Pinball Service and Repair- New York and Long Island- as seen in the Wall Street Journal
Economy pinball repair - long island pinball repair and service suffolk, nassau, queens, brooklyn, manhattan
This tutorial is a work in progress. If you have any questions, please let me know, and I'll likely work it in here. Also, these are my own personal views. Email me at [email protected] . If you are buying a machine on long island ( nassau, suffolk,queens, brooklyn), I may know the game.
Before buying your first pinball machine, you need to know a little about them .The more you know ahead of time, the less you will have to become a pinball mechanic. At the most basic level, there are two types, electro-mechanical( here on called EM) , and Solid State, here on known as SS. EM games are the old school type, with rotating wheels for scoring, and bells or chimes for sounds. SS games have digital score displays and electronic sounds. SS games came be further divided into Digital or Dot Matrix Display( DMD). more on those later.
First, we'll talk about EM's. They operate completely electro-mechanically. This means they convert electricity into movement of various parts. Among other things, these parts may be used to move the ball around, rotate the score wheels, or energize relays in a certain sequence. The use of relays in a sequence is called relay logic. It is a mechanical way of implementing the same sort of logic a computer runs on, just on a very low level. The more complex a game is, meaning more rules, targets, players, the more relays are used. Some of the last EM games have an amazing amount of relays and mechanical devices called Steppers.
Solid State games also operate on logic, but the logic is implemented with solid state components instead of mechanical relays. a circuit board weighing less than 8 oz. can do the work of over 75 lbs of relays. With solid state components , the complexity of the game is really only limited by the budget of the designer.
One of the biggest questions in pinball is EM or SS, which to own? A lot of it depends on when you were born. If you grew up in the digital age, you may find EMs not to your liking. If you are older, you may appreciate the nostalgia, the vibe of the EM games and find the SS games a bit of overkill. There are hundreds of different EM games still available. Some are real dogs, just boring and slow. Many are fast, and great fun, with cool playing rules.
A lot of the SS games , even though much more complex, can often suck. Silly rules, lousy game play. However, many SS games are awesome. The later SS games are DMD ( dot matrix display) . They display scoring on a screen, like at sports arena. Personally, I don't care for most DMD games. Besides scoring, the screens are also used to show dopey animations that have little to do with pinball, and detract from playing. You stand around, waiting for the little show to end, and resume play, until its time for another DMD graphic show. . That's not for me. Game play is also often choppy. A ball will go down a hole,and then you wait while the game does a little show, the ball pops out somewhere else and you do it all over again. A lot of those games, the playfields are so cluttered with stuff, you can't even see the ball, its under something half the time. Not all DMD games are like that, some are incredible. Being the most complex, they are also the most expensive to buy , and most prone to failures. All Solid State games can fail at any time, just like a TV. Working in the morning, dead in the afternoon. It's the nature of how they are built. One other thing that bugs me about DMD games is point inflation. Games of 30-40 million points are common. You can shoot the ball on a DMD, turn your back and let the ball drain on its own, and pick up a few million points . It's just plain silly, and hard to relate to.
One nice feature of many SS games is multiball play, where you can have two or more balls in play at the same time. That's a lot of fun. Quite honestly, if I can only own one game, I cant see owning a SS game that isn't multiball, it's one of the things that SS games do well. There were very few EM multiball games produced( less than 5) , and probably a 50-100 SS ones.
EM games are built like tanks. when set up right, they can last forever. The enemy of pinballs, but especially EMs , is inactivity. Play a good working EM a few times a month, and it will be quite reliable for years. Let it sit a long time, especially in a damp basement, and its not going to work. Everything gets dirty, corroded , and stuck. This is also true of SS games, but to a somewhat lesser degree, as they have less moving parts and contacts.
When buying your first game, it's my opinion you should try to buy a fully working game. You'll know the price, and you'll have yourself a game. Get a non working game, it could cost 100 bucks, or 800 or more to fix. I will say you can take a chance on a non working EM. Unless they have been butchered, they can be brought back to life at a reasonable cost. SS games, if they are a mess, you can go for your lungs fixing them. Computer boards, power supplies, driver boards, lamp boards, display boards. It can seem like it never ends. With EMs, you can usually clean and repair the existing parts. I would not advise buying a non working SS game, just too many unknowns. They are more for a guy like me, who knows how to repair them, and will put a lot of hours in, as a hobby . Even then, they can get expensive .
