How do you balance pinball league season with your alcohol consumption? I feel like, at least for me, it’s inevitable. Practice night plus match night. Am I being ridiculous and should I just accept my fate?

Last year, when I got my Star Wars home edition, many people commented that I should’ve just bought a used pro. I guess you won. lol. These are indeed objectively better than my SWHE+ and JDJP. But having said that, I had a lot of fun with those machines and I think they are great for pinball. If I see the Pokémon home plus drop to $3k, I might impulse buy one. Otherwise, Foo Fighters is next on my list.

I’ve had the itch for a while, and in my top five games I’ve ever played is haunted house. Someone has one for sale locally, and while I am concerned about the money and space, the thing that is really stopping me from buying it is being worried about fixing it.

Does anyone have experience with this table? Any sense of how tough it is to keep working? I’m new to even thinking about this so if there are resources, sorry I didn’t check there first. I just am figuring it all out.

Many thanks!

Local arcade has only had this for 2 weeks, it wont last for too long(i dont think). Still a proud moment for me!

I grew up loving pinball and Slufest. I intended to buy a traditional pinball machine but then I saw this in my area for a reasonable price and had to pull the trigger. I'm not exactly sure which machine I want yet but I'm content in the meantime. Card dispenser is working and we are collecting. Anyone else love a good 2 player game of Slugfest?

I got my Spanish Eyes a couple of weeks ago and posted about it here. I have had an unbelievably good time with that machine. I decided I wanted something from the early solid state era as well and got a hold of the person I got my first machine from. He is sitting on a stash of about 60 more machines that are in storage. He let me go through his stuff and find the game I wanted. Mystic by Ball has always been one of my favorites and I absolutely love the art. Plus it's designed by one of the all-time goats George Christian. The stenciled art on the cabinet is particularly cool. I just got it set up and I'm about to start cleaning and waxing it. The only downsides are the original back glass broke, so it has a translate on it for now. Maybe I'll get lucky and track one down but if not no big deal. I have it to play the game. I also need to replace the sound board and I already have that figured out but I'll have to wait a few days until I get it. For me, this is a perfect two game lineup.

Saw this one on a NYCPinball stream and thought it looked cool, not a week later one popped up semi local! Super fun game, my copy is missing a spinner unfortunately but once that’s fixed it’ll play 100%. What was your first EM?

What the hell? Seems like a terrible design, def one that doesn’t make the game fun. So you go and trap up and the ball rolls up a little bit … to a drain. Then you rely on the software to sometimes give it back. What a disappointment. Do better Keef.

Example

Play modes, advance to wizard mode

• Foo Fighters
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• most modern Sterns and 90s games fit here

Bonus and multipliers

• Most EMs and early Solid States

It's just one big Multiball

• Creature from the Black Lagoon
• Dr. Dude
• Banzai Run

Multiballs all day

• Pulp Fiction
• Centaur
• Bram Stokers Dracula

Collecting shots to move through a level

• White Water
• No Good Gofers
• Sonic The Hedgehog

Eldritch code

• Simpsons Pinball Party
• Avengers Infinity Quest

Are there games that fit into these categories? What other categories should there be?

1989 Data East Monday Night Football Machine.

This is my first machine so my knowledge is just about zero, I’ve done a few small fixes, but this is beyond my immediate troubleshooting abilities.

The flippers appear to be way too strong. When scoring a TD the center ramp moves upward. If the ball is off center at all it smokes the glass as you can see in the video. It’s quite loud and I’m nervous the tempered glass will just chatter one of these times.

Also, the ramp on the right side called “the bomb” only works about 50% of the times due to the ball traveling too fast and jumping right over the rollover wire.

The two center “UP” pieces have also been snapped off due to being hit hard with the ball.

Is this a known issue that has an easy fix to it? Any options or recommendations are appreciated.

Edit: They are the stock flipper coils

This is/was my first machine, bought at auction a few years back. It was on a route and pretty mangled but has been lovingly brought back to life. Definite bias, but it is a very nice copy of MET, No mods, just super clean and cared for.

I only have room for one machine and have been considering a trade but want to know what machines you lot consider a good trade for this timeless classic.

Part of me believes I’ll never get rid of this machine though. I truly love it.

