Amazing Keith ! You are a Master at Pinball restorations . Such Passion and attention to detail . I know you especially like this era of Bally Classic , I am so Happy with the Splendid Job that you did on My Fathom as well , Thank You sooo much 
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Complete BALLY SKATEBALL. Now sold, but still in the U.K.
- Thread starter new forest pinball
- Start date
OP
OP
Hi Rich, @RuyLopez , Bally classic ss are the best!.... thank you for your kind comments. I really love bringing these games back to life it’s so satisfying and enjoyable............. Really looking forward to having a few games together on your Fathom again! Sometime soon hopefully. And Nip-it! Must play that , not played one for about 35 years!..must finish skateball, been distracted by customer commissions lately...K.
Yes Keith , Nip-It was the first machine that made me fall in love with pinball ,multi-ball,zipperflippers & those magical scoring chimes, I LOVE the scent of an EM game when its opened up ( as long as its not that awful and all too familiar coil burning smell ha ha )
, the spirit in the machine ! a simple game compared to modern pinball , but somehow the less is more and pure electro mechanical pinball I find stimulating . Looking forward to playing some Silver Ball with you again soon Keith .
OP
OP
Hi All,
Long time...to long , I have left the “Skateball” in the corner of the workshops. (Although in good company). But been on holidays until today so back to it. I had wanted to bomb proof, future proof the driver pcb after modding it and replacement of the caps. So the plan is to socket and replace the solenoid control I.c’s. Like this......here’s the chips...
Chips removed......
Sockets in....
New chips
in......luvverly........
Long time...to long , I have left the “Skateball” in the corner of the workshops. (Although in good company). But been on holidays until today so back to it. I had wanted to bomb proof, future proof the driver pcb after modding it and replacement of the caps. So the plan is to socket and replace the solenoid control I.c’s. Like this......here’s the chips...
Chips removed......
Sockets in....
New chips
in......luvverly........
OP
OP
Skateball is pretty much finished, apart from a few finishing touches. (Polished side rails maybe, fitting of a coin door volume control). but these things can wait as I cannot wait to play it any longer. It is a fabulous game, with great rules absolute Bally S.S. Classic.....here are some pictures of it finished...hope you like them. Comments , opinions welcome . Thanks for reading and watching. Been a restoration during very strange times....keep safe everyone. All the best Keef....
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Fantastic!
Very nice.
Man I want one of those. Stunner
Looks fabulous and thanks for your log its really helped me with working on ELEKTRA.
Thank you for the thread 
I love these bally classics
I love these bally classics
Just thought I would throw a few pics here of my Skateball that had the @new forest pinball treatment that I picked up today! Super ecstatic with everything that Keith has done, he is a true master. Its not the full bling that he did on his own game, but certainly to my personal taste. Super excited to get this beauty back 
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What a beaut!
OP
OP
GOOD NEWS...BAD NEWS....
In some ways I wish I had never taken Skateball out of long term storage. It’s been an emotional roller coaster, in so many ways.
Will not bore you with the full story. This was one of my favourite games to play in the early eighties. I could only play it once a year when I visited a school friend who moved to Gorlston on sea. So many pinballs there back in the eighties it was overwhelmingly exciting for me. Whilst working on her I got so many memory rushes it was crazy. Lack of space meant only two options. Store it again or sell it.
Had so many enquire about buying it from one instagram post I thought, let it be used, played and loved, as it is such a rare game now in the uk. Apart from mine @roadshow16 and @Sgt GrizZ i don’t know of another one. Anyone know of any others?
Be interested in that......
The buyers came from Europe and the USA ....having sold a few Bally classics recently to the USA I really wasn’t keen on Skateball going home. Then and this leads me onto the good news......and the bad news.......
GOOD NEWS.....
1). Skateball is staying in the uk. A local client of mine turned up to buy my Black Knight. (Currently tombstoned much to @GezTheHealer annoyance). He eyeballed Skateball , from about 20 paces, and said I will have that please? So it’s staying in the uk and “bonus” in my village 
.
2). Was so fantastic to play Skateball again. What a hugely underrated 80’s Bally SS.
