I love old Chicago. The pops by the outlines are always exciting!

Great game and can really be a tough one to beat. Nudging well is a real key with the unusual outlanes and no return lanes. The playfield reminds me a little of the Bally Hang Glider I sold to soon but think OC is harder to get a great score on.

I love the art, I've never been able to play one.

Drop targets, spinner and kick-out holes... what's not to love?!?
faz

Will own one of these one day. Gotta have a 72 FB and this pretty gal. John did you see that cab re-design thread on here a few months back ? Holy shit I thought they knocked that one outta the park.
Fun machine. The art, like college girls, will never, ever, get old.

Nice looking game. Not a huge fan of the layout your shots are pretty limited by those pop bumpers.

I have a nice one haven't had a chance to set it up yet.

My buddy in Cincy has one in his front room. It's always the last game I play before I fall down.

Such an ass kicker, makes me want to cool down with a nap.

Love mine. Fun game!

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I grew up with this game but those pops at the bottom are drain monsters... it's a tough game to beat.

I have plenty o' love for my OC. Teh hawtness chix on the backglass, a beauty spinner to kickout hole shot, drop targets, and yes, those wicked lower pops. A very hard game to roll 100grand on... just one more try... damn... ok one more. You gotta shake and bake this beauty.

Mine is still sitting here on end but its made it's way to the basement at least now and hopefully in the next few days I'll have it set up here in the shop to start going over it.
That cabinet repaint that someone did was awesome I thought, much better then the original art.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, MI.
269-979-3836

Love the mid 70's to early 80's Bally pins!
But I never really cared for Old Chicago when they came on route because it was too difficult for me, a budding young pinball player, but I am thinking it will be perfect for the home environment.
Bought my non-working project Old Chicago from a cool local fellow pinsider, Droptargets about 9 months ago. Missing backglass, Cabinet is solid, but badly faded (as they all are), coin door, playfield & plastics are really nice. Been working on it for a couple of months now. Have totally gone thru the backbox & the main lower board and am about 3/4 thru the bottom of the playfield. Every mech rebuilt, switch cleaned & adjusted, and every crappy Bally fuse holder & playfield light socket replaced. Found a few obvious small problems, a couple of missing diodes on the pop bumpers & of course it had the usual burnt white/green wire on the jones plug located on the tilt board. I figure a couple of weeks and I will be ready to test it out.
I bought one of CPR's sweet reproduction backglasses and a full set of Gatekeeper's stainless steel parts - lift channel, upper shooter arch, coin door bolt kit, & shooter lane ball stop. Also bought a full set of Titan silicone rubbers for it & am picking up a fresh sheet of playfield glass this weekend at the PNW pin show.
Once it is working I'm tearing it back down for cabinet re-paint & will order one of pinball pimp's stencil kits & clean up the top of the playfield. those pop bumper caps need replacing too. Anyone know the correct colors for the artwork? I think I would prefer rattle can, as I don't want to invest in spray equipment right now.
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Thanks.
So if you are going to paint the apron, are you going to use the Action pinball decal set? If so, I would like to know what quality these are - I have heard mixed reviews on his repro's. Also, I can't tell on mine, do they use any webbing or spatter on the base coat?

love me some OC....
this one is getting touched up and cleared.

Regarding the PD stencil. You can paypal them and it will convert it over to Euros...mine is still in the box but the cab will get done in the next few months.

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my cab has no webbing or splatter...

OC is one of those games I have very fond memories of from childhood. There was one at the place my sisters took gymnastics. I'd get usually 50 cents from my Mom and play OC, Mata Hari (SS), Capt. Fantastic, Fireball (EM), etc. When I'd run out of quarters I would just study the games visually, sometimes for hours.

OC has always been on my watch list and I finally picked up one about a year ago with a perfect (no exaggeration) back glass and 9/10 playfield and a 5/10 cabinet. I took it to the Louisville Arcade Expo 2016 this year and it did great all weekend. They always have door prize drawings for people that bring games to the show. One of the prizes was an OC CPR back glass. Towards the end of the show one of the organizers came and found me to tell me I had won a door prize. And wouldn't you know it, I got the OC back glass! My father-in-law is going to build me a light box to display one of them in. Haven't decided which one yet though.

