It's painful how stunning this game is. My #1 wishlist pin.

Sorry to crash the clubhouse. Carry on.

Same here, somebody please sell me and Shame this game so we can join the club.

ok you're on CL for $50 and the games mother wears army boots

I'm afraid more people want in this club, than exist in the club. Dear me... (raises hand)
-mof

I think this would be a great game for someone to do a reproduction of. Almost all the parts have already been reproduced at some time or another. You would just have to get the manufacturers to do another run for the project, get the few remaining parts made and put them together. Maybe one for Retro Pinball?

my fathom looks like its been polished with an angle grinder and its still awesome. One day hopefully I'll find a PF

I'd luv to be in the club. There's just not enough of them to go around.Damn shame!

Games like Midway's 'Galaga' were doing huge numbers in the arcades the year Fathom was released.

I have a restored one. Its a beautiful game a definite keeper. I will post some pics when I get a moment. Keep looking and you will come up with one. Im still looking for a seawitch to sit next to it.

mike

I'm a Fathom wannabe. Someone sell me theirs.

Here's an extreme Fathom restoration I picked up about a year ago. Like many restorations, it wasn't 100% complete, so I finished the job. Plays lightening fast

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Fathom was the game that really fueled my love for pinball. My Dad surprised the family and had it delivered to the house in 1983. He ended up selling it to a co-worker in 1988 (he still has the game in his basement to this day) and I made it my quest to have another someday. After searching for 12 years once I had the means to purchase one, I finally found one 2 years ago. It's a beautiful all original example. It could use a restenciling of the cabinet to make it perfect but for now it is the only machine in my collection that will never leave.

I really miss my Fathom. I sold it a couple of years ago. Just a beautiful game and a great player.

Every pinball collector needs to own one at some time.

Mine just didn't get played much after awhile so I sold it.

The one above is gorgeous.

Glad you like it! My Fathom is more "blinged out" than my Centaur restoration, but my Centaur restoration is nicer overall (has one of the new Big Time cabinet's).

The Paragon in the middle of my Fathom/Centaur I believe to be HUO. It was in climate controlled storage for a very long time and the owner had a "free play" button installed. That, coupled with 0 wear on the PF (and NO mylar around the slings), make me think it's HUO. No fade, cabinet is spotless inside (and it wasn't restored...just vacuumed

I like restorations, but there's nothing like a natural beauty!

snaroff

100% true!

I own a super duper restorated Centaur, a very nice original Fathom and a Viking comparable to your Paragon...
I am thinking about selling my Centaur, but the two others... not at this time!

Centaur was formerly my favorite, but after a long restoration process and quite some trouble, he "lost kind of his soul"... can't really say why!

But in the meantime Fathom became my absolute favorite pinball machine! Why... because he has the most clever gameplay of all EEs (my opinion). There are super nice shots. A lot of the EEs have just one or two "rewarding" shots, Fathom has some of them AND is the only (not 100% sure) with a "rewarding" combo... left flipper, right cave drop target, then right upper flipper, lagoon drop target

Also the timed extra ball feature - SUPER!

Found my Fathom last November. There was an estate auction listed on CL and it mentioned 2 pinball machines. Do further investigation on the auction company's website to discover the machines were a Speakeasy and a Fathom. I have to go out of town that weekend and contact a good friend of mine to see if he would go to the auction and check it out. He looked it over and called me back to discuss thoughts on bids. Ended up pulling this out of an old lady's basement for only $800 and a lifetime of gratitude and favors to my friend and his fiancee (who went with him).

Here are some pics (1 before pic and the rest after)

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I normally don't like toppers at all but that one is sweet singleb.

2 years ago I had a chance at a Fathom for under 1000 bucks, but passed because I thought the game was lame... What an idiot. Now I've had some signficant time on friend's games, and I really really want one. One day...

Great game, I restored mine in 2009. It came from a rich family's vacation home on the tip of Maine, where it saw mild use, and I had it shipped to Los Angeles - doesn't get much farther than that!

Yeah, I'm not really a big fan of most after market toppers either, but this one takes the original artwork and makes good use of it. It kind of works into the backglass and makes it look as if what's going on in the backglass is happening under the boat/topper.

I will own one someday.

Exactly. The topper artwork of the girl looking into the water from the boat can be seen on the upper part of the playfield, it's a very cool topper that came with the CPR plastics set.

So that's where the NOS Paragon Playfield went. Jealous. If your Centaur needs a playfield I'll trade you my CPR one for it.

Naturally if you ever want to sell the Paragon I'll be here.

