My new baby. Backglass preservation / repair is kind of growing on me (I think it's kind of neat), playfield is near perfect. Paid $300. Cabinet art is pretty good as well, 7/10 or 8/10 on that I'd say.

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My pride and joy, Gottlieb's Domino from 1968. I popped the two LEDs in the bottom just to see how it blended in with the blue on the slingshots and was out to do something weird and custom at the show I bought it at since I was still taking in that it was mine! Trust me, not an LED guy at all and certainly not in EMs and it will of course be going back to normal incandescent bulbs, save the talk of it looking silly, I'm aware! Does give it a cool effect in the dark though, different from the cool warm effect of the normal bulbs. Fell in love with this title, gameplay and art, after visiting Vic's and didn't bother seeking it out anywhere as I knew it was way above my 17-year-old budget and hard to find and then one ended up falling in my lap for a more than good price funnily enough.

Original everything besides the obvious things like lamps and rubbers. I don't mind the slightly worn body, on these EMs I find even if they're worn they sure have earned it and it looks fine.

Put good slow-flashing bulbs behind the Domino text, didn't even wait to get it home from the show I bought it at to do that, lol. Happily resides in New Jersey with my other machines now. Beautiful original playfield too. Not a scratch or a ding anywhere as far as I can tell, just a little planked if anything I think.

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My home-use-only 1974 Williams Stratoflite. Friend I bought it from (not an EM guy) bought it from the original owner and owned it for like a month, then passed it onto me for $100 when I threw him that offer since he was open to anything. Great guy to work with always. Came with brand new rubbers, extra rubbers, and a brand new uninstalled power cord.

Had major scoring issues and was a complete mess in terms of functionality (but complete and beautiful inside), sorted that all out myself in addition to what he did (it wouldn't start when he got it and he got that far, and when I bought it it was a MESS, all digits stuck on for various individual reasons and other issues) and onto the final issue now. Glad I could save it.

Game has all original beautiful coils and relays besides the match unit coil which burnt up when he owned it due to the issues. Brand new coil in there now, works great, and disconnected until I sort out the final issue which is locking up the unit still. Flipper coils are original and wow are they powerful, I had to check if the game was set to low-tap and it is. Unbelievable.

I missed the shot but here is a video of the original flippers, no rebuilds, original coils, being strong as ever. What you see is what you get, even though I couldn't show it, when hitting the ball the velocity stays the same as when it isn't. Very very quick game:

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This game probably hadn't run in years upon years (it was so locked up), bought it as the "ugly duckling" in a lot from pinsider ibuypinballs here (great great guy to deal with) mainly so I could grab the other two games (knowing I would keep this though, I'm a keeper not a seller), I was expecting much worse and really only wanted games in nice condition and figured this thing was destroyed but once I got it home I saw it was actually in really nice player cosmetic condition besides being painted and the glass being flaked/painted in areas.

Well, after a fair amount of work, sweat, maybe a little blood (as usual), and luckily no tears, it lives once again to be enjoyed by not only me but also anybody who stops by and plays it. I get that these things are inanimate objects, but it sure is a very peculiar "life saving" feeling I get from looking at the picture of it now. This slow music in the background probably doesn't help, LOL. Watch that all come back to life was really a beautiful thing, something it hasn't done in years or maybe even decades.

Ball count unit, 0-9 unit, and vari-targets have all been taken apart and "rebuilt" (cleaned, sanded all contacts, springs adjusted where needed) and something weird with the start button started happening so I just wired it right up to the start relay and it does just fine. Must be a solder or harness issue, somebody got a little crafty with the wire cutters, and having it wired directly to the relay skips a few steps (saved me the whole free play adjustment thing though) but it does what it needs to do in my environment. I still need to go through the reels to make them 100%, replace a coil (only needed for player 2, unnecessary for 1-player play besides player 2's score reel lights staying lit too, so whenever I get to it is fine), and rebuild the flippers as they're a little weak but I'm bored and figured I would post this now as it's officially "back to life" after being very very dead and dormant.

Welcome back, Airport (Comet is alive too, just dead displays and caught the attract mode weird in the picture):

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My Mayfair (as mentioned above)

Yes, unfortunately painted white and needs a new glass, but this is one of the nicest playfields I have ever seen. All original with no touch-ups or reproduction. Absolutely stunning. Not a restorer but given the quality of the playfield it's definitely tempting. Going to at least try stripping the white paint off to see what's underneath. Pictures do NOT do it justice, aside from a bit of dirt it looks like it just came out of the factory playfield-wise. Not a knick or a scratch or a mark anywhere on the playfield besides those dirt trails to the outhole. Proud to own this game in it's condition, and very proud to own it at a price of only $200. Very grateful for all of the deals I manage to pull off. Did you use/make stencils for the cabinet?

EDIT: Looked at it a bit closer, maybe not as perfect as to call it "factory" to be fair but it's pretty close! You have to look very close to notice any tiny amount of wear, the biggest thing is only little divets in the lanes at the top and that's just in the wood itself, no art there. Great example of the machine and FAST! Still has factory clear mylar(?) around the pop bumpers.

