker at all. The next time anyone locks a ball, listen for "Donkey Kong" and prove me wrong. Why can't I hear Earthshaker?

Breaking down my Earthshaker and noticed that the ball guides don't line up with the marks on the playfield. Can someone look and see if this is correct?

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I decided to do a minor restoration project of my Earthshaker. I finally tracked down a CPR playfield, have new plastics, and 10 days of uninterrupted vacation. I am going to do as much work as I can within that time period. I’ll try to snap a few pics with my progress.

Please let me know for things to watch out for. My plan is to clean and paint the inner cabinet, do a playfield swap and get everything up and running before the end of vacation.

*Edit* I am 2 days in and finding it very difficult to remove half of the posts from the playfield. They seem to be glued into the t-nuts and are impossible to remove without breaking them. I have made progress on the cabinet. Having a lot of fun so far.

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Thanks for the suggestion, I tried that and even a small propane torch but no luck. Luckily it happened right off so I was able to quickly order some more and now have plenty on hand.

Over half way through my vacation and it is slow going. The gi and it’s stapled wiring is a real pain in the butt, so I have replaced them with regular wiring. I wish I could replace the socket for screwed ones but I ordered the wrong ones. Anyhoo, back to work on it some more. Here are a few pics of my recent progress.

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Two days left of my vacation and I have the topside completed. Now for the rats nest underneath...

I also got a little sidetracked today with my newly acquired dream pin #2 Funhouse...(Earthshaker is #1).

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All my pins are in a walk in basement, which also happens to be my apartment. And when there is snow, I cannot move my pins around unless I too shovel a path. I’m just too damn lazy. I can actually sit on top and ride it down around back and yell, “weeeeee.”

Pinsled! I like that!

I have always been underwhelmed with the plastics palm trees. So when I got new plastics, I decided to upgrade them a little.

Hatisan 20Pcs Coconut Palm Model Trees/Scenery Model Plastic Artificial Layout Rainforest Diorama, Building Model Trees Cake Topper, Model Train Railways Architecture Landscape (Dark trunk) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CVZQDDP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_RXzFCb17D7JJK

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10 days, 110 hours, 32beers, three bloody fingers and one beautiful looking Earthshaker.

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I cut the tree stem to desired height and then drilled a screw size hole in the bottom. Then I just removed a lock nut and screwed the tree on in its place. It was easy and surprisingly secure. I had to swap out the tree stems for the smaller palm trees, since the stems were a little too small to drill a hole. Just pop off the top, swap stem and all set. I put two small ones in the front and one large in the back.

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I didn’t like how the start button doesn’t illuminate on my Earthshaker so I decided to do something about it. I purchased a few illuminated start buttons and ultimately decided on the larger Data East start button for this project. This was because the other smaller ones would require me to counter sink the start button into the cabinet. This would look great and be inline with all my other pins, but without having the proper tools I was afraid to mess up and ruin the cabinet.

All I had to do was widen the hole inside to the existing outer hole dimension. Then the button would just slide into place. As for wiring, I simply unsoldered the three wires with diode and solder them to the new switch.

The lighting was just as simple. I tapped into the coin door lights and put in a blinking bulb. Now I have a lighted start button that is much better than the old, white button that used to be there.

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Thanks Brent, that's all I can see now...

I believe mine is a SF ramp and doesn’t look like yours. My metal bracket looks to go close to the end of the plastic.

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I have an Earthshaker playfield protector from Germany that I am not going to use as I decided to go with a playfield swap instead. Priced well to sell. Will ship within US. Pm me if interested.

Sold.

If you plan on only keeping it for a few months then just play it. I did a playfield swap a year ago on mine simply because it's a keeper for me. The one you show looks pretty good (minus the wear spots and colored leds in the backbox) and has a blue display which is awesome. I could see you paying any of those prices too. If you can get it for anything under $2000 I think it would be a steal. I might just be biased since Earthshaker is one of my favorites.

I just noticed that the fault mech is open. It shouldn't be and only opens when you are about to lock a ball. It may not be working.

Yes the "trifecta" of pins, Earthshaker, Whirlwind, and Funhouse. Most everyone would say that Whirlwind is better than Earthshaker. I might be one of the few who disagree. I think Earthshaker is as good as Funhouse and better than Whirlwind. Earthshaker is just more fun for me to play.

I would like to see multiple jackpots by hitting the center ramp to relight.

The post north of the wire form should not be there as jhanley said. The problem is that if you now remove that post you will most likely see the hole left behind. I would replace both posts with double posts and put the rubber bands as it should, stretching all the way across.

I'm sure you have done this already but reseat all your connectors on the sound board and ribbon cables in the back box first.

Do you have the clear plastic guards that go along each side of the ramp? Im sure you do but just maybe yours don't have them. The original Earthshaker had a lot of air balls in that area. Thats why they had them. But many machines had the shields removed.

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The only insight that I can give you is make sure the motor spins freely with little to no resistance. check for burnt connectors. The fact that he replaced the motor should raise some questions. Good luck and hope you sort it out.

Sinking building mod.

I didn't have any issues with my CPR playfield and I do not have dimpling issues at all with mine. The screw dimples underneath didn't quite match up, but I have not had a playfield yet that do.

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Yellow rails are very interesting. I don't know if I like them or not. It sure is going to be nice when completed.

The lower gi is occasionally out on my Earthshaker. I have narrowed it down to the relay switch under the playfield. Can I take the cover off and clean the contacts inside or should it be replaced? Any suggestions?

Sinking building mod, sweet!

Earthshaker does have a very easy ruleset. But I love the game because I can fire it up, shut my brain off and just have fun with it. After a long day sometimes that's all I need.

BTW, I sometimes hate Whirlwind too.

I can't have mine at the arcade setting as it tends to rattle across the floor. I can wake the neighbors down the street.

There shouldn't be anything there. Someone probably added one at some point.

Looks amazing. Earthshaker deserves a great restoration.

The ES playfield from CPR that I purchased had dimpling in the playfield. Is this not a thing anymore?

How does a dumbass like myself make a "dumbass" mpu? Asking for all the dumbasses out there...

Definitely a great way to fine tune a shaker.

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I purchased the pin with the Red Tremor shaker motor from cointaker already installed. I believe the board with the fuses is a Stern shaker motor board. The Red Tremor was stupid powerful so the controller module worked great to make it adjustable. It was easy to install and I didn't have to mess with moving weights around.

EarthShaker was the pinball machine that got me into pinball back in my college days. I sunk a whole semester's worth of book money into it. Later in life I knew I had to have one in my collection. I hope you can find one.

I have the new Golden Gate mod and it is great!