( Part I - Unfortunately I've had to break this into several posts to get around the 8 pictures rule, sorry 'bout dat)
Not really a shop log but I felt like I should tell this story and show these pics somewhere :/
This is the story of my first machine, my teething problems with pinball ownership. My feelings about pinball in general and a couple of mistakes I made that I hope other new buyers can learn from
And, of course some proud photos of my beloved.
So last year I took ownership of my first machine. Pinbot, which I got for a very fair price from a community member most of us know.
I love Pinbot, Me and the missus dig the theme and the colours, the awesomesauce music and its great lightshow. We had played it a fair bit on Williams Pinball Classics, and had played it in reel lyfe at the UKPP a couple of years ago.
I think for an earlier game there's a fair bit to aim for, and for beginners the challenge of reaching The Sun on 3 balls is mighty foreboding. (As of this date, Jupiter is my furthest journey) The visor and the multiball is the obvious gimmick, but I like the strategy of building up your multiplier via the back ramp, aiming to get the ball back to the plunger to multiply the Vortex, and the painfully angled drop targets that transport you THROUGH OUTER SPACE (or, more accurately, through a series of small lights on the playfield)
The Left Outlane is your nemesis, and takes far many balls than the drain does.
We lived in a terrible, deathsville towerblock, a bit like the one in Indonesian rom-com The Raid. So I worked on it there but it never was up on its legs and playing.
Fortunately, Our tower was deemed unsafe (rightly so) and destroyed. The council were kind enough to let us know first so we could move out and into our current abode at Xmas.
We don't know if there were any other survivors. Although we are still in a flat, theres no-one situated above or below us and to the sides of us are just entrance ways, so we appear to be good to go regardng noise pollution.
Since setting it up we've had a few friends over, and they are *instantly* taken by it, whether they have any interest in pinball or not. There's a lot to be said for flashing lights and shiny things.
My only problem with the game is he never says "I. Am. A. Robot." which as you know is standard script for any mechanical man pre-Terminator.
Anyway, back to last year...
Pinbot was in a dirty, dirty condition, I don't know the extended history of the machine but it hadnt had a rubber change in forever and the mylar had hard thick lines of dirt around the edges, all inserts were bubbled and there was some lettering loss.
Adding to this, The machine had recently had a fight with an exploding fire extinguisher (really) and was coated in powdered substance. On the plus side, the playfield was solid and there was no "mylar placed over worn paint" issues. The cabinet was also nice and bright and only had a couple of minor scrapes. It had also had a couple of the displays freshly replaced.
The flippers had had a recent rebuild and the boards had been checked over, so I knew I was good to go on an electrical and mostly mechanical basis
This was good as I wield a soldering iron with as much care as Farsight wields the funding of its fans #goodsatire
So Matt Vince, who happened to be passing by my hometown, scooped the machine up from the sellers house en route and brought it to my door. Which was glorious of him as he'd recently welcomed in a new member of his family about 20 hours earlier. Much thanks friend.
I'd already measured every last detail of doors, lifts, turning points, corridors and the like and had a sack trolley ready to go, so when he showed up there were no nightmares whatsoever.
TAKE NOTE NEW PINBALL PEOPLE. PREPERATION IS EVERYTHING.
Having someone kindly bring a machine to your front door to find it wont fit in, needs help upstairs, or needs dismantling on the doorstep is not partculary courteous. Planning costs nothing.
So I set it up (the head was disconnected, again the only way I could get it in) took out all the connectors, cried, regretted buying it, manned up, connected up the head and turned it on.
Nothing. Just GI.
So I checked all the connectors, checked them again, regretted buying it, checked them again, posted about it on Pinside, contacted the seller, checked them again. reconnected the ones I'D MESSED UP, and Pinbot sprang to life.
It was a *glorious* moment, more exciting than anything that had happened to me since Quorra. I'll never forget it.
