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Just letting any pin fans know that the business where I work is selling off a bunch of its machines. I've got a thread in SA-Mart with pics and prices for some. I just hope they all go to good homes, you know?
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May 5, 2011 04:25
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cosmicjim posted:I finally got around to changing out the bulbs in my TAF table. After I got done, Thing wasn't working properly, and now I'm having dot matrix artifacts. The dot matrix isn't missing any lines or dots. If none of your magnets are working, check the magnet fuse underneath the board, the the connector that goes to the magnet driver board that's under the playfield as well. If you're suddenly getting artifacts and the one flipper isn't working, that's probably the left grey ribbon connector at the top of your MPU board. That's the long one with the batteries on it. Check each place it connects with along the way, and make sure it's seated and secure. If the dots on your display are turning on around already lit dots, that may be your DMD outgassing, in which case you will slowly lose the picture until you plunk down for a new one. e: Also check the two tiny little plugs on your flipper board. If you're using a fliptronics I board, the plugs really have to stretch to make it to the connectors. So make sure those are seated well too!
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Dec 27, 2013 18:34
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Also, these new companies are focused on the home market. They know folks will throw down 7.5k for a LE Stern, so 8 or 8.5 isn't much more to ask for LCD screens and innovation. Stern's got to balance operators and the home market. There's no chance in hell we'll make back 8k in a couple years even in the best of locations. But 4.5k? Yeah, that's do-able. And then you can sell the machine for a couple grand if you need to, and you're up overall.
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Dec 27, 2013 23:03
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Niwrad posted:One thing I'd add is that some machines don't need to earn back what they are worth. They're used as a loss-leader at most barcades and from what I've seen locally, those barcades are into spending good money to bring in good machines. Really? Where are you, out west? In the barcade we do, pins are the top earners, enough so that of the thirty machines 10 are pins.
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Dec 28, 2013 01:44
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Clouseau posted:Regarding the new machines, I'm similarly skeptical. Jersey Jack was a distributor with years of experience in the business and he blew past several of his own deadlines in the production of WOZ. It's tough to believe that these start ups with less capital and experience are going to do much better. You'd be surprised at how much you can earn on a quarter a play. Ours is quarter play for videos, 3/$1 on older pins, and 50 cents on new pins. You do have to find away around licensing though. Our place actually had to overturn a law from the 80's against arcades, and those dealings let them get special dispensation. Otherwise it's $150/year/machine, which is silly. Edit: Now I'm curious, what do those barcades do for repairs? If you've got 'em on free play, there's no operator involved. So who repairs and services them? Domus fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 05:18
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Maybe it also has to do with how long operators have been around. It makes sense to plunk down a lot of money on an LE if you don't have 50 older games in the warehouse sitting unused. But if you have a perfectly good Getaway, World Cup Soccer, and Fishtales not on location, it kind of makes sense to put those out instead of spending the combined value of those machines on 1 other machine. We're into pins at my company, but we're operators first, and pinheads second, I guess.
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Jan 1, 2014 18:31
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It just depends on what you talk about. You can ask for a part on there and have someone jump in and offer it to you for next to nothing, because you're a fellow pinsider. The tech advice is meh, though, and you can find better prices on rec.games.pinball for complete machines. I ask questions there first because the people are nicer, and if no one knows, I go to rgp.
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Jan 3, 2014 02:04
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Yeah, I hate the Stern "knocker" replacement. They could literally play any sound, and they chose a high pitched screech. I get that it doesn't take up any extra space on the ROM, but they couldn't engineer a tone or something?
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Jan 5, 2014 18:22
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We got a BSD in a package deal this summer, and I stripped it down only to realize it's missing the ramp for the shooter lane. A ramp no one reproduces. So if anyone wants a BSD in 300 or so parts....
