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Welcome @MadMonzer.
Welcome @pin_sis. I am fascinated by ancient Egypt and the middle kingdom wall art in tombs had a very interesting approach to hands. They would show two left or two right, or just look super creepy. This has been explained as needing to show the ability for the hand to move in the afterlife. Some pinball designers are pretty ancient, so maybe from the same school of thought?
 
Hi everyone,
Been browsing for a few weeks and now joined. Some great threads in here, love the restoration stuff amazing.
I was in Rotterdam a month or so back and spent the day the Pinball Museum. Great fun! More tables than you could shake a stick at. Well worth a visit.
That got me thinking, should I get a table? So I stated reading and I'm probably more undecided than I was to start 😂
I hadn't realized just how in depth this hobby can be. I'm pretty handy diy wise, like my tech and PC building etc. But the more I read.... yeeah this looks like it can be quite complicated regarding maintenance and fault finding.
I did find @s000m complete newbies guide which was very good reading.
I guess I'll continue doing that for a while, but just wanted pop out the shadows and say Hi!
 
Welcome @Bertychewster
Can you use a multimeter and a soldering iron? Yes, jump in. No, learn and then jump in.

If you fancy a newer machine, then it is less likely you will need to do either.
 
Jonbazookaboz said:
Howdy all just joined. I’m Jon (45)- been playing pinball my whole life whenever I can. Recently, cleared out a room to create a mancade and just ordered my first pin nib. Waiting impatiently for it to arrive.
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Welcome Jon and John @Bertychewster
So Jon, spill the beans, what NIB Stern have you opted for?
There a lot of great titles to choose from, it must of been difficult to choose one?
 
Chris P said:
Welcome Jon and John @Bertychewster
So Jon, spill the beans, what NIB Stern have you opted for?
There a lot of great titles to choose from, it must of been difficult to choose one?
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It was a coin toss between JP and GZ. Liked the art and vids better on the GZ so went for that one. Just got the pro version. More likely to be able to afford another pin sooner that way. Also couldnt find a prem without a long wait. Excited though- cant wait!
 
Jonbazookaboz said:
It was a coin toss between JP and GZ. Liked the art and vids better on the GZ so went for that one. Just got the pro version. More likely to be able to afford another pin sooner that way. Also couldnt find a prem without a long wait. Excited though- cant wait!
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Great choice, that will keep you going for a long time, so many modes to explore.
The pro version is just as enjoyable as the premium version.
I will warn you though it won’t be long before you’re looking for your next machine 😂
 
Chris P said:
Great choice, that will keep you going for a long time, so many modes to explore.
The pro version is just as enjoyable as the premium version.
I will warn you though it won’t be long before you’re looking for your next machine 😂
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Haha ya. I want them all!! Be pushing my oldest kid out the door at 18 so I can turn his room in to an arcade!
 
Hi all, i am Craig from East Yorkshire (53, work in tech). Mega Pinball newbie. But I've been playing video games from the time i got Astro Wars for Xmas as a kid. I collect and play retro games and enjoy tinkering/modding them I also play modern games on my PC, and I built my arcade machine a few years back. It has an original arcade monitor with a modified graphics card and PC running Mame.
I have been thinking about getting a Pinball for some time as i do love playing them (I am pants at playing), So I have finally made some room in my office/games, put aside some cash and am now on the hunt. exciting
I am going to Playexpo in Blackpool, so I plan to try a few then. I am hoping to pop across to Arcade Club in Leeds soon (i do work away sometimes in London and Manchester )
I enjoy The Adams Family (the music and sound effects bring back great memories), Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, White Water and Fun House. I have watched a few videos of Godzilla and Jurassic Park, which look excellent. Also, I would love to try out Space Invaders; I haven't played that many pinball machines, I am excited about trying out new-to-me stuff. I like a project, so I like to get something I can tinker with.

