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Building with just a playfield

HomerRamone

HomerRamone

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I briefly mentioned this in another thread but never saw any reply. Possibly just cos it was buried in another conversation. (Or maybe cos noone was interested in my inane ramblings.. thats happened before :) )

Thought I would start a thread of its own anyway.

I've see a few playfields for sale on fleabay of late. They look to be populated, presumably pulled from a dead machine or something.. who knows.
Has anyone ever tried or even considered rebuilding from this. Be a bunch of work I expect - you would need to create the wiring harness and stuff. But I mean you can get replacement boards for most of the older pins right ?

I dont imagine its an especially cost effective way to do it - you are going to nee to source a cabinet and such but still. Be doable right ?
 
Anything is doable with enough time and money but probably not worth it unless it’s something super rare that you can’t get another way.
 
It’s crossed my mind before but i’ve been advised that trying to get hold of all the hundreds of correct bits would be challenging!
(That hasn’t stopped me stockpiling bits though!)
I think you’d be better trying to get a hold of a project and fixing /replacing the bits that are required to get it up and running.
Depending on the title some have hard/impossible to find items, but there are some clever people (like Jim @myPinballs) that do remanufacture things like the magnet board for twister! For example
Because most/all games have gone up in value so have there parts?
I still don’t think this is unfeesible but choose your, pinball wisely and don’t underestimate how much time and effort will be required or you’ll end up with a garage full of junk!!!!!
 
I once bought a genesis populated playfield,a lock bar,power supply board and iirc a transformer.
That game now works and is nicknamed Frank n pin.Its been to a few shows
 
I mean I was looking to get a pin as a project. But there doesnt seem to be anything super cheap floating around.
The populated playfields I saw recently went for like £50 IIRC. I mean sure you will spend way more than that getting all the boards but you could buy the parts one by one.. http://www.allteksystems.com/ seem to have replacements for most of the boards inside pints)
Unless its something with special boards (like the say it again in Centaur) should be ok right ?
 
I am doing something similar to get myself an EightBall Deluxe

as common as they were back in the 80's, they dont come up for sale much, and when they do the price is high
but, most things have been reproduced, so I am slowly gathering things together to make a reproduction EBD

bought a trashed populated playfield, just need to get the parts replated
the hardest thing to find is the transformer, but a long wait paid off and I finally found one

this project should cost the same as an original game
 
An alternative idea these days is to just use the playfield as is and add whatever you need using new electronics, i.e. my plan for a populated playfield I have is to use an arduino based processor board and build some interfaces into what;s there already on the playfiled.
 
Moonbus said:
Man made it before, they can make it again...

Only real issue is custom or game specific items but almost anything can be refashioned.

I have been working on a MM Pacman for the last year. I got a de-populated playfield, a box of bits and a few boards.

It's story is here...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/mmpc-first-ss-second-pin-coffee-table
Click to expand...
Looks very interesting. I suggested making a coffee table vpin - and have it so the back section folds down when not in use.. to make it more coffee table like.
My better half said I was an idiot, that it was stupid idea and no, no, no.
 
Moonbus said:
Man made it before, they can make it again...

Only real issue is custom or game specific items but almost anything can be refashioned.

I have been working on a MM Pacman for the last year. I got a de-populated playfield, a box of bits and a few boards.

It's story is here...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/mmpc-first-ss-second-pin-coffee-table
Click to expand...


In my case I improvised.I used a white water light board for my bbox flasher assembly, a Dracula speaker panel,a bally wms coin door-just slightly modded the cab,used plastic for box glass, wms meal bits to not be the mullered ramps etc etc
 
If you are looking for rebuilding classic 80s bally games then i make new squawk and talk boards, something that altek does not do!

stsound-board_assembled1.jpg

Also if you are on a small budget then i have a load of old s&t sound boards that are dead which you can spend the hours fixing for less if you like.

If you want to make your own game then i made a full arduino based control and driver system for early/bally/stern games a few years back. I had a supersonic playfield on a bench playable at one playexpo event. I sell this as a fully assembled kit or something to put together yourself.

custom-pinball-controller_installed1.jpg

See my website https://mypinballs.com/electronics/store.jsp

or come and chat to me at pinfest this year :)


I can bring a box of old s&t sound boards if that is of interest.
 
Poibug said:
Iirc Gold wings cab,box,sound board from you, a cpu from France, my glass,legs,driver boards I had here. It was a good project to occupy me thru my divorce time of my life!
Click to expand...

Yep a ‘parts build’ is often a good project for lots of reasons. Great sense of achievement this way to

In the old days costs were more this way, but for a lot of games now with the price increases I’m not that sure. It’s finding the parts though. Handily some of us are frantically making hardware to keep these things going!!
 
the guy who bought the Flash Gordon bits already has a power unit , backglass and generic Bally cabinet so putting a game together wont be too tricky for him but in general you have to balance time cost and effort against the price you would pay for a complete generally working game. you wouldnt try to resurrect a kings of steel but with a complete TZ or TAF playfield you'ld be on the hunt for a donor cab. on older pins the hard to find bits are usually the power units and backglass
 
myPinballs said:
I can bring a box of old s&t sound boards if that is of interest.
Click to expand...

I'll take one of your old S&T boards pls, le tme know how much you want for it. I've got a working one in my Mr & Mrs Pacman but I want to practice fixing boards so it would be good try and troubleshoot and fix a knackered one.

Cheers.
 
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