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Featuring an SS, of course

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Have you ever played Wild Life/Jungle/Jungle King, Vic? I own a beautiful Wild Life (2 player, Jungle is 4 respectively) and it was cool to read elsewhere that it was a wedgehead made for overseas, which it looks like he owns. Great game (with great art), you have to get the bonus all the way up (by hitting the rollovers, not always easy to hit!) to light the specials and it's difficult! Myself and others have yet to do it, but it's still fairly new in my collection. One of my favorites.

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Wow, that's a stunningly beautiful Nip-It. Now I kinda want one. I don't own any Bally EMs.

That light colored playfield theme almost makes it look newer than it is, or maybe this example is just that nice.

- Fixed Strato-Flite 100%
- Fixed Magnotron 100%
- Strato-Flite took a ride (well, a push) to the other side of the room as I begin to pull the final machines out of my garage and bring them down into the new pinball game room. Devil's Dare is taking it's spot. Doing so much work to these games it's crazy but right now everything in the basement is operation and 90% or more working (most 100%, minus 1 or 2 out of 6) and that's quite a lot to say when most of these games were purchased as mechanically rough projects that hadn't been maintained in years!

Played in the pitch dark last night, did it before but yesterday everything was all the way lit up and there was no gap left between the EMs anymore, unreal sight! Pictures don't do it justice unfortunately. Strato-Flite's stars were twinkling (quick incandescent flashers installed by somebody else, they work so well on this game), Magnotron's eyes were blinking, Wild Life's lion was blinking, and Comet's... everything was blinking. Backed with some Bryan Adams on the radio it was a great moment.

Short video for animation's sake:

Feeling very proud of myself and my collection, I know they're not the prettiest or the most A-level desirable games ever to others but it took a lot of work to get them running and I love them and their flaws. Still got another EM to bring down and 3 more SS. Feeling very grateful for everything, including this great community which is always there to help if needed.

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**NOT MINE**, but I fully repaired this 1974 Bally Amigo for a local business run by a good friend of mine. Had a TON of issues and happy I worked them all out. Wired for free play, stress tested, and ready to go into the lineup after he waxes it. Had a major ground issue and also had to go through most of the reels as the 9-position switches were adjusted closed on many of the reels, on the 4th player set if you scored 10 points you got 111, etc., lol.

Previous owner let their own cat sleep/live inside of it, no waste though, just a LOT of hair and cat dust. Luckily he vacuumed it before I got there but had to again in the middle of it, bleh. Made my throat all weird (not fully allergic, just sensitive), I don't really like cats and my body doesn't either.

Disgusting, and no, I wouldn't buy this thing for cheap, even though it's pretty cleaned up now. But luckily from the outside (unaffected) it should be a great player and it's the first EM at the location (with at least 35+ other pinball machines), so that's nice. Had a ton of fun doing it though and love helping out my friends. Will be interesting to see how it does, tweaked it so there's not much to fail. We think a lot of people will appreciate it. http://www.morristowngamevault.com/

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Must be his own 2 player conversion? Keep in mind OXO is 4 player and that one is 2 player. Nothing comes up on Google for it, and there is no factory 2-player variant to OXO.

I use Naphtha for cleaning (first, of course) and Johnson's paste wax for waxing, and you can buy both locally at Home Depot. Works like an absolute charm and you can't mess anything up like using too much from what I've found. Napatha goes onto microfiber rags I use (make sure it's a clean nice rag, I bought brand new ones for the purpose and then wash them after) and not the playfield, and I spread the wax around on the playfield with my fingers.

FWIW I paid $230~ (bought in a 3-game lot, did the math) for my fully working nice condition Gottlieb Wild Life, which is the 2 player version of Gottlieb's Jungle and arguably the two player games are more desirable than the 4-player games. I'd say mine was definitely a "deal" price for what I got and I did quite good on it but nothing overly spectacular for title. I think it was fair, wouldn't want to underpay to a Pinsider either, he was a great seller who I will likely buy games from in the future. $550 seems high but I guess that's retail. $700 is 110% ridiculous unless that thing is absolutely mint with like 100 plays on it.

I think you might have overpaid but I think it's a really fun game so hopefully you love it too. Even if you have to sell it at a loss at least you got a fun game and you just paid for that fun, and you'll get like a little more than half back if you ever want to sell it.

Owning the 2-player version, it really weirds me out seeing the big 4 player head on that title. I only realized that they did that recently (different head sizes, 4-player is significantly taller) and before thought it was just the slight age difference between my 4-player Magnotron and my 2-player Wild Life. Kind of wish they all had the same head sizes, I wonder why they had to make it bigger. The back of the 2-player game seems so empty, surprised they couldn't fit all of that in there.

Yet another reason 2-player games should be more collectible, I suppose. I wish the heads all lined nicely!

Prepping my pride and joy for Pinfest, day 1. Got the glass back in (garage games get their backglasses taken out for the winter months, although this is basically the last one in there since I've dedicated this room to arcade machines and downstairs to pinball but this is my "show" game and it's easier to move in there and also fits really well up there, if I'm having an arcade kind of day I still want to be able to pop onto Domino), also fixed an issue with the 10 point bell. Never knew the match unit on these ran off of 10 points. My 10 points hits the 0-9 unit bell while my 1 point hits the regular bell. Looks factory too, I guess that's how it is on this game. It's so much more common to get 10 points than 1, so I guess it makes sense of why they did this, so operators wouldn't rip both out right away...

