Joining the operator club, and quite excited to do so!

I operated video games back in England (man, the video game scene is so different over here - back in the UK we used generic upright JAMMA cabinets for everything, and swapped the games out pretty frequently. We'd rarely even bother changing the marquee, never mind the cabinet art! You guys really like your dedicated cabs!), and now, having gotten and restored my first pinball (a 1972 Williams Super Star, with a backglass generously provided by a lovely gentleman posting in this very thread!), it's on location at DaBuzi's restaurant in Finleyville, PA! And it's got an extra little surprise in it, too: http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/em-high-score-saving-mod

So far, it's gone really well! This is a place where 99% of the business is deliveries despite having a HUGE dining room, and yet it's getting a dozen or so plays a day with close to zero foot traffic. Of course, I'm heading over tonight to fix the damn thing after only five days on location, but hey, that's pinball (and prototyping, too).

My intention is a little different from you guys - I want to get more electromechanicals back out in public, and I think that with a high-score saving feature, they could earn a lot more. So for me, this is mostly about testing my mod.

Fingers crossed!

So that's why my Super Star had so many names carved in it.

They're certainly satisfying. And pretty.

And the machine at DaBuzi's is in their lobby, which is a sort of raised wooden floor which leads down via steps into the restaurant proper. The wood and the space beneath acts as, like, a big sounding-board. Every time you score any points, you feel the thump of the solenoids through your feet. It's awesome.

Got it set to quarter play, three balls per game, and everything but the replay scores set to add-a-ball mode. Might try five-ball play sometime - seeing how three-ball play goes, for now.

(and there's a big empty space in my basement, where a pinball machine used to be)

(and so of course I'm idly nosing around Craigslist...)

The Royal Mint back in the UK has a habit of changing the coins just often enough to be irritating to operators too. I get why they do it, and the new coins are often nicer, but it's still a PITA.

I hear the one-pound coin is gonna be changing soon, because it's too easy to counterfeit. The new version is twelve-sided, bimetallic, and absolutely gorgeous. There's still gonna be grumbling, and some of it will be from me.

(putting dollar coin acceptors on my pins, giving five plays for a dollar coin, prominent "Dollar coins are available at the register" sign - coming from the UK, the very concept of a one-dollar note is bizarre to me, and even though dollar coins kinda suck, I'd still like to do a little bit to encourage their circulation)