The most important thing to me is game play. Is it fun? Is it compelling? Does it make you want to come back for more? I've owned a lot of games, over 50. More than half of them, I really didn't care for. A few I hated. To me, the best games do this: risk and reward. The machine offers a reward , be it lots of points, or an extra ball. However, making that reward might be a tricky shot, usually one that if you miss, you'll drain the ball. You avoid that shot, wanting to keep the ball in play,not risking the ball for points you could just as well pick up hitting pop bumpers. In time , the reward grows to a point where you really start to think, do I go for it ? Maybe you decide not to. Next thing you know, you drain the ball anyway, and wish you had given it a try. Or, you decide to go for for it, and blow it ,the ball drains. Oh, the pain! Sometimes. the reward grows so big its irresistible, you have to try, and you make it!! It's a great feeling. That's the kind of game that stays in my house for a long time.
Another consideration is, do you get a single player or multiplayer game. If you will only be owning one game, it should be a multiplayer. More than likely, you'll be playing with friends, relatives, showing off your game. Taking turns playing a single player game gets old real fast.
Like it says on Gottlieb brand games backglass art, " It's More fun to compete ! " , and that's the truth. It really is more fun. Mutliplayer games are more complex, and can have more problems because of that, but its not a good reason to not get one. Multiplayer is the way to go, unless you have a variety of machines.
One other thing to know. Pinball machines were really only built to last for about 5 years. Their initial purpose was to suck the nickles, dimes, and quarters out of people pockets. The thinking in the industry was that after 5 years, the public is bored with a game, and many never games have already taken it's place earning money. Why build a machine to last longer if it won't earn it's keep? In spite of that, EM games were built very well, and can last nearly forever. Along the same lines, SS games were designed for lowest costs. The cheapest electronic components, really low grade connectors, and pretty much under designed. Lots of stress on weak power supplies, driver boards, and main boards. Vibration is also a huge factor and really can do a number on the flimsy components of SS games. Still, SS games can have modifications made that make them much more reliable.
When buying, it's very important to consider the cosmetics. There is a treasure trove of parts still available for pinball games. However, the parts that are just for a particular game, made only for that game, can be tough or impossible to buy. Parts that have artwork for the game,. back glasses, the playing fields, the cabinet. Broken plastics, back glasses with missing ink, make a game very unattractive, and really brings down the value. PS- The backglass is the upright portion of the game, where the scoring is displayed, and most of the great pinball art is.
I hope this was a little help if you are looking at getting your first game. Any questions, I'm at [email protected]
Have fun,
Mike Hooker
This tutorial is a work in progress. If you have any questions, please let me know, and I'll likely work it in here. Also, these are my own personal views. Email me at [email protected] . If you are buying a machine on long island ( nassau, suffolk,queens, brooklyn), I may know the game.
Before buying your first pinball machine, you need to know a little about them .The more you know ahead of time, the less you will have to become a pinball mechanic. At the most basic level, there are two types, electro-mechanical( here on called EM) , and Solid State, here on known as SS. EM games are the old school type, with rotating wheels for scoring, and bells or chimes for sounds. SS games have digital score displays and electronic sounds. SS games came be further divided into Digital or Dot Matrix Display( DMD). more on those later.
First, we'll talk about EM's. They operate completely electro-mechanically. This means they convert electricity into movement of various parts. Among other things, these parts may be used to move the ball around, rotate the score wheels, or energize relays in a certain sequence. The use of relays in a sequence is called relay logic. It is a mechanical way of implementing the same sort of logic a computer runs on, just on a very low level. The more complex a game is, meaning more rules, targets, players, the more relays are used. Some of the last EM games have an amazing amount of relays and mechanical devices called Steppers.
Solid State games also operate on logic, but the logic is implemented with solid state components instead of mechanical relays. a circuit board weighing less than 8 oz. can do the work of over 75 lbs of relays. With solid state components , the complexity of the game is really only limited by the budget of the designer.
One of the biggest questions in pinball is EM or SS, which to own? A lot of it depends on when you were born. If you grew up in the digital age, you may find EMs not to your liking. If you are older, you may appreciate the nostalgia, the vibe of the EM games and find the SS games a bit of overkill. There are hundreds of different EM games still available. Some are real dogs, just boring and slow. Many are fast, and great fun, with cool playing rules.
