I find it fascinating and extremely satisfying to get a crusty, neglected game home... put it up on it’s legs, set it up and just look at EVERY little detail about.

It might sound stupid, but just seeing what was done to it over the years; mismatched parts, on the fly flipper mechs repairs, unexplained jumper wires, miscellaneous deck screws, horrible playfield touch ups. Even stupid stuff like “wow look how dirty this <insert part> is!!”

Then, after you found all the dirty little secret repairs that were done in the back box, and then touched and poked everything under the playfield for an hour...you look at your buddy..

“You ready?

“Yeah, let’s plug it in!”

Knowing full well that even if it does boot, you’re not going to get a decent game out of it. Not today anyway.

As much as I love playing pinball, getting to mess around with mechs, fixing boards and making a crusty heap of plywood and metal look good and play again makes it that much better.