My first pin was a Sinbad, and since I was new to pinball with this machine, I did some research to learn more about it and also prepare to try and restore it. One of the things I learned (and didn't think too much about at the time) was that Sinbad and some other System 1 games used a steel cabinet. http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2159
"Oh, interestings" I thought. Since that was my ONLY pin at the time, I didn't think too much about it.
Recently I picked up a non-working 'spare' Sinbad to help with the Restoration. What immediately jumped out at me (particularly in person as I sort of overlooked this in the numerous photos I've viewed online) is that this traditional wood cab Sinbad had art on the front! And the back was orange!.
My steel cab is all black! Okay...kind of interesting. I did an image search on Google to see what other steel cabinet versions look like and didn't find many images at all.
Which started me thinking.
How many steel cabinets were actually made?
How many System 1 games had steel cabinets?
Is there any difference in preference? Any impact on collectibility?
I like the steel cabinet version as it definitely feels stronger and is also lighter than the wood cab. On the other hand, the lack of art on the front is sort of obvious when its next to other pins with colorful graphics on their fronts.
Here's some photos of my two pins - a steel one and wood one - just for reference: