So here we are August 20th 2022, and my story starts in an old abandoned arcade warehouse where I discovered some machines that sat for 25+ years with the roof caving in, and the dreams of the past sitting in limbo dying a horrible death. In this section of the building were sights that hurt me to see, and things a pin lover should never have to witness. I saw a coney island with wood, and shingles through the glass top, a Bally space invaders with so much fungus, and mold that the body was literally collapsing under its own weight, an eros one with garbage piled on it, and the list goes on. Keep in mind, this is the neglect of an 85 year old ex arcade owner, who became a hoarder. Great guy, long time friend, but will not part with his projects that he says " I will fix back up one day". So let's back up a few months, to when I contacted my friend to see if he still had a machines around that I could possibly buy to restore for my guitar building shop....every cool shop needs a pinball machine or two. I stop by, and he says yes, I have a few machines in the back warehouse, but I'm not sure I want to part with any, because I want to repair them, and sell them eventually. He can't walk good, he's very brittle, and has no time to mess with them among his 43,000 other "projects" he has going. The door raises up, and my heart sunk, roof collapsing, wood, and shingles everywhere, dozens of juke boxes covered in crap, and in the back I spot what I'm looking for... pinball machines. I climb through the debris, and make my way to what appears to be a game plan coney island. A bucket list game for me! Next to it, a wild fyre, a space invaders, and several cocktail machines stacked on each other. So I make my way back out, and begin the negotiations , or rather begging in this case, to get them out. Fast forward a couple weeks, my phone rings, and he's says come get a couple machines, and we'll work out a deal for a couple others later. I show up, and we begin the process of getting these monsters out from the rubble, over the juke boxes, and out onto the trailer. The coney island is shielded by most damage by all the debris piled on it, but it's very rough, the wild fire, is actually in decent shape still for the same reasons, and the eros one is surprisingly good as well. Then we get to the space invaders... as we try to shift it over to move, the body begins to crumble literally in our hands, the back box is trying to fall off, and the back left leg snaps off under its wide body weight. It's bad... really bad. We finally load up, trailer full, and we head to my shop to unload, and access the damage, and where to start first. So, I took the coney island on first. Spent months finding parts, boards, etc, and struggled with that as Game Plan has been gone a long time. My first pin will be a tough one, but after months, and months, it's a restored finished project thanks to Robert at robotworks, and his beautiful remake of the boards in gameplan games. (Pics below)
But!!! Let's move on to why you and I are here... the space invaders, or what was left of it, and my obsession to build a custom pin for my guitar shop. I'm 53, live in Alabama, and I own Bigg Deal Custom Guitars , I make hand built guitars, and have an electronics/electrical contractor background, so how hard could this be? Well reality, and and dreams often do not get along, so my journey begins 2 weeks ago, as I bring you up to speed on this journey. I'm in full swing, doing homework, watching video, asking questions, and I'm in terribly deep at this point, but I think I'm hooked! Went to SFGE in Atlanta, and now it has gotten worse. I'm building the box, the Blackbox, new door frame, new playfield, etc, with surround sound with digital backbox screen, new digital score keepers from rottendog, a new cpu ordered, rgb led runway lights, and yes I'm in deep as I said. The theme will be a repurpose from my logo, with a totally new playfield, ramps, and more than my brain can take all at once. So let's start here with photos before you lose interest in this long explanation, and then I'll move on from this point.

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So let's continue with better news... I finished the coney island, and yes, it's a full restore nearly now, minus a bit of touch up on new wood installed in the back box. I'm knee deep into the Bigg Deal Cutoms build now, and I'll share some cabinet photos to keep this moving along, as well as a bluetooth custom sound generator, and music player that can be used for the machine sounds, as well as using it as a juke box when the game is not in play.

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So I changed the depth of this cabinet to now not only be a wide body, but also to be able to accept ramps, or a multi level playfield. I have numerous goodies ordered, and several ideas on sound in play that the new controller will allow. I can install 2 full range speakers, and a subwoofer in the cabinet to delete the need for a shaker. It will be a nice addition the game, and allow a much fuller sound, as well as that thump to the cabinet itself. The remote Bluetooth Amp has a screen similar to what I'm swapping over to to put into back glass with scoring. It will boost output, and have a built in eq, with a sub output to put into the bottom of the cabinet. Going to add some thump to the game, and also be able to switch from in game sounds to a separate source for music when game isn't in play mode. Ordered purple flipper buttons, and bought new nuts and bolts for door, and other various needs today as well. Paint is going well, colors are dodge grabber green, and plum crazy purple. Looking at graffiti style font for the sides for the logo, and ordered new back glass yesterday to accept my artwork when I do that. Possibly today I'll go hunt down some 17/32" birch for the playfield, and poster paper so I can begin the daunting task of a playfield design. I have stuff, and enough knowledge to really get in trouble from this point, so here's where I start leaning on pinsiders for help. Please don't beat me up in this process, and be kind, as this is a new journey for me. I want it to stay fun, and creative like the guitars I build.
I've contacted a local machine shop about some custom laser cut legs with my logo in them, because apparently in the pinball world, custom means same old legs in different colors, or powder coat. If you're going custom, it's gotta be different to me.

