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New Member in Warwick area

Jazzbouche

Jazzbouche

Registered
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
389
Location
Warwick
Hi guys,
I'm a noob from near Warwick. Been lurking around the forums a little while learning as much as I can (thanks - everyone seems really knowledgeable and friendly).

I'm looking to get my first pin in the coming months - Williams Indiana jones being top of the list, followed by any classic 80's movie themes (is BTTF any good? Is there a goonies pin?).

Any advice much appreciated!

Thanks again
Paul
 
welcome Paul

my advice would be to go to a league meet near you starting here - http://www.ukpinballleague.co.uk/

also click on 'user map' just above on this page, find people near you, send them some messages. i bet someone lets you come and have a play, and will be happy to tell you about parts and servicing and all that. then you got a pinhead buddy, and it's only a matter of time before you're a pinhead yourself. come on in, the water's lovely.
 
Welcome Paul,

Definitely agree you need to play them first, theme is one thing but game play can be another.

The Pinball Arcade can be a good way to play lots of popular pins on your phone ect. it's not exactly like playing the real thing but it does help give you an idea of what they're like.

A good way to finding a first pin is working out a budget first then seeing what you can afford.
 
Thanks everyone- great advice. Good shout with pinball arcade - I've just had a quick play and it's a nice way to do some 'research'. Think I might pop to tilt as well at some point as it seems like a good hotspot for pins. Thanks for the offer Courtney, I may take you up on that when I'm next in the area!

I saw on eBay that there's a Star Wars pin not too far from me which perhaps I might go see. It looks a little overpriced compared to the one that sold on here last week, but it might be good to check out and meet the chap selling it. I'm happy to take my time looking around though!
 
Yeah - that seems to be the overall vibe I'm getting from the forums: avoid eBay at all costs (until you know what you're doing I guess).
 
Welcome on board Paul. Like Dan says, avoid ebay, at least at first - it's a minefield. The best advice is to buy from here, and ask questions about prices in the 'how much is this pin worth' thread stickied in the newbie forum if you are unsure. I've never had enough game time on the Williams IJ, I think I need to try one too:confused:. But I wouldn't spend too much time thinking about which pin to buy first - whatever you buy, it's likely that you will have moved it on after 6 months to try something else :thumbs:
 
Thanks everyone. Yeah, no rush although I am quite keen on an Indy table as I'm a big fan and fancy a theme I know as a first table. That said, I'll put some effort into getting out to play some as it's been a while! I might put some feelers out for prices on the value thread. Thanks again for the warm welcome.
 
Jazzbouche said:
Hi guys,
I'm a noob from near Warwick. Been lurking around the forums a little while learning as much as I can (thanks - everyone seems really knowledgeable and friendly).

I'm looking to get my first pin in the coming months - Williams Indiana jones being top of the list, followed by any classic 80's movie themes (is BTTF any good? Is there a goonies pin?).

Any advice much appreciated!

Thanks again
Paul
Click to expand...

Hi, Paul,

Directly licenced movie themes weren't the norm in the 80's - the two earliest ones I'm aware of were Meteor in 1978 and Flash Gordon in 1981. AFAIR, Data Easts' Robocop kicked off the action movie official-licence tendency, Williams didn't do so until '91, with Terminator 2.

Before this, the manufacturers used to sail as close as possible to the target theme without actually taking out the licence. It depends on your views of classic 80's films, but there are a couple that spring to mind;
  • World Defender, by 'Bell Games', trades on a backglass likeness of Arnie in sneering leather-clad Terminator pose. Bell weren't a manufacturer as such, they produced conversion kits to build a 'new' game in an existing Bally cabinet, though their games were actually copies of proven, popular titles. In this case, it was Williams 'Laser Cue', which was itself an update of Williams earlier 'Alien Poker'
  • I'm not sure about the timing of Bally's 'Vector' vis-a-vis Tron, but anyone could be forgiven for making the connection
  • Williams 'Road Kings' used a Mad Max outlaw motorcycle theme
  • Williams 'F-14 TomCat' and Gottliebs' 'Gold Wings' were both themed on Top Gun - G/Wings even showed a young couple on a motorbike, with a jet taking off in the background
 
Last edited:
Hi Jay - thanks for the info, that starts to fill in some blanks. So I assume stuff like indiana jones was released in the 90's, and Back to the future too? And I guess there's still an appetite for the older licenses given the recent Ghostbusters release.
Thanks
 
Jazzbouche said:
So I assume stuff like indiana jones was released in the 90's, and Back to the future too?
Click to expand...

Hi Paul, there is a really useful online database of pinball machine details, you can search it by movie theme but not many are catagorised as such or just search by name;
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?tm=movie&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced

Edit: actually searching by licensed theme is interesting
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?tm=licensed&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced
 
astyy said:
Hi Paul, there is a really useful online database of pinball machine details, you can search it by movie theme but not many are catagorised as such or just search by name;
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?tm=movie&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced

Edit: actually searching by licensed theme is interesting
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?tm=licensed&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced
Click to expand...

This is a great resource thanks! The licensed list is really interesting - I know I'll need to play them but it gives a great starting point - and some that I didn't know existed!
 
Williams were non licensed between world cup 78 until EATPM 89 . They let bally go the licensed route. DE took off once on the licensed wagon and have rarely done original themes. When they do they haven't set the world on fire. Striker xtreme is their worst rated game.
 
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