Cool drop ceiling panels! Wow. You have more pictures of that somewhere? Looks like the coin door, backbox back and fronts from Attack From Mars. Those light up? Great idea!

Colours at top go left to right: Green, brown, yellow. GBY. Remember by saying God Bless You.

Cool room. I played snooker on 12 foot tables growing up. Not quite the same on the smaller ones. Especially trying to play 8-ball on a table with snooker pockets!! Those tables should never be allowed!!

If you like flashing lights on top of your pins and haven’t already decided on which movie pins you’re going to get, you might consider a Lethal Weapon 3 and a Last Action Hero. Might be fun seeing those all going at the same time!

Love your taste in pins! Great titles and great collection!!

Not hard to tell what my impressionable teen years were...

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My fondest memories of playing pinball in highschool were of these four... and now they're in my living room.

#getaway-high-speed-ii , FunHouse , Diner , Party Zone

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I've made binders for each of my games. I put flyers (or colour copies of them) into the front and rear sleeves on the binder. Mostly they have the manuals in them and also a couple tabs for parts order receipts and other things.

Then they all go on a bookshelf near the games and the spine labels I did up as simple game name with logos or whatever fonts it used.

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This isn't going to be exactly on topic... but the audience is right... was wondering about pricing back in the day on new games. Specifically, wondered if Williams or Bally in the 80s and 90s had all new titles coming out at a standard price that wasn't based on the title? Sort of like how it is now with Stern, where every new game has the same price (not counting different prices for Pro, Premium, LE... I mean, standard price regardless of whether it is Rush or Star Wars or Godzilla).

Did they do the same thing back in the day? Like in 1990 or so, would Rollergames and Diner and then Funhouse all have cost the same to an operator that was buying it new?

My train of thought being how those three all have different values right now as would other sets of games from the same year. Like in 1991, maybe you could have bought Terminator 2 or Gilligan's Island or Bugs Bunny... but how disappointed would you be looking at values if you had bought Bugs Bunny and not something else?

Guess I'm just thinking of all the new Sterns with the same price when new... there are inevitably going to be some duds and some great ones, yet you don't know it on day one and might still pay that full amount for what is later realized to be a lousy game. I can think of a few in the past couple years that are great and some that are not. Yet resale prices don't seem to show that yet.

Definitely not in it for the money. I don’t flip games and never will. And profiteer has got to be one of the worst names someone could be known by. I’m thankful that’s not me and never will be. In fact, I have a game or two I’d like to consider selling or trading to get something I’d like better and I’m hesitant to part with any of them on account of how much time and effort I put into each one making them play exactly as they were intended.

Agreed on buying or playing what you like and not what seems trendy to like. So true in many things not just pinball. I find consumer reports funny that way in that a lot of things I really like get bad reviews lol. Oh well. Read them with a grain of salt.

Getting things out the door incomplete seems common nowadays unfortunately. How do they tell young entrepreneurs… better now than perfect later. How’d that work out for Boeing and their unfinished navigation system? PlayStation too. The list goes on. Being able to update something later isn’t always a good thing when it means you know you can get to market a bad or unfinished product with the promise of finishing it later.

I guess I was just wondering if Bally Williams had set pricing back in the day too? I assume they did. Hindsight years later tells us which games where the greatest and which ones weren’t. Heck, I bought original Nintendo games back in the day and they were always full price to start yet some of them were just plain awful. You don’t always know the day you buy it. Best to play any titles you want to buy in advance of commiting I’d say. Being an early adopter on something going for $16k CAD and it could be a dud just ain’t in the cards for me.

"...it's addictive!"
"...won't be long before you get your second machine!"
"...down the wormhole we go!"

Funny, I didn't have a single game less than two years ago. Now look at this mess!

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Thanks! I was definitely after the games I played as a teen. Getaway and Funhouse above all others.

I do really like some of those new Stern titles... I'm just not ready to part with that much cash to get one!

Couldn't agree with you more!! Fixing this 40+ year old car prepared me well to fix my own pins right from day one!

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Thanks man! Working on the pins in the comfort of the living room is a welcome change from wrenching on the car out in the garage... especially when the attention it gets from people going by can be pretty non-stop. No one just up and strolls into my house to check out the pins... yet it happens all the time with the silly car, lol.

Made a recent change to the line-up... a little less Data East and a little more Williams. Lethal Weapon 3 out and in comes the bride to replace her.

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Wow! That's a great line-up! The best of the best right there.

Those toppers for Funhouse and Bride of Pinbot... where did he get those? Got more pics of the Bride one?

If anyone is in the market for a right nut... I would gladly trade you for a Theatre of Magic, lol. Such a great game.

Someone asked which one you play the most? I find myself playing whichever one I got most recently.