Had the garage door wide open too. Beautiful beautiful day outside, best all year so far I think.

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Clown thread?

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Just kidding.

I Googled "pinball clowns" and found this.

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Dear god, it's like "IT" with red eyes. That is terrifying. "Happy Clown" seems a bit cheery.

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Enough clowning around.

Today (it's 4 AM for a reason...) after I got home I finished up my Domino for Allentown by cleaning and waxing the playfield, cleaned all of the plastics (the original lane plastics came all the way off and got a thorough cleaning, they look brand new and you can see the bulb filament through them they're so clean), brand new rubbers, and started replacing burned out bulbs and ended up replacing 90% of the bulbs instead with brand new nice shiny #47 bulbs since there was an odd mix in there (bunch of different numbers, not original) and since I was in some tight places that needed partial disassembly changing some bulbs, I figured I might as well change the rest in those areas too while I'm there especially since they're going to be on for hours on end for 2 or 3 days. Every single bulb behind the backglass (controlled lights included) was pulled and replaced with brand new #47 bulbs to keep heat down, besides my flashers I installed prior of course. Also fixed an issue with the bonus unit. Did leave the whatever was there under the domino advance line (besides one burned out bulb), looked nice, along with several inserts that simply didn't need it and did want to keep some original bulbs in there for old times' sake but definitely wanted 47's under all of the playfield plastics and even if I didn't, the brand new 47 bulbs were too bright compared to the older bulbs (which were dimming from age at varied levels, but not sockets, some burnt their glass which made it even more dull looking) and the old bulbs didn't show off the art as much. Went through and tested every single bulb and socket in the machine manually with a jumper wire. Looks great, this thing is evolving from being a nice player to a thing of beauty! Didn't think it could get much better but wow the little things make a huge difference! Wanted to make sure everything was completely dried up before playing and it was also too late to play a game tonight so I hope to get some good game time in myself tomorrow, should play like an absolute dream! Then tomorrow night it is getting disassembled and brought back home with me to PA (my games stay in New Jersey) and then off to Allentown in less than two weeks now! Oh, and also replaced LED lights (they were that cold blueish color, must be older LEDs) somebody put in the ball-in-play lights with brand new incandescent bulbs. I'd understand a bit more if they were hard to reach, but they're not... Hmm. Being very particular on this tune-up. Got a bit of wax on my brand new bulbs under these same plastics and pulled each one (again) and water-then-Windex'd (water to get surface junk off, also I didn't pull them right away so I used a damp corner of a rag on them then just decided to pull them when that wasn't cutting it) the hell out of the glass parts. Turned out more beautiful than before.

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I wouldn't mind getting a ball stuck every game if I could own one of those! Love the gameplay on this title.

They sold the replay version to that "play pinball on a train ride" place in PA It's the most ridiculous thing ever

Step 1: Take out those colored LEDs they put beneath the score card numbers!

Edited this together in Photoshop from a photo I took at Pinfest. Unfortunately it had to be a bit compressed down so I could upload it here, but meant to represent the time shift between the olden times and today. Think it turned out pretty nice (and not just a simple filter)! Definitely helped the age effect that I had a nearly immaculate North Star next to my not-so-nearly-immaculate Domino!

A.K.A., I was bored and this was a really nice photo to do something with.

Less-compressed looks much nicer: http://i.imgur.com/ux2Olve.jpg

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Get those 31" legs for Aquarius! I showed up at Pinfest for Wedgehead row and my game was one of the only ones with legs too short and it certainly showed. Luckily I found a pair before it officially started, but they were too rusty to level it out so I ended up using the old back legs on the front of the machine with new 3" levelers jacked up as the new back legs didn't need to be adjusted anyways. Worked great. Looking forward to getting the correct legs just to make things right. Looked so much better raised up. It's weird though, kind of gives them an entirely different feeling after raising them up after having the wrong legs on it for so long. I almost kind of like them lower from a playing perspective but I'll get used to it. Cosmetically, they do look more proper from afar with the correct legs, though.

I've had a few machines sit packed up for a few months but I couldn't imagine 10 years!

I would imagine most of your games are in storage or do you have one kickass building? Longest machine in storage you've got?

WOW, I love that theme, mainly the backglass.

Nice machine!

My house?

Could always get it in the meantime and wait for a rough one with a nice backglass, swap and sell, or just wait for a nice one overall.

It's somewhere in PA but $750 is a bit rich for my tastes. I stumbled upon this machine myself by browsing IPDB and loved it before it became the "Odin thing". Cool looking machine, wish there was more around.

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Anywho, I just got back from picking up a 1962 Williams Vagabond reverse wedgehead. Somebody sanded down the whole machine, painted it black, then glued this weird colorful paneling (like wood paneling, but a different pattern) stuff over it that will peel/snap right off.

