I've decided to add some ammo to the growing pinball fever and install a 1980 Williams Scorpion into a friends new bar in Chandler, Arizona. The bar is called HOP Central Brewery and Taproom (5055 W Ray Rd #2, Chandler, AZ 85226). They have an amazing beer selection, and are surrounded by food options which can deliver to inside the bar.

If you're not familiar, Scorpion is based on the age old tale of a laser shooting boat fighting a hydra. That is made super clear by the name of the game...#SCORPION! I think the game is fantastic! I don't know why this one flew under the radar, other than it is a widebody and a bit of a pain in the ass to move around. The game plays at a really nice pace, and doesn't feel like any classic widebody I've ever played.

I tore down the machine and did heavy cleaning. It has brand new rubber, and fresh wax. I put in some LEDs, but mixed them with the incandescent so that I could persist that classic feel. I'll work really hard to keep on top of this game and make sure it is as perfect as possible. If any pinsiders in town see issues, feel free to hit me up on this forum.

Hopefully people are excited to have yet another game out there. I know I am .

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Thank you! I'm so happy I found it. I think it is so much fun. I got a 790k game, but then unintentionally wiped the score when trying to reset the audit totals. Long story short...I didn't get the audit totals reset . I feel like the game is just the perfect amount of challenge. I'd love to know the history on this one and why it never hit the big time like Firepower or Gorgar from the same generation.

How does yours look? I wish mine had a perfect backglass. I'd almost consider paying for someone's backglass if they wanted a swap.

Hahaha! Awesome!

How was it playing for you? I noticed the top right segment is failing on the player 3&4 scores. I metered it yesterday morning and cannot find the issue :/. I need to keep researching that.

From what I can tell, the trick to big scrores is to get the multiball, then shoot them both into the upper playfield. If you can just keep them up there for a while, you can crush the high score.

I keep heading over to play it myself, so maybe I’ll run into you. If you see a big white dude with some kind of gaming related t-shirt on playing it, hit me up and I can give you some free credits.

I’ll check that bottom right flipper. I thought it felt good, but is is so hard to tell! I will tell you that I think the right side button needs a bit more plastic shaved off because it kind of clicks against the cabinet and annoys me. I’ll fix that.

As for the tilt, you stop man handling my machine you monster! I didn’t adjust the tilt at all after cleaning it, I thought it felt good, but I’m not a big tilt player. I need to learn how to be more effective with tilts.

I’ll PM you a code for some free games if you have a modern phone which can use the PayRange app. Hit me up on PM and tell me what device you have. I know I’m not a good coin operator in terms of making money, but I love people playing the games.

Ha! I didn’t know about that Commander Koeing reference. I’ll have to look that up.

As for the game, I love it! I can’t believe I had never seen it before.

This is awesome! I have a little monster like that too! He loves pinball, just walks around the house pointing to my other machines yelling “ball” until I let him play .

I hope it played well for you! I had to go to work, but am hoping to get over there and do some cleaning and service this weekend. I noticed from your picture that they taped one of the coin slots, it must have been acting up or something. Also I got a damn segment fault on the player 3 and 4 scores. None of the resistors are showing issues, so I haven’t been able to narrow that down. I might just have to replace it with a pinscore board.

Thank you for sharing, and paying! I am learning how to do this so that I can eventually bring good pinball to everybody .

I just went over and did a full cleaning, and waxing. The game is playing fast as hell right now! I almost hit that high score that one of the bar owners got, but not quite :/.

I really do love this game!

Freshly cleaned and waxed! The Scorpion is ready for battle! Come over to Hop Central in Chandler AZ and play this 1980s classic .

Current high score on 5 balls is 1,278,670 (rolled it). I’m going to install a high score board next to the games soon.

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Cleaned waxed and fixed! Thanks to jalkelly I discovered some odd issues with my good friends the leaf switches. I think they are all working perfectly now.

Tell Hop Central I sent you and demand a discount, I’ll cover it .

#Scorpion’s thinner and considerably more popular brother Firepower has just been dropped over to my favorite neighborhood bar Hop Central!

It has been deep cleaned, and tuned up. All of the pop bumpers have been rebuilt, and all of the leaf switches have been tuned to perfection.

Although I’m no professional coin-op, I really enjoy that I am able to help people discover these awesome classic pins. I hope people enjoy my shameless plugs .

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The time has come for #scorpion to return to the shop (my house) and get freshened up. It has done an excellent job of kicking of my future of losing money while operating coin-op machines. That said, it absolutely won some big fans and converted some non-players in the year it spent at Hop Central. In fact, two known players (yes one was me) we able to roll the scoreboard earning a tasty glass of that Hop Central house IPA .

Next up, the immortal #pinbot! Completely redone and ready for action.

This machine was mostly working when I bought it, but on further inspection it needed a lot of TLC. I replaced and calibrated a lot of the switches. Replaced a bad flipper coil. Installed color matched LEDs for all lights except for the topper (because I like the old style). Installed all new titan rubbers. It has brand new flippers, buttons, shooter, coin door, plastics and the pop up ramp. I flattened some pesky popped inserts, and used the laser cut play field protector to get a fairly uniform play field surface (it has some groves). The most difficult part by far was getting the vortex ramp to work “almost” correctly. I assure you that you cannot find another one of these on location in AZ where you can actually hit all three spots on the vortex!

Anyway, I hope some people enjoy it! As always, hit me up if you find issues. For now I’ll leave you with two exciting announcements…first, I have American Pinball’s #oktoberfest in manufacturing right now. That will head to HopC shortly after I get it. Second, I ordered another new pin that should excite some people . I’ll save that for later.

