One guy made his own:
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/earthshaker-sinking-building-mod
I just picked up an ES and was thinking about trying to make one.

I bought one from basement arcades a few months ago and he said he only had parts to make a couple more. So not sure if mine was one of the "couple".

I think I bought the last from basement arcade... Always worth giving it a shot and shooting the guy an e-mail.

If you wanted to build one, his installation manual has a bunch of close ups. The only really difficult part would be getting a close up of the wiring.

http://www.basementarcade.com/arcade/4sale/Earthshaker/ES%20Moving%20Building%20Final%202011.pdf

He said he had to order some crazy parts from china or something and they took a while to arrive. I'm sure if there was enough interest he would do another run.

I too thought I got the "last one he would ever make" and it turned out he made 2 of them for my run.

All that being said, it was well worth the wait. Even though the wait was nerve wracking as he wasn't big on progress updates, took about 3 months, and took payment ($300) up front.

If we are making an interested list then I'm in

330 USD for the mod. Pretty steep...imho

I'm the marketing side of the Basement Arcade ES mod. I think Mark said he was going to do some more. We finished our 4th run of Doctor Who kits early this year. I'll ask him. PM me if you're interested and I'll let him know people want these.

I am picking up an ES soon and will be interested in this mod for sure.. Who sells it?

Just get Stu the mod now or he will stop sending art to CPR.

Earthshaker playfield would be nice to go with that mod. hint hint.

It would, but CPR isn't doing the ES PF. He has mentioned that several times.

Stu....I *might* know someone willing to sell his mod. (Slight chance, but I will ask)

I picked one up and installed it last year. Besides have to remove the pf and re-route some of the harness a bit, it wasn't a hard install. Did have to notch the repro ramps, but that is not a huge deal.

Was thinking about getting the mod, then I saw the price bought a kit yesterday at Basement Arcade anyway

waiting for 8 weeks is hard...very hard...

I was going to call Mark last night, but the news about our good friend Python kept me from doing it. I'll be sure to let everyone know about another run.

-Al-

I'm an guessing this was an attempt at a a joke, just forgot the smiley face.

No words.......Well a bunch of words but all are not nice.........Kevin Stu and everyone at CPR are great guys period. And everyone needs to stand back a bit and perhaps i don't know...thank them for it! . What they do is for the love of the hobby. NOT because they have to. And they put up with lots of crap on the forums and there is no reason for it. I have dealt with cpr for years and will buy all I can everytime.
No worries Stu everyone who matters knows you are a great guy and i agree about the read twice or even thrice before posting! lol

ANYHOW about your post..... I have an original ES with the sinking building factory installed. If it would help I could send pictures etc. I think you could source original parts If I send pictures. Or grab an original [REAL] kit from AL.
His kits are the best.

lol imagine RGP and pinside if this was done even 50% of the time haha

Thanks for trying to find a way to put someone who redeveloped the product and has stood by every one that he sold out of business. That's really good for pinball.

That's the reason that the inferior Doctor Who Wobble head was created. They were cheap, but they didn't work like the original. People noticed and we eventually made more of our better product.

<HighHorse> Actually, a huge problem with this hobby is people inventing things for it any others stealing them. The green mirror for Creature was a friend of mine's and it was stolen. Wobble-Head was the same way. People need to stop discouraging others from even trying. </HighHorse>

Not sure what you mean? I am not trying to steal ideas..or put anyone out of business!....... I am not for the thieving of ideas at all! I like your original kits thank you. And support you 100% I just thought a guy could source these with original parts. [for more$ mind you] If not I am sorry and had no idea. I only try to support people like yourself who are helping make our machines what they should have been. With only the best parts for a good deal.
I just like the guys at CPR and thought he could source original parts and have what he wanted if i supplied pictures.

If someone were to make a product that would readily be available, that'd be much better than some guys making a batch whenever they feel like it. It's not patented or anything, is it? Have products available, and no one else will make this, unless you are charging severely more than it cost to make in parts and time, as there would be no business case for others.. It's all your choice.

OK, let's take a look at what it takes to make one of these. All of the parts are made, one at a time with a C&C. Some individual parts take over an hour each. After you have all the parts you made (at considerable expense), you then have to source motors that will work. You purchase the motors (that probably went up since the last time you made these) and now all you need is wiring harnesses which uses connectors that are not available anywhere so you MAKE YOUR OWN CONNECTORS that allow the unit to be installed without having to splice a single wire. Finally, you assemble it all and put it in a box to sell. Because you don't have unlimited funds, you can only spend $5000.00 of your own money until you get some more orders or can sell the ones you made. then when you sell them, some people start complaining that "They are too expensive" or "They can make them cheaper". This goes along until you sell them all and people want them again. Then they complain that they would pay anything for one now and that you should spend your entire life making these things not knowing if you'll ever sell another.

We have lives with Families. We make this stuff for a modest profit and provide something that no one else does. We can't make them faster, we can only make them well and on our schedule. We've had one return in the 10 years we've made Wobble Heads and ES kits and that was from someone that had someone else install it (ES Kit) for them and that person was annoyed that he had to do it for some reason. We took it back and replaced the motor they stripped out and resold it. Everyone that has them has had no complaints.