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Jan 9, 2014 01:00
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Same Great Paste posted:Whereabouts is this pile of parts? Anywhere remotely near me, yes. Yes I will gladly care and feed your pile of parts. Cleveland. I can probably get the owner to sell it to you for $750 with no boards, 'cause that's what we paid for it. Maybe with broken boards. But really broken, like ones I tried to fix before I knew what I was doing and burnt half the traces. That's the problem with working at a place with a big warehouse. It's always possible to stick hopeless projects in a corner until a rainy day. Niwrad posted:My thoughts are if you like to tinker with things and like to build/repair stuff on your own, having a pinball machine is nirvana. Nothing is too hard, almost every error is documented somewhere online. It's just a matter of time and whether you have the patience to do it. Personally, I enjoy it and find it relaxing. I rebuilt the flippers on a machine because they were weak and it's not that hard while at the same time really rewarding. Well, hang on a sec there. Repairing either kind of machine can be a pain in the rear end. In an EM, the problem can be 300 feet of wire away from the symptom, and in a totally different part from what you're expecting. It can also be because a switch has drifted a millimeter out of alignment. But put a working one away, and bring it out 50 years later, and it will probably still work. Those things are tanks. Solid State, on the other hand, comes with at least a bare amount of self-diagnostics. But you can't see if an IC on a board is bad just by looking at it, and testing it requires at least a logic probe. God help you if you, say, plug the black plug into the white wire instead of the black wire, because you may have just fried your entire board. Also, all but the newest SS games (and crappy 90's Gottliebs) use AA batteries for keeping memory. These love to leak alllll over a board and make it useless. I'm not trying to scare anyone away. Just seen way too many people who thought they'd pick up a $300 project to "tinker" with, only to find that no schematic exists online, or that every board is bad.
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Jan 10, 2014 05:08
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roffels posted:I know someone in here has a Who Dunnit. So this question is for you - does the game have lasting power? I've never played one. I'm looking to pick up a pin again, and would like a DMD in the $1700-$2400 range that's not on location near me. Seems kind of silly for me to purchase a game that I can play any time for $.75 a play. JP is way better than Who Dunnit in my book. The game play, to me, doesn't have staying power. Once you get a feel for making your shots, it's way too easy to get multiball or elevator madness and rack up insane points. The reels add an element of randomness, but not enough to make up for the mysteries being repetitive. Plus fixing those reels...ugh. Giant pain in the rear end, right up there with a doctor who miniplayfield or a Judge Dredd dreddworld motor. It's all personal preference, but at least JP has the T-rex (a middle-grade pain) and a variety of modes reaching to a wizard mode. W?D doesn't even have a wizard mode, which is my first consideration when choosing one pin over another. The bad part about JP is that it almost always starts on the same mode, and those aren't very random. There's a ton of great games in the 2k range these days. World Cup Soccer is always cool. Fishtales is a lot deeper than it seems. Goldeneye's fun with the crotch magnet. If you want a jackpot you will never ever be able to get, Gilligan's island is the game for you. What about the Shadow? Great game, although I'm not sure what price it's at in the new book. Still should be well within your range. If it's not, I have one we pulled out of a dumpster I'd be happy to sell you...
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Jan 16, 2014 04:01
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Well, I'm a pinball tech, and I know WPC inside and out and backwards, so I'm happy to answer any questions you might have with problems. As for parts, marcospecialties.com , bayareaamusements.com , and mad-amusements.com will have almost any part that exists. It sucks for your maverick, though, because those DMDs are non-standard and cost a bloody fortune.
