(Topic ID: 327320)

Realized that I am an early 80s SS guy - Willams vs Bally

By RetroRambler

1 year ago


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  • 121 posts
  • 41 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 1 year ago by mrm_4
  • Topic is favorited by 6 Pinsiders

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    There are 121 posts in this topic. You are on page 3 of 3.
    #101 1 year ago
    Quoted from Aurich:

    You picked a really good one for a first game. It's going to kick your ass, it's a brutal game, but that's the appeal, has that "one more try" factor. You won't get bored from mastering it any time soon.

    Indeed. A blast, but tricky. I go for the right hand in-line drops. That starts building your bonus multiplier, and that’s the hard part for me! Easy to get one or two of the the drops. But that third one…. Also, keep it on the upper playfield as long as possible. Lots of hints for success out there, no doubt. Have fun!

    #102 1 year ago
    Quoted from Aurich:

    You picked a really good one for a first game. It's going to kick your ass, it's a brutal game, but that's the appeal, has that "one more try" factor. You won't get bored from mastering it any time soon.

    This^^^

    FG is fricking brutal. It is supposed to be that way. Ultimate risk vs reward shots, always struggling to get the ball under control. And it's the only game I've ever regretted selling. Set your dips to conservative settings & prepare to be frustrated. It will make you a better player.

    #103 1 year ago
    Quoted from zahner:

    Indeed. A blast, but tricky. I go for the right hand in-line drops. That starts building your bonus multiplier, and that’s the hard part for me!...

    Standard trickiness of Bonus era games though. If you don't start working up the bonus itself, then multiplying nothing whilst also going for the hardest shot in the game is a tough recipe!

    #104 1 year ago
    Quoted from HoakyPoaky:

    This^^^
    FG is fricking brutal. It is supposed to be that way. Ultimate risk vs reward shots, always struggling to get the ball under control. And it's the only game I've ever regretted selling. Set your dips to conservative settings & prepare to be frustrated. It will make you a better player.

    The Wizard! that my family had growing up was brutal and fast. To be honest, that is how all pinball machines were back then. Slow, easy pins usually got no play. I think I will feel right at home on FG.

    #105 1 year ago
    Quoted from slochar:

    Can you bend the shelf like I did with the bally mystic center bank? I had a devil of a time with Lightning's center bank when I had it as well and I tried some pretty radical things with that one and Free fall's. Have not had the occasion yet to do it on any other sterns, they all seem to work fine at this point, but I only use vintage drops. If I need new ones I'd go swinks but I have a large stock of vintage drops to choose from. Maybe tweaking the angle just SLIGHTLY will help. I used to shoot to the 'side' of the lightning drops to try and get them down, but clearly that's not intended. I know I show bally drop in the pic, but bending the equivalent part on the stern bank is worth trying.

    Here's what I meant by saying Stern's drop target units were floppy and sloppy vs. Bally. The targets sit on a singular shelf like this (on this unit anyway), while the Bally Mystic's targets each sit within their own slot keeping them more stable and straight. The Stern targets can end up being a little crooked if the plastic target itself is not perfectly straight, as you can see.

    But anyway it doesn't look like I can do the bending trick, it's a simple C bracket where the middle is the shelf, and the screws bolt into it and also go thru the holes on the reset coil stop so I can't just lengthen the holes in the frame to adjust the shelf bracket position.

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    #106 1 year ago

    Can you pull out the two screws farthest from targets on the shelf and tilt it a little bit just to test the theory.... Then you can come up with another way to permanently mount.

    #107 1 year ago
    Quoted from slochar:

    Can you pull out the two screws farthest from targets on the shelf and tilt it a little bit just to test the theory.... Then you can come up with another way to permanently mount.

    I could only tilt the farthest end a tiny bit up because of the pf, and I doubt tilting it the other way would move the shelf edge away from the targets enough to make a significant difference. It would change the horizontal position of the shelf very little given where the other two screws are situated. Plus one of those screws holds the coil stop mount. And tilting it that way would also raise the targets and there's only about 1/8" more that the targets can go up before they can't go up any more.
    I have a junked Stars playfield which actually uses a different shelf piece that is more like a big plate like the Bally where there are slots for each target. But same idea where I can't do the bending thing, it's just a flat plate.

    I suppose shaving off a little of the nib on the target at a 45 degree angle would be same effect as shortening how much shelf there is for it to grab onto, but that's a one shot deal if it doesn't work.

    Plus - aren't your Bally Mystic targets the ones with the wider shelf nib that is at the bottom of the target face? If so thet bending trick wouldn't work on these Stern targets with the nib down on the shaft. Seems like the whole bank needs to be moved down towards the flippers so the wood slot ends up pressing the targets inward a little, shortening how much shelf is left for the targets.

    #108 1 year ago
    Quoted from RetroRambler:

    Great post - thank you!
    And to everyone else, I very much appreciate the help. I never thought I would get this much feedback - pinside rocks.
    Almost forgot - my offer was accepted. I should have my first pin, Flash Gordon, sometime this week or early next.

    Congrats, FG is awesome! Post some pics. And then be ready to start the discussion about your next pin. I have a Space Shuttle that I love, also a Haunted House ... beautiful pins that don't take 30 minutes to play. If I could fit one more early 80s pin in the collection I would find a nice Flight 2000 (Stern)

    #109 1 year ago

    You have inspired me, so I bought a Paragon yesterday. ( I have actually been wanting one ever since I sold mine).
    It's a HEAVILY UNDERRATED game

    #110 1 year ago
    Quoted from naf_llabnip:

    Congrats, FG is awesome! Post some pics. And then be ready to start the discussion about your next pin. I have a Space Shuttle that I love, also a Haunted House ... beautiful pins that don't take 30 minutes to play. If I could fit one more early 80s pin in the collection I would find a nice Flight 2000 (Stern)

    Thank you. I will post some when I can. Space Shuttle is definitely a contender. There was one in the Dallas area that I missed. I am sure I played back in 84 when it came out. I know there were a bunch of them and its highly unlikely I would have walked by that pin and not put a quarter in it. It is such the looker, and that shuttle toy was so iconic at the time. I don't think I have ever seen a Haunted House before, but I have seen it mentioned numerous times here on pinside. Let me know if your wanting to change things up and part with one of your babies. I am just south of you in San Antonio.