So, without any "Skin in the game" you can say whatever you want, but people who start looking for a way to undercut the people really trying to add products to the hobby really piss me off.

Or... Like HE said!

From a financial standpoint then he simply shouldn't make them with those numbers. In a smaller, slow moving niche market you always need the higher markup since things do sit a bit for the most part. Now, if he is doing purely because its a fun hobby for him and money isn't considered his primary goal then talking about his profit margins and sitting on shelves is irrelevant

I see a lot of issues like this in the last year or so with more folks with lots of great talents joining the hobby. Someone is able to produce the same product in their garage for less money or a variation of it and the original guy is upset. Just see Cointaker for an example. They were basically the only LED supplier and had premium prices. Other folks came in and the prices have dropped. Making it great for us buyers, but poor for the suppliers of course.

I probably just ranted about nothing....nothing to see here

Seems like your focus is what's better for the small manufactorer, and not for the buyers.

Let it be known that I have bought an ES kit from Basementarcade - And I'm loving it. However I'm not against the idea of someone doing the same thing as others have done, if they can reduce cost, improve availability etc. I mean, it's a niche hobby in the first place, with expensive and limited resources... Impoving upon that is not bad for the average consumer, I believe.

How much do you want for your mod? I'm ready to buy it back. Matter of fact, I'll send it to Stu free of charge.

I'm not selling it. As a matter of fact I already stated that I love it.

Don't get your knickers in a twist, just because we don't agree how the market should be...

No I don't. I don't hope anyone particular will be out on their ass. However I also believe in survival of the fittest. Be the best at what you do, and you(plural) will prevail... Be that you make the cheapest, the best, the wierdest, whatever it requires to remain competetive... That's how the world is I believe...

So would you love it as much if we hadn't over-engineered it so it would work perfectly for years? (My Wobble head kit is 13 years old), Or that you had to splice all of those wires into the harness yourself? I really want that kit back.

Why would you want the kit back?

Also, I just stated above that if the product is quality; then there should be no issue? - Unless someone else creates something better..

Edited last part out..

Stu deserves it more than you do.

Then make him one, you made me one.

From now on, everyone that I disagree with will not be deserving of anything that I have anything to do with!

Don't have a dog in this fight but, that's pretty much how copyrights work. I think since this is such a small community, its more about courtesy and not saying "That's a great idea, I think I'll use it!" instead of the dog-eat-dog world outside of Pinball in your general day to day marketplace. It's more of a courtesy to not copy someones idea and use it to undercut their price.

Possibly, and I (believe it or not) for one do not like the dog-eat-dog world, however it's just how it is in the real world... And speaking of courtesy, I get that, I really do. But if the supply cannot meet the demand, although small - What's wrong with more suppliers?

I think I missed something. Hawk 007 said he would post pictures of the ORIGINAL sinking building produced by WILLIAMS.

Then everyone got bent out of shape as if he were going to post pictures of the Basement Arcade sinking building and people were going to copy it and steal from Basement Arcade?

Shh.. Don't tell them now... Or they won't sell you a mod

Because little guys don't have lawyers and it's not about supply meeting demand, it's about little guys getting pushed out by big guys with bigger sticks. When the big guys control everything, you'll be glad to pay whatever you want.

Ummmm:
http://pinballobsession.com/ at the bottom of the page and stuff... We've never hidden anything about the mech. And you can even see how we changed it over the years. All of them still work well as far as we know.

I know where you are coming from.. But I don't know if I think it'll happen too much in the small industry that is pinball.. However since you yourself said you won't be making any of these, due to previous events, I really don't see the hate for the idea of others making it.

Anyway, I didn't mean to step on anyones nerves.. Let's agree to disagree, and be happy that even people you think as idiots like the product you had made.

Pinball Obsession is dead. Mark has made more devices since we shut it down. I still help coordinate the sales for which he pays me nothing! He's a friend and we do things for each other. I'm talking to him now about another run of these, but we won't need to if you would just sell yours back to me so I can give it to Stu.

Basement arcades took the time to develop/re-engineer these products, not PPS or anyone else. Stu and CPR are not in the business of making motor and gear mods, so parts acquisition and development doesn't fit their model. Al already responded in the most accurate manner about how these are made. In this niche hobby, it really is great anyone is willing to make these as it is done with financial risk. Mark's ES and DW mods are high quality.

Reducing cost and improving availability essentially means (these days) make it in China or similar. If that is anyone's solution let them seek it - at the cost of inhibiting others to develop similarly great mods.

As for PPS reproducing these kits, despite the seemingly high cost, considering the parts and workmanship, they are definitely reasonable from basement arcades. If you want to know what might happen look at FAST pinball. Nothing against FAST but their setup is essentially what Gerry at Multimorphic created years ago in the P-ROC. Now PPS and or WMS are seemingly arranging to tie rule rewrites to specific hardware as the P-ROC hardware won't monetarily benefit either PPS or WMS. It would nice to see the arrangement open - ie. if you want to use FAST fine, if you want to use P-ROC fine, if you want to use the 'pinheck' system fine - any should be a viable alternative to releasing new rules/mods for existing machines. I say this as the development wasn't pioneered by PPS or WMS but others (Multimorphic and Heck first - independently) at their own financial risk.

Just copy the mech from AFM and make it fit the ES building.