Backglass was a lot rougher than I thought from the picture but Ron Webb did make a reproduction a while back, might be a little annoying to find one so maybe I'll just let it "come to me". Going to make this shine with ease (and do a light refresh), playfield is beautiful with minimal touchups and glass is rough but touched up pretty decently so it'll do until I can get a nicer one. Not going to put a ton of work into it but going to do a "close enough" restore. Going to repaint it white tomorrow or so before I even bother setting it up again. Leaving the sides blank for now (even though the sideart wouldn't be hard to recreate) since in my setup you can't see the sides much anyways and going to redo the classic pattern on the front of the head with some very particular painters tape and some spray paint. Sounds kinda rushed and cheap but I'm not even sure how it could get much better than that, all the rest is already pretty nice including the irreplaceable playfield. Need a few tweaks under the hood but other than that it's fully working, too.

Felt pretty unsure about this one especially after sleeping on it (after making an offer) as I'm really just trying to stick to Gottlieb Wedgeheads nowadays as I quickly run out of room, but I have an extra "slot" nothing sits in on the other side of the room for this and I'm feeling better about it now. Of course not putting it with the wedgeheads, that'd be wrong. Playfield was way too nice to pass up for a very reasonable price even if it wasn't what I was looking for.

I'll post pictures in a bit. First AAB as this game I own as this didn't have a replay version. This game was the first game to use a traditional drop target, also looks like they put the drop target face big on the flyer conveniently if it needs to redone, didn't peek at it yet, it was pretty dark in the room it was in.

Here's some photos of the my 1962 Williams Vagabond pickup. Unfortunately I noticed the awful touchup job as I was taking the pictures and I'll have to try my best to fix that eventually somehow. Weird, because the rest of the playfield is pretty mint besides a few spots here and there so whatever they covered up probably didn't look too bad at all.

Regardless, it should clean up overall VERY nice. Going to sand the bare cabinet down and throw that new paint on there after ripping off those awful panels somebody glued on and it'll already look 1,000x better. Excited to get that nice purple design back on there. This is such a weird feeling sudden spur of the moment project I wasn't expecting at all but I just had to grab it because the playfield was pretty nice and also because of how easy it seemed to get to back to looking original. Almost too easy!

Saw this on the way, unfortunately didn't take a turn and stop and wait for the green.

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Apparently this game was just traded in only 2 or 3 days ago towards a Gottlieb Egg Head. Glad it finally gets to stop all of this traveling soon once I get it to NJ (in PA right now) for it's new home, sure lives up to it's name!

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Continuing... (Oh, and the plastics aren't faded if it appears that way, had some weird lighting cast on them due to it still being in the car that the camera seemed to pick up)

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Good tip, thanks. Waiting to get some time to do it. Was a beautiful day today but unfortunately was pretty busy all day, heard it's gonna rain tomorrow. Might just put it off until I get back to NJ and just do it in the basement.

I've been looking at palm sanders and had a strong flashback of shop class in middle school I totally forgot about, those things are really great handy little tools, the ones with the bags attached on the back. I remember making a project with one. They're $30 at Harbor Freight, there's like 5 different ones on the site all by the same manufacturer, all with the same price and color, same specs, with minor body shape changes, but the one I clicked on seemed to have some good reviews with it.

Is there any reasonable way to get the awful playfield touchup off without damaging the paint on the playfield, including what may be underneath? Careful alcohol or something? I was thinking maybe like using Magic Eraser and alcohol (I worry normal, but this time we're TRYING to get the paint off) and just being really careful with it once I start getting through most of the touchup. I wonder if alcohol alone would do it, paint doesn't look like it's that high quality.

Did you repaint that head or did you buy it that way?

Couldn't help but notice what's off to the right, too So jealous of your stored away (and not stored away) collection!

Not what I was expecting...

The art is in really nice original shape. At least I don't have to worry about that sander...

What's next, Goo Gone?

For the actual painted parts (front of head, top of head) might just try plain alcohol to start.

Sheesh, some people. At least it offered a nice layer of protection, it had definitely been there for quite a while.

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Enjoying the week alone here in NJ, getting a lot done.

Printed out my own instruction cards for the machines that were missing them (and used the exact ones I wanted), and did some rooting around in the back of my Spin-A-Card to adjust the old 3-ball scores to match. I don't know if I'm just really good at this game or if it just generally brings higher scores but I used the second-highest replay score card and definitely feel comfortable with that.

Also, here's some progress on the Vagabond. Ended up having to use plastic-bottle Goof Off (metal bottle would probably be too strong; I let it sit) and a lot of elbow grease and scraping. Used Magic Eraser and alcohol to make the whites a little less yellow from the glue. The black paint on the head started easily coming off with magic eraser and alcohol however just alcohol would probably do too.

Purple must have been the weakest color as the combination first made it start to un-fade as (I suppose) the top coats started coming off which was nice, then it started getting some white coming through. I'll probably tape off the colors and go over them with new paint, at least the white will be original and nice. I haven't gotten the coin door off yet so haven't peeled off the front yet.

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Here's the other side, for a "before" comparison:

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Gotta love needing to do a tweak and going into a schematics folder I've never opened for this thing that came with the machine and finding all of the original paperwork and even bookkeeping totals over the years. Also have the bookkeeping note for my Wild Life after ibuypinballs found it quite a while after the sale in his files and brought it to Pinfest for me. Great guy. Both machines came from him, cool to see this one has the little pamphlet of dates and play count too.

