Hey everyone-
I've officially embarked on a pretty cool new pinball adventure, a project I'm calling Pinball '89! I currently own a Whirlwind that is about to go under restoration. As I was piecing together the remaining parts to start the rebuild, I found a complete Earthshaker playfield on eBay for a reasonable price. I've been after an Earthshaker for some time now, yet they always seem to elude me in my area. I am relocating to Boston area in the near future, so space will likely be limited (compared to my current 750sqf basement). After thinking about it for a little while, I decided to pull the trigger on the ES playfield (since its complete and in nice condition).
My plan - use the ES playfield to swap in and out of my Whirlwind cabinet as a conversion kit (when I feel like changing it up). My research indicates the main PCB's are 100% identical, system 11b with the same interconnect PCB. If my hunch is correct I will simply need to do a rom-swap and drop the new playfield in to enjoy a different game. I have secured a speaker panel plastic to swap out as well (I plan on keeping the whirlwind translite when I swap games, unless I can find a cheap ES backglass).
Of course this project is all in theory lol. If it works however, I should be left with a "Pinball 2000" style setup (RFM and SWeP1). My plan is to install WPC-95 style "bars" that run the length of the playfield on the underside of the for easy storage.
The playfield JUST arrived today. More to come as I attempt the swap!