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It's finally here!

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I should have them there the morning of 7/6. I just need to finish tweaking them for ball catches and coil adjustments. Then rent a truck.

I’m moving as fast as I can, but alas this is not a full-time job. Hell, it isn’t even a job. The machines don’t really make money in that location, but I have some diehard players that love them and I really like the hobby, so it works.

That is awesome! They just told me they are getting some special beers that day too. I’ll follow up with that detail and some times.

OK I have the actual details now. There are special beers being provided by Modern Times Beer. I will start the free play around 4-5pm, but the tournament play won't be recorded until after 6pm.

Tournament:
I am just going to go with highest score on each of the four games (#firepower, Pinbot, Oktoberfest and #black-knight-sword-of-rage-le). Basically whoever gets the highest score on a game between 6pm-12am gets a gift card. I will be the referee and do my best to keep things fair. The games will not be in tournament mode because this is a casual play location. You cannot win more than once.

There will be some kind of swag for guests but I don't know the quantities yet, so I am not sure how we will hand it out. Might just be first come, first served. I will post again if I have any updates around that.

Here is the link to the actual event: https://pinside.com/pinball/events/silverball-saturday-2019.

The games are in! This random woman really wanted to be in the picture :/.

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Absolutely! I hope you had a good time. I was there messing with them, if I missed you I am sorry. I always try to give out free games to people who enjoy the machines. This is hands down the best way to go broke.

Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow at the free play/tournament. I’m going to do my best to make sure everyone is having fun .

PayRange has been so under utilized that I kind of decided just to abandon it. Each unit costs like $140 so they take forever to break even. I personally love the concept, but the end users never really used it. I could be swayed to add them if there is high enough demand, but right now I'm not planning on it. I have been holding out for the https://scorbit.io/ to materialize since I believe that this will allow for more player engagement. I would invest in that over PayRange because I think it gives back to the players.

Certainly keep me in the loop if you know a lot of players who demand PayRange. My primary concern with these games is user experience. I personally hate dirty, broken or inconvenient pinball. I like easy access to alcohol and good pins .

Sorry for the double post...trying to keep my topics straight! I've spoken to quite a few people who are planning on attending tonight. Although I am really excited that we have such an awesome pinball community, I am anxious about everyone having a good time and getting access to the free plays on the machines. As such, I've decided that all play will happen through the queuing system offered by Match Play. I know this may seem a bit over the top, I am confident that this will ensure everyone gets a fair amount of plays. Below are the instructions that will be handed out at the bar. If you are planning on attending, you are welcome to start registering right now. I've forwarded the domain to tournament.ninjacamp.com to help make it easy to remember. Please feel free to hit me up with any questions.

As for prizes. The bar owners are going to provide a $20 gift card for each of the four top scores. I have some little trinkets which Stern and American Pinball provided. I'm going to take all of the registered player names and simply do a random drawing. I have a few translites, t-shirts, and beer coozies that I'll randomly hand out to those selected.

Please understand that there is no gain for me in doing this. I just want to make sure people have fun. Things could get a little sloppy, and I will just try to fix it on the spot .
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Black Knight LE v1.00.00 deployed to Hop C today! Also I installed the special Stern provided “nudger” (seems like a bad word for it) on the upper playfield. The game is playing great!

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To any of the fans of my games at Hop Central, sorry for the inconvenience with PinBot last night. It blew a fuse due to someone holding the flipper for a really long time. I got that fixed tonight, then cleaned and waxed the game. It should be playing very nice once again.

As for Firepower, I think the power board is having some kind of issue. I have done everything I know how to do to “bullet proof” and stabilize it. I could go further, but I think it makes sense for me to just buy one of the NVRAM guys replacements. As it stands, I have the power board from my Scorpion in there and it is playing great. I put up a nice little high score that should set a bit of a bar for the experts in the Valley .

Lastly, Oktoberfest has been updated to V19.7.27 which includes some great new features!

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I feel like it is the only thing that matters. I’m not going to make a lot of money doing this, but if I can keep the games nice, keep the coins/payment as easy as possible and keep the beer flowing I feel like I am doing pretty well .

I appreciate the compliment!

PinBot is down again. It blew an EOS switch and I need to solder a new one in . Sorry for anyone wanting to play…I will fix it ASAP and update any followers of the thread.

PinBot is back…soldered in a new switch before I could finish my house IPA . I think it was about time on this one!

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Question for the local community...if I were to install PayRange on the Oktoberfest and Black Knight Sword of Rage (LE) would you be willing to pay slightly more per game to use it? These games don't make a lot of money, but I certainly want to make sure that they are convenient. Seeing as how PayRange passes a cost on to me, I could just increase the cost by like 5% (or whatever it is) then charge $1.05 for example. Would that be desirable to anyone who is visiting them on a frequent basis?

Beyond that, I did want to announce that Jurassic Park (Limited Edition) should be here before too long! I am thinking of doing a half price game night for the launch party. I don't know that I have it in me to do another totally free tournament. I enjoyed it...but that was a hell of a lot of work .

If anyone is still reading this, let me know your thoughts .

I’ve felt the same way about it! I like it in theory, but it isn’t a silver bullet at all. Thank you for the feedback you guys!

Coindork I’ll let you know as soon as it ships. I played the pro at ClePIN and thought it was pretty sweet.

It is coming!

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Almost here! Jurassic Park (Limited Edition) is lined up for installation Sunday 10/27. I am just putting the finishing touches on it and waiting for that excellent amber shooter rod! (had to have that).

I will also be deep cleaning the games on Sunday to ensure that they are as glorious as they can be. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and I'll toss some free credits on the machines for you .

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