Bally strikes and spares. 50 bucks Canadian, which would have been about 30 bucks US.
A gottlieb's Target alpha. I bought it at an auction in 1981 for $140.00 . I( still own it and play it often.
Brian
jacks open... a few years ago... dead on pickup, brought back to life thanks to the shared wisdom of the em pinsiders... still have, won't leave, too strong an emotional attachment...
Lethal Weapon 3 in 1999. Ebay purchase- sight unseen for $300. It was complete but not booting. Every single board needed rework, and the machine needed a full teardown. The first time it came to life, I was hooked. Took me about a year to understand everything, but for $300 I got a very thorough education on Data East operation. Well worth it.
Sold it at a Super Auctions in Milwaukee around 2005 for $1200.
Quoted from awarner:Interesting to see what people's first purchased pinball was. Add your own - mine is below!
Mine was Data East Simpsons and I think I bought it in 1998. I had it for about a year and during that time, got my Doctor Who which played a lot better. I paid around $700 for it at an auction in Mt. Holly , NJ (Superauctions) and sold on eBay for $1200. I remember replacing a plastic and the bumper caps. I also had a few wires that needed re-soldering, but overall it ran well. Shoot the Ramp - Shoot the Ramp! TSPP is a lot better game - I still own that one!simpsonpsm.jpg 11 KB
DE simpsons for me in 2000 bought it on ebay for 800 plus shipping from LA and sold it for 1200 i think once i got a NIB TSPP
Quoted from awarner:Interesting to see what people's first purchased pinball was. Add your own - mine is below!
Mine was Data East Simpsons and I think I bought it in 1998. I had it for about a year and during that time, got my Doctor Who which played a lot better. I paid around $700 for it at an auction in Mt. Holly , NJ (Superauctions) and sold on eBay for $1200. I remember replacing a plastic and the bumper caps. I also had a few wires that needed re-soldering, but overall it ran well. Shoot the Ramp - Shoot the Ramp! TSPP is a lot better game - I still own that one!simpsonpsm.jpg 11 KB
I miss those days when you could go to a local auction and pick up a game very reasonably. In South Jersey we had auctions in Pennsauken, Mt Holly and Bordentown.
Comet was my first in 2012. The deal was great because once I got there to pick it up the seller had forgot to mention that there was another 80% complete parts machine thrown into the deal!
Gottlieb's Countdown. Bought for $150.00 out of a customers basement and it worked great. I sold it 6 months later and regretted it. Beautiful artwork and tons of drop targets.
Bally Space Invaders. It was the first game I checked out that made me think of my youth. I paid $500 for it 12 years ago. I can still hear the thumping of that game
Shaq Attaq! (2012) Sold it but since got another and did a full restoration on it and it won't leave the collection.
No Fear. Bought it off of EBay.
Prob overpaid by a few hundred bucks, but at the time, I couldn't believe I could buy a pinball game for $1400.
I bought a Bally "Bazaar" in 1980 from an arcade before they went out of business.
My crackhead nephew put it outside in the rain with me knowing it; after which time it "disappeared".
Mine was a Party Zone which had numerous problems with and we called it Shorty since it would turn off every so often. Eventually found out that it had a loose connection in the power box but after that it was always something else that would go wrong. We got so tired of fixing it we actually hated it and sold it broken for 500 bucks just to get rid of all the trouble we had while owning it. Now I try to spend a little more for machines which are in better conditions with hardly any problems but shorty taught me a lot about how to fix problems including redoing wiring connectors in the back box which we did all of them for Shorty.
Corvette for $2800 in 2005. Still have it, still love it, still trying to find games that live up to it....
My first was a '72 Gottlieb 'Wild Life' which I got for free in 1990. I got 4 more machines in '91 but I had to pay for those, lol. Full story is on my profile.
Gorgar back in 1987. I had to sell it when we moved and didn't own another until I bought Taxi in 2010.
Bought two at the same time but only had room for one at a time in the truck. Centaur came home first, followed by Black Knight. Did the deal during a typical Minnesota snow storm, dragging the pins home in the back of my Tacoma, uncovered. Estimate January 1998 for purchase date. Sold all games in 2001 when I got married. Got back in the game October 2012 with Centaur #2.
Quoted from SpecialK-33:Bally Space Invaders. It was the first game I checked out that made me think of my youth. I paid $500 for it 12 years ago. I can still hear the thumping of that game
Space Invaders was my third game. Likely the favorite during my youth due to ease of getting free games with Special using center u-turn.
Got our first house. and Pinball game.
Judge Dredd.. 2000
Then Funhouse
And on and On and oN..
Still have them all....
NT>
Fish Tales in 2002. I shipped it with me from Fort Sill Oklahoma to Hawaii on my first assignment. It is still on the island of Oahu!
I overpaid for a JP 3 years ago. Drove 4 hours through snow to pick it up, wrecked my buddy's Honda Element which cost me another grand to repair.
I started playing Bally and Williams machines at CP and realized that I had made a bad choice. My daughter was bummed because she liked the Dino. But I was happy to see it go.
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