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Jan 18, 2014 20:45
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cosmicjim posted:Here's a question. I recommend Mill Wax, which is made for playfields, cleans and waxes, and can also be used to polish the metal on your machine. If you've owned the machine for a while, or the past owner did not care for it very well, you'll want to "shop" it thusly: Tools Needed, at minimum: Phillips and flathead screwdriver Nut Driver set A camera A spare weekend Before you start, take pictures of everything. It's really easy to forget what screw goes where when everything's apart, and pictures will help you put it back together. Try to keep all nuts, bolts, and screws paired with the associated plastic or ramp. Ziplock baggies are good for all but the big ramps. The best thing to do is to strip the machine of ramps and plastics, so you can reach every part that the ball runs through, and wax them. If the non-used parts under the plastics are dirty, wax them too. Then you should be good for 400 or so plays at a minimum. Wax the stuff that gets really dirty (shooter lane, outlanes, around the flippers and pop bumpers) every 100 plays or so. As long as you have the ramps and plastics off, you can clean them with Novus #2, unless they're metal ramps, then you can use the mill wax. Novus #2 can also be used as a playfield wax, but I find Mill Wax does a better job. Don't forget the "subways" that run under the playfield! A lot of people don't clean them, and they get filthy. That filth will get on the balls, and transfer to your playfield, where it will cause wear. Inspect all the rubbers, and if any have cracking replace them. If your flippers are weak, they may need to be rebuilt. Check the batteries to make sure they're not leaking. If you know how, run through the test menu and test to make sure everything is working. Replace any burned out lightbulbs. Clean the glass with windex, and wipe down the outside. Check your pinballs to make sure they're not rusty. Rust will tear up the playfield. Put it all back together, and test again. You should be good for at least a year of regular play.
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Jan 19, 2014 05:21
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I haven't messed with a Maverick paddle wheel myself, but assuming it runs similar to the ferris wheels on comet/hurricane, or the fishtales reel, the drive band may have stretched over time. If you have any band that can be substituted, even for just a test, give it a go. Also, make sure it's set up correctly! If you have the manual, check there. If you don't, search on ipdb.org and they should have it as a pdf.
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Jan 19, 2014 22:58
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What do they think the sandy stuff is in Novus #2, if not abrasive? Honestly, if it's diamondplate, the abrasiveness of any dirt you get after 10-20 plays trumps anything you'll find in either substance. If you're talking a super-high-end restored pin, maaaaaybe, but it honestly seems like the idiots I would see when I built amplifiers. There were people who swore they could tell the difference between colored and black wire insulation, just by listening. Same deal.
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Jan 21, 2014 04:43
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cosmicjim posted:It was released around the same time as Addams Family, Dr Who, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, T2, Fish Tales, Whitewater, STTNG, and Indiana Jones. Don't forget that pirates were strictly kiddy stuff back then. Other than DW, which I'm stunned even made it as a theme, you can stick the other games pretty much anywhere. STTNG is a bit nerdy for a hillbilly or "black" bar, but the rest go anywhere. That's important to operators, because the more places you can stick a game, the more money you can potentially make off of it.
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Jan 28, 2014 00:54
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If you want to get the most for your table, Ebay prices are usually the highest, but you probably have to wait to get someone to buy it. Pinside or Mrpinball prices are next highest, and get to the serious collectors, depending on condition, ability to post pictures, etc. The arcademuseum.com forums may get you a fair deal, but you have to pay $2 to register. Rec.games.pinball tends to have a lot of people who will laugh at you for asking a reasonable price. Do you know current book prices for your machines? I'm happy to provide them if you don't have a price guide.
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Jan 31, 2014 06:19
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Most BK's are beat to hell because they were the first game to have a mini-playfield. It was groundbreaking at the time, and very popular, so the machines got a lot of plays. They made money, too, so they were kept on route longer before ending up in homes or storage. So compared to, say, an Alien Poker, the average BK will have 2 to 3 times the number of plays on it. It's the same reason you'll find a lot more Popeye pins in good shape than Addams Families, except this was before diamond plate. Don't forget that BK's, being system 7, are a good 6 or 7 years older than the last alpha-numerics. That makes them old enough that a lot of the chips on the boards are older than I am. And solid state machines just aren't as nigh-invulnerable as EM's. I'm still stunned at the fact that we have Fireball EMs that look decent, and have 79,000 coins on the meter. Even if it was all at 50 cents a play...that's a shitload of plays.
