So I was using my stair climbing dolly to move a game out of my basement and when I got near the top of the stairs I realized I was too close to the left side and that the game was going to hit the flooring overhang if I didn’t move the game over a bit to the right.

The right thing to do would have been to go back to the bottom of the stairs and start over more to the right. However if I’d have done that then there wouldn’t be a story to tell now would there?

Instead I figured I could just strong arm the game a few inches to the right. Unfortunately, when I tried to do that one of the wheels slipped off the step and the unexpected 300 pound pull of the dolly and machine caught me by surprise and I was unable to control it. I lost my grip on the dolly and the game rocketed to the bottom of the stairs. Thankfully the wall caught it and nobody except the wall was injured.

The pictures show that the score is clearly pinball 1 and walls 0.

Be careful out there people.

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Darcy hmm, maybe I need to square that up and make a cubby out of it. Yes, I meant to do that.

Here are a couple of pictures of the game, still strapped together. Thankfully, I had removed the play field glass as well as the back glass. Those may not have survived the fall.

No chance at putting in a wall safe as the other side of the wall is my game room. It’s a pretty thin wall.

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Well, once the game was at the bottom of the stairs, I was able to start a bit closer to the right side of the my stairs so I didn't have the same problem when I got to the top. The game stayed connected to the dolly so I just had to get it out of the wall and then I was able to move it up the stairs.

Completely agree. I pretty much never take the playfield glass and back glass out of the game. For some reason, I did it this time. I'm pretty sure that had those been in the game still they would have been broken. That would have been a mess to clean up for sure.

Generally speaking I take the easiest path. To me, it's easier to just lower the head and strap it down to the body. It makes moving the game similar to moving any modern game. In this case, it wasn't that the game was too heavy or top heavy, it was 100% me being stupid thinking I could move the dolly with the game on it over an inch or two. Had I simply taken the game back down the stairs, moved it slightly to the right, and gone up again I'd have been fine. Lesson learned for sure.

Just to follow up and close the loop on this one I finally got the wall repaired and the eight ball is set up and running fine. The only damage to the game was a couple of rub marks on the head in each corner where it got pushed into the rails a bit. The outside cabinet corners also took a ding but it’s almost unnoticeable. It really could have been much worse.

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