Great forum, BTW; I already read and picked up so much info. But a lot more to take in
 
zxspectrum16k said:
Also, I would love to try out Space Invaders; I haven't played that many pinball machines, I am excited about trying out new-to-me stuff. I like a project, so I like to get something I can tinker with.
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I'd advise giving the Sp/Invaders pinball a good try-out before deciding whether to buy one; it's a case of a game looking fantastic, but actually being very formulaic, even for the time, and not a particular challenge for skilled players (simply get your accuracy in with the central 'hoop' and it can be milked for Specials). Some of the games from that early solid-state era with more appeal are the Williams 2-level games, their Alien Poker and Barracora, Bally's Paragon, Flash Gordon, Centaur, Fathom and others, or Stern games (it's an ancestor of the Stern company still trading) such as Meteor, Flight 2000, Seawitch (the layout of which was used for the more recent Beatles), Quicksilver, and others. Gottlieb struggled a little with the transition from the older electro-mechanical games, but some of their games are still well regarded, such as Haunted House or Black Hole.
 
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Jay Walker said:
I'd advise giving the Sp/Invaders pinball a good try-out before deciding whether to buy one; it's a case of a game looking fantastic, but actually being very formulaic, even for the time, and not a particular challenge for skilled players (simply get your accuracy in with the central 'hoop' and it can be milked for Specials). Some of the games from that early solid-state era with more appeal are the Williams 2-level games, their Alien Poker and Barracora, Bally's Paragon, Flash Gordon, Centaur, Fathom and others, or Stern games (it's an ancestor of the Stern company still trading) such as Meteor, Flight 2000, Seawitch (the layout of which was used for the more recent Beatles), Quicksilver, and others. Gottlieb struggled a little with the transition from the older electro-mechanical games, but some of their games are still well regarded, such as Haunted House or Black Hole.
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appreciate the info buddy, thanks
 
Approaching from a video game perspective, the pinball industry had a phase of making pins with a video game tie-in; Invaders is one of the most numerous.

Some of the others are:

Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man, known as M&M. Again very numerous, with an unusual back-box arrangement.

Defender. Williams made a small quantity of Defender pinballs. Another strange back-box set up, to use up leftover cabinetry from the disappointing (to Williams, that is) Hyperball. For the early 80's, an extremely complex game.

Spy Hunter. Apparently this really only had the SH theme put on for the tie-in, and wasn't designed with that intention. Generally thought of as quite dull.

Q-Bert/Q-bert's Quest. Better known in the U.S. (I've not seen the video game at all, and only one example of the pinball, which even the designer thought hadn't got into production). A very strange layout indeed.

Joust. Even the video game is rare, the 'double ended' pinball is something of a unicorn. Two opposing players face each other, each with their own 'half' of the playfield.

More recently, Gottlieb produced a Street Fighter 2 pinball with Capcom's licence, and Mario Bros. with Nintendo.

Then there are games with a tangential connection to video games. Bally's Centaur has very little colour in the artwork, to reflect the early monochrome video games, while to many Vector seems to be trying to ride on the IP for (the film) Tron.

And 'combination' games with both a pinball playfield and video game like Gottlieb's Caveman, or Bally's Baby Pac-man.

Mentioning Godzilla and Jurassic Park, they're IP's that keep giving; there's an earlier (mid 90's) Godzilla by Sega Pinball, as Stern was named at the time, and two earlier Jurassic Park games, by Data East (also what would become Stern).
 
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Hello everyone! :wave:

Name is Diego and I'm based in Glasgow. Loved pinballs as a kid but rarely had a coin to put in them, played lots of Timeshock in PC back in 1997 and always dreamt of having an Indiana Jones machine in the living room. Currently playing whatever guest machines they have at Super Bario and looking to change that by getting my own, although it seems like a very expensive time to get into the hobby. Been lurking the trade board for a couple months and finally decided to register. Right now still trying to understand all the jargon and searching for a good entry level machine in the sub £3000 range to learn the ropes.

All sorts of suggestions and pointers welcome!
 
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