Photo: robin
  1. » Forum
  2. » All Pinball
  3. » "Nic's North American Pinball Tour" (aka I'm coming to fix your games!)
(Topic ID: 179489)

"Nic's North American Pinball Tour" (aka I'm coming to fix your games!)

By NicoVolta

7 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 2,359 posts
  • 287 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 3 years ago by pinwiztom
  • Topic is favorited by 144 Pinsiders

You

Linked Games

No games have been linked to this topic.

    Topic Gallery

    View topic image gallery

    tiltpic (resized).jpg
    pinballpeople (resized).jpg
    82AEE677-99AB-4A06-88A1-AC46A83934EF (resized).jpeg
    E7F956A9-A133-49D5-837E-2E60D848B928 (resized).jpeg
    BEC68D50-0F81-45CE-8DB4-923B9BB92E4F (resized).jpeg
    0D22BACD-6C20-4EFC-9566-72C275C7A0E9 (resized).jpeg
    KVIL poster (resized).jpg
    CA49040D-6630-4A45-98EC-098A17B1BC1E (resized).jpeg
    5BF19104-DCAB-43FB-8061-580F76A59EEB (resized).jpeg
    7635D833-0BF0-4A15-8D04-D5018215C5CC (resized).jpeg
    B353F092-BEC0-4EEA-9E80-4D958D496017 (resized).jpeg
    D197D070-C43D-4F3B-B4DC-6930AE040CD6 (resized).jpeg
    30AF8562-5B01-48D9-B9E3-07ADE8DFDE9F (resized).jpeg
    519741C7-0D7D-4E9B-B73B-5D622A352BD4 (resized).jpeg
    08E3B205-7BC0-417C-8C93-E12F0EF5F0B2 (resized).jpeg
    EADCF2A6-148F-4FFB-B852-3C9EDC8A5C67 (resized).jpeg

    Topic index (key posts)

    93 key posts have been marked in this topic, showing the first 10 items.

    Display key post list sorted by: Post date | Keypost summary | User name

    Post #1 NNAPT - Nic's North American Pinball Tour - The big plan Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #90 Nic's background and how he got into the pinball hobby w/photos Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #117 Key posted, but no summary given Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #152 The map of the cross-country pinball tour is posted Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #208 And so, the 15,000 mile, nearly 4-month trip begins! Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #215 Visit #1 - Tony Macevicius (Tmacev1) in Lindale, TX (Atlantis) Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #218 Visit #2 - David Yopp at The Retro in Millington, TN (Grand Prix) Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #234 REGION 1 (Southeast bound) tour map - March 28 - April 17, 2017 Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #245 Visit #2 update - video footage of The Retro pinball tournament (spoiler: Nic wins) Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Post #251 TPF high school video interview w/Nic (skip to 6:07 for the pinball portion) Posted by NicoVolta (7 years ago)

    Topic indices are generated from key posts and maintained by Pinside Editors. For more information, or to become an editor yourself read this post!

    You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider Stoomer.
    Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

    0
    0
    0
    #2052 6 years ago
     
    ???

    Stoomer

    Inactive member

    US Binghamton, NY

    8y 29,650 308

    OP
    Quoted from NicoVolta:

    Oh... another tech update. I recently had my first opportunity to install new AS relay boards on a Spin-A-Card. It had horrible carbon tracking on both sides which was causing the wrong cards to light up during the spin sequence (short circuits).

    If you have a 1970's Bally multiplayer EM, you should immediately open the backbox right now and look at the player unit stepper. Odds are, you’ll see some carbon tracking on the circuit board. Use the alcohol, Mother’s polish, alcohol, and dry Teflon lube technique to remove it... otherwise the sparks will eat through the bakelite and cause other problems.

    Other problems like a FIRE! That one had alotta play left compared to this one out of a Flip-a-Card I did a couple years ago:

    pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png

    1 week later
    0
    3
    3
    #2101 5 years ago
     
    ???

    Stoomer

    Inactive member

    US Binghamton, NY

    8y 29,650 308

    OP
    Quoted from NicoVolta:

    A very good question indeed. I've seen what can happen when a perfection-minded person gets overworked. Tim Arnold comes to mind. He is still pulling 80+ hours a week after many years at the PHOF. I have no idea how he does it. Tons of games and not many people to help him... yet somehow he keeps on slogging it out, year after year. I don't think most people realize the extremes to which he has gone. It's not healthy.
    Arcade Expo has even more games and more volunteers than PHOF. Yet it will take many more years for the EM's to be fully functional if that is a priority... there are just so many!
    Roanoke Pinball Museum is about 30% of the PHOF in terms of size (if you factor out the crane games, drink machines, ball bowler, etc). However, our facility is in a very nice venue at the epicenter of the downtown main square. Walkable, pretty, and surrounded by restaurants and bars. Which positions it a little differently from a stand-alone arcade in a strip mall or remote location.
    As such, my goal is quality and experience, not quantity. We're not competing with Dave & Buster's. This is a curated, museum-y experience. My goal is to rebuild and bulletproof everything... 100% lamps and functions working and playing as well as possible, for as long as possible. All of the games need to be excellent.
    For now, I'm extinguishing the major issues. A lot of work remains. But the size of the museum is manageable and that's the main thing. Gut feeling tells me I'll be able to fulfill my ambitions... and that gets me up early and staying late every day.
    Also, it's cool when peeps from the tour/Pinside/community stop by to say hello, like this fella today (James Hudson)!

    I also gotta add that the approach you advocate, the tear down-clean-polish-rebuild, of all components on an EM will help the overall long-term playability and reliability of the games you've restored. I watched you teach this approach to many eager EM enthusiasts across North America, and my opinion on this approach for noobs has evolved over the years. I used to say on RGP in the early days of my involvement in the hobby what alot of folks say - only fix the things that are broke, because you could cause more problems going through everything. It's funny to me that I advocated this, since I never did that myself - every EM I've ever done I've torn it all apart, and rebuilt it. So why did I think other noobs should do it differently? Good question...probably human fallibility...but no matter!! I was always a bit skeptical of that conventional wisdom, like alot of conventional "wisdom", and Nick has helped me fully dismiss it.

    So I no longer believe this advice...it seems like it makes sense, and maybe it does in some cases, but overall I think it's better to go Nico's route. If you break some things adjusting others...so be it! Your hobby is fixing old pinball machines, isn't it?? So go fix what you just broke! It only adds more experience...

    And in Nick's case, or really anyone maintaining a large number of games, if you've done your due diligence in the shop when you had that game all torn apart, the nagging problem are smaller projects than they would be if you hadn't. I generally have 8-12 EMs in my working lineup(with 4-6 on "location"(friend's houses)), and the things I need to do to all those games at any given time is minor. Bulb sockets are what I spend most of my time on actually...so I really understand Nick's desire to create a 100% operational fleet...even the bulbs. IMO he's got the right approach, and a good foundation to actually achieve that...or as close as anyone can get. )

    Sean

    You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider Stoomer.
    Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

    Reply

    Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

    Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

    Donate to Pinside

    Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!

    This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nics-american-pinball-tour-aka-im-coming-to-fix-your-games?tu=Stoomer and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

    Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.