I agree. If you the space a "parts machine" is a good resource.

I'm surprised we have the parts availability today. If you would've asked me 25 years ago what I was going to do about getting replacement pinball parts in the year 2015, my guess would be that I'd be SOL.

Glad he'll be workin' for me!

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Because they work,,,

at the arcade in Cedar Point a few years ago ALL EM games working, while 4 SS games down for repairs.

the grass is green! what could be wrong?

if you threw a diatonic semitone at the middle chime, it would certainly get my attention...

Bells, Chimes, Art Work, and a backglass that has more than a fluorescent tube behind it.

After the armageddon and our EM machines are the only ones left working, we will still need to find a way to drum up some power...

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And what is in there instead? Inquiring minds want to know!

My buddy was working on changing all my AC/DC songs to country music. It was pretty funny/weird playing it like that.

I love how Ginger is just sitting there with her legs NOT CROSSED and Skippers like "oh, man! I'm gonna have a heart attack!"

The smell, the chattering of the relays and solenoids, the chimes, The artwork, I can work on it myself (often).

EM's have a soul.

What's not to like?

New machines don't even remotely interest me.

E

Would anyone buy a PM (Purely Mechanical) from the early 30's?

There's some baseball themed ones that are very cool but VERY expensive and highly collectible by the hard core.

yup... i would... i have one on my wish list...

edit: one of these days i'm gonna be mobile enough to make it over to znet's to play his...

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$44.50 when new.... VERY VERY VERY hard to find now, and well more than $44.50...

I'm on the lookout for some working pure mechanical games in my price range ($300-2500). The only one I found easily was $4500 fully restored Worlds' Series My dream is for Day 1 Pinball to remake one of the complex 1930s PMs. NIB Rockola Jigsaw for $3000 would be a no brainer for me.

I know of a collector near by that has one of these. Maybe the first game with ramps. I did play it and it was pretty darn cool.
http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=5122
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yea, the "good ones" are ungodly expensive...

that would be SWEET if they tried to pull off one of those...

I was able to find the first pinball game I ever remember playing when I was around 8 years old. Not the title, but the ACTUAL first game from the arcade in my town we moved to in 1975.

I know Rogo doesn't get a ton of love, but for me it was the first game I can remember rolling 100k on. I remember exactly where it sat at the arcade (in between an OXO and Fireball).

I did a mild shop job on it and gave it to my older brother who always took me to the arcade. He had to move to a smaller place and "loaned" it back to me where it sits in my collection.

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I'm interested in Big Broadcast (Sr, JR, Special). First pinball game with automated scoring. Apparently, Gottlieb made a bunch of these, so they are a few still out there.

Now there's a band I can relate to now. To me Metallica seems so long ago.

Friend of mine here has a '34 Rockola World's Series for around $2K last time I asked him about it.

Should you find yourself in the Minneapolis area and would like to sample some more EMs (well, Gottliebs anyway), I know a guy...

Now that you have one EM, the question always is - how long before the second one?

Yoda would approve, I'm sure.

> Does it have anything to do with the fact that their simplicity is super appealing, artwork is
> awesome, gameplay is super fun, and price point makes the dollar to fun ratio astronomical??!!

You got it! Simplicity and game play are super fun. Since bells and whistles did not amount up to much back in the day, design, creativity and enginuity centered mostly on game play instead of the sound and lite show. Funny how without all that bling, the game keeps drawing you back for just one more game.

Once I met a guy in a storage unit to buy a pin and used an inverter in my car to test it out. It was only 300w peak, so it kinda worked. I think if the apocalypse comes I'll be too busy adding armor to my VW beetle to play any pinball

I had the same thought! My Jet Spin is tuned to C-D-F# and I love hearing that tritone. But do different Gottleib games have different bars? Is it possible to swap them out and customize the harmony?

No, not really (other than whatever manufacturing tolerances they put up with).

Can always fabricate replacement bars from common bar stock...

EM's......they grow on you for sure. I love our space mission and its our boys favorite game! Even though we have many newer ones.
I love nailing the spinner shot and the chime just goes off!!!!! Some wood rails are great fun too.
As for altering chimes....easy peasy grab a spare set from a parts game or PBR and change the size.. Could make some really creepy chime sounds for sure..maybe make a halloween set? tone deaf set? lol
hmmm
Very entertaining possibilities

EM's gradually win you over with lovely artwork, appealing sounds, mechanical feedback, and simple but challenging gameplay. No need for super-mega-flashing-up-your-butt-billion-bonus-point shots. No need for crappy Photoshop clip art. No need to be told, "YER AWESOOOOME DOOD" over and over.

With EM's, the game itself is the main reward. Pinball in its purest form. Art in motion. I like all eras of pinball but EM's really are the best... though it took some time to appreciate and understand why.

IPDB is awesome but the ratings are unreliable. "I like mine" skews the ratings all over the place. Nearly everyone rates their own games as 10's, are recalling from memory only, are trying to sell their game (pump n' dump), or do not have a sufficient level of experience across different games to fairly weight their assessments. Many of the "big favorites" on IPDB aren't the ones I'd personally agree with... so to each their own. I recommend finding a reviewer who has similar taste to you and following them independently.

Both excellent songs. Cool to add some Foo to the MET. Nice song choices. Rope is one of my favorites. Foo Fighters was also my kid's first rock concert.

Totally agree. And maybe even a little guilty of giving me games higher ratings. But I have also rated a few games that I have owned (like Jack's Open, Royal Flush) as only OK.