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Feb 7, 2014 05:03
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Luigi Thirty posted:In ye olden days the operators would have an EEPROM burner and blank chips. SAM lets you update them off of a USB drive. I think Pinball 2000 had a special PCI card that had a serial cable for connecting to the machine. Hey, we still burn chips all the time. :P Gotta love those old Golden Tee update kits. A dozen 8meg chips a set, just pop 'em under UV light and you're ready to go.
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Feb 11, 2014 05:38
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cosmicjim posted:That seems to be kind of high end. But condition is a factor too. That's a hot table. High end? That seems pretty middle of the road at this point. Just make sure it doesn't reset during multiballs, and it has all the ships. If the turret motors aren't loud, and the neutral zone isn't horribly worn, it's probably a good deal.
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Feb 15, 2014 05:03
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roffels posted:I looked at him, and said "You're one of the local pinball world champions I keep hearing about, right?" and he just grinned. Pinball world champ trying to fleece me for a free beer. I was amused by it. Is it a sign of burnout in this profession that I think that's just lame? Way to get people into the hobby by scamming free beer from them!
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Feb 19, 2014 01:14
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If anyone's coming to the Ohio pinball show, come say hi at the Cadillac Music table. I'll buy you a soda. I'll be here most of the weekend.
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Feb 27, 2014 23:08
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Chinook posted:I just dropped off the Rambo/Raven table and left. Please do. We're the table with nothing on it, because we don't have much to sell but our games. At least we have a banner this year! I'm the one with the laptop, and the boobs.
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Feb 28, 2014 03:52
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I'll stop by and see your table tomorrow once I actually have time to play games.
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Moai Ou posted:Just got back from there. It seemed like there were twice as many people there as last year, leading to a lot more wait times. Still, had a lot of fun. Also, I think I'm cursed when it comes to Black Knight machines. Last year I played Black Knight and got a ball stuck, putting it out of commission for a couple hours, and this year I did the same on BK2000. I had a really good game going, hit a ball into the U-turn, and it never came out. For the rest of the night, it was plagued with various problems like being stuck in "Factory Setting," and other people getting balls stuck. I just wanted to hear that music in person ...I think that was our BK, too. I'm sitting at the table here for a reason, people. Tell me if a ball gets stuck!
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Mar 1, 2014 19:53
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roffels posted:I know I'm getting the better game. As far as dollars go, it's hard to say. My T3 looks better on the outside, and the playfield is beautiful. WCS isn't perfect cosmetically, but it's not really that big of a deal. The playfield is nice, but the ramps have lost their luster. I can deal with that though. You way got the better deal. We brought a T3 to the Ohio show and no one even tried to make an offer on it. Apparently there was a HUO one at the most recent Chicago Show, and they couldn't find anyone to buy it at $2100. Meanwhile, we were selling WCS's for $2100 two years ago, and pin prices have only gone up.
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Mar 6, 2014 01:45
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Der-Wreck posted:What I'm saying is I'm getting kinda sick of Stern's model restrictions. It's getting to the point where the pro models are lacking while the premium models have all the good stuff. On Star Trek, only the premium models have the kick-back lane. Why can't it be on the Pro model as well? The same goes for the underplayfield on AC/DC. I like when the premium models to have a few more cosmetic bells and whistles rather than having big differences in gameplay but then again I'm not really the target audience seeing as I'm not a collector. I'm with you on the kick-back lane, but the underplayfield on AC/DC has to cost a good 500 bucks more in parts at least, so I get that. I honestly wish the models were literally professional/home divided. The home could have more complex toys and decorations, and the pro could be geared for the abuses of the public and to earn better. Instead it ends up as the cheap/expensive versions, with things that break too much in the pros (snake teeth, anyone?), and things that earn better on the LEs (LED lights, until Star Trek).
