Whitewater!!! Ugh!

Baywatch and POTC.

I shop out a lot of machines on the side and by far the worst and most challenging was Pinball Magic!!! Most Bally/Williams titles you can just take apart things section by section and are designed to come apart. PM was horrible because you would try to take apart a section and then realize to get to a screw etc you had to take another section half apart but to do that you had to go do something else etc etc. I remember spending what seemed like a day try to figure out how to get to one screw to remove a part. It was under another part and you could not take that apart unless you got the first part out. Ridiculous design... GREAT Game though! I like it better than TOM!

WCS94, Creech, and Whitewater. Stacked and intertwined ramps galore on those.

Earthshaker by MILES. Williams was clearly just learning how to make complicated games with overlapping features, but hadn’t yet figured out how to make it all easily serviceable.

Just changing out the flashlamp under the center ramp means you have to pull the playfield out of the game (no rails to slide on!), pull out the rear VUK, disassemble the fault (PITA, screws are horrendously inconvenient), pull out the corkscrew skill shot ramp, then finally pull out the main ramp and all the switch connectors.

It’s all piles of nonsense, and it’s awful.

I feel your pain on shopping RCT, but once that babys shopped its a whole lot of fun IMO.

I am surprised. I think the sterns of that era to be the best quality stern put out. These games are far from cheaply built. RCT would be considered an LE/premium if that same game was released today. There are probably more coils in that game than the last 4 Stern releases combined. My guess is somebody was in there before you and jacked up the screws with the wrong screw driver.

I completely understand how you feel about shopping it. Congrats for tackling it. Hope you give it a fair shake. It's a lot of fun and one you don't find in every collection.

Looking forward to this thread, hope some tips on these tuff games pop up.

Glad you started it!

Corvette is a real PITA. The ramps are layered and there are a couple spots which were difficult to get back together unless you have small hands.

I’ve never done Baywatch, but absolutely feel the pain on POTC. Every damn thing is bolted to the playfield with a nut underneath. Ugg!

Tales of the Arabian nights. That damn spiral ramp, all ramps suck on that game. And if you dont label and photograph posts you will be screwed for days.

Great I am starting one this week ...can't be worse than the ramps on DM or CFTBL...

That's your screen name and avatar pic???... Really???

Always has been. Always will be.

I shopped my tales out in two nights, no pics. I don't know how the hell I did it. Those ramps suck, but not as bad as scared stiff. Scared stiff sucked.

Bsd is rough...... lots of layers.

X-files is horrible to shop. Everything is so tightly and stupidly integrated. To change rubbers on one of the right posts you have to remvoe the right ramp. to remove the right ramp. to remove the right ramp, you have to remove the left ramp. etc etc.. jesus.

I've heard whitewater many times, but I thought this was one of the easiest to shop.

I'd say my top 5 that I've restored:

Demolition Man - ramps and crane optos
Bram Stoker's Dracula - way more complicated than I ever expected. New found respect just for the build layout
Arabian Nights - because of the infinite size posts. Man they vary by like 1/16" it seems
STTNG - all the underside stuff
Judge Dredd - that stupid motor assembly planet thing problem

Yeah I've done it a few times and it's not fun.

Which brings me to Dirty Harry. You have to flex the ramps a ton to intertwine them..a bit scary

Working on a Rollergames now and that can be a pain. Gottleib Victorty was a weird one too.

Road show though i never learn as im about to add a twilight zone to my list of widebodys

Yes!! Royal PITA!

In the middle of this one now. The stacked winding ramps are pretty difficult to yank out, but this is easier than Demo Man

Haven't ya heard, Snowflakes gotta snowflake

Club on buddy

In order, if it includes rebuilding of pop bumpers or pretty much anything under the playfield

1: Safecracker
2: Whitewater
3: Creature

If only cleaning counts, Safecracker no longer "wins"

WNBJM as there is no real challenge!

I also find it weird people complain about Whitewater - it isn't that complicated, the manual even explains how to remove the upper playfield with associated ramps. Once that is off, the rest is easy.
Taking off the long ramp of Scared Stiff, which requires removing the back panel was more complicated.

My vote also goes to Earthshaker, I really hate shopping that game. A lot of sys11 games are more complex to shop than they look like. And some DE games too (I remember Hook also having some difficult to reach screws).

I have not ventured to change on old 44 GI globe with a led on the back left hand corner because of staples yet on earthshaker it looks like a mess to get at BSD looks very complicated underneath and top i heard to change the coffin globe is real fun lets hope the globe in there last a few years
Roadshow was easy to pull down and clean just looks hard

Judge Dredd. Popeye, Whitewater.

Seems late Data East and Segas always had multi layers of plastics and sometimes flashers did not have connectors on them. Numerous hex posts.

Right now..allnof them as I'm still learning haha

I'm still struggling with the basics and being overly cautious due to the cost of the machines.

I agree 100%. White Water was my first shopout after I did my Earthshaker, and after you label all the connectors and remove the upper playfield, it's really not bad at all. Everything as a place, and everything is well engineered. You're not craning your fingers like a contortionist to take things off or put them back together. I was able to strip and rebuild the playfield without much hassle.

Just thinking about Earthshaker though is giving me the cold sweats again.

WCS94 is the worst. Anybody who has pulled down the whole stack knows that it's a bit of a process to do. If you're ever going to tear down a WCS94, make sure to put Cliffy protectors on at that time if it doesn't already have them. Avoid going through that process twice.

Batman Forever can be a chore. White Water, CFTBL, BoP, and Spider-Man can all be rough to take down to the bare playfield and build back up.