    #111 1 year ago
    Quoted from RetroRambler:

    Space Shuttle is definitely a contender.

    My tastes on the Williams titles run hot and cold and suggest the OP try a few out. As luck would have it my first Williams purchase was Blackout which I still love to this day and play weekly. It just has awesome art & sound and working to get "blackout" never gets old and the rules do have some layers to them which is a surprise. Pure, raw 80's sound package which shouts and thumps.

    So I started looking and picking up other Williams titles that are held in high esteem. Some were dismissed out of hand because I can't get pass the art (looking at you Gorgar and Flash) though I'll say I enjoyed a few games of Gorgar when I picked up one for a friend. Firepower was "meh" to me, though the art is a step up. Space Shuttle the art and sound is cool but it just feels like Firepower, very shallow ruleset but its a very "flashy" title if you like the stimulation and catching the extra ball or special gets you a light show and the cabinet bell going nuts. Theme and sound wise might work for you. It almost made the cut here, almost.

    Grand Lizard the art and theme are another "meh" for me, though I liked the layout.

    Sorcerer though, it hit the trifecta of art, sound and gameplay for me. Can't wait to clear out the garage a bit more and set it back up.

    Colsond3 Dude when are you coming up here to pick up Batman and No Fear? lol.

    I have no nostalgia for pin titles as I was strictly a video game guy back in the day. I collect what tickles my entertainment center and your miles may very.

    #112 1 year ago

    Funny - about a year ago I was looking at my early SS games and noticed that, with the exception of a Tri Zone that I picked up for next to nothing 5 years ago, all of my early SS games are Bally's. Didn't plan it, just happened. Even my 2 EMs (Old Chicago, Alladin's Castle).

    KISS (very first game, about 25 years ago), Strikes and Spares, Evel Knievel, Night Rider, Eight Ball Deluxe, Medusa....

    #113 1 year ago

    On the drop target bricking thing with my Stern Lightning center bank, I noticed that the target shelf was just not very smooth. You could feel the targets dragging on it as you slowly pushed on them. So I sanded the top edge smooth and then polished the heck out of that side of the shelf with my bench buffer wheel and Mother's mag polish until it was nice and shiny. Seems to have improved it a lot, not 100% but a lot. I'm thinking the roughness was helping to snag the targets as they bounced back onto the shelf. It wasn't rough from wear, just the way they were manufactured. I still had to stick with the moderately stronger springs though.

    #114 1 year ago

    I just dropped $20 in TNA at the brewery by my house. Played it over and over because no one was there. As soon as I got home I went down and played Firepower and Xenon back forth for like 4 games each.
    Screw modern games, early solid state and newer games that resemble early solid state ALL DAY!

    #115 1 year ago
    Quoted from Daditude:

    It's a HEAVILY UNDERRATED game

    Paragon is fantastic. Hot Doggin' is underrated, imo. Love them wide bodies.

    #116 1 year ago
    Quoted from mrm_4:

    I just dropped $20 in TNA at the brewery by my house. Played it over and over because no one was there. As soon as I got home I went down and played Firepower and Xenon back forth for like 4 games each.
    Screw modern games, early solid state and newer games that resemble early solid state ALL DAY!

    I just ran off 5 or 6 myself on this beauty that has been in my collection since 2019

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    #117 1 year ago

    I think Xenon was the first SS game I bought back in the early 80s. That game really sucked me in, the sound, the speech, the art, everything. Just hearing the sound of the game now brings back a lot of great memories of tweaking/fixing/cleaning it up out in the garage into the wee hours. I was obsessed with it! I'd played one in a local arcade and said I HAVE to get me a XENON!!!!!

    #118 1 year ago
    Quoted from RetroRambler:

    Speaking of which, what is the "magic number" with pinball ownership? One pin, two, five? When does it go from a perfect balance of choice/selection and having at least one or two working to I have too many and it's a damn expensive/time-sink maintenance nightmare?

    Workout the maximum number of games that will fit in your space, then subtract one
    Games too close together is not fun

    #119 1 year ago
    Quoted from PopBumperPete:

    Workout the maximum number of games that will fit in your space, then subtract one
    Games too close together is not fun

    ...or....as I recommend, workout the maximum number of games that will fit in your space, then keep adding to it.

    #120 1 year ago
    Quoted from Daditude:

    ...or....as I recommend, workout the maximum number of games that will fit in your space, then keep adding to it.

    And get or make a pinball dolly

    #121 1 year ago
    Quoted from frenchmarky:

    I think Xenon was the first SS game I bought back in the early 80s. That game really sucked me in, the sound, the speech, the art, everything. Just hearing the sound of the game now brings back a lot of great memories of tweaking/fixing/cleaning it up out in the garage into the wee hours. I was obsessed with it! I'd played one in a local arcade and said I HAVE to get me a XENON!!!!!

    Ive been wanting to hook up a powered sub to my xenon and firepower because the sounds on both games are so awesome and I feel like there are some amazing tones that we miss out on from those fat synths used to make the noises.

    There are 121 posts in this topic. You are on page 3 of 3.

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