Fresno, CA
I was living in Virginia Beach. Finally got my very first Pin. I was stoked. They guy sold it do me for $500. It was Pinbot. It was sitting in the back of a bar for about 5 years and underneath boxes of supplies and not running. I got a bargain. It did not work but they guy gave me all the parts. I was asking why so cheap if you are giving me all the part. He was a amusements repair guy. It was spring and he was swamped so he decided to get rid of it.
I opened it up and it smelled like a nasty ashtray. But all I had to do was take it apart. This was in '97. I cleaned it up and just swapped out parts and did some re-soldering. Mind you I know nothing of repairing pins. I just bagged an tagged everything with stickies. lol It took me about 6 weeks to overhaul it. He was even nice enough to bring me over a decent light cover that was on top of the back box. ( RED )
I know you are all thinking. When does the nightmare start? Here goes.
I was proud of what I had accomplished and everyday I came home to play it. It had the capabilities on the LED scores for me to put my kids daily chores to scroll across. They really enjoyed that. I made them pay quarters to play and when they started to hear the coins hit the bottom then it was a Toys R Us day!
I have had the machine for almost a year. I come home ready for a game. I hang my coat up and it was gone. I am searching to see if my wife ( now ex ) has moved it. She moved it alright. She sold it while i was at work. I asked her to get it back and the argument went on for a while. I never did get it back or found out where it went. So if you live in the Hampton Roads area and picked up a PinBot machine in '98, I hope you enjoy it. I put a lot of work into it.
My new wife found a Flash machine ( one of my all time favourites besides Scorpion ) for $500. It has all the docs. It needs work. i give it about a 7. I still do not know much about them. I just ordered some LED's, rubber kits etc. But I am happy now that I finally got another Pin. 
Now I am ready to read yours. lol
...................Joey
