I recently picked up a 1973 Allied Leisure Spooksville EM arcade pinball. Cabinet needs a bit of work and paint is faded in some areas, deciding whether to completely restencil it. It needs some adjustments, but most of it works.

This isn’t going to be a fast restoration as I’m not all that familiar with this design and my time is a little limited right now. Plan on starting work on this while I’m jumping back and finishing Vampire. But I thought I would throw something up here now for anybody wanting to follow the process; for input; or for those that might be interested in this arcade pin design or even this particular game.

Here’s the game when I brought it home:

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After two serious rounds of cleaning the playfield, plastics...practically everything, new rubbers, LED’s, resoldered coin door wires, polished the mirror and tweaking a ton of switches:

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Guy I bought the game from gave me the wrong legs when I picked it up.

For anybody not savvy, AL legs have 2 1/2” spacing from leg bolt center to center. Most other pin manufacturers (Bally, Williams...practically every other damn one) has 2 1/4” spacing.

Luckily I had just found a set for my Getaway, so I’ll have to use those for now. Legs weren’t in good shape, so I had them sandblasted and powdercoated gloss white. Got them back yesterday.

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Got the legs on and rewired the game over hologram. Cleaned the back mirror. Both sides of the mirror are very nice...held up well.

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Creepy plastics...love it.

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Posted a short walkthrough / gameplay video last night.

Definitely different and unique. I’ve only seen one or two of them in my time in the hobby, at least this particular game.

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It might be. Somebody made that reference in another thread I posted in. I never knew that quite a few EM arcade machines existed before Varkon.

It seems a lot of people don’t know that. This is the third time I’ve picked up an AL game and the seller gave me wrong legs with standard 2 1/4” spacing...which kind of sucks because these are not easy legs to find.

I’ve seen people put standard legs on, but then one of the bolts has to go in on an angle due to the extra 1/4” space. That only puts pressure on the bolts, and actually ends up stripping the bolts and the receivers.

A few of the dings...which I now understand how they got there. This game is pretty damn big, not so easy to move around. Operators were probably pretty rough with them back in the day.

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Good comparison too. With the inverted or negative space art, and the playfield being reverse printed and backwards, the fact that you play it in the mirror does make it very MC Escher-esque.

When you are used to conventional pins, everything about this game is weird.

Need to adjust the score reels, dig out some broken bulbs from the backbox panel sockets...I do like that AL used connectors, although they can sometimes be problematic. They seem to be better quality than the ones Atari used.

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Much better. Not big on LED’s in EM games, but I feel like this game is an exception. They make the playfield and inside of the cabinet so much brighter.

Marquee is still kind of dark even with LED’s

I think when I strip and powder coat the backbox panel, I may add some LED strips. It would be cool to see the whole marquee on this game, and much brighter. Like a ton of games from the 70s, they didn’t install enough light sockets.

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If you like EM games, it is absolutely fun to play.

Some people in the hobby simply don’t like or have no appreciation for EM titles, but I’m one that does. The ball can really move on this one. The left flipper on this one is very strong, and sends the ball flying...the right one not as strong. Going to rebuild them both anyway. Plus being able to shake the entire playfield with the joysticks definitely adds a different element to the game.

And notwithstanding the fun of it, this game is certainly unique and cool, and something different to have in the lineup.

Bonus found inside the cab...it looks like Sea Hunt was put out the year before, but all of the mechs and overall design are the same.

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2081

And a bulletin out of the factory that indicates the score motors were seizing up due to some burrs on the reels. That’s comforting.

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Anybody ever have a plexiglass w/ screening remade?

I wonder if BGResto or another outfit could make a repro, or maybe even one with real glass. Then again real glass might not work or be practical with a lock built in, as this one has. This one isn’t too bad, going to clean it up. Would still like to replace it with something new if possible.

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Definitely whacky. Nice to play something different, and it’s still pinball. Thanks for the positive feedback. If you make it down to the area, you’re more than welcome to stop by. Vamp is playing sweet. Most of the time I just sit there and stare at it.

Cool...I’ll look into them. Thanks for the info.

You still should have grabbed it Max. It’s interesting. I can’t believe the guy brought it down here for the show and actually went home with it.

If you only had one or two pins and this was one of them, I definitely don’t think it would survive long. But for those of us with issues and more than 6 pins, being able to play other games then jump on this for a few is a nice change and makes it more than worth having. In all reality, it’s another novelty game that I really don’t have room for. But I’ll make it work

After some Windex, 3 stickers removed and Goo Gone, it looks much better. Still want something new and unscratched.

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Stickers removed from coin door. My thinking is to go either white for everything, or maybe white trim and coin slots with a gloss black door skin.

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Awesome, no problem. Let me know if you do. I haven’t really been able to get back to working on mine yet.

I sold my Spooksville to twitami (Brian). I would reach out to him.

I didn’t have a manual with my game, but I believe he found one. Or he had a few other EM arcades including Sea Hunt that he did have the manual for, which is essentially the same game and should have a similar schematic.