Irvine, CA
***SOLD--SOLD***
Meteor by Stern, 1979
Asking $800 or trade (wish list at bottom). Not desperate to sell--I still like playing it--just putting feelers out there.
100% Working, Mechanically & Electrically Solid, Some Cab/PF/BG Wear
Located in Monterey Park, CA 91754. In my possession for just over 1 year.
Pickup greatly preferred. May be able to coordinate local delivery for a fee, or can ship if buyer makes arrangements.
Photo gallery w/ 69 pics(!): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gjls1vk75h78fdt/AAA84cvC-1komBEGhnJH-gC4a?dl=0
YouTube video:
IPDB page: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1580
This is a great player's machine. 100% working. Fast, smooth, clean, strong coils, bright displays, etc.
Condition summary:
- Playfield. It has several wear spots in the usual areas: the inserts in the middle/bottom of the PF that see lots of fast ball action, a small spot just above the spinner, a very faint line across the top arch, and a couple of spots above the top flipper. A couple of inserts are offset just slightly too. Overall, the PF is sharp & bright, and these wear locations are generally small & not distracting. All plastics look good except for 1 hazy line (from a bend?) near back left--pretty subtle--the replacement plastic that I had was the older, shorter version that didn't cover the PF completely--this one looked better, so I kept it installed.
- Self-test & gameplay reveal that every switch works, every solenoid works & is strong, every display segment works, the sound works, & all bulbs work (a couple bulbs/sockets require an occasional finger tap to relight them--I cleaned many sockets, & those have been good for the last year--the couple remaining occasional troublemakers probably just need a quick cleaning).
- The cabinet has its fair share of scratches, scrapes, dings, etc., but there are no glaring gouges or carvings or abuse, just "normal" wear & tear. 1 exception: there is a break in the thin cabinet floor where the machine was once rested on something. Oddity: because there's no free play mode, somebody installed an arcade pushbutton in the bottom of the cabinet to add credits--easy to remove & blank out if desired. The interior of the cabinet is downright grungy--don't eat off it for sure--not pretty--fortunately, the game has been so reliable for me that I've hardly ever needed to lift the PF & see what lies beneath. Coin door & backbox locks & keys included.
- The backglass has significant flaking. Some of it has been arrested by applying clear packing tape to the back. When the machine is off & in a well-lit room, the flaking really doesn't show that much. During gamely, when backlit in a dimmer room, the cracking is actually most apparent on the meteor itself, & where it almost looks as if it's part of the original art.
Work that the previous owner (an honest friend with tons of pinball experience) performed:
- Tore down the playfield to the wood & cleaned thoroughly, polished, & waxed it. Replaced plastics, addressed/cleaned subassemblies as needed.
- Cosmetic mods: new bumper caps, colored posts, red beehive shooter rod housing, shooter rod, spinner decals.
- All rubbers replaced ~1.5 years ago. Still look good.
- Flippers rebuilt
- New reproduction power supply--all new parts.
Work that & I performed over the last year:
- Occasional PF cleaning with Novus 1 (game gets very light play at my house).
- Legs spray painted black--look good. Front leg bolts also black to match.
- Added a light inside the pop bumper, which had none--tied in w/ GI, so always on.
- P1 & P3 displays occasionally flickered, but they'd fix themselves or start behaving if I gave the backbox a gentle Fonzie whack. The credit/ball display went dark twice & came back to life with just the gentlest of a caress on its Molex connector. So, I recently removed all 5 displays for some refurbishing: cleaning, reflowed the solder on the header pins, scrubbed the pins with alcohol, added some hot glue to the joint where the black display frame meets the PCB (some were cracked). After re-installation, no amount of tapping or wiggling of the connector produced any anomalous behavior. They seem to be solid now.
- Cosmetic mods: black flipper bats, blue flipper rubbers, newly printed (on paper) score cards.
- I tuned the METEOR drop target mechanism to prevent occasional spontaneous target drops when bank reset--zero glitches since the adjustment 1 year ago.
Bonus items:
- Original hardcopy of manual
- 5 replacement PF plastics, all in good condition (the machine uses 10)
- A well-worn white coin box that doesn't quite fit (Bally/Williams style?) if you want it.
Trade wish list (+/- cash...well, probably +...some of the higher-end machines listed below are out of my budget at the moment):
Cirqus Voltaire
Johnny Mnemonic
The Lord of the Rings
Mars: God of War
Monster Bash
NASCAR
Pirated of the Caribbean
Spider-Man (regular ver)
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Transformers (any ver)
Whodunnit?
(((((((((
