+1,That's correct

I donated 20 dollars just because his old guides payed for that ten fold for me. The ninja site was just a added bonus

It's a HUGE bonus for what people are donating!! The Pinrepair guides were up for YEARS on Clay's own dime and has helped MANY Pinheads.Clay deserves every bit of it and more!!

Avatar just isn't a game for me. I've given it multiple attempts, I find it very boring. It could be in the setup. I find that the ball spends WAY too much time in the pops. I've had multiple reports the contrary, but seeing as I only have one place to play it, it doesn't seem that my opinion will change any time soon.

Most people are paying for Ninja for the repair stuff, hence why I say that it is a repair site. I will be paying for it for the repair stuff. I could care less if he does reviews or anything else, even though I may enjoy said content...it's just a bonus.

Yes it's a repair site and the reviews that are done about the games are just to show you what the game offers and YOU make your own decision about the game..Clay is not telling you to like or dislike the game...That's up to you to decide.

Can you donate without PayPal? I want in

I'll ask clay and get back to ya

+100
That's exactly why I donated to Clay. His info is worth 10 f0old or greater. Just go out and try and find a book or whatever that can rival the multiple guides that Clay had posted, for $20.

Now I know there are other sites with good info and knowledge and now PinWiki is coming along, but seriously how much is/was copied from Clay's guides. Plus Clay has left up much info on his site and system 1 is back up and updated.

You know, $20 is chump change in this hobby. Sites like Pinside and Clay's deserve their donations because of all they have provided and helped the P Ball community.

+A Million

Blackbeard I sent you PM.

-100

Please don't follow this advice if you are a burgeoning pinball repair tech. 600 and counting real-world repairs is a tremendous resource and is getting better with the video content. This goes for the TOP repair videos as well. I agree with others who have mentioned how much money, not to mention rescued machines has been saved from Clay's efforts. Certainly for myself it is in the 4 figure range and counting. $20 is nothing!!

Perhaps markmon can instead suggest some worthwhile alternatives rather than merely trying to deter people from this treasure of helpful knowlege and information.

Very well said and so much info it is very helpful to people especially to the new people coming into the hobby.

Me too. Those old guides saved me hours and hours and $100s of bucks.

My $20 donation to PinNinja was part guilt complex for using those guides without donating before.

I've also learnt a couple of new tricks through the new site as well.

I also have an issue with the new Xmen review video as well... Thought it was a rip on Borg which was a little unfair. But everyone is entitled to their opinion ....

Dave

I'm in then Mike! Gonna get signed up...thanks

Yup,Those guides are the best and without them how would we have learned anything??

Great to hear Ice!! Yes the PinballNinja Site is a must and so much to read and learn.Clay is great at what he does with Pins!!

most people have paid $20 for a DVD with far less info. $20 for an ongoing updated site is nothing IMHO

Boy,You ain't kidding....Way worth it!!!

Blackbeard I sent you another PM.

The guides are no longer available. No need to start that up here. The Ninja Rocks!

Your darn right The Ninja Rocks!!!!

Not starting anything, I was just wondering because I seem to remember he was offering them for sale in some form for a while, so I thought it stood to reason that they might be part of his site subscription.

ROFL @ this

Where else are you going to get real world examples of EM/SS/DMD fixes with videos, pics, text and voice commentary for $20?

Nah! No harm done there's been other people that have asked the same question

In fairness, there are other sites doing similar things. I heartily recommend http://pinballhelp.com/ Great site. Shame he doesn't update more often, but usually very informative tips/guides when he does update.

Doesn't even come close to the Pinball Ninja Site!!!

But I give him credit for what he is doing.

I highly recommend http://pinballhelp.com as well. I had the pleasure of meeting pinballhelp at the last TPF and he even ended up with my TSPP Cut him some slack on his updates though, hes building an arcade after all!

Ninja rocks.

Cool site with TONS of tips etc. Highly recommended.

Haha!! told ya!

I'll PM you the details.

The best $20 money can buy for any pinball enthusiast. A wealth of information you simply can't get anywhere else. A true asset to the community that deserves to get paid a little.

Viewed all the Ninja updates (and guides) back when they were free. I paid the 20 bucks back in the spring, but never used the account access until this post reminded me I had it. I spent a good portion reading updates last night and really enjoyed the videos. It finally puts a voice and personality behind all that information I've seen over the years in the guides. Really good stuff. It was the best 20 bucks I spent this year.

Step 2: http://www.pinrepair.com/top

Step 3: http://www.pinrepair.com/topcast

Then you'll be caught up!
<grin>

PS - I know who Mort was, but I'm not telling...

Well could you tell me the identity of "Number 1" from TOP 7?

I miss Mort's updates.

Reviews are basically opinions, right?

Perhaps you could ask Clay to update his reviews, and he'd consider it.

I personally don't read the reviews on the Ninja site. I enjoy fixing pins 10x as much as playing pins. If Clay's guides hadn't been around when I started collecting, my first pin would've been my last.

