I voted for Spirit of '76. I love those old EM games–they’re not quite as fast and intense as recent games, and they’re easy to make small repairs to. The problem is parts, which can be hard to find for those old games.
I’ll add another vote for the Pinball HoF. I’ve been there a few times, and each time, ended up staying a few hours; there were so many old games I remembered playing and enjoying in my youth, and wanted to play again.
Oh, Funhouse, heck yeah!
I’m waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of being up to speed on pinball. Spirit of 76 I played back in the day. Good. Bog Standard. Mechanical pinball. Can’t go wrong IMHO. I certainly lean towards 1970’s mechanical pinball with a Tommy spin off machine (it is not “Wizard” or “Tommy” but the other one) as one of my all time favs but I’m blanking on the name.
Funhouse is hella fun. I’m a sucker for multiball games.
Looking at the video, I’ve played Paragon but didn’t leave a lasting impression
Bad Cats has a pretty stereotypical design. I haven’t played it, but that design is pretty fun
I don’t remember Star Wars as being great
I am jealous that you have Black Knight…
Aye; having Black Knight and Funhouse would be having 2 of the top 10 machines of all time, IMO. Add in Theatre of Magic and I’d almost never leave that room. 
Captain Fantastic? Elton John on the backglass playing pinball, for a theatre full of fans?
Warning - boring technical info to follow:
Those leaf switches tend to become pitted from the 43V arcing across them. Standard procedure is to use a point file to clean them up. There was originally a 250V capacitor (.047u, I think) across that switch to help prevent arcing, but they tended to fail and would end up getting removed and never replaced. While you’re down there, check that the mechanical switch actuator still has its rubber cushion intact, or it’ll cut through the leaf switch. If it needs replacement, several layers of heat shrink tubing will suffice in a pinch.
Rudy’s voice, if it’s deletable, would be an option in the software menu, which on Funhouse consists of a fairly comprehensive set of instructions. You’ll find lots of ways to make the game more liberal (pinball jargon for “easier”) in that menu, along with suggestions in the manual regarding how to move the playfield posts to make the game last longer.[/Pinball operator mode]
Very seriously now considering selling Star Trek, and getting Bad Cats, and Funhouse.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner!!! Thank you. I couldn’t remember the name. I played the holy hell out of that machine for years
Glad to help. I loved that machine too.
you know theres like 3 star different SW pin ball games ? theres the early 80s one that’s a pretty normal pinball game the 90s one that has a pop up death star in the middle and a sega one that is pretty much a normal arcade game just the pinball acts like a random controller (like the star trek next gen one but more advanced )
I owned one for about 7 and agree with you entirely …if I ever live by my self again its gonna be a 3rd story apartment ………
Me too, and I couldn’t remember what it was called either. I knew “Pinball Wizard” wasn’t it but I would never have guessed that name.
Speaking of Star Trek, my pinball nemesis remains that freaking ST: TNG game. I never did get the hang of firing those guns, and there was always that one bumper that aimed the ball straight down the side lane and out. Way too much money spent on very short games.
This is the Data East one, with the R2D2 on it. I thought I mentioned that, but I see now, I didn’t. However, the Youtube link is to the correct machine.
Anyway, I’m really seriously thinking now that I’m tired of the Star Trek machine-- at least, I’d rather have a Bad Cats or a Funhouse than a Star Trek. The Star Trek is a nice machine to have, and an easy machine to beat (it’s good for the ego), but I think I will regret missing on Bad Cats or Funhouse. I will regret missing on Star Wars too, but I can’t justify the expense. It costs almost as much as my car. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but it costs more than cars I’ve had in the past.
Sigh When I bought Lost World back in 1999, it cost $400.
This means my collection would be this:
Lost World (my personal favorite machine)
Black Knight
Bad Cats
Funhouse
That’s a pretty awesome collection.
If I could ever have a Star Wars (Data East), and a Gilligan’s Island too, I would be sooooooooooo happy, but it’s not gonna happen.
If I ever get a giant windfall, though, say, more than half a million dollars, I will open the Indianapolis version of the Pinball Hall of Fame. The machines will be for play, but I’ll have historical displays too, like sell bills, and maybe famous machines from movies and TV.
Rudy’s voice may be annoying, but it was gratifying to hit his stupid face with the ball. Then he’d get all sulky and passive-aggressive. I’d imagine him coming to life at night and picking up a butcher knife like Chucky to stalk me.
Major changes:
I just spent two days reorganizing the back room. I threw out a ton of stuff, and decided that every piece of clothing that had not been worn in over a year was going to go. I dropped a bag of stuff off at Goodwill, and also have twenty lots of clothes on eBay, of which three have already sold.
I also went through all the old toys of the boychik’s that were being stored. Eight more lots on eBay, with two already sold. I went through the tubs of books, and DVDs, and took a bunch of stuff to the used bookstore. Got rid of a huge tub of stuff, and made $60. They were happy to get the children’s books, because they were in very good condition. They hardly ever get nice used children’s books. I didn’t get rid of any children’s books with sentimental value, but Wow, did the boychik have a lot of stuff we were hanging onto.
