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Planning first pin... final phase

Good evening All,

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all those that have commented on my thread over the past months offering advice to help me choose my first machine.

The machine was going to go into a large snooker room attached to a house that I was buying.

Monday just gone was supposed to be the day that contracts were exchanged..... finally! My mortgage lender decided to decline freeing the funds and revoked the mortgage. This was due to the property sitting on what was coal mining land 160 years ago.

I've now obviously lost the house, lost the buyer for current place and mortgages being offered are at unattainable loan to value.

The dream of owning a pin has come to an abrupt end at least for the foreseeable future but hopefully I will be back at some point.

I may even have made a decision as to what I want!!

It's been fun and hope you all stay safe and healthy.

Jon (Serial Indecisive)
 
DRD said:
Avoid HLD and Liberty. We get guys on here who massively overpaid for games from dealers. Remember that the games sold by dealers were quite possibly previously sold by one of us on here.

New in Box pinball machines can give you a huge headache - initial setting up, fettling, adjusting, incomplete code, design faults, wet clearcoat …. then you get depreciation on top

If you buy a game from a good and knowledgeable seller that has properly maintained it, even if it is 30 years old, it could well be will be as reliable as a brand new game

In your shoes, I would be tempted at either:

1. a SAM era dot matrix display home use only Stern (like ACDC, Iron Man, Tron …) These games are generally very reliable and should have had any niggles sorted by their former owners

2. a 1990s Bally Williams game like Addams Family. Addams Family is the benchmark pinball machine and has been for 30 years. Widely bought and sold. Remarkably popular to this day with kids and adults alike. Good parts availability. Sensible design from an ongoing maintenance perspective. I have had one for over 20 years and in all that time it has only needed a fuse and a cheap plastic link

Having bought a NIB JJP Dialed-in, something that gave me profoundly more hassle than my Addams Family, I do not trust the latest generation of pinball machines. Noone knows how long they will last. Modern circuit boards are designed to be thrown away rather than repaired - a very costly business. The brand new games are noting like as rigorously designed or tested as the 90s games. The 90s games were workhorses. Designed to get hammered in arcades. Produced in much larger volumes than now, with much more competition between the manufacturers.

MM, MB ,TAF , AFM are all good choices

A scared stiff would be a bit cheaper and would also make a good choice as it is very accessible for games room guests to play.

TZ, RS are heavy widebodies riddled with toys that have a tendency to go wrong. TZ is so similar to TAF in so many ways, and TAF is a lot easier to live with. RS has annoying music and call outs that get old very quickly IMHO

CTFBL has some parts that are very difficult to obtain - especially the troublesome hologram which ages and fails over time. This was always a deal breaker for me
Click to expand...

As someone who is currently putting some thought in to which machine I'd like to get as my first pin (even if this unfortunately may still be some time in the future yet....:-( ), just wanted to say thanks for this useful advice. CFTBL is defo on my list; shame to hear that they can be a pain to maintain,
 
Serial Thriller said:
Good evening All,

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all those that have commented on my thread over the past months offering advice to help me choose my first machine.

The machine was going to go into a large snooker room attached to a house that I was buying.

Monday just gone was supposed to be the day that contracts were exchanged..... finally! My mortgage lender decided to decline freeing the funds and revoked the mortgage. This was due to the property sitting on what was coal mining land 160 years ago.

I've now obviously lost the house, lost the buyer for current place and mortgages being offered are at unattainable loan to value.

The dream of owning a pin has come to an abrupt end at least for the foreseeable future but hopefully I will be back at some point.

I may even have made a decision as to what I want!!

It's been fun and hope you all stay safe and healthy.

Jon (Serial Indecisive)
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that mate - I went back and read the whole thread and was excited for you (I find myself daydreaming often of the day when I have the space/money to buy my first pin - for playing at home, for the time being I will have to live with settling for the virtual pin setup I have at home - as ghetto as it is, I feel lucky to have that).

When the time comes, I'll likely only have the space for one pin (one of the down sides of now living in London) and so my current plan is to get something I'm going to want to keep.
Flipout in Croydon has been invaluable for me to get an idea of which machine(s) I'd like to own one day. Having said that, I don't seem to drift in between being certain on really wanting a certain machine and then changing my mind!:p

I agree with what others have said here in that choosing a machine is all down to preference and taste and I'd definitely recommend playing as many machines as you can before buying; you might be surprised that you love a machine which didn't interest you due to theme, or find something doesn't click with you once you get to play the real machine.