Also has a mint original copy of the coin circuitry schmatics, they came seperate apparently.

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Bought a palm sander to sand down the front and top of the head on Vagabond as that was actually pretty awful for some reason, but yet the art on the sides of the cabinet (and head) was not. Weird. Anyways, it should clean up nice. Found some paint that matched decently to the original paint and I'm not being too picky on this restore so it'll do even though I don't think it's a perfect match. Can't wait to finally have it downstairs. I learned that setting stuff up when the cabinet isn't done/touched and "taking it down later to do it" ends up never ever happening so I'm nailing this one out before I even set it up in my ownership for the first time.

Anyways, I also got my (goofy) picture taken. "Paint me like one of your French girls"...

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Things are chugging along... (Found the paint on the top and front where it was just painted black and not covered with Formica was way too bad under the paint to even bother saving by stripping the top coat off, the sides are still a WIP and were masked off though)

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No that's okay... I'll take it instead

Tape & knife later, looking good. Did it strictly by eye but I don't think it's too far off. Unfortunately I got the color on there and it was a little darker than I wanted but I think I'm going to roll with it even though I'll probably never get my taping this perfect again. I could always change it before I pull the stickers off but I have very important company coming to stay for a while tomorrow and I want this thing back in the lineup so I think it's coming off. Too dark out now for paint pictures unfortunately. It's like a grape purple, and the original is more violet although I think this color would do better things for the backglass color scheme anyways.

(Sorry for not putting this in it's own thread, just don't think it really deserved one and it'll be done tomorrow so my project spam will be gone, I promise! )

Edit: Oops, noticed the arrows are a little too high anyways.

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Girlfriend came to visit last week and it was great - and she loved pinball, hooray! Long story serious long distance dealio and she lives far away and finally got to stop in for a nice long visit to me here for the first time in New Jersey and we got lots of pinball in, including stopping by not 1 but 3 pinball establishments (one by accident) including the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ, and also of course my pinball room here at home.

Was feeling really down after she had to go back home after lots of airport goodbye hugs and emotions and whatnot so did some rearranging (not final) to cheer me up. Also got Vagabond finished in the nick of time before she came. Not perfect and has some pretty big imperfections but it's so much better than it was - no more flat black. Still not bad for spray paint, tape, and an x-acto knife. Yay!

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Wasn't planning on it but now looking at it again, the drive is only 3 hours, I thought it was more around 5 or so. Not too bad. Might go!

Bringing anything this time around?

Most of the stops were planned out in advance and she's well aware of my pinball addiction and going into an arcade we found on the street was her idea. Flew halfway across the country for me and played a ton of EM (and SS) pinball with me! Definitely a keeper!

Looks cooler with the lights off, as usual In the process of finally fixing up the pinball basement, excuse the slight mess.

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Thanks Vic! Still waiting to finish up the basement and once that's ready the whole NJ crew is invited over for sure.

Sorry for the long post but the construction has an interesting history:

My late grandfather raised canary birds in the basement so that's a lot of his old construction (he was a wonderful skilled builder, precise too), a lot of the drywall came down a few years ago because it was over 35 years old and moldy. New drywall is going to go up but I'm thinking of cutting the divider wall he put up half down vertically before I do that to keep a divider there while still keeping the room open to view and will probably make air flow nicer so it doesn't get too hot down there during parties and whatnot.

He also built two giant bird cages called "flights" (you can walk in them, it was cool as a young kid to be surrounded by many birds) on the bird side of the room (divider wall he put up at the same time in 1977 along with the flights, to separate the birds from the normal basement storage side, smart idea, the side with the most machines right now was the storage side) that I'm still in the process of taking down too. Sad to see it all go and taking apart such great craftsmanship feels like a bummer but after being there for so many years and sitting unused for the last 5 or so after my grandfather passed away and slowly being taken apart by not only myself but other family members that want it out too, it was time, and luckily makes room for my last row of machines.

He also built a ceiling-high shelf structure to serve as more bird habitats for when they nest which probably had 25 or so individual rectangle boxes in it for each bird each with a professional wire formed front which held the food and the water and the access door. Reached the ceiling down to probably knee-height, but that was taken down and out a few years ago as well. Professionally wired up all new electrical himself going across the beams to power two plug-in automatic timers that controlled both normal lights (3 fluorescent light fixtures) and night time lights (2 of those old incandescent miniature light bulbs that fit in normal light fixtures which he also mounted and wired) inside that room and the flights. Still use that work today to plug in my machines, interesting how that worked out. This basement sure has a busy hobby history.

Here are some photos of the above (This drywall portion I didn't take down yet, there was a walkway and then the rest of the wall would have extended where those beams can be seen in the other photo where the drywall was already knocked down)

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Didn't measure yet actually, I really should. Just heating, we still use window A/C and the main one is built into the wall upstairs. Good enough for me. Basement stays a steady temperature year round so luckily I don't need any air conditioning in the basement (very comfortable) and it stays pretty warm in the winter because of the heater and the warm house above it, maybe a light jacket if anything during the winter, also good for the machines without any harsh temperature shifts so I am thankful for that down there.