-Steve

Did you get the Mobster version?

Those LEDs lok terrible. 44s only on an EM playfield.

Pleasing to the eye, the game is a looker and often kicks my butt with those pops. There is love for Old Chicago

Wow... did you create that custom cab art? Looks VERY nice!!!

Old Chicago is one of my favorite pins. Looks great, plays great. Love those late 70's Bally's with the top arch rail... sexy.

The day before my wife and I left to get married in Tahoe, I tell her, "we are going to have to drive separate - I'm picking up an Old Chicago to have at our wedding - $400."

"What the hell?!"

I pick it up, and realize that I had not only bummed out the lady by not traveling with her, but that I had bought another game. This was forbidden, STTNG wasn't put back together yet - her line in the sand. So, I called my buddy that was coming to our wedding, "I bought a game, you want a game, I like it, it's tough, and I think you'll like it - $400." I figured that should make all well in the Carmichael Clan.

Wedding was Awesome, and the game was an excellent feature for a pinball playing family, which indeed includes my wife.

I tell my wife, "no worries, I sold the game," so I hadn't totally disregarded her request.

"Why in the world would you sell our Wedding Game?!"

Young Carmichaels
Hello, Good Bye
Cheers

Burningman makes up for his questionable lighting choices by being one of the coolest cats you'll ever meet.
Awesome b & w pics Cary. Lucky man.

yes, but thinking more of a gray like like Dillengers jacket on the BG for the mobster

they were ones I had laying around, she is no where done yet....

Gryzzzzz!

What about the best visual double entendre on a pinball backglass? It's really amazing what Christensen could get away with on his bg's

I was going to Comment on that was well...LED's have their place, but it is not on an EM Playfield. You lose the warmth of the GI lighting & the fade in/out of switch controlled lamps.

I find a blended approach works well with EM's: 47 filament bulbs for all GI locations and the rest (backbox/under inserts/pop bumpers) use warm white frosted LED's. Looks natural, saves power, brings out the artwork, and pop filaments don't get twisted and burn out. Overall a win-win... the trick is selecting the right LED's and carefully matching them to the machine.

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To each their own, but I think they look too stark white under the pop bumpers. The warmth of the old school bulbs just looks right.

I agree... the pops are the weakest link in the recipe. Just a smidge too bright, though the color temperature is close. Cointaker used to make a "warm white super premium" which had the perfect luminance for pop bumpers but manufacturing tolerances changed over successive runs. Can't get that exact color/brightness match anymore.

I may have to take matters in my own hands with a RGB controllable LED for the pops. Might be the only way to get it dialed in just right. Everything else looks really nice though.

Question on the kick out holes. Are they painted white on the inside? I know the mechanism is not of course, but from photos I have seen it appears so. I can't tell on my mine.

Mine have the metal liners... don't think they are painted white otherwise.

No love for Old Chicago? Not possible... (The pin isn't 1/2 bad either)
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Remember this game from my youth. Interesting and different playfield layout for sure. Awesome artwork.........

Love it so much i ended up buying 3 of them.
3rd time was the charm, as the BG and PF are both flawless, but CAB still has the fade.
That game is currently at a buddy's home in OC.

I was bummed that the OC at the NW pin show was tournament only. It's been 40 years since I played one & was looking forward to trying it out before my restore is done. Oh well, another month or two I guess..

Old Chicago was in the basement in Gary's house in "Weird Science". You told me you were combing your hair !!!!!

Getting close on first test run on my OC project.... 3 pop bumpers left to rebuild..........

How do you light the upper right saucer? It seems to always score 500 points on my game, but I don't really see a rule for lighting it. Thanks.

Maxing out the bonus lights the upper right saucer for 5000.
Lighting all of OLD CHICAGO....
So you get 5,000 instead of 500 before it fires the ball STDM !

Does anybody own one with a backglass that has a "over the top" light instead of the 100,000 lamps ?