Sold my grandmother’s old turntable, too. Only got $20, but money is money, and it was gathering dust. The only records I ever play are my 78s on my wind-up record player. We got rid of records a long time ago, when we got sick of moving them (they are really heavy).
I reorganized the holiday stuff in the walk-in closet, so there is nothing on the floor, and then put the bikes in there. We will have to move them out whenever we need holiday stuff, but that’s what? Five times a year?
All the stuff on eBay is “Buy It Now, or Best Offer,” so I don’t know how much I’ll get, but if I get 70% of what I’m asking for, along with what I already got from the books and other stuff I sold locally, I can clear $1,000.
Then, I tackled the pile of computer parts. I managed to make one working computer with a decent processor-- a few years old, but decent, and 6G RAM, plus 2 500G HDs, for a total of 1T. One of the HDs had Vista, and one had Win10. I wanted to go with 10, but I wanted to wipe and reinstall, so I had to make a boot drive with a flash drive, and pull 10 off the computer. First I installed it on the Vista drive to make sure it would work, and it did, so I installed it on the 10, reformatting and wiping everything off of it. Then I reformatted the previously Vista, and create a boot partition. It’s got two disk drives, both writable, one DVD, and one CD only. I used the fastest motherboard, which the video was not working on, but the other motherboard had a pretty good video card, so I got really good video on it. It’s not serious gamer good, but it’s HD streaming good. I even had a card with USB 3.0 ports, because the motherboard is old enough just to have 2.0.
I have all cables it needs, and even a USB-to-printer cable, should someone want that for some reason, and a USB to mini USB sync cable, plus a 17" flatscreen monitor.
Put it on Craigslist for $225 OBO. I’ll settle for $150, but I’m hoping for $175.
Since I’d made to boot drive, I took a chance on fixing an old laptop with a corrupt OS. So far it is fine. I want to play with it for a few days and make sure it doesn’t get squirrelly again, and then I will either Craigslist or eBay it for $100 OBO. It’s about 4 years old, but it was pretty powerful when I got it, and it’s physically in good shape.
I also decided to sell one of our game consoles. We never play the Playstation. We thought we were going to love it, because Blazing Dragons was so great, but there was never anything else good we could find. So the Playstation, six games, and two memory cards are on eBay. $175 OBO. I’ll settle for $100, but don’t tell anyone.
Upshot: now there is room for two pinball machines. Hell, I could probably make room for three, I got rid of so much junk. I didn’t even mention the three big trashbags I took to the dumpster. I even did stuff like pulled out our ratty bath towels we never use, and cut them up for cleaning rags.
So, it’s looking like we can keep Star Trek, and still get Funhouse and Bad Cats!
If I’d thought that with some work, there might be money in all that junk, I would have gotten off my ass and cleaned sooner.
Not to mention that after I cleared out, I rented a Rug Doctor, and really did some deep cleaning. I took the top glasses off the machines, and cleaned under them all. The last time the apartment was this clean, it was when I hired maids to come in before the inspection they do before we re-up on our lease. It might even be more clean than that. I really got carried away. Cleaned out all the cabinets and closets for dusting.
It is actually the reason I am awake now. I fell asleep, exhausted, way before my bedtime, and woke up about an hour ago. I missed dinner, so I had something to eat, and now I’m awake. I’m going to take a sleep PRN at one, and try to sleep until 7.
Yay!
I’m so excited.
yeah 100 for the ps1 stuff might be right ,just a q who made the SW pinball game?
but if you like arcade games too you wont wanna see these guys Arcade1Up | Officially Licensed Arcade Cabinets
I wish theyed let you pick what games you wanted instead of presets
It’s the good Star Wars machine, the one by Data East. If I could afford it, I’d go do some more rearranging, and get all three, but the Star Wars is too expensive.
Actually, if all this stuff sells like I’m hoping, maybe we could get Spirit of 76, too… (It’s only $850.)
So, here’s the collection:
Lost World
Star Trek
Black Knight
Bad Cats
Funhouse
If anyone cares, our consoles are these:
Atari 2600, NES, Sega Genesis, Super NES, Playstation, Wii, Xbox 360. Most were either gifts or bought second hand. I’m kind of shocked the Atari still works, as it was a Bat Mitzvah gift 38 years ago. We didn’t run out to the store as soon as there was a new system in town. We also have a cocktail table style original Pac-Man. My son loves Pac-Man. It was a gift for him, and it lives in his room.
yeah that’s the middle one with the pop up death star
I remember the first was made by Atari and the 3rd was Sega ……
They wanted $8,700 for it. I talked them down to $8,200, but didn’t commit to buy, because that was still over our budget. They were looking for pachinko machines, and I have a couple, so they were willing to knock off another $150 in exchange for a pachinko machine in good condition, and I have one that I have replaced all the wires and switches on. But it’s still a little over our budget. I’d dip into saving for the chance to have one, if it weren’t for the fact that I have other good machines I’m looking at.
