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RetroGamingBlog

RetroGamingBlog

Registered
Joined
Apr 20, 2020
Messages
27
Location
Devon
Hi peeps,

ive been lurking over the last 6 months looking for a machine to buy. Decided to hold off as we’re going to be having a house extension. I was tempted as a few were on here for sale.

The extension has given me another 6-9 months pondering time.

I am definitely looking to purchase a pin after this timeframe. I’ve looked around the forum and most members seem to be based central - where as I’m in Devon. I’m completely new to pinball and I would have liked to get to know some members located closer to me - and get some advice.

I’m really keen on Heighway’s Alien Pin, I love the theme and everything about the playfield, but I know the company went under. Beyond that, the JJP Hobbit was another I almost purchased.
Is the Alien pin a bad first move? It seems hard to come by one for sale. But it just is perfect for me from all the videos I’ve seen.

What regular maintenance is required as a pin owner, and are there any threads, sites or videos that would help me further with this? I’m not technical on pins at all, owned an mvs cab in the past. I want to make sure I’m not biting off more than I can chew. :)
 
All pins play up. It’s the nature of the beast. It’s a box with metal balls being thrown at breakable parts all day long.

Avoid Alien as a first pin. You’re probably best going for a Stern/JJP or WMS game as they have the most support regarding repairs. Alien doesn’t have the same level of ready support / replacement parts.

Don’t stress too much about mist repairs. You will pick it up as you go along.

Don’t get fixated on buying your grail pin. Whatever it is you will get bored and decide to trade it (or just admit you are addicted and buy another 8)

If you are considering a Hobbit then that’s a serious chunk of cash to lay down on your first game. The good news is that pins don’t tend to depreciate badly unless you are buying them brand new.

Good luck and enjoy your new hobby 🤪
 
RetroGamingBlog said:
Okay, what pins would be an ideal starting point?
Click to expand...

Try something around the £2K mark to start with. You might find you don’t even have time to play it. I love pinball machines but I literally play them 20mins per week at most. That’s a lot of money per play. Obviously that’s multiplied by the purchase price.
 
That would be great! Thanks Ian. I’m away this week on Holiday, I’ll message you on my return to arrange something.

Really appreciate the offer.
 
Surprised to hear Hobbit is maintenance heavy.... never knew that. I only heard good things. Also apparently it has one of the nicest playfields.

Alien, yes, ultra cool theme but as others have said, i’d leave that to the veterans who know their way around these things inside out / upside down.
You will pull your teeth out with frustration otherwise.

I reckon any modern Stern if you want minimal risk.
SAM board set / Spike 1 / Spike 2
JJP also fine but some pins need to have updated hardware fixes applied like WOZ - so do research.
Get a pin your happy to have in your home, not one someone wants to sell you.
Don’t worry about spending more or less either.
Get a theme your happy with.
Good luck in your choice 👍
 
Just discovered this and would like to add my thoughts as I own an Alien as well as a Hobbit:

Both are unique regarding the deep interaction of gameplay with a movie: Your progress in the movie depends on hitting the right targets. If you especially like this kind of movie immersion, both are top choices.

The Hobbit is to my knowledge the only pin where the permission to use any movie content (with any character and including speech!) was aquired. And this is beautifully exploited togehter with professional music:
One single game could evolve to hours (!) of fun and thrill - like the movie. But ... gameplay is also somehow different to "typical" pins and more than a few players criticize (friendly said) the Hobbit for this. For us it will be the last pin to leave our home...

The Alien is different as only limited movie scenes were available, but its strength is the really dark and creepy atmosphere it delivers - again like the movie. Gameplay is more "standard", but challenging and the special hardware leads to a strange mechanical feedback.

But - as already said in the thread - the Alien is technically unique in many aspects, making it far more challenging regarding reliability and repair. It is no accident that the Alien thread at Pinside is endless, especailly regarding the small number of machines build.

Compared to this the Hobbit is a rock solid machine with some (repairable) weak points like any other pinball.
 
My Star Wars has both speech and movie clips, so I am not sure that statement about the Hobbit is correct.

I think Wonka is a the same too.
 
There are many pins now which use movie content, but typically the license is limited to certain scenes and characters (if any) because of the ridiculous fees requested - especially for the main characters. Check WoZ or PotC for example. And for Alien no Sigourney Weaver - which is somehow disappointing (but not too much ;)). But yes, I might be wrong regarding this statement - the numbers of playable movie scenes ("modes") is to my knowledge unreached.
 
I don’t see any limitations on Star Wars and when I played Wonka is looked like everything was there.
 
JAG555 said:
I don’t see any limitations on Star Wars and when I played Wonka is looked like everything was there.
Click to expand...

Yeah you wouldn't see the limitations as an owner :D You'd only really be aware of them as a developer of the machine. In Star Wars it's impossible for us pundits to know what Lucasfilm said no to, but I'm sure there will be examples. The developers rarely admit to things they would have liked to have but were told no. Better to work around the licence issues and pretend it's just exactly as they designed it.

(For what it's worth, I also seem to remember JJP talking about their very open licence agreement with The Hobbit at some point in the past. Might have been on a podcast somewhere...)
 
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