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Mar 8, 2014 04:19
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Galler posted:Are you talking about the little inset with two flippers, 3 targets, and some type of ball launching mechanism? That's well under $100 in parts buying individual quantities. I agree with everything else you said though. Every extra moving part, especially one attached to a solenoid, is another thing that will require fixing and adjusting which will cost the operator money. If the goal is to have Pro models for commercial use and Premium models for home users then what they are doing makes sense. Well, I'm exaggerating, but the cost to design and build that stuff is expensive. You need a whole separate playfield design, with a hole in the middle, support brackets, special programming, etc, etc. I'm not saying LEs cost the extra 3 or 4 grand they charge to make, but an extra 1 or 2 grand, sure. That being said, I hate the Pro AC/DC playfield art. That horrible portrait you have to stare at instead of the mini playfield looks like carnival art.
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Mar 8, 2014 18:35
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Anonymous Robot posted:Is there any table dumber than Harley Davidson? It's also kind of weird that it's an officially licensed table that endorses speeding, running from the cops, and smashing your bike into pedestrians/trucks.
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Mar 15, 2014 02:21
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King Vidiot posted:
You think? Bride: Now I can speak. Pinbot: Noooo! It's a pity, too, because the underlying engineering is kind of brilliant. I think the cube-based shifting playfield design could be used to make a cool game where the layout changes constantly. Also, an idea we've come up with at work is to make a porno based pin 2000 style game. That way you can have a table that's no worse than a playboy during the day, but X-rated at night. Just change the graphics based on the internal clock.
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Mar 16, 2014 18:40
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King Vidiot posted:I wonder if there'd be any way to circumvent all that. Your "jukebox" could just be a laptop with your ripped CDs on it ("It's my personal business computer for finances"), and every pinball machine could have custom sound-alike songs put in. Also I guess Metallica and AC/DC would be out of the question. You really don't want to gently caress with those guys. My co-worker had to pay 4.5k in fees for his bar, and that was after extensive negotiations. You can get away with just having pins, though. It's really the live music or jukeboxes they're going after, or very large establishments.
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Apr 2, 2014 01:53
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So we got a Mustang yesterday. I didn't really get to look at it until this morning. First thing I said was "Well, that car model's gonna break. Let's find the part number so we can have some spares on hand". I look in the documentation... "car provided by customer". Whaaa? Yes, they stuck a variety of different models on the machines, and if you want a replacement, you have to buy it from hot wheels. Could they really not find just one Mustang model and use it for all the games? Or even just have a drat part number so you can reference it to a supplier? I wondered why they had chosen the '99 cobra. Using pre-made toys is cheesy enough. Using a bunch of different ones is just lazy. Also, the game plays well enough, but is the code even finished? I went into police chase mode...and got no clue how to do anything. I'd get points for hitting a ramp, but the mode never ended. I'm sure it will earn fine, but I'm kind of confused at what point they consider code "working".
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Apr 3, 2014 00:28
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Niwrad posted:One game I've really learned to like is Stern Avengers. I don't get why people dislike it so much. It can be real tough but it's got some really satisfying shots and the theme is pretty cool. Our table has a major problem with the hulk hole. At least half the time, the ball will drop from the ramp and bounce right out of the hole without triggering the switch. There doesn't seem to be anything we can do to change that. Doesn't really seem to effect earnings, but it's quite a design flaw. In other news, a wire snapped on our Mustang and took out a column of lamps. Easy fix, but a weird thing from a new machine. Can't find any reason it broke...it just snapped in two for some reason. And all the LEDS are so cheap, when you remove them from the socket they fall apart. I guess there's no real reason you should have to change them normally. Still, not getting the feel of quality from Stern these days.
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Apr 5, 2014 03:52
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Same Great Paste posted:Does the physical roulette wheel on a real WhoDunnit? not spin either, or is there a :farsight: in the iPad version? Nah, it's just a pvc toy. I don't know why you wouldn't make it spin if you could, though.