FWIW, I’ve seen the Data East Star Wars machines priced at over $10,000, so I didn’t even blink at $8,7000.
The next most expensive one is Bad Cats, and it’s far less than half of what Star Wars is.
Star Wars and Bad Cats both come from dealers who have fully restored them, and give a full “money back, and we pick it up if you are not satisfied” 30 day guarantee, plus a free one-time service if it breaks down-- in the first year, for one guy, first six months for another, although if it’s after the first 30 days, transporting it to the shop is my problem. The guy who has Bad Cats is the six months guy, but I have a good relationship with him (he sold me Star Trek), and he will spend time with me on the phone for free talking me through doing a repair myself, and will help me get replacement parts when I track a problem down to a bad whatever. Also, they both deliver.
Funhouse comes from a guy who is moving, and doesn’t want to move it out of state with him. I’ve played it, and it works, but he knows nothing about working on the machines, so it hasn’t even been cleaned in a while. He only wants $1,800 for it(!!!) A dealer would charge about $5-6,000 for a fully restored, recently tuned up version. It doesn’t come with a manual, like you would get from a dealer, but I think I mentioned, I found one online. I don’t know if the guy selling it just doesn’t know what the market will bear, or simply wants to sell it quickly, and wants someone to pick it up (I’m going to have to rent a van, but that’s going to run me only about 30 bucks). Or maybe he paid $1,800 for it years ago, isn’t considering inflation, and thinks he’s breaking even.
Of course, considering that it could seriously crap out on me, and I could end up putting several hundred dollars in parts, and hours of time keeping it working, it might not be such a huge bargain. Still, $1,800 and $5,000 is a HUGE difference.
I am considering one thing as I write, though. I should probably ask to look over Funhouse thoroughly-- behind the backglass, and under the playfield, look for any signs of anything ever having burnt, and signs of jerry-rigging, etc. I didn’t (duh) do it before, because in the past, I’ve bought machines only from dealers who have just restored them, and warranty the work, so there’s been no need to do that.
Bad Cats is $2,200, which is cheap for a machine with as many bells and whistles as it has. It has a defect in the artwork on the side where it was vandalized when it was in an arcade, which makes it lose about $500 in value, but affects play not at all. The guy minimized it to a great degree. It was originally obscene, and now it just looks like a little random scribbling. Bonus for me, as far as I’m concerned.
Paragon is $1,400, which is about right. It’s from a dealer too, and it’s a solid state machine, but it has a flat playfield. Then, or course, Spirit of 76 is dirt cheap. It’s on special. It was an even grand, but didn’t sell, and was on the floor for 8 months.
I have to not go crazy, though. Just because I have $X.00 to spend doesn’t mean I should pour every last drop into pinball machines. Spending $4,000 (Bad Cats plus Funhouse) is high on enough, and leaves me plenty to bank (or reinvest). Plus, we’ll bank whatever we can make from selling all this stuff we’re getting rid of. Wow, the internet is great. The only way to sell off stuff you didn’t want before used to be a tag sale, and those were a pain, and you ddin’t make nearly as much, plus, you ran the risk of having stuff stolen.
I have to say, I really hate cleaning, but the thought that this exercise could end up bringing in money really motivated me, and the apartment looks (and smells) great.
Continue to keep us updated and what you end up with (all solid choices IMHO).
I contacted the people with Bad Cats and Funhouse, and told them I want them. I did a Zelle down payment on Bad Cats so it will be held for up to six months. The Funhouse guy just took my word. I’m the only non-dealer who has been interested, so he wants to sell it to me. I have to arrange a truck, and we have some stuff going on at the apartment, so I probably can’t get it until Wednesday. I offered him a hold fee through Zelle or PayPal, but he says just get there by Thursday, and it’s mine.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will have to get it Wed first thing in the morning, so I hope I can arrange a truck by then. Bad Cats will be delivered Friday.
I go back to work next Monday.
I work in a preschool, and I have been working only sub shifts in the summer this summer, so I have had lots of time for things like rearranging the back room, and selling stuff on eBay.
Sometimes I wish I could be one of those people who manages to make a living selling stuff on eBay. My stepsister does that, but she knows how to refinish and repair furniture, and tailor clothes. She can buy a pile of junk at garage sales for 10 bucks, and create stuff that sells for $50 per. She also has to do her own taxes, which are very complicated, with deductions for materials, travel expenses, etc.
Actually, I had my dream job when I was and ASL interpreter, but carpal tunnel syndrome benched me.
So far, any money I make is just going into plain old savings. We made a lot of money selling off stock, but the stocks we didn’t sell aren’t actually doing very well, so I’m not interested in buying more right now. What we have left is predicted to rise, though, so I’m going to sit on it. I don’t need money right now. As long as the companies don’t go under (unlikely), the shares will be there, and will probably rise eventually.
If I had the nerves, I could be a day trader, but I know I could never do that. I mean, I could do it on paper-- I could pick the stocks, I think, but the actual work would drive me to drink. I couldn’t handle a high pressure job.