My approach is to focus on the descriptions and try to piece together your own summary from looking at all the reviews for a game. You can usually get a sense of those who truly know the game vs. those going from memory or worse, downgrading a game so their makes the "top 10". As always, no substitute for playing.

There used to be a reviewer who had 100's of reviews and they were very well written. I can't recall his name but a few years ago I think he got upset about all the gamesmanship going on with reviews and pulled all of his. It was a loss - If I had known it was going to happen I would have printed them out before he took them down!

Bruce Moyer. Yeah, I really enjoyed reading his reviews as well. It seemed he loved anything with a double match award though.

I have an em as well.
When i first discovered pinball these were the games in the arcades, so when i wanted my allowance to last more than half an hour, i had to be good at it.
The ordealing of having one quarter left and feeling far from being done, get's the best of play out of you.
I have very happy, powerfull memories playing em games because of that, and learning to play the hard way.
And then suddenly it was 1981, where i could show and improve my newlearned skills on eight ball deluxe, fathom etc.
I walked away from em's not to return for 20 years ,but love them again nowadays.

Good point. Once I added EMs to the lineup, I think I'll always have at least 2... currently Abra Ca Dabra & Bank A Ball.

Power is easy...guy not playing takes a turn on the bike. =)

Em's are awesome. My first pin when I was 15 was a C.C. Red Baron that I bought for 10 bucks at auction (not working) My dad said "Here's an Emory board, I want you to clean every switch in the game, and it will work."

A scant 2 months later, it turns out he was right...lol

Still, if you want the EM experience without the hassle of leaf switches...I recommend Capcom's Breakshot. I really enjoyed its simple, EM style layout and gameplay, and it still had the Dot Matrix sound voiceover effects to go with the old school chime sounds.

That's the name. Yes, he did seem to favor some of the older games but that was interesting to me as I was not old enough to remember playing them but really liked learning about them.

Most of my pinball playing as a youth was probably between 1970-75 (I was 15 in '75) but I have gravitated to early mid-1960's games that reflect (for me) a sort of 'pinnacle' for the game.

To me the 'pinnacle' was an intersection of playfield toy design (e.g., roto-targets, drop targets, in-line kickouts) + bang for buck (e.g., back glass animation, more robust build quality, small aesthetic touches like lights under the top arch, etc) + artwork (I like more of a nostalgia feel, not as big a fan of sci-fi art). I have owned and really liked some mid 70's games, just like these better - currently have:

- 1960 Nags
- 1964 Heat Wave
- 1966 Pitch & Bat (not my favorite baseball art but it has 4 pitch options which I think was the most ever)
- 1967 King of Diamonds
- 1967 Sing Along

I compare the situation to the car market, particularly as it relates to bang for the buck as I think the impact of inflation was similar on both industries - a 1966 Impala is a great car with a lot of bang for the buck, by 1973 the Impala was simply an OK car. That being said my favorite year for cars is probably 1970 but that probably has more to do with fact that my dad had a '70 purple (In-Violet) 383 Cuda'!

Does anyone remember the post below?

"Every EM is the same stupid game. Put 3 pop bumpers in the center on the flattest possible surface with a bunch of misc targets and some crappy targets and add some chime sounds and you have a winner. EM's only existed because technology didnt exist to do better."

I guess one could say what with the EM trend these days is, "If you're talking about technology towards the fun factor or game play, when will it show up?"

The post is before my time, but the sentiment is lame and tantamount to saying a 2015 BMW 5 Series is superior to a 1967 Corvette Stingray because the BMer has onboard computer, heads-up display and traction control. They're different animals and both can pack a thrill.

Having said that, in my opinion, crowding a playfield with a bunch of ramps, synthesized sounds and action figures doesn't make the game more enjoyable. It makes it crowded, loud and kitschy. On the contrary, the artwork on EM games is classic as is the engineering that got the games to do what they do without a single processor of any kind. I'll take the thrill of "beating" a classic wedgehead, setting off the knocker and the cascade of chimes any day. But that's just me.

I visited the PHOF at least five times over the past week. Tried to force myself onto the newer pins and make them stick... but it didn't work. I spent the vast majority of my time with the EM's. Something about the classic bells/chimes, artwork, simple but challenging gameplay, and mechanical click-clack sounds kept me coming back. Whereas playing (most... but not all) DMD's is like watching your favorite Netflix reruns. Bigger investment of time for diminishing returns. I mean, Star Wars is awesome but I can't watch it more than once every 5-7 years or so, yanno?

EM's are "elemental"... your imagination fills in the blanks. Newer games don't leave any room for that.

Oftentimes, too much of a good thing...

I had to add my all time favorite quote, and an eternal guide to winning when playing EM.

"Ya gotta hit the shit that makes the thing go DING!" C.S.

I also agree- get a group of people playing 3-4 EM games hard in a room and its going to start to smell wonderful in an hour or two. That and the game play becomes that much faster. I love these games, its almost like they are alive.

I don't pay attention to the top 100 lists, but this thread made me check, when did Abra Ca Dabra climb to the top? Not complaining, I love mine, but surprised it's #1 right now.

I love IPDB, but the ratings system means nothing. Nothing at all. Zero. "For entertainment only"

It's all in the reviews.

I was referring to the Pinside Top 100 EMs, not IPDB, but your comment works for either.

I've got a Hokus Pokus EM in a line up of mostly sterns. Looks cool and folks like to play it.

D'oh! Haven't even looked at the Pinside one! I wonder... is there a disparity between IPDB and Pinside ratings?