St Louis, MO
Quoted from NicoVolta:Visit #14 – Steve Young - The Pinball Resource in Poughkeepsie, NY
The subject: Where Pinball Road inevitably leadsThree and a half years ago, I made my first phone call to Pinball Resource. I still remember the call. If you’ve ever ordered anything from Steve, I bet you can remember your first time too.
It usually goes something like this…
Steve: “Pinball Resource…”
You: “Hi, my name is __, and I need some parts for my pinball machine. I need the… um… thing on the flipper thing which, um…”
Steve: “Gottlieb flipper linkage? Gimme a part number.”
You: “Um OK I don’t see one on there. It’s a plate and a stick thing whi-“
Steve: “What game is it?”
You: “It’s a Playball, a baseball ga-“
Steve: “GTB-A12047-A. You need two. Anything else?”
You: “OK great. I might as well get four just in case. Could you add two more?”
Steve: “No.”
You: “I can’t ord-“
Steve: “You don’t need two more. A new pair will last a long time. What else do you need?”
You: “But what if it breaks?”
Steve: “It won’t break if you install it correctly. If you do it carefully it will work. Gottlieb made things that work. These games play thousands of games before they need fixing. In a home environment it will be fine for a long time. You don’t need it. Anything else?”
You: “I… yes… I-I think….”
…and thus stammer your way through the rest of the call, ordering a basket of parts you think you’ll maybe-kind-of-need… and quick… or else no soup for you! Who the heck is this guy, anyway?
Then, sometime later down the road after calls two, three, and four, you discover Steve is actually a talkative guy with a wealth of knowledge and helpful tips. Chatty, even. He tells you where to check for issues in your game. Or he talks about the games he has. Or about the pinball business as a whole.
You can tell he genuinely wants to help you understand how your pinball machine works. He understands pinball is meant to be played, because he plays it himself. And what initially appeared as a gruff demeanor gives way to an understanding that he serves the pinball community not so much as a Soup Nazi-character, but more as a careful steward of the available resources to all who would participate in the hobby.It is at this point you realize Steve’s quirks are actually endearing aspects of his resilience. His stubbornness to use old invoicing and payment methods keeps costs low. His website is antiquated and poorly indexed, but Google search takes up the slack for free at no charge to you. He has a row of woodrails in his office to use as a surface for cutting schematics. Sure, he could buy a new table, but why? The old games work just fine… again, at no charge to you.
Steve keeps a parts library of nearly every game produced.
Each archive contains a detailed manifest listing every screw, washer, and plate inside a game, head to toe, as it left the factory.
All of the drop targets you need are in this row, custom made as needed.
All of the factory dies used for pressing new pop bumper caps and plastics are retrieved as needed.
Every pop bumper body you’ve ever bought came from this spot… individually pressed into service.
Every switch stack assembled by hand and clamped together in this jig.
Every switch blade contact punched in this machine, one at a time.
In the storage room, an archive of factory blueprints outline the plans for everything from flipper brackets to stepper discs.
Three and a half years later, I couldn’t be happier to meet Steve in person and see his humble but proud operation – stubbornly resisting the ravages of time – cranking out the pieces to literally keep our hobby rolling on and on.
What else can one say but thank you, Steve Young!
Next stop -> Andover, CT
Great post! I just hope that Otaku and everyone else who bitches about Steve will read this and maybe, just maybe realize what an asset Steve is to the hobby. Pinball repairs were a very hard job before Steve came along. PBR customer #A801.