(Part 2 en route)
Not really a shop log but I felt like I should tell this story and show these pics somewhere :/
This is the story of my first machine, my teething problems with pinball ownership. My feelings about pinball in general and a couple of mistakes I made that I hope other new buyers can learn from
And, of course some proud photos of my beloved.
So last year I took ownership of my first machine. Pinbot, which I got for a very fair price from a community member most of us know.
I love Pinbot, Me and the missus dig the theme and the colours, the awesomesauce music and its great lightshow. We had played it a fair bit on Williams Pinball Classics, and had played it in reel lyfe at the UKPP a couple of years ago.
I think for an earlier game there's a fair bit to aim for, and for beginners the challenge of reaching The Sun on 3 balls is mighty foreboding. (As of this date, Jupiter is my furthest journey) The visor and the multiball is the obvious gimmick, but I like the strategy of building up your multiplier via the back ramp, aiming to get the ball back to the plunger to multiply the Vortex, and the painfully angled drop targets that transport you THROUGH OUTER SPACE (or, more accurately, through a series of small lights on the playfield)
The Left Outlane is your nemesis, and takes far many balls than the drain does.
We lived in a terrible, deathsville towerblock, a bit like the one in Indonesian rom-com The Raid. So I worked on it there but it never was up on its legs and playing.
Fortunately, Our tower was deemed unsafe (rightly so) and destroyed. The council were kind enough to let us know first so we could move out and into our current abode at Xmas.
We don't know if there were any other survivors. Although we are still in a flat, theres no-one situated above or below us and to the sides of us are just entrance ways, so we appear to be good to go regardng noise pollution.
Since setting it up we've had a few friends over, and they are *instantly* taken by it, whether they have any interest in pinball or not. There's a lot to be said for flashing lights and shiny things.
My only problem with the game is he never says "I. Am. A. Robot." which as you know is standard script for any mechanical man pre-Terminator.
Anyway, back to last year...
Pinbot was in a dirty, dirty condition, I don't know the extended history of the machine but it hadnt had a rubber change in forever and the mylar had hard thick lines of dirt around the edges, all inserts were bubbled and there was some lettering loss.
Adding to this, The machine had recently had a fight with an exploding fire extinguisher (really) and was coated in powdered substance. On the plus side, the playfield was solid and there was no "mylar placed over worn paint" issues. The cabinet was also nice and bright and only had a couple of minor scrapes. It had also had a couple of the displays freshly replaced.
The flippers had had a recent rebuild and the boards had been checked over, so I knew I was good to go on an electrical and mostly mechanical basis
This was good as I wield a soldering iron with as much care as Farsight wields the funding of its fans #goodsatire
So Matt Vince, who happened to be passing by my hometown, scooped the machine up from the sellers house en route and brought it to my door. Which was glorious of him as he'd recently welcomed in a new member of his family about 20 hours earlier. Much thanks friend.
I'd already measured every last detail of doors, lifts, turning points, corridors and the like and had a sack trolley ready to go, so when he showed up there were no nightmares whatsoever.
TAKE NOTE NEW PINBALL PEOPLE. PREPERATION IS EVERYTHING.
Having someone kindly bring a machine to your front door to find it wont fit in, needs help upstairs, or needs dismantling on the doorstep is not partculary courteous. Planning costs nothing.
So I set it up (the head was disconnected, again the only way I could get it in) took out all the connectors, cried, regretted buying it, manned up, connected up the head and turned it on.
Nothing. Just GI.
So I checked all the connectors, checked them again, regretted buying it, checked them again, posted about it on Pinside, contacted the seller, checked them again. reconnected the ones I'D MESSED UP, and Pinbot sprang to life.
It was a *glorious* moment, more exciting than anything that had happened to me since Quorra. I'll never forget it.
(Part 2 en route)
op2: ......Pinbot is a CLASSIC. My friend had one for a while, damn is it hard to reach the Sun !! ...think we did it onc:redface:e