Definitely running out of space. Trying hard to save the last of my space for nice wedgeheads and trying to limit myself to those since they're what I really want, as I'm not one to sell (I usually end up missing them too much) but I have so many different ideas so we'll see what happens.

Hopefully starting a good job after the summer to hopefully fund those over time. Being pretty low budget for the rest of the machines has allowed me to lower my standards a little and find some good diamonds in the rough that not many other people have and I'm thankful for that but definitely looking forward to scooping up some more well-known titles in the future.

[NOT MINE]

Stopped by my friend Joe's house, he is not a Pinsider. He has some of the nicest original machines I have EVER seen, a lot of them look like they just came off of the line even though he's not as a serious collector as many here, his lineup stays the same and I don't blame him. Every time I go over there I am more astonished every time even though the games don't change.

All playfields are factory original and I think all glasses except 1 or 2 are fully original as well. All cabinet paint is original.

Funny story, he is [my mom's best friend from the 80's who I've known since I was a little kid]'s husband and that is how I found these machines by visiting them after I was already in the hobby, and it turns out he is very good friends with Vic and other NJ collectors. Very small world. He talked for a few months about stopping by a friends' house who owns machines and then months later finally said his first name (Vic), and I'm like "Oh, Vic Camp?" since I knew from Pinside and YouTube and he gave me a funny look and we laughed about it.

Beautiful machines and very fun to play. Uses quarters, nickels, and dimes in a sorted container instead of free play too and it adds a great touch to playing the machines although I personally wouldn't do it.

These machines are pristine. Sky-Line is a prototype (1 of 15) and has green doors instead of blue, a hand above the elevator on the glass, and a blue colored middle pop bumper cap, production games had a black colored one. High Hand is supposedly also a sample game but nobody is sure yet.

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I'll have to ask. K&Q was torn apart for some restoration on the rails, etc., he told me about I'm unsure if he had it painted or not.

Looks really great. So you have a garage full in addition to this too? I lost track of where all of your machines are.

That's BS, you'd just take the opportunity have 20 more games

Enjoying this tonight especially among the other games. Went a little too far with the Magic Eraser + Alcohol a while back which kept me from wanting to even look at it but now I'm just embracing it. It also did manage to take off some touch-up put on by somebody else that looked like it had a lot of effort put in but not exactly on color choices on the heavy wear area in the center (my mistake is off to the right of that big spot, smaller thankfully) so I'm glad that's gone.

One of these days it'll get the restoration it deserves and I'll fix the playfield mistake. This is a fun game that progresses as you drain balls, I've never seen another one than mine in person though. Brought this one back from the grave (it was very dead) a few months ago, still have a little work to do but it's still chugging along like a champ. First machine with vari-target(s).

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That's a pretty one!

Picked this up tonight at a shop I and a few other guys share for arcade and pinball repair, from an arcade friend that passes any EMs he comes across to me since he can't fix them. Gave him $100 (our usual price) and I know that was quite a bit more than he paid.

Space Mission/Space Odyssey absolutely takes the cake for the pinball machine I see the most on Craigslist and eBay times 10 around here, like if there was a top 10 Space Mission/Space Odyssey would take the top 5 spots here on the East coast. I see at least 1-3 a month, it's weird.

Anyways, needs some simple rewiring and love (it's definitely a project) but I think it will turn out pretty nice. They made thousands upon thousands of both variants (11,652 Mission, 4,300 Odyssey), I guess that's why you see them so much. Kinda bummed it's something everybody has (hah) but I'll still fix it up and get it going and hope it's a keeper. Since they were so incredibly common and usually pretty cheap I kind of strayed away from ever wanting one and it kind of turned me off from owning one but this one found me so I'll just have to grow to love it. At least I like the art, and I love the moving target idea that is always looping back and forth and not triggered one direction by a hit like on my Mayfair which uses a cool moving target that travels from side to side based on being hit. Should be a fun player.

Came with original manual and other goodies too I think, I didn't check inside the magic envelope yet.

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Thanks, Vic! Cabinet looks really good (just dirty), but I haven't given it too close of an inspection yet. The "border" boards on the head starting falling off, so I had to take the glass in separate and store it somewhere safe for now. They were just stapled in, should be an easy fix with tiny nails or something for the sort and won't be seen easily. Could also probably use wood glue as they fit together like puzzle pieces and will probably do that instead unless anybody has a better idea. Less invasive and if I do it right it should be unable to be seen from any angle. Looks like they used a mix of wood glue and staples at the factory for those boards.

I'll check the game meter when I can. Has some major issues in the backbox with stuff missing / broken, but luckily there were so many made so finding parts should not be a problem even if they're not universal with other titles. Only like two relays (one missing, one cracked to shreds), and I think the tiny match unit they used is broken in half if I'm not mistaken. Took a look inside of the body before I bought it and there's a hack for the start button that I'll have to fix but other than that it looks complete and not too dirty thankfully. Coin door wiring is all cut up but luckily I won't need any of that (free play) and I can fix that after it is working just to make it right and complete.