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Apr 9, 2014 03:15
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insidius posted:In the US where I assume most of you reside, whats the going rate for a fairly decent nick Gorgar? $800 or so is what we sell ours for. We ended up selling one at auction for like $530, but it had a big wear spot near the left slingshot. You will pay more for a real nice, LEDed up gem than a beater, of course. For some reason Gorgars around here all have pretty nice backglasses, and all the Firepowers have horrible ones.
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Apr 17, 2014 00:14
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roffels posted:There's some alternate translite artwork out there that features the Metropolis robot. It's got that tacky "I'm learning photoshop" look to it with lens flares and ugly color choices, but it's still a touch above what the game actually used. I may just try my own hand at making a translite. If possible, take your ramps and get them 3D scanned. They break real easily, and are impossible to replace. If you need any other spare parts, we've got a spare playfield, so just let me know. Would offer the ramps too, but some guy on pinside had his stolen, and I sent ours to him.
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Apr 26, 2014 03:13
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I think it's one of the few ramps you could print and it would look ok, because it's not transparent. I'd just assume if you have access to a 3d scanner, you'd have access to a printer as well. Even if you didn't, you could probably get 10 copies made and sell 9, and easily cover the cost. There's a company around here that makes 3D printers for around 2k. Been begging my workplace to get one. Instead they bought a giant color copy machine that doesn't have driver support in windows 7. Woo.
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Apr 26, 2014 17:43
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Heck, I'd pay for it if someone had a set of Shadow rings and some Tommy blinders they'd like scanned. Been lookin' for those for 3 years now. If anyone can suggest anything else, I'll get it scanned if we have it. The problem with the W?D ramp is that it's clear. I think you have to sand the ramps once they're printed, meaning anything clear will come out, well, not.
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Apr 28, 2014 03:41
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Clouseau posted:There's tons of games that are better than The Addams Family, but TAF did it first, and it's such a cohesive package of quality design that it manages to hold up, and STILL is one of the highest location earners of pinball, even with two decades of new machines since. I'm curious how anyone knows it's a high earner. I mean, it is - it competes very well with the new Sterns in the arcade we have. I can't imagine our company ever letting anyone, Stern or otherwise, know our exact numbers. Hell, I don't even have access to them. I know rough estimates from helping collectors, and I'm sure they'd tell me if I asked, but still.
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Apr 30, 2014 01:34
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Collateral Damage posted:I asked the operators I know. The best earners in their lineup are TAF and AFM. Both machines also have good profit margins because TAF is surprisingly robust for the amount of toys it has, and AFM is a mechanically simple machine with few things that break easily.  I'd be scared to put an AFM in the field. I guess it works in locations where there are staff close to the machines, but you can't have someone watch them all the time. Plus, Cleveland is a lovely town, and we have some real dives as locations. Even places where they love pinball, customers beat the poo poo out of stuff. And then in nice places, there's little kids to wreck things. We had a TOTAN out, and it came back with sharpie marker all over one side. That poo poo comes off with the right chemicals, but it could just as easily been a paint marker, or a sharp stick, or whatever. It just doesn't seem to have a good earnings/risk ratio.
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May 1, 2014 01:32
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Galaga Galaxian posted:I wonder how much it would cost to have clear coverings (think acrylic panels maybe?) put over the sides of a pinball table. Would that help protect from non-intentional wear and tear as well? I don't think it would be costly, but yeah, it'd look like poo poo, and that would hurt earnings. I mean, there are remake decals of all the big pins - you can just stick a new set on the machine and it's maybe $300 plus a few hours of labor. It's more that you could stick a new Pro Stern in for close to the same earnings, and have half the money invested. We had an AFM that was removed from a location a few days before a massive fire. We still had a jukebox in there, and it literally melted. I guess it was all covered under insurance either way, but I'd rather have a Mustang burn over a classic Bally/Williams, regardless of value.
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May 2, 2014 03:46
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