At the moment I'm pretty set on one day getting a Metallica LE/Premium; I was a fan of the PRO, but playing the MOP LE that's recently arrived at FlipOut has convinced me that it's something that I'd love to have at home and would be a "keeper" - I find it challenging enough to get a half decent score (although managed a PB of 117M at the weekend which I was chuffed with), and love the theme (have been a 'tallica fan for around 30 years now, and a guitar player/musician for almost as long) and so ticks all the boxes for me.

My ultimate wish list based on putting some decent play time in is as follows:

Metallica LE/Premium
TWD LE (another pin I find difficult, but fun)
Scared Stiff
Monster Bash
CFTBL
AFM
Twilight Zone
TOM (this prob not a good pin for me to own if I only have space for one, as would prefer more of a challenge, but one of my fave pins

As a side note, has anyone had any experience in hiring pins? ; the only places I've seen online have just had prices for one off corporate events, or charging £500 a month. For people with limited space, or want to live with a pin before buying I think hiring would be great (I'd imagine a hire would also include any maintenance required during the hire period too?)
 
Serial Thriller said:
Monday just gone was supposed to be the day that contracts were exchanged..... finally! My mortgage lender decided to decline freeing the funds and revoked the mortgage. This was due to the property sitting on what was coal mining land 160 years ago.

I've now obviously lost the house, lost the buyer for current place and mortgages being offered are at unattainable loan to value.

The dream of owning a pin has come to an abrupt end at least for the foreseeable future but hopefully I will be back at some point.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear. :(

Now get yourself down to Special When Lit for a few games to make up for it...!
 
Thanks for the kind messages. It's been a tough few weeks to say the least.

I do however have good news (for me) and that's that I have managed to have the mortgage reinstated after a long battle with the lender.

This means that the move is back on and so is the purchase of a pin.

I'll be posting in the wanted forum shortly although will be a list as I am open to a few (must be near mint & fully working condition.)

Feel free to PM me if you have any that are listed.

Medieval Madness
Monster Bash (remake preferred)
Attack from Mars (remake preferred)
Ghostbusters Pro or Premium
Dialled In LE

I am moving next week so will have the funds ready and waiting next week.
 
Serial Thriller said:
Thanks for the kind messages. It's been a tough few weeks to say the least.

I do however have good news (for me) and that's that I have managed to have the mortgage reinstated after a long battle with the lender.

This means that the move is back on and so is the purchase of a pin.

I'll be posting in the wanted forum shortly although will be a list as I am open to a few (must be near mint & fully working condition.)

Feel free to PM me if you have any that are listed.

Medieval Madness
Monster Bash (remake preferred)
Attack from Mars (remake preferred)
Ghostbusters Pro or Premium
Dialled In LE

I am moving next week so will have the funds ready and waiting next week.
Click to expand...

That's excellent news - very happy for you.
 
Thanks for a really useful thread (apart from the car stuff :D:D). I'm in a similar position as the OP so good to know what to be thinking about. I'm about 10 miles from HLD so might go down after clampdown and reaquaint myself with some machines. I had a look there 2-3 years ago but the time wasn't right. Seems I dodged a bullet - but today's prices seem to be +40% :(.

I'll probably be looking for something from the 90s that I'm familiar with initially. Gives me plenty of choice!

GL with the move, @Serial Thriller!
 
Excitable Boy said:
Thanks for a really useful thread (apart from the car stuff :D:D). I'm in a similar position as the OP so good to know what to be thinking about. I'm about 10 miles from HLD so might go down after clampdown and reaquaint myself with some machines. I had a look there 2-3 years ago but the time wasn't right. Seems I dodged a bullet - but today's prices seem to be +40% :(.

I'll probably be looking for something from the 90s that I'm familiar with initially. Gives me plenty of choice!

GL with the move, @Serial Thriller!
Click to expand...
Thank you for the wishes, the move could have gone smoother but won't bore you with the details.

You've definitely come to the right place for not only sound advice but also fair prices. I am still to get hold of a machine but hoping that changes very soon.

There are many great 90's machines to choose from, I've personally only played on roughly a dozen of them but have fond memories of all of them...... even rescue 911! Haha

Welcome to the forum and best of luck with your own search.
 
just don't write off the newer games, they are more reliable in my view and play as good as the the older ones. Think of all of them all as great malt whisky!

Cheers,
Neil.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Neil McRae said:
just don't write off the newer games, they are more reliable in my view and play as good as the the older ones. Think of all of them all as great malt whisky!

Cheers,
Neil.
Click to expand...
and munsters as the sort of whisky you use when cooking.
 
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