Although I'm more open-minded from the get go (and an EM collector), I recently learned how great this game is too. I've heard the name a whole ton but never bothered to look into it until a week or so ago, but WOW, what a great game this is! I think this is one of the coolest EMs now just from watching a video on it.

You two should seriously watch a video first next time. 3 ball multiball, 2 ball multiball, really really cool volcano feature, shared multiball not only between players but between games including after power-off and on by using a special type of relay to hold even when the power is off. It has zipper flippers as well, although a couple of other machines did too.

And, if after that you still don't understand, you probably never will. It's funny, I've seen so many of these comments and these guys always have like scarily similar collections. Metallica, CFTBL, Medieval Madness, TOM, and too many superhero DMD games to name... ( )

You're asking about a single game, but I ask myself that every day about DMD collectors and their games - 6k for THAT? (just kidding)

^ This, and most of the HEP ones just are

EDIT: Oops, confused this with service work, I meant HEP does work for people who ship their games to him

Oops, got the terms twisted

I disagree: When somebody stumbles on their first broken pin they are "forced" to fix it if they want to play it, so the non-lazy ones come here (or somewhere) and ask for help - which eventually teaches them the art of fixing the machine. That's one part down.

Then they do that to the next one or two games they acquire, getting better and better at it each time. Then they realize they are hooked on this great hobby.

Eventually, they realize they can make their machines look great (and are eager to do so) after seeing threads like these on Pinside, and decide to go for it.

Then your next restorer is born. Voila!

I did not know how to fix circuit boards, repair EM machines, or restore a game (bondo, paint, fix cabinet) three years ago and since then I have taught myself to do all of those things (and continue to do so, I don't believe anybody is ever really "finished" learning in this hobby) since I have started collecting arcade machines in September of 2014 and pinball machines in January of 2015. This has also earned me hundreds of dollars doing what I love for other people and fixing their own games.

An older guy I picked up a machine from two days ago who doesn't have much interest anymore and is not connected on these sites also thought the hobby/craft was dying and although I mostly kept my mouth shut or kindly tried to be agreeable, I did not agree then either obviously. I believe the reason it seems this way was because, yes, a lot of the older and more experienced guys are giving it up or unfortunately passing away - but each place is filled by all of the newer, younger, eager people wanting to do the same great things they did. So I don't think it's dying, it's just cycling. And that can be a very good thing, especially for these machines. An older collector decides that he no longer wants to pursue this hobby and sells his machines to another newer collector, and suddenly those machines that may have gotten 1 play every few months or less are moved into a home where they are played multiple times every day and are genuinely enjoyed again, just like they were when that other collector still had that fire, and just like they were back when they were new. And that isn't even saying that every collector and machine will experience that cycle (or ever again, or even more than once), some will always be played and loved by a person passionate about the hobby thankfully and won't have to be passed on to somebody else to be enjoyed often - I consider my machines lifetime machines in this way and hope to still be playing them often forever, but for the percentage of machines out there that are involved in that or are going to be involved in that, it's great to see.

It's a natural cycle, like I said. I think it might even be growing. I think for every 1 guy we lose that has been doing it for 20-30 years, we get another two newbies that stick around and will probably be doing this for that long if not longer.

I apologize for the long post but I promise it's a good one this time around!