Yep! Space Mission used blue and Space Odyssey (two-player variant) used yellow, I found that to be interesting.

If it's a certain kind of paint, Goof Off will do the job. I find it abrasive enough to take off the top coat of paint but (usually) leave the undercoat. Don't get the metal bottle variant though, it's in a metal bottle for a reason...

Some have found success with just alcohol and a rag if it's the right kind of paint, I think I used magic eraser once but then it gets all over your hands and dries again. PITA.

More wood than 7 in the morning in a town filled with men.

Nice selection! So it wasn't only a parts game?

Glad somebody around here embraces the multiplayer games even though they're less detailed in terms of play than the single player machines due to the limitations. Still great fun alone or with a friend.

Totally never heard that one before

I always thought Gottlieb's Roller Coaster would be a fun multiplayer to own, not only because the cool ramp (which still applies in single player, of course) but also because the middle "spinning target" can be manipulated to make or break your opponent's score. I always thought that was interesting. I know they made a single player game with the same unit and it was kind of bland (probably for good reason) but it seems like it would be so much more exciting for multiplayer play.

Gottlieb's Wild Wild West also does similar things, you hit vari-targets to score points but they don't release and score points until you get them in the kickout hole connected to that particular vari-target unit, and this is also preserved between players so one player can steal your score if they get it in the kickout hole after you hit the vari-target but failed to grab your points from that same kick-out hole on your turn. This game has been on my list for quite a while now. They also made a very rare add-a-ball game called "Lariat" of this, but in my opinion it looks kind of goofy because they had to edit the art to accommodate the extra reels they added. Well done, just looks nicer on Wild Wild West in my opinion.

Pictures credit to IPDB.

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Not too shabby of a game on this guy yesterday.

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My new-to-me Williams Super Star. Spent its entire coin-operated life in Denmark/Sweden. To there and back in beautiful condition. Glad I wasn't the one who had to re-import it, this machine took quite a trek in its lifetime to get here.

Keeping Sky Jump's spot warm until I get enough money to pay the PBR bill it needs to be finished with its restoration, only $95 but definitely not instant pocket change. It will definitely be one of the nicest fully original Sky Jumps when it is finished. Cranked out all the hard work on it within the first days of ownership all in a row but now taking a break as I wait for the money to come in.

I originally wrote a very long post about what I want to do after I'm done with Sky Jump to make a row of these big-digit late 60's early 70's Williams games but decided to edit it out since it was so long and make a link to it instead, so here's that text if anybody is interested: http://pastebin.com/raw/MM2yNyaW

Here's Super Star keeping Sky Jump's spot warm as stated.

(A lot of the marks are on the glass not the playfield, just a few marks on the lower playfield and a very small portion of flaking in one spot at the bottom right of the glass but other than that it's nearly perfect)

Thanks Rando! Can't believe this sat so long for sale.

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I'm probably in the rare majority but I think I like the artwork - black was a risky color to use on the plastics and whatnot but I think it turned out a lot better than it could have.

I like the sides and would even consider putting it on the end of a row, the body stencils are a little questionable but I think the head stencil turned out really well.

Hey... if there were no ugly machines, there'd be no pretty machines!

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With the rising price of pinball, I'd say just keep them. That's what I'm doing, I'm not selling anything especially now. This pinflation is getting crazy. If I want another machine I save up for it and make some room.

Of course, my pipe dream one day is to open a museum, which warrants the hoard, but at the same time the value is getting too ridiculous to get them back for what I could sell them for as well.

Williams pop-bumpers of that era are DC (and very fast, it's great), flippers should be AC IIRC but wouldn't be surprised if they were from the factory too

Fun game (Wild Life/Jungle/Jungle King/Jungle Life) though, I definitely think it stands up as a good one and that it is not in the "not so great" at all. I know there's the whole "multiplayers are no fun!" club but they even made 2 wedgeheads out of this one it did so well.

Racking up the bonus all the way lights SPECIAL. Finally pulled it off on my Wild Life recently for the first time after owning for 7 months. That center pop bumper is just cool, too. Never seen something quite like it. It's like the ball is in the jungle. [QUICK EDIT: Obligatory "Do you know where you are?" ]

To you. Pretty contradictory post, but to each their own.

And just because you don't and don't like it doesn't make it not great, either.

Truly in the eye of the beholder! One man's Bally El Toro is another man's Gottlieb Atlantis... Sure there's a general consensus on some games where it's more common for people to like than not like (yet some still dislike them with a passion), and more often than not it's the other way around (there can only be so many "greats") but there still truly are some hidden gems out there. Of course a person won't enjoy them if they don't keep an open mind. I always keep an open mind when trying out a new game, my ratings are entirely based on my recent experiences as I wasn't around to play these when they were new or even remotely close to it. Keeping an open mind is what even brought me to EMs in the first place in a day where my peers aren't even playing pinball let alone any era of it, they're playing with their smartphones.

Comparatively, there are many people here on Pinside that will say what you are saying about this machine towards the best EM single player machine you/we as a community think exists because it's "slow, worthless, and old", without a doubt. Again, all (close-minded) opinion. Or maybe just even taste. That's totally fine too, but at least don't dictate it as fact.

