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Importing USA pins into the UK

Hullshark

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Joined
Sep 17, 2018
Messages
1,495
Location
Hull, East Yorkshire
Alias
Wayne Russell
Hello Folks, with @Neil McRae finding his X-Men Magneto in the USA it has got me wondering what is involved in converting a USA pin to a UK pin. Is it expensive ? Does it vary between Manufacturers ? Would you go to these measures ?
Please let me know your thoughts
 
Often wondered this too. I did have a Tron that had been converted and played without issue (I didn’t do the conversion!)

I am pretty sure most modern Sterns (maybe from LCD screen onwards) have some code written in that will not allow 50Hz power to play. I have not heard of anyone bypassing this, but would be interested to hear otherwise.
 
Stern is the troublesome one. Spike 2 there currently isn't a way to do the change without replacing the spike 2 CPU board. SAM there are various hacks, but only apply to games after family guy I think.

Pretty much every other games can be converted without issue.

The price I've paid for my Xmen LE Magneto NIB, with shipping, taxes and if I have to swap the board will come in just over 7K which isn't bad for an LE...

for NIB pins the exchange rate and inbound taxes with shipping won't really save you any thing. If you where looking for a game you'll probably find it in Europe. I spoke to a few folks about Xmen but they all wanted stupid money.

Neil.
 
That’s worth doing for that price if you can’t get one here for a good price. NIB too, result!
 
I have done it a few times but not worth the hassle now with the exchange rate even if you didn’t hack it would probably cost you more to buy it ship it and pay all the duty than buy one over here
If you are wanting a current title you will probably find it hard to buy one from the states too as distributors are a bit fussy
God I couldn’t give my x men le magneto away when I sold it fully loaded went for £4300
 
yeah and Tony wouldn't sell me it. No idea why there is no love for this game - its brilliant.

Neil.
 
might be easier to convert the voltage/frequency to match the game expectations!
https://www.kccscientific.com/frequ...3L7bds8rCX_evaFqmJVsodg0povDEUU0aAgzqEALw_wcB
Cheers Bob

Really ?!?

Did you see how many watts they put out??

They won’t run a pin ever if you throw £1500 at one of these converters.

They do the 50/60hz thing to stop gray imports.

You won’t get any support on it. Try getting a replacement board out of a company the other side of the world.

You will add 25% on top of the price advertised minimum. It could get wrecked then you try claiming.

Just is not worth it.
 
CPU board, power jumper, varistor, game fuse and sometimes the balast for the Flo tube on Sam games.
 
“By the time you've bought the one suitable for a pinball you will have spent more than just paying Uk price!“

It is an option though, particularly if you cannot source the components for the machine
 
for widely available machines US importing is mad. For rare stuff or specific stuff US importing works.

I got lucky with this X-Men.
Like the time I just had to have myself a Paragon, had no idea of prices so paid over the odds for one in the USA off ebay of course, ROLF. I thought I was being clever as I'd done my research and already lined up a shipping company for £700 who subsequently reneged on their quote and refused to pick it up, so like a cock I just used Fedex Airmail to get it door to door in less than 30 hours. Its the only £5k Paragon in the UK :p:p:p:p:p
 
Like the time I just had to have myself a Paragon, had no idea of prices so paid over the odds for one in the USA off ebay of course, ROLF. I thought I was being clever as I'd done my research and already lined up a shipping company for £700 who subsequently reneged on their quote and refused to pick it up, so like a cock I just used Fedex Airmail to get it door to door in less than 30 hours. Its the only £5k Paragon in the UK :p:p:p:p:p

hopefully my shipping of X-Men will be nothing like that!

LOL - on the upside the paragon got a nice meal and massage in business class :D
 
You would think Stern would allow games that are no longer manufactured to be imported and then converted at registered dealers here in the UK.
 
Suspect if I sent them the board they might take pity on me.
 
believe there is now a hack for the Spike 2 system if you know how to find it.
No problem with JJP games. I think they will even provide support on how to convert a US import.
Older 90 Bally/Williams are easy to convert. But why would you Import as they are usually cheaper in the UK and Europe without adding the vat and shipping.
 
where is the hack for spike2?

One assumes there must be away into the menu that sets the serial number, hz, type of game etc.
 
where is the hack for spike2?

One assumes there must be away into the menu that sets the serial number, hz, type of game etc.

There is a hidden menu, you just need to know the button code to do it, I'm surprised it hasn't yet come out. It would make life a lot easier if we knew it, but for their own reasons Stern have locked regions and I guess there are very few people who know how to access the menu.
 
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