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Pinballs You Have Saved

Moonraker

Moonraker

Site Supporter
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
6,027
Location
Salisbury
Inspired by the Is It Worth It? thread...

A thread for those who have saved pinballs, list them here and initial state of them when you received them. Where from (if you don't mind saying).

My starter for 10:

Spirit (totally dead, no keys to get in it). MPU battery corrosion. Ebay.
Genesis (totally dead). MPU battery corrosion. Ebay.
Pink Panther (partially working). Ebay.
TZ (erratic workings). MPU battery corrosion. Seller contacted me.
World Challenge Soccer (dead playfield, gassed display). Pinball Info.
LOTR (erratic workings). Seller contacted me.
Space Hawks (totally dead). Corroded MPU. Yahoo Group.
Super Mario Bros. (Kick back blowing transistor). Pinball Owners Magazine.
Stargate #1 (No playfield glass, no apron, no backglass, no rope light, no lock bar, no coin door, missing plastics, missing glide craft motor and driving arms). Found at Pinballers Anon.
Gold Wings (Fried kickout coil, MPU battery corrosion, daughter board issues). Yahoo Group.
Golden Eye (totally dead, missing translate & Backglass, playfield glass). MPU battery corrosion. Yahoo Group.
Star Trek Next Generation #1 (erratic workings, half a dozen minor things that I don't recall now). Yahoo Group.
No Fear (DMD HV section on it's way out). Ebay.
Johnny Mnemonic (missing flipper button PCB, half a dozen minor things that I don't recall now). Ebay.
Fire Mountain (No program in the game). Tip from someone #1.

For someone else:
Spirit #2 (totally dead). Ebay.

Still to do:
Haunted House (parted out, badly worn playfields on all three levels). Yahoo Group
The Amazing Spider-man (MPU not working, no backglass). Tip from someone #2.
Star Trek Next Generation #2 (very wet and rusty, display driver tiny corrosion). Ebay.
Robocop (totally dead, claimed to be fully working). MPU corrosion, blown HV on PSU. Sucker punch from someone #3.

Well, I guess it all adds up over the years... :eek:
 
Just LW3 here - my introduction into pinball ownership, replaced PSU re-pinned connectors, stripped and cleaned playfield, came up good in the end and is really fun.

Came from @Sonny_Jim but he was completely honest about the condition, I figured it was worth the sum of its parts so I took a chance (and I'm glad I did).
 
Firepower - a total basket case, missing plastics 99% of inserts raised or sunken, lots of incorrect coils, no flipper mechs, no flipper wiring, every connector hacked/ broken or burnt, dodgy boards, breaks and missing wires in the looms, front and back end of cab damaged needed replacing and butchered base, hacked joins and scotch blocks, knackered back glass, broken switches......
 
Peter, you are the rag and bone man of pinball :). Seriously, well done, that's a lot of machines saved.
 
many over the years
strangest a ww bought from ebay collected from middle of a field in ripon dirty missing display but playfield cab and topper ok got it home powered it up replaced a few fuses and it was a worker to my suprise got a new display and workshopped it turned out a nice pin wish i had never sold it
 
I've done 3:
1 - STTNG found upside down in a skip, upright backbox & with the legs on - turns out it had been stored in a damp garage of a pub for 3 years & was pretty rotten throughout. Complete strip down & re-build...was the first game I'd stripped completely & only felt confident to do it as I had my own STTNG sat next to it for reference when putting it all back together. Sold it to ukpinball group member at a league meeting at my house.

2 - Whirlwind - bought from a local "antiques" mill. No working display, broken playfield glass, no backglass, playfield an absolute state top & bottom, missign topper...though the fan was still attached but with the fins cut-off (??!?!) - again, a complete strip-down & re-build brought this back to life - to date it's the only pin I regret selling...really should have kept hold of it, but didn't really have the room at the time. Sold it to a local pub & serviced it until he sold it on (without telling me first!).