2 stroke, I race semi pro, competitively in a cross country enduro series.
Btw, I'm originally from a small town in Ohio myself called Sherrodsville. Small world

Today's progress was getting the "whitewood", prepping and painting parts, and doing some touch up on the cabinet.

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Today was a relaxing day of putting bolts, nuts, and pieces in. Pretty simple stuff, but a required task to assemble a pin. Cut holes for my sub woofer, and mounted that, put all my cards back in that I have, still waiting on a master cpu to show up any day. Did some more touch up on paint, and clear coated the front back box door today. Pretty busy day, got a lot accomplished, and I think this week I'll cut my white board to the playfield size, and begin layout on that.
Any recommendations on playfield printing? Vinyl, or paint it, or do you custom order a playfield graphic kit? This one is a new one for me. Oh and paint for my sides... is there a particular place you would use for stencils, or overlay for my paint scheme?
Also adding grounding bonds to a couple areas on my machine. As you can see in one photo, I attached one to the power supply, and I will add another in the back box for all my new grounding to meet up.
Almost seems a shame to put such a pretty aluminum sub woofer inside where you'll never see it.

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Thank you very much, was assuming I was just writing to myself, lol.
At least I'll have it recorded to look back on if no one gets involved in the thread.

Sorry that it's confusing, and honestly I'm just doing my best to convey this wonky experience.

I'm taking a space invaders that basically died a horrible death, robbing what's still good in the playfield, then reuse the already written code for what's there.
I'll create a new playfield, all new graphics, and rearrange the items to go where I'd like them. I'll add a ramp, use ice cube relays to trigger off an existing rollover trigger, so no code needed to change. The only thing I want to change code wise is the sounds it makes.
Hope that helps clear it up a bit? I'm a tinkered, and saw an opportunity.

Definitely was not disrespecting your project, and ty for the compliment. Like you, I'm just trying to do something fun, and cool for my shop. Oh and drama is not my thing.

I honestly was pretty surprised it cleaned up that well without flaking myself. Oh and ty for the kind words, I have no idea what I'm doing, just winging it.

I'm not sure I have what it takes to code. I know some ladder logic, and enough dos to be dangerous. Thanks for the info also. Gonna just keep the train on the tracks as best I can.

I appreciate the compliment, and ty very much. I own a custom guitar shop, and do some odd furniture building, so wood is kind of my side thing. I see we aren't far apart distance wise.

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What would be the skill level of that?

I have no idea what you just told me, but it sounds really cool.

I've really got to quit obsessing at work all day about what I can't wait to get home and do.
I could not stop thinking about cutting that Whitewood all day, so as soon as I parked my work van, straight into the shop and set to cutting.

I took a close up of some of the mold, and fungus damage on the original playfield. The glass was absolutely disgusting, and took quite a bit of time to even slide out to clean.

New back glass came in today, mp3/line amp controller came today, and my new cpu also came today. Superb mail day! Love goodies in my mailbox!

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You are so far over my head I had to sit down to finish reading that. I'll check it out, but I think until my skills progress, I'm going to stick with my easy version of this plan.

I think it comes down to one thing... our comfort level. Everything you mentioned about new programming is so far out of my comfort zone, that I'm not prepared, nor get what's going on yet. However, I've built so many guitars, and repaired so many, that it is second nature to me. I just know how all the workings are, and I'm completely in my zone. I'd assume that it's the same for you with pinball?

I did not replace with a stock controller, I bought a wembley cpu to replace the missing factory one that had been robbed at some point. As far as wiring, and all that, I restore old EM machines already so that part is a breeze compared to some of those nightmares of clicks, and whirs, and gizmos.

So today I took a break on the new build, and finished my last bit of restoration on my 1977 Williams Big Deal. Btw this was Williams first machine to put drop targets together in a group rather than one here, and there.
Lots of cleaning work on those old EMs but I sure do love them.

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Today was a good mail day... new scoring led cards came in, raw side rails came, and got painted, and a bunch of colored plexiglass. New shooter rod parts, and a gaggle of other stuff like playfield posts, etc.

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EPlastics, and any size up to 4'x8' sheets, any color, I got neon green, neon purple, neon pink, and clear. They will even cut to size for your needs.

It seems if you want custom stuff, typically you can find a guy. But in this case since I have saws, welders, plasma cutter, etc, I'm going to start on my custom legs myself. Never dull around here.

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Agreed! Never use rattle can clear. I usually run 2k 2 part auto clear on all my guitar builds. Enaamel just won't hold up in anything that gets handled.

It's actually a Husqvarna TE 2 stroke. I race endures, and had Cr250s for 25 years, rode this thing, and was hooked. Sold all my Hondas a couple months ago.

Today I started cutting on my legs, and they won't be blue, just checking the cuts, and for scratches. Got the feet tapped, and ready for levelers before I weld them in.

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It's up under its own weight, and do I mean weight! Took a lawnmower jack to lift it up! Big pins need love too! Legs are finished, and it's starting to look like a pinball machine.

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And we bid farewell to the donor, that got ruined by the rain. This is the game that was washed away. To the burn pile you go!

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There wasn't a whole lot salvageable. I saved what I could, but it had sat in a damp area for years. If you go back and look through the photos, you'll see how bad the ones i found were.

Test fit the glass last night, got the mid/tweeters mounted, and a few small cuts in back scoring area to accommodate the mp3 player/Amp for speakers.

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