beware...was told not to buy Data East games.,,difficult and $$$ to fix.

They gave you some bad advice.....

Hard and expensive to fix? So not true. There is nothing about DE games that make them any harder or more expensive to fix than any other brand of pinball.

For Star Wars, you're going to want one of these...

http://www.pinballcode.com

Not true at all...ignore that post

I never had a problem with the one I had. Common problem is the plastics to either side of the death star entrance get broken. I think you can still get the parts

Not sure about SW, but the two I have (games I love) GNR, TFTC, have absolutely the worst playfield lift design that any body could have ever come up with. It is a joke!

Awesome game to add to a collection.

Check the Death Star target. They can be a bit hard and pricey to find. Other than that, this game holds up great.
Mine had a broken Bib Fortuna plastic when I got it. Easily replaced.

A very fun game that I never had an ounce of trouble with. Not terribly deep, but very fun - and fun is what it is all about!

What is the value of this game?

It's a good game, no more difficult than repairing any game. If anybody tells you that it's because their a newbie and don't know any better. The thing to look for on this game is same as any game, kick out holes, broken plastics, beat up cabinets. I like the look of the original plastics much better than the repro's. For some reason their washed out. I had three of these games and kept the nicest one. 2k and up based on condition. Todd

Beware. The current repro plastics for this game are not good. They are washed out like Todd mentioned above.

Nah, there's worse out there. The award for worst playfield lift/slide design goes to Alvin G.....and that's coming from their biggest fan ever!

The only issue I have with mine is that the handle that shoots the ball is currently not working. I believe that it is an easy fix....just haven't got around to it.
Other than that, like everyone says, it is no harder than the rest to fix. If you have a problem, just make a post asking for advice and someone will be there to help you!
I would suggest looking for the following:
-obvious playfield wear (force hole and saarlac pit - buy cliffy's)
-the death star target as someone mentioned. They are no longer produced and have seen some go for upwards of 100$ - you can make them yourself (another pinsider was contemplating this)
-make sure the R2-D2 and Death Star motors work. Parts are available, just expensive.

ALSO - update the eproms. It becomes a whole new game! I think it will become a hot commodity because of this....and Disney's involvement in the new films....at least I'm hoping

Good Luck!

POTO - worst playfield lift design!

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/data-east-star-wars

Look at the metal ramp and check for broken welds holding the sides and the bottom together. It will play okay if you have a few broken welds, but the easy ramp shot will just be that much easier if the sides aren't held tight against the ramp at the entry. In some cases, you might see cracks propagating onto the ramp itself, and those you would probably want to have repaired -- would require careful welding and I'm guessing that would probably affect the ramp appearance, but others could provide more insight on that. I'm not aware of anybody making replacement ramps.

The two main toys are the Death Star (should spin) and R2D2 (head should spin, and whole toy bounces up and down). X-Wing targets (there are 5) are square, yellow targets, and those have a propensity for cracking and/or breaking. If you don't count 5 yellow targets (1 left, 2 middle, 2 right) then somebody has replaced them with a different style of target which is fine. They are about ten bucks each if I recall correctly.

Overall it's a pretty simple, but fun game (I like the theme). I haven't played Chad's extensive rule changes yet, though.