Jungle King (US)/Jungle Life (Italy)

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Compared to the multiplayer playfield:

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Whoa, you took a lot of the things I said personally. (especially the close-minded thing) Wait a second - I was saying over a mass of people, all of that was in response to you of course but 90% of it was referencing others or any person rather than specifically yourself in the content itself. You can like what you like, and I like what I like, and I don't get offended if somebody doesn't like what I like and I'm glad you don't either. Especially if it's a certain kind of machine... saves more for me.

No hard feelings at all dude, hope you feel the same. Didn't mean for it to come off that way at all. Let's keep the peace in the EM lounge.

Back to the machines...

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I think I might have posted these two already but finally uploading in beautiful high resolution. (Well, until Pinside resizes it)

Was previously uploading another way and it killed the quality to the extreme. Oooh, ahhhh...

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Doesn't look too rough at all to me, looks like a great example of it! Enjoy it!

Keep in mind with something that nice (unless pictures are lying) that sometimes no restoration is better than an attempted one.

How bad is the cabinet? Looks pretty nice to me. Of course your call. But an 8/10 original is always better than a 10/10 restoration as well.

I've been thinking strongly about popping some red LEDs under the 7 inserts during/in my Sky Jump restoration so the inserts are more of a red than a lighter red. I saw some evidence at Pinfest that it worked well on a different title of machine. Not sure what I want to do yet.

Of course, they would be alongside of every other bulb being incandescent.

I all #47 everything. Obviously it's fact they're less bright than #44's but I never noticed an issue. Very close in my opinion and more protective, especially since I have all of my games on at the same time sometimes for a long time. To each their own!

Edit: Also, the difference is amazing. I can tell when I go to remove a bulb with the game on after it's been on for a little if it's a #44 or a #47. #44s are OUCH.

Ahh yes, just like above.

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Blue post spotted! *eye twitch*

That has some really great art.

Last night I was just thinking over my machines and just really thought about how nice my Spin-A-Card is. It needs a light cleaning and new pop bumpers and I need to strip the paint off of the coin door bar, but other that it is a museum quality machine all around with no doubt in my mind. So that night (pretty late) I went down and just looked it over and admired it. Sometimes it is nice to take a step back from thinking of what is next and admiring what you already have.

The next morning I grabbed these pictures and just today I saw the score motor was missing a spacer just like I went through on my Domino (twice), so I fixed that up and it got the spinner working for the first time in my ownership. It was too late to play it though at that point, but very exciting! Definitely tomorrow...

I almost forgot how nice this thing was, it doesn't get much better than this. Even the cabinet paint is great all around. I definitely have a newfound proud feeling in owning this machine, more than before.

Pictures don't do it justice, especially before cleaning. Such a great looking machine.

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That See Saw art is awesome! Never knew it was bumper car themed.

Way to sneak in the "classiness".

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Very nice machine.

Very close to sending you sandpaper and some white paint for that San Francisco.

Awesome, and welcome to the club! Did it come with posts and plastics?

Finally getting to go back to NJ to my games after 3+ weeks.

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Not driving alone, this one flew under everybody's radar a while back at a great deal price and it's finally making the trip (seller photos, hasn't been set up yet in my possession), it's a beauty:

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And soon enough I will have enough money to ship out my Jive Time from California (Inland Empire Craigslist) that is currently making a "hotel stop" at mikeincali's place while I save up. (Thanks again Mike) Life is good!

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All set up on setup day at a new local video game convention here in New Jersey (Parsippany) with a big room for arcade and pinball, representing the EM crowd. There are two or three (three is the maximum, I walked around) more here scattered inside of the room but that is it, majority is Ivan trying to sell. My Magnotron is all shined up and gone through for its first ever show and I have no doubts that it will survive the rush. My parts for my wedgeheads (the usual show lineup) didn't come yet so I decided that the robot theme was more fitting for the occasion than anything else (and was anyways, even with the show games) and went with something outside of the usual show games, that normally never leave my house.

It got cleaned, waxed, a new ball, and even a new power switch (old one was broken off but my machines are on power strips/light switches so it didn't matter) all today. Then heaved it out of the basement and got on the road! Feels refreshing to give an "old friend" its first show experience. It will be very busy here and get more play than it has probably seen in a very very long time. A beautiful thing in my opinion. Worth the terribly hard work. I do this with every show and none of them are ever up for sale, I do it out of love and enjoyment!

This, then Jersey Jack and York later this month with some other machines...

Will be doing a small "look inside" demonstration on both days of the event for about a half an hour to spread the love.

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Good job. Although, I'm sure you'll find this end of the community is much harsher and more adamant on LED use than the other ends of pinball.

If anybody wants the credit counter paper like I do, here's the scan of it (4th down):

http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/Gottlieb.htm

I have never seen one of those before. I'm guessing they stopped putting them in at a certain year? Most of my games are after the major Gottlieb shift in design in the mid-60's, so that would explain it. My only rat-trap-reel game is my Mayfair, and with only 1 chance of having it in a machine, of course it's unlikely that I own a machine with it still intact. Will be cool to put that back in.

Always good fun with Todd Tuckey and his jokes.

44:36

To be continued...

Preservation > Part-out

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