is a sega game?

Only have one of those... still

All the way from Portugal!

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I'm tired of waiting for the reveal.
Boo Could It Be?
All the way from Italy!
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So the story goes, I snagged my grail pin from rvdv when he listed one of his finds back in April. I couldn't have been happier to add the ever-elusive Spooky to my collection. I've wanted one since I first made a "rare pins" folder collecting pictures of weirdo, euro, prototype, etc games back around 20 years ago (I was a teenager!). I never thought I'd see one, let alone own one.

A couple weeks go by and I'm just scrolling through Instagram at 1am with some all too common insomnia. This pic shows up in my feed...
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My heart stopped for a second and I thought "what the hell?" I looked up the account that posted it, a design/vintage shop in Northern Italy. I think "damn, I'm glad I got mine... I wonder if he's selling that one and for how much?" Cut to 5 minutes later, me asking. The price was well within reason and I think "oh jesus, am I going to try and import a game... that I already own?" Hours and hours and hours of research, bugging strangers in Europe for help, and ultimately finding help through Pinside (I'll wait to name names in case he doesn't want to open the door to tons of people asking him to do this same thing )

After a looooong journey, and three different shipping companies, I have Spooky #2 here in Austin. I was hoping the transformer would be convertible like my other Spooky (which is the only one documented with a convertible transformer... still). So I'm waiting for the step up converter to show up in a day or so before I can turn it on and start messing around. The playfield is wedged in the cab somehow too. It. Will. Not. Budge. Someone, at some point, has done a "resto" on it, clearcoating the playfield (not the greatest job but not terrible either, just a little clear settling around inserts). The inside of the cabinet and the underside of the playfield were painted black too, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get the production number. Based on the serial number, I think it's a late production.

Pics from my first Spooky:
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And the new guy in town:
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No, I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. I've got to move it around a bit. it's just stored temporarily at work for now.

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The Pinsider who helped me import the game was none other than rare game extraordinaire rvdv (Thanks again forever!)

Next time you spot one in Italy, please let me know
Looking for one for my club and I can actually drive to Italy to pick it up

I did feel a little bit guilty taking it from its homeland, but I guess not enough to commit the crime. Sorry!

Attack from Mars followed me home from Southern Fried this weekend. I finally have my perfect BW row.

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Bringing home now... 4 hr round trip right after dinner tonight. Project for sure, but hopefully can get it working!!

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The more I see 'Spooky' machines, the more I want one. I have to tell you, that's a cool story too. Best of luck with it!

-Hans

Totally impromptu pin pickup tonight! Pumped, this thing works!! Wifey spotted this on Facebook and I made my second shortest pin trip ever. About 80k away. This things apparently been in two different basements for a few decades. It’s in fantastic shape, one insert to repair it looks like. Went by thousands of acres of canola growing, the yellow earth looks amazing! Also went by the Hunboldt Broncos crash site which unfortunately is like 15 miles south of my house. Brought my 15 yr old for this quick run. Segasa!

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Nice Score *and* nice pics!

That Super Straight looks super clean! Congrats Kev

Data east Batman/ police force
They were Free !!!

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I'm sorry I think I heard wrong, did you say FREE?????

Hell yeah!

How??

Awesome! That is excellent news! Enjoy.

Wait, what???

Fantastic, congratulations.

Dude!!!

Yesterday turned out to be a Classic Stern Haul-A-Day for me.

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I did make the trip to pickup the Seawitch from tdiddy (Thanks again!), but look close in the cargo hold and there is a bit more hiding under those blankets.

I originally had plans to pickup a playfield yesterday that I've been pestering the seller about for awhile. While making the playfield pickup I had the opportunity to be the new owner of a second/additional playfield. . . it was difficult to say no (so I didn't ).

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Finally, this was the original goal. A populated Cheetah playfield that I've been told was in the rafters of a barn for many years. Definitely dirty and some planking is present but less artwork wear than what my current game has. Perhaps between the two I can send some plastics to CPR to have new ones made/available.

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The domestic Cheetah approves!

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Digging that Bruce Lee!

Nice haul. I officially hate you.

You’re killing me. Where are you finding this stuff?

If you want to sell your old populated Cheetah playfield let me know.

Oh and send that Dragonfist playfield out for reproduction!

I wish I could tell you I had some special Pinball Super Power, but to be honest it is just dumb luck.