3). Was unreal to have 2 Skateball in the workshops at the same time. Craig’s Skateball artwork was slightly darker than mine,
This was not due to u.v. Damage or fade. The artwork that included characters was much darker than mine. My playfield had just wood coloured, but Craig’s were all painted much darker. Interesting from a geek point of view. Good news to that Craig collected it today , and @Alpha1 Indiana Jones has taken its place!.....
BAD NEWS ....
1). I no longer have a Skateball.
So for discussion. Bally classic ss machines are the future! Soon they will out value most Wms titles in my opinion. They are objects of beauty!....(talking about Fathom, Paragon, hgot, centaur, Flash Gordon, xenon, ebd, Dolly Parton, Evel Knievel, Viking)
Controversial opinion alert!
2). After playing Skateball and Dolly Parton, Dolly gets my love!
Keep yer Addams and shove it where the sun don’t shine! Bally ss rules!
Thank you for all your positive comments during my Skateball restore, mich appreciated.
Cheer Keef........
In some ways I wish I had never taken Skateball out of long term storage. It’s been an emotional roller coaster, in so many ways.
Will not bore you with the full story. This was one of my favourite games to play in the early eighties. I could only play it once a year when I visited a school friend who moved to Gorlston on sea. So many pinballs there back in the eighties it was overwhelmingly exciting for me. Whilst working on her I got so many memory rushes it was crazy. Lack of space meant only two options. Store it again or sell it.
Had so many enquire about buying it from one instagram post I thought, let it be used, played and loved, as it is such a rare game now in the uk. Apart from mine @roadshow16 and @Sgt GrizZ i don’t know of another one. Anyone know of any others?
Be interested in that......
The buyers came from Europe and the USA ....having sold a few Bally classics recently to the USA I really wasn’t keen on Skateball going home. Then and this leads me onto the good news......and the bad news.......
GOOD NEWS.....
1). Skateball is staying in the uk. A local client of mine turned up to buy my Black Knight. (Currently tombstoned much to @GezTheHealer annoyance
). He eyeballed Skateball , from about 20 paces, and said I will have that please? So it’s staying in the uk and “bonus” in my village .2). Was so fantastic to play Skateball again. What a hugely underrated 80’s Bally SS.
3). Was unreal to have 2 Skateball in the workshops at the same time. Craig’s Skateball artwork was slightly darker than mine,
This was not due to u.v. Damage or fade. The artwork that included characters was much darker than mine. My playfield had just wood coloured, but Craig’s were all painted much darker. Interesting from a geek point of view. Good news to that Craig collected it today , and @Alpha1 Indiana Jones has taken its place!.....
BAD NEWS ....
1). I no longer have a Skateball.
So for discussion. Bally classic ss machines are the future! Soon they will out value most Wms titles in my opinion. They are objects of beauty!....(talking about Fathom, Paragon, hgot, centaur, Flash Gordon, xenon, ebd, Dolly Parton, Evel Knievel, Viking)
Controversial opinion alert!
2). After playing Skateball and Dolly Parton, Dolly gets my love!
Keep yer Addams and shove it where the sun don’t shine! Bally ss rules!
Thank you for all your positive comments during my Skateball restore, mich appreciated.
Cheer Keef........
Nigel Lunt had one, don't know if he's on here or not, but he was on the old Yahoo group. 
I've got some Bally Skateball docs in a envelope. You can have them when I see you next
Sent from my Atari 2600
Sent from my Atari 2600
@new forest pinball Dolly > Skateball? Gnarly opinion Doooude! I'd love to play a Skateball when I can they are indeed objet de beauté. 4 flippers looks like it makes for a good layout and lots to shoot for.
I'm still trying to pip your High Score on Dolly
got close a few times! Greg also got onto HS No.5 on SnS when he visited so I'm trying to knock him off to - Stiff competition from School fo SWL!
So You've not sold Black Knight, right?
I'm still trying to pip your High Score on Dolly
got close a few times! Greg also got onto HS No.5 on SnS when he visited so I'm trying to knock him off to - Stiff competition from School fo SWL!So You've not sold Black Knight, right?
OP
OP
So You've not sold Black Knight, right?
[/QUOTE]
Right!..............
Don’t misunderstand me, @GezTheHealer Skateball is an awesome game, with several possible scoring strategy’s which is nice for a game of this era.