I can see what you're saying if the guides are inaccurate. I guess if I were in the market for a particular machine, I might try to find reviews about it. But, I'd want more than just *one* review for fodder, and I'd certainly want to *play* it before buying - considering what a NIB pin costs nowadays, a couple hundred dollars in gas or an airline ticket would be well-spent to be really sure

I remember using his guides back when I first stared out doing pinball repair.
Had no idea they had been taken down.
What was the problem that made them go away? Seems a shame to just waste such good info.

I was "The Lizard Boss", #1 was a friend of Shaggy's that owned a game store. I never got a name. Funny story about how I became the Boss.

I would review the comedy sequences for Shaggy. He would send me low res video clips to review. The original cut of the Boss had #1 playing both parts of that phone call. When it was the Boss, it was shot with the head cut off and you couldn't see who it was, but the voice was the same so it was really confusing. So I call Shaggy and ask if that's suppose to be two different people, he says "Yes". I said, I'll call you back. I got my Wife to shoot my replacement boss stuff and I cut it into the low-res preview copy Shaggy sent me. About 10 minutes after the e-mail is sent with the link location, I get a frantic call - "How are you going to get me the full resolution version?!?!"

Shaggy was more surprised that I owned a Tux I think...

Topcast was one of the most enjoyable hobby podcasts I have listened to. Very well done, at least, after the first few where they seemed to be leaning the nuances of recording.

I started with Tilt. I learned a lot of industry names in that doc. Then Special When Lit. By the time I finished with topcast, I felt like I had taken a college credit on the history of pinball.

Topcast was a wild ride. Shaggy, Norm, Korn, Paul and I worked really hard on it, but the interviews are legendary. And we've lost some of the people Clay interviewed so it's an amazing piece of pinball history. I don't think the live stuff worked as well as we hoped, but, it was fun and presented a bunch of challenges. I got to do some stupid impressions so that was fun.

I think I need the three step recovery plan. A busy lifestyle keeps me from being 100% in the know. Ninja's daily updates are how I fall asleep at night. No kidding.

+1 I just donated and have been reading his entries. This is pinball debug gold. His explanations and videos are very educational for anyone who debugs their machines from time to time. I wish every hobby of mine had documentation and hands on videos this good.
Thanks!

I don't see how the posts that show repairs are useful. If I have a question on how to repair a machine or am stuck with a specific problem, I cant possibly take 10 days and read through 600 previous repairs hoping to find a similar repair to mine. At least the pinrepair.com site, when it was up, gave a decent and easily searchable set of repair steps and things to look for. Now that was useful.

The repairs have already saved me tons of time. It's easy to search for a machine name or a couple keywords and find something that is relevant.

Sure it may not have your exact issue every time, but it still is a great beneficial resource.

I am not overly impressed with the pay site , I spent 20 bucks and been there once . It might be helpful to some.

Jim

There is a search engine and he codes the system type in the post title. So if you're looking for WPC stuff, you can just search the WPC stuff. It works pretty well, give it a try.

Sent my $20 today - had meant to do it long ago. Worth it to me just to acknowledge what I've got out of Clay's old guides and everything he's done for the pinball community. Thanks Clay!

Posting repairs is a GREAT tool to learn from. Most of the repairs Clay posts on pinball ninja are quite common. You can also search his site for repairs just for system 11 say.. or wpc.. or whatever you might be looking for.

For a small donation ($20? was it?) it's a great asset to the repair community in my opinion.

The site is about fixing pinball machines, not about the techniques of fixing pinball machines.

So, there is a lot of info on diagnostics and not so much on soldering, etc. He assumes that you have those talents already.

So if your machine doesn't boot up, then there will probably be a repair for a machine that doesn't boot up, you can compare and contrast to see if that symptom's cause is similar to yours. He won't necessarily explain how to de-solder and re-solder an IC chip (for instance).

He site is a series of stories..."someone called with a dead XXX, I went there and found YYY, then did ZZZ..and then it worked".

I think it's great at what it is.

Robert

I stumbled on the original Pinball Ninja site when it was about 100 repairs in. checking the site became a daily ritual for me. I had no pinball machines at the time and LOVED every repair article. I learned so much when it was free and then it was gone. I just heard from a friend last night that the Ninja was back and throwing stars again! I already contacted clay for the details and will send my $20 (without a second thought) to his email address via paypal tonight. I CAN'T WAIT to get back in the Ninja realm!

It's not always about a specific problem, it's about learning more about pinballs. I had no idea there were errors in manuals.. The recent gottlieb video is great, had no idea of the mods that should be done. Also (even though it's sorta common sense), it's good to see the process he goes through before turning on a machine (disconnect everything, test voltage.. then add driverboard, then add cpu) to prevent damage. The display hack (high voltage) to restore the brightness, no idea you could do that.

I mean really, it's sort of akin to browsing a mcmaster catalog. Sure I can go right to the website, and search exactly what I'm looking for, but sometimes I don't even know what I'm looking for.