Brian

Hey Brian,

My Centaur already has a CPR PF (http://s1205.photobucket.com/user/snaroff/library/Centaur?sort=2&page=1).

The NOS Paragon PF looks a little cheesy by itself, so a pinball buddy plans to make me a fancy frame for it with lights/ornaments. Should look cool when it's done.

I'm going to be in NY/NJ next week...I have a tight schedule, but one of these days it would be great to get a tour of your collection and play some pinball!

snaroff

Fathom is a great game and anyone near South West CT sell let me know the condition and price.

Nice, if you're around North Jersey just PM me. I'm usually not far from home.

Yeah, I did the old warm whites in my bg and they look pretty good. I decided to put incandescents in the "game over," "tilt", "high score," etc. sections, since the LEDs are so bright they fill in the rubber barriers and project boxes on the backglass and don't just make the words stand out. I tried retros, but they did the same thing, just too bright to be contained.

Man I wish there was a bulb over the upper right display to light up the rest of that sea nymph's tail. It's a real dead light area. I'm thinking of adding modding mine and adding one there.

Thanks for the pics Hellfire. I've been trying different bulbs and colors and they just were not looking right. This helps a lot!!!

Here's mine, i restored it 4 years ago. I'm very proud of it, bought it many years ago in a very bad condition for 800$ and a Centaur in the same time for the same price.

I try to keep her as original as possible.
Nos backglass
Original playfield
Original plastics
Original display
Original electronics
LED on the backbox to save heat from the glass. I choose carefully them
to have the same light effect as the original incandescent bulbs
I remove all the inserts, sand them to remove cracks. They are transparent as crystal.
Original paint on the cabinet
All metals parts zinc replated
Not original, i repainted inside cabinet, it was very dirty and now look super clean

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Thanks for the comments Hellfire !
Yes all the mechs parts were zinc replated. The decal PS was made by myself on a yellow thick paper sprayed with Triple Thick for the glossy effect and protect it from dirt falling from the playfied

Also changed all the connectors all around, changed pins from boards. Nothing, no problemo for 4 years, it play fast and perfect and i played more than a thousand games !!

The others things i want to restore in the future is the cashbox i recently found and the coils wrap.

Got mine a couple of years ago in a bulk deal with two other games. Never really paid that much attention to the game prior to that but I knew it was the money game of the three. Ended up selling the other two games off and keeping the Fathom, which in the end only cost me $450. It worked but the playfield is worn out. I already had a new CPR playfield for it hanging on my wall that I think I paid $400 shipped for it a few years earlier. Kruzman is doing the clear on it as we speak. Cant wait to get that one put it and make it look nice.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

I bought mine from a collector in Wisconsin sight unseen , it took me a year to pick it up and get the fathom back to Oregon ... I had a fathom restore thread going on the machines restore , I picked up an extra playfield for it off e bay and an having it restored ... I had insane headaches trying to get insert decAls to work ...

Warning '''do not use the stickers off e bay , get the ones from Bay Area amusements !!! Also laser printed ones that you made yourself suck your life away as well

Always learning the hard way

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The the game is not working sounds and driver seem fine, mpu?

Missed a fathom couple year ago because i can't make the deal for 100$ difference between the asking price and what i was willing to pay. Had an other one offer to me in worst shape but little cheaper... still high. I bought it because i want one real bad, and never regret it. Almost cry when to pin show up... The backglass was scratch by the white panel, not secure before the transportation! I was lucky enought to have a friend with a repro backglass and a first generation repro playfield (Halifax). Made a playfield swap and never look back. Still my favorite pins of all time.

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P.S i would love to swap it again if i can find a CPR second run playfield!

Could I get a picture of all the green ground connections ? For some reason I can not for the life of me find the pictures of those little buggers , I have a few missing... Wtf knuckle head !! , also still working out the bugs in the game , and thought these might help if they were installed ...

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Here's a question: Fathom has 2 insert arrows labeled "Trap ball when lit, Release ball when blinking". On my Fathom, the right/green side works as you would expect. Unfortunately, the left/blue side does nothing during gameplay. In test mode, the lights appear to work (i.e. they blink). I thought this may be a board issue, but I'm fairly certain the malfunction happens with both original & repro boards. I also corresponded with another Fathom owner and he says his example does the same thing. Can you guys tell me what yours does? If it works fine, any ideas on what would cause this?...kind of obscure issue.

Thanks for any help!

Nice. Beautiful work.

He'll fire thanks , I've got all but one on now still, loads of issues still like you said ..

Ok hands up ..who wants a 300dpi ( ie really good quality) scan of the fathom manual + schematics? PM if you do