A lot of the SS games , even though much more complex, can often suck. Silly rules, lousy game play. However, many SS games are awesome. The later SS games are DMD ( dot matrix display) . They display scoring on a screen, like at sports arena. Personally, I don't care for most DMD games. Besides scoring, the screens are also used to show dopey animations that have little to do with pinball, and detract from playing. You stand around, waiting for the little show to end, and resume play, until its time for another DMD graphic show. . That's not for me. Game play is also often choppy. A ball will go down a hole,and then you wait while the game does a little show, the ball pops out somewhere else and you do it all over again. A lot of those games, the playfields are so cluttered with stuff, you can't even see the ball, its under something half the time. Not all DMD games are like that, some are incredible. Being the most complex, they are also the most expensive to buy , and most prone to failures. All Solid State games can fail at any time, just like a TV. Working in the morning, dead in the afternoon. It's the nature of how they are built. One other thing that bugs me about DMD games is point inflation. Games of 30-40 million points are common. You can shoot the ball on a DMD, turn your back and let the ball drain on its own, and pick up a few million points . It's just plain silly, and hard to relate to.
One nice feature of many SS games is multiball play, where you can have two or more balls in play at the same time. That's a lot of fun. Quite honestly, if I can only own one game, I cant see owning a SS game that isn't multiball, it's one of the things that SS games do well. There were very few EM multiball games produced( less than 5) , and probably a 50-100 SS ones.
EM games are built like tanks. when set up right, they can last forever. The enemy of pinballs, but especially EMs , is inactivity. Play a good working EM a few times a month, and it will be quite reliable for years. Let it sit a long time, especially in a damp basement, and its not going to work. Everything gets dirty, corroded , and stuck. This is also true of SS games, but to a somewhat lesser degree, as they have less moving parts and contacts.
When buying your first game, it's my opinion you should try to buy a fully working game. You'll know the price, and you'll have yourself a game. Get a non working game, it could cost 100 bucks, or 800 or more to fix. I will say you can take a chance on a non working EM. Unless they have been butchered, they can be brought back to life at a reasonable cost. SS games, if they are a mess, you can go for your lungs fixing them. Computer boards, power supplies, driver boards, lamp boards, display boards. It can seem like it never ends. With EMs, you can usually clean and repair the existing parts. I would not advise buying a non working SS game, just too many unknowns. They are more for a guy like me, who knows how to repair them, and will put a lot of hours in, as a hobby . Even then, they can get expensive .
The most important thing to me is game play. Is it fun? Is it compelling? Does it make you want to come back for more? I've owned a lot of games, over 50. More than half of them, I really didn't care for. A few I hated. To me, the best games do this: risk and reward. The machine offers a reward , be it lots of points, or an extra ball. However, making that reward might be a tricky shot, usually one that if you miss, you'll drain the ball. You avoid that shot, wanting to keep the ball in play,not risking the ball for points you could just as well pick up hitting pop bumpers. In time , the reward grows to a point where you really start to think, do I go for it ? Maybe you decide not to. Next thing you know, you drain the ball anyway, and wish you had given it a try. Or, you decide to go for for it, and blow it ,the ball drains. Oh, the pain! Sometimes. the reward grows so big its irresistible, you have to try, and you make it!! It's a great feeling. That's the kind of game that stays in my house for a long time.
Another consideration is, do you get a single player or multiplayer game. If you will only be owning one game, it should be a multiplayer. More than likely, you'll be playing with friends, relatives, showing off your game. Taking turns playing a single player game gets old real fast.
Like it says on Gottlieb brand games backglass art, " It's More fun to compete ! " , and that's the truth. It really is more fun. Mutliplayer games are more complex, and can have more problems because of that, but its not a good reason to not get one. Multiplayer is the way to go, unless you have a variety of machines.
One other thing to know. Pinball machines were really only built to last for about 5 years. Their initial purpose was to suck the nickles, dimes, and quarters out of people pockets. The thinking in the industry was that after 5 years, the public is bored with a game, and many never games have already taken it's place earning money. Why build a machine to last longer if it won't earn it's keep? In spite of that, EM games were built very well, and can last nearly forever. Along the same lines, SS games were designed for lowest costs. The cheapest electronic components, really low grade connectors, and pretty much under designed. Lots of stress on weak power supplies, driver boards, and main boards. Vibration is also a huge factor and really can do a number on the flimsy components of SS games. Still, SS games can have modifications made that make them much more reliable.
When buying, it's very important to consider the cosmetics. There is a treasure trove of parts still available for pinball games. However, the parts that are just for a particular game, made only for that game, can be tough or impossible to buy. Parts that have artwork for the game,. back glasses, the playing fields, the cabinet. Broken plastics, back glasses with missing ink, make a game very unattractive, and really brings down the value. PS- The backglass is the upright portion of the game, where the scoring is displayed, and most of the great pinball art is.
I hope this was a little help if you are looking at getting your first game. Any questions, I'm at [email protected]
Have fun,
Mike Hooker