I like to think it has something to do with being fair and nice to people. . . maybe karma returns the favor? No, I was probably right the first time. Just dumb luck.

I think this is a big part of it.

Well, this one made it from the car..all the way to the hotel room. I'm sure the maids had quite a surprise. But hey, I had a week here to work, so why not pick up a project pin and work on it during the off hours (Keeps me out of the bars!)

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That's awesome putting it in your hotel room

That is hilarious, You are probably the talk of the maid staff. You should leave them some quarters so they can play a few games.

Happens all the time at shows. The hotel at Expo actually gets pissed if you take games up to your room.

For some reason, this hotel has really nice high ceilings...which really helps on the echoing of "all noises" - pop bumpers, chimes, etc. - so even though I can do some work, after say 6:00-7:00 PM, I have to shut down or the peeps upstairs do complain. (Then they start their diesel trucks right outside my window at 5:00 AM!) Love roadwork!

Maids have probably seen crazier stuff lol. I can only imagine.

would you pls chime in on how this happened?curious mind inquiring.congrats.

Fun fact: Police Force was originally designed with a Batman theme. When Bally lost/abandoned the license (depending on who you ask) the art and sound was redesigned with a new theme. Data East was then awarded the license and, due to development time, their game didn't come out until two years after the movie it was based on.

I'm much more interested in your BOP2.0

A WIN, win, win?

Scored a free project pin in great shape excluding the cabinet paintjob = WIN!
Have too many projects so handed it off to a buddy so he gets his first pin = win for him
My wife is happy as I did not bring home another project - win?

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Well, maids got tired of playing pinball so time to move on. Loaded "Stardust" back up, along with "Nugent" - time to head back to Cleveland!

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What are the odds you and jesperpark pick up a Stardust in the same week?

Colsond3 can help you with that decision....

Saw that! The story on mine has to be better tho! OMG! At first I thought I was being set up for a "Kidney Donor Program" and wake up later in a bathtub of ice somewhere. (Drove to Brooklyn, went downstairs alone with the seller, and then two bigger men were waiting downstairs...dark, narrow downstairs. Turned out they helped me carry the thing to my car! Amazing!)

For some reason some kids carved eyes & mouths into the cabinet's artwork people on mine (one side only)..ugh Mine needs some TLC. ok, a lot of TLC. Looks like someone tried to wire up the chime coil wrong and almost burnt their house down! WOW!

The "Nugent" will need a thorough cleaning. It was an actual barn find up here in NJ. It is smelling the car ride home up something fierce! (Not mice poop, gotta watch the for the "hantavirus" there..serious stuff)...mainly old mold smell..so got the 4-70 air conditioning going! (Just like riding with my pops in the 70s!)

Chime coil burning...

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Eventually I'll look to trade for a game on my wishlist. Eventually...

Brought home my favorite pin, so happy! Unfortunately it's in a pretty bad shape, with some water damage... It will need a LOT of love! maybe even a new cabinet.

And looking at the main board... I'm pretty sure it won't boot right up

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Brought home my first project EM yesterday. Not even sure how far I'll be able to get. Better hit up all the EM resources!
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Wow! Good luck. That's gonna be a while before you're playing it.

Yeah, so I started with SS and DMD, and now I've got 3 EMs and no SS or DMDs! They're a little addictive, and cheap!

Laying low right now....still unraveling my brain from recent events. But if somebody offered me a reasonably priced Spooky....I’m most likely getting in the car.

I've got a Grand Prix that needs attention. I'll have to work on that before I get to this! This one just sort of fell into my lap!

Like eventually now? Come on Chris, you don’t need two of them.

We have a mix of EM and SS, all are fun to play! Something about a good EM play and sound that just can't be replicated with an SS. Ship Ahoy is an excellent EM that sounds great! We had one in our collection for a time.

Tip having owned one- Do NOT install LED or 47's in the WOW locations. Gottlieb uses a resistor there and it will burn out the bulb if the wrong one is used. I have some free resistors if you need to change the resistance value to run a 47. I think I purchased a bag of 10.

piece of cake. I have recently cut my teeth with some EMs and love it. Took lots of forum/internet searches, but i actually enjoy it more than SS/DMDs.

One thing I learned quickly. Clean and lube ALL stepper units if it has been sitting a while. Once I did that 95% of all issues went away.

It's definitely been sitting a long while. A lot of the plungers and coils are real sticky or seized. I've only worked on 4-player EMs so far, so hopefully this will be a bit easier.