I traded for a World Cup Soccer last week and two months ago a Bride of Pinbot. No question I play those the most right now. Though I always get a few games of Funhouse and the Getaway in. That’s my high school age arcade days right there.

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The divorce went through... traded my bride for some magic

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Thanks! Needless to say there was a couple bucks in cash going his way with the Bride to get that ToM.

Come by and check it out. I have enough games here I think I could run a league now, lol!

True with pool too. I am miserable to play against “for fun” because if I try, the other person hardly ever gets a shot. Playing 8-ball is nice winning beers off some guy at the bar. Not so much when out on a date and trying not to be an ass.

Lookin' good Jim! Great theme. If you ever get the urge to play some ZZ Top, you know where to find one

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How does everyone do their "order" of games? Age? Manufacturer? Theme?

My main four are in the order I remembered / loved them as a kid... Getaway, Funhouse, Diner, Party Zone.

Absolutely! And you have one of the best themes AKA rock 'n roll machines I've seen.

Another factor is lighting... some games in dark corners of the room play well and with others it makes it too hard to see! And headroom... for toppers... they don't all fit in the same spaces!!! lol

lol, that’s awesome!

Fun responses. I sooooo love seeing the perfectly lined up and symmetrical lockdown bars and back boxes too. Yessir!! Pinball OCD and we’re not talking LED non-flickering boards!!

Anyone do games by designer? Like a Steve Ritchie row or Pat Lawlor corner?

I know that Vette isn’t what is on the backglass of a Diner, but man that would look pretty cool parked next to one.

Love the 80s themed stuff! License plates are great! I do something similar when having the old car out at a cruise night...

I spy some Lego just off to the side... you still have your sets from back then too???

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That's awesome. Love the set and the Nintendo one too. Classics.

I keep humming and hah'ing about the jacked up Lego prices lately, so I don't have the Time Machine set yet. 'Cause, ya know, I'll go over and over whether I spend $200 on a Lego set or not... while seeming to have pretty quickly just up and spent about $50k on pinball machines in the past 2+ years. Priorities right? lol

Yes. No speedos went over 85 mph at the time. "I can't drive 55"... gas crisis era and the government at the time thought that if the car didn't show speeds over 85 mph, then people wouldn't drive so fast and the vehicles would be better on gas.

Back to the Future used all kinds of movie magic for that sort of thing. The speedos got fudged... like an artist painted over the real numbers and shuffled the markings so it went higher and could show 88 mph. Watch closely to the mall chase scene when they show the speedo. Three times it is shown and you'll notice the odometer there too. It jumps around... 32,065 or something like that, then 31,950 and then back to 32,070. It took them more than one take to get it right and so spliced the footage together.

Not so sure Bob Gale and Robert Zemekis counted on people watching the movies 100 times on Bluray and being able to scrutinize the tiny details.

Marty bonks his head on the steering wheel at the end of the first movie as he is trying to get the stalled car to start when he's at the starting point on the road leading to the clock tower... and the horn goes off just as he does this? The horn button isn't in the steering wheel centre pad, it's on the turn signal stalk. You push it in to honk the horn.

Or the door pull straps... those were loose add-ons for the first 4,000 cars made and then built into the arm rest on the 5,000 or so cars after that. I think the engineers just forgot not everyone's arms are as long as JZD's were. The movie cars had the loose style. And in that mall scene where Doc is explaining how the car works, you can see the pull strap on the driver's door in three different ways. First time it's connected correctly, second scene it isn't there at all, and the third time it's tied in a knot instead of using the hoop. I figure Christopher Lloyd kept bumping into it in that scene and so had them remove it and then they forgot to put it back on the same way.

Tons of stuff like that. DeLorean stuff was hobby #1 until pinball came along. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

They all came with the same engine. A 2.85 litre V6 made by Peugeot Renault Volvo. Delivering a whopping 130 horses. Yeehaw!!

I go with no backs on my stools. Reason being is I've whacked my elbow one too many times on the armrest/railing that comes around part way. Usually mid-game, intense and you go to plunge another ball and whack, right on the tip of the elbow. Hello drywall repair, bye-bye backrests.

They just look so pretty at night...

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Nice variety on the pins. Which one do you play the most?

Right on. I often do the same, playing each and moving down the line. My old time faves get lots of plays, Getaway and Funhouse, and also Space Station, which I didn't know as well back in the day, but still find myself playing it all the time. It's simpler than the newer ones, but without any inlanes, controlling the ball is a lot harder. Fair, but challenging. My ToM is the newest in the collection and gets a lot of play time too. Pretty much whichever game is the most recent addition to the collection gets a lot of play.

If you are ever through Guelph, they have a Twilight Zone on location at The Western Hotel Restaurant downtown. It is a wide body. There is also an Addam's Family there too for side by side comparison.

Your basement looks really great, btw! Thanks for sharing.

I wouldn't get too excited about the PinUp Arcade bar in Kitchener. The games there are not maintained well. You're better off going to Maple Pinball in Mississauga on a Friday night for league. Doors open at 7:00 pm, play starts at 7:30 pm. $20 for the night and everything is on free play. They keep about 55 games in the line-up from all eras. Wedge head EMs all the way up to new Sterns (Bond just showed up a couple weeks ago). Only wide body at the moment is an Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure, if I'm not mistaken.

They have one at Maple. Come to league tomorrow night. No one cares if you're a good, bad or somewhere in between player

Noticeable difference in power draw when the games are in attract mode versus being played. All my games are LED throughout, so are using up negligible power just being turned on. Now, if/when enough people are over to be playing them all at the same time, now that might be another story. I noticed a 5v reset issue in one of my games only under this scenario. Oh, and a friend's kid flipping both at the same time constantly. Game kept resetting yet could never replicate it just here on my own. I figure my electrical service in this house is pretty mediocre and it took using a lot of it all at once to see any issues crop up.

Cool room. Is that the new alternate translite for Theatre of Magic? Looks sweet. How do you like it? Got any more pics of it on the game? I was thinking about getting one as well.

Yes, you're right. Just wondering how he likes it actually in the game.

I completely agree on your assessment of the original. It's not crisp nor vivid. And for sure it comes across as making an absolutely terrific game look a little cheap. I think I'd like to get this translite of Brian's as well as his art blades. Very nice work and I like his style too.

I've had this wine barrell pub table for a while now. Four stools and the lazy Susan thing on top. The big round table portion has a hefty metal bracket underneath and then rides on four large bolts that screw into what are basically T-nuts sunk into the sides of the barrell. Always gets a lot of comments. Real nice set. And oddly enough, those stools are the perfect height to lift up either end of a pin and slide underneath if needing to adjust leg levellers, lol.

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I need to take some current gameroom pics... recently got this sexy thing for my Theatre of Magic compliments of Mr. Brian Allen and his amazing artistic abilities.

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Haha, nice. That honour goes to Funhouse for me. Well, maybe Getaway too

Funhouse or not, your house looks great and a lot of "fun"! Thanks for sharing!!

Giddyup! Sounds like a good idea!

My game room at home hasn't changed recently, but I was in Sarasota, Florida last week and checked out a showroom at the UTC mall and also the Arcade Monsters on St. Armand's circle. Pretty much entirely new Sterns at Arcade Monsters and they apparently got a Foo Fighters the next day... D'oh!! Missed it by that much!

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That is sweet! And I have just the right place to put that...

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Do any guests ever clue into what is going on in that alternate Flintstones translite??

I had six non-pinball playing family members over the other day.

My line-up is: Getaway, Funhouse, Diner, Party Zone, World Cup Soccer, Theatre of Magic, Cyclone, Space Station and Sure Shot.

Everyone had a great time and while I don't know exactly how much each game got played, I can tell you which ones got the most and least attention.

World Cup Soccer was the one everyone kept playing and enjoying and figuring out more and more of what to do and aim at. On the other end of that was Space Station. Consensus was that it is just too hard and you don't know what you're supposed to do or where to send the ball.

Thought that was interesting. I love Space Station, but definitely know how hard it is on account of their being no inlanes. And have heard some of the other WCS owners saying the same about their game and now I've seen it with my own eyes. Fun day regardless. Love having the variety in the line-up.

Any collection with some System 11's in it is top shelf in my books. Nice space!!

Hate seeing those flooded basements. One thing to mention about sump pumps is the location of the discharge. Ensure it is carrying the water far enough away from the sides of the foundation so not to just seep back into the ground and go right up against the foundation again. This will depend on your house and how far down the water table is. You can add some length to the discharge hose to get it out to the middle of the lawn or onto a surface that carries it to a storm drain. For anyone with a sump pump that runs and runs and runs, it might just be trying to pump the same water over and over and will wear out over time. Helped a neighbor like this years ago.

You aren't alone. You aren't alone in being alone, I mean. Same thing here. I rarely if ever have people come over to play the games. I think it's just a thing that happens in life as you get older. Maybe not to everyone, but it sure has to me. Reminds me a little of the ending to Stand By Me and what the author writes to finish his book with.

The "feels". Wow, no kidding. That movie does it for me every time. Good stuff.

Happy holidays and good luck to you in 2024 as well!

Added NBA Fastbreak not long ago and then this past weekend finally got into the 21st century with TMNT Pro.

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Would the "keep out of direct sunlight" advice also be because the games don't play well if you can't see from all the glare? If I have the blinds open near my pins, you can hardly even tell there is a "condition green" mode on my Space Station for example.

Wow, no kidding. What an amazing space!! And besides the incredible game selection in your line up, having loads of extra space around the games is very enviable. Changes the whole feel when they are well spaced like that versus jam packed in there. Pack with care!