But Dolly holds a place in my heart as one of the first s.s. Games, after moving on from e.m’s. I honed my pinball skills on. (Kiss, xenon, hgot, haunted house, black hole, ebd, hot wheels , Flash Gordon and centaur being the others). With a bit of vector when nothing else was available. (Titter). And a zaccaria that kept me motivated by constantly telling me at the end of a game. “Well you are average!”. Always stuck in my mind that............
Skateball is for sure “objet de beaute”.........satis dictum.......
[/QUOTE]
Right!..............
Don’t misunderstand me, @GezTheHealer Skateball is an awesome game, with several possible scoring strategy’s which is nice for a game of this era.
But Dolly holds a place in my heart as one of the first s.s. Games, after moving on from e.m’s. I honed my pinball skills on. (Kiss, xenon, hgot, haunted house, black hole, ebd, hot wheels , Flash Gordon and centaur being the others). With a bit of vector when nothing else was available. (Titter). And a zaccaria that kept me motivated by constantly telling me at the end of a game. “Well you are average!”. Always stuck in my mind that............
Skateball is for sure “objet de beaute”.........satis dictum.......
I never really looked closely at skateball, and now I have, I want one!
One of the best under rated Bally’s of that era along with Frontier and Fireball 2
ipdb says this, which is interesting........ "Skateball reportedly had a faulty design that allowed players to score excessive points, lowering operator profits due to many free games being awarded. Players could easily hold the ball on the right flipper and make it roll in and out of the right inlane by briefly releasing the flipper button. This caused the bonus to raise to the maximum award which would award a special upon reaching 60k. Operators reportedly tried a number of different solutions to solve the problem.
I know a few games have similar 'undocumented features' shall we say!
"
I know a few games have similar 'undocumented features' shall we say!
"
I’ve seen the right inlane switch disabled on Skateball to prevent that. It’s a bit like shatzing the inlane on Spider-Man to advance the bonus, although I’d argue that it’s more of a skill on Spider-Man
It's still pretty skillful, depending on how the flippers are setup, you need to be very sensitive with the right flipper in order to achieve the desired effect and maxing out the bonus. Myself and Keith were only talking about this the other day when I picked up my game. I was surprised and delighted to see that the right inlane switch hadn't been clipped in the Classic's competition at the Belgian Open a few years. I managed to successfully pull off the right inlane trick over and over, eventually taking me to the number 1 qualifier. It seemed like not many others knew of this strategy, or weren't able to do it on that particular skateball.
What PAPA and a few other competitions have done is cut the lower half of the inlane switch, so that it can still roll down the right inlane, but couldn't be shatzed back up the inlane. A bit crewed perhaps, but it works.
Its a brilliant game. Sooooo addictive.
Here is the moment where 13 year old Escher won the world championship against Bowen on Skateball. I bloody love it.
https://pinballvideos.com/v/1442
I also agree with Chris about Frontier. Now that is a great game.
What PAPA and a few other competitions have done is cut the lower half of the inlane switch, so that it can still roll down the right inlane, but couldn't be shatzed back up the inlane. A bit crewed perhaps, but it works.
Its a brilliant game. Sooooo addictive.
Here is the moment where 13 year old Escher won the world championship against Bowen on Skateball. I bloody love it.
https://pinballvideos.com/v/1442
I also agree with Chris about Frontier. Now that is a great game.
I'd love a Frontier! Might have to try and track one down
Hi Craig , your skateball looks lovely ! Keith is a Master of Pinball restorations , especially Bally SS's ! I used to play Bally's Skateball in my local arcade back in the day and use the right flipper to continually trigger the right inlane switch ! ha ha ha
Haven't done a tutorial for many years, but fancied giving it a go today on Skateball. I don't have a rig or anything so my wife said she would hold my phone, as long as it was less than 10 minutes 
by the end she was definitely sick of it!
It's crap quality, but I tried to show off a few of the different strategies and explain how I would play it in competition and why I love it so much.
Cheers, Craig
by the end she was definitely sick of it! It's crap quality, but I tried to show off a few of the different strategies and explain how I would play it in competition and why I love it so much.
Cheers, Craig
Go’wan making it look easy with all those consistent rolling tap passes! Awesome play & a beautiful machine.