3 - Cyclone (ebay) - filthy & rusty, with many non-working playfield components, and bottom 2 displays non-working - wasn't going to buy it after going to look at it (only a couple of miles away), but whilst watching it end on ebay the wife said I should buy it as we had the money & were about to move house & therefore wouldn't have any money for pinballs very soon...wasn't going to argue with that logic - complete strip-down & rebuild. My first ever attempt at Mylar removal (went ok, just a long & boring job). Never got the displays working, but the game played really well...swapped it for an F14 which I love!

It's a lot of fun taking on a project pin, & the sense of satisfaction when you put it all back together & it's all shiny & playing well is fantastic...I'd recommend it to anyone :)

Regards,
Dan.
 
Only saved two properly

A bally star trek, bought from a juke box dealer bloke with no boards in it and some playfield damage

And a black pyramid from a closed down arcade. Was in in about 5 bits, it was lying in the corner with parts of the backbox lying about it even though technically the backbox was still bolted onto the cabinet (well the bottom of the backbox still was)
It's not totally fixed yet, still trips out when the ball goes down the left hand out lane. Will get around to looking at it again when I free up some space
 
Mine are as follows - a knackered fishtales - see shop log on here, an even more knackered WH20 - again log on here, and just been mugged into a trashed Demo man(sorry @Big Phil lol!!!) well water damaged and numerous faults, was thinking of breaking it for parts but such a shame so it is going to get the full shop sometime in the future - starting to collect bits for it already - starting with a new cab!!!

Cheers Kev
 
2 from me (see my shop logs):

Bally PARAGON. Totally dead. MPU corrosion. MPU, PSU and Voltage Regulator rebuilt. Mostly all there, just years of neglect. Still to do total playfield and cabinet restoration but did bring it back to life and fully working. Found via Yahoo! ukpinball group.

Bally GOLD BALL. Another dead basket case. Another dead corroded MPU. PSU and Voltage Regulator rebuild. Playfield has had total stripdown and restore along with custom Lexan playfield protector fitted. Cabinet still to be restored. Backglass very flaky. Found via this forum.
 
Loads over the years but my favourite was the TNG that was in someone's back garden in Yorkshire (may have been Bridlington) his parents had decided enough was enough so it had been in the Garden for 6 months. Got it fully working for zero pounds as he gave me a new display, took ages to remove all the rust and make the cab solid though, but the bottom was like a Bally banana cab :)
 
I've done many restorations that have gone beyond the value of the machine, but at the end of the day, if a game is produced in low numbers it should be saved whenever possible, many early 80's games are in very short supply.

One of my recent big projects was Galaxy, which was a year in the works :-









I'll share the story of a few others when I get the time, including the worst Indiana Jones? to a real peach and a Rocky and Bullwinklle basket case, bough from a well known scammer who was using a fake name on ebay :mad:

Also done Blackout, Jungle Lord, Rapid Fire, Big Guns, Terminator 2, Night Moves, from my own collection that all needed major work and I am currently working on a Cheetah that looks very interesting, then I have a Phoenix in the queue.



Then there is customer machines, though most of these just need a few repairs, I've done a major work Cosmic Gunfight, Centaur and for some reason lots of Star Wars machines.

Then there is of course John's old Theater of Magic that was bought from that very dishonest ebay seller down South, that for some reason everyone defends now :confused: That was the worst condition "best Theater of Magic I have seen" machine ever in the history of pinball, ever. Fortunately after lots of time and money it ended up being a very nice machine.






 
Got a Cow Poke a couple of months ago from a guy in Bognor Regis which had been sitting in his garage since 1995 not working. His cat had apparently jumped into the open door of the machine back then, and it never worked again so he left it to rust.

Turns out there was not much wrong with it, and am waiting for some plastics and other parts ordered from Australia and America to arrive. In the meantime it's looking good for a 50 year old machine - been messing about with lamps today...
 

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Keep up the good work @lukewells and @Moonraker! Totally agree with you on keeping the rarer 80s games alive, hence why I decided to put the effort into GOLD BALL instead of as a source of spares as originally intended. Whilst we all love pinball and would all happily play TAF or STTNG or TZ, there's always going to be plenty of those at shows. It would be spotting a game like GALAXY or SPACE HAWKS that would make my day :)
 
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