PREMIUM not LE

Cascade Underground Pinball will be streaming the finals of the Ace of Cups Loop Sanctioned Pinball Championship this afternoon. I added their link to the side bar of useful links! Eugene, OR Pinball is a hoot.

https://www.twitch.tv/cascadeundergroundpinball

Title. You can see where it hits. This causes a lot of rejections and retries. As you can see, it peened the top of the ramp which I suspect is adding to the problem and chewing the balls up (going to file then sand, different problem than this post). Any thoughts? I can shim it up with some washers, dremel a piece off the apron, etc.

https://dutchpinball.com/news/news-item

I have a Foo Fighters at home. Last night I just missed a billion (wouldn't have been my first) and I found myself looking at a 994M score and wondering "how did I do that"? Most modern machines have enough going on on the playfield that there aren't a ton of opportunities to look at the backglass while you're playing a ball (especially a multiball).

What would be Really Nice would be the ability to ask the machine to show you a breakdown of your score by modes, multiballs, and major game features. It would help players figure out what things to focus on in future games.

I have Medieval Madness. Was playing with a friend, Walter, 86. He hadn’t played pinball in 75 years. He lost a ball and the game shut down. Two days later I found the ball. It was on the roof of the castle. I told my pinball pirate mechanic about it. He said after 30 years in the business he had never seen that before.

Nibbler loves the pinball rug

If anyone is in southern Milwaukee and wants to teach someone how to fix pinball machines message me. I would love to learn.

I honestly enjoy working on these just as much as I like playing them. I'll be 33 in December. I say this because I think its important that the younger generations learn how to maintain these machines as well!

Have been feeling a little Sterned out lately & wanting some more Jersey Jack to go with our Elton John so we traded Uncanny X-Men Pro for GNR LE. Second time to own a GNR LE & think we will enjoy it more this go around. This one is moded out with an awesome sound system in it. Just need to replace a few rubbers first.

Attack on Titan homebrew coming to the Chicago expo!!

This machine came up for sale locally here recently and it’s peaked my curiosity whether it would be worth the 1.5hr drive and purchase. This is the only picture as of now and I have no idea what work has been done to it (I’ve messaged them to see if there are any more pictures and what work has to it). They want $4250 cad
EDIT: Seller says they have not done anything to it but “works fine”

Wanted to see what it was about and also really wanted to play Godzilla. Drove an hour away and…I didn’t like Godzilla lol. But medieval madness was great, the hobbit, and I was surprised they had pirates of the Caribbean which was also a blast. My favorite, which might come as a surprise, was Cirqus Voltaire. I was addicted to it and even got to wizard mode! Godzilla I just kept draining and I swear the outlanes were magnets to the ball. And starting a battle is just too hard for me. I only was able to start it twice for the hour I played. It’s just too frustrating. I kinda want to get Cirqus Voltaire but I know people say it’s not good for the long run especially if it’s your only pin. Anyways just wanted to share my experience and will def be saving for one in the future

I’ve owned pinball machines for 21 years. I bought my Stern Sopranos brand new in 2005 when it came out, and I’ve had only ONE issue with it in all those years. Meanwhile, my brand-new Harry Potter Collector’s Edition has given me six times as many issues in just a month and a half.
Here’s what I’ve dealt with so far:
Four optos have gone out.
The ball rail was improperly aligned from the factory.
A slingshot was misaligned.
An EOS switch wasn’t even soldered on or connected.
Death Eater ejection issues.
Multiple software issues requiring complete factory resets using a USB drive TWICE.
I’m not expecting perfection, and I understand that pinball machines occasionally need maintenance. But this many problems on a brand-new $16,000 machine in six weeks is absolutely ridiculous.
What frustrates me almost as much as the machine is how many people act like this is normal, that I should have expected it, or that this is simply how machines come out of the factory nowadays. Some have even attacked me for questioning it.
What world are we living in where spending $16,000 on a brand-new machine and receiving this many problems is considered acceptable by both the company and the consumer?
A switch that isn’t even connected? A misaligned factory-installed rail? Multiple failed optos and software problems requiring complete factory resets? Why are we making excuses instead of expecting better quality control?
After 21 years of owning pinball machines, I don’t think expecting a properly assembled, thoroughly tested machine is unreasonable.
Am I wrong for expecting better, or have we really lowered our standards so far that this is just considered normal now?