Paragon

StandsOnToes

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Hey guys, first post but I've been lurking these forums forever...


So I've been looking at getting my first pin lately, and I found a Bally Paragon.

It's a 3hr drive one way so I haven't been out to look at it in person, just wondering if you guys think its worth the trouble...


The seller has owned it for 15 years, but 7 years ago it broke and has just been building dust in his basement.

He said the upper left flipper blew and took out a few fuses, he disconnected all the connections to the flipper and replaced the fuse, but now all the game does is light up.
No sound, no play, no coin up

The play field looks in pretty decent shape, from the pics I can only see a little bit of wear starting by the super bonus lights in the middle.
The back glass looks to be a A.
The cabinet is a C or at best a B. the red on the cab is still a light pink but not gone.


He was asking $1000 , but I may have worked him down to $850... And who knows I might be able to get him down further if I do end up taking the trip...

Just wanna know what you guys think... Honestly I think if I end up going I wont be going home with a empty truck. So stop me now if you think I should pass.


Thanks.
 
I saw that ad...he's not far from me but seems a little overpriced considering it doesn't work.You can be sure that there is battery damage to that MPU.I'd be wondering about if anything else fried when that flipper coil blew.I would try to get him down a fair bit more....
 
If the backglass is truly nice (no flaking at all), and the playfield only shows minor wear, $850 is closer to a decent price, but that also would be with working boards. $1000 is high either way in my opinion, for that game.

Go look at it, but get that head opened up so the MPU board is visible. Given how long it's sat, it's most likely not a matter of *if* there's acid damage, but how much. If this is your first pin, plan on spending some cash to either have it repaired, or to purchase a replacement when taking the price into consideration..
 
I picked up a paragon a while back. Some hero in the past replaced the NiCad with a remote NiCad pack (it sometimes happened). The MPU was perfect, the SDB & rectifier are a different story.
 
@ Burt still a good deal for our area don't ya think... Only pins around here (working or not) going for less than 1k are 1975 or older...

I've been doing a lot of research for pins even before I started looking for one (video arcades are what my knowledge is) ... Is the alltek board a plug and play replacement for pins? Or do I have to burn roms and such to make it game specific?

If I picked it up for $850 or less I wouldn't mind dropping the other $200 on a new MPU.. That way I know the game will be reliable...in a sense lol


Again I have no experience with pins... If a flipper coil goes, is it likely to take out other components....

I'm confident I'd be able to make it playable... Pins can't be much harder than my other arcades... All that matters is how much I'm willing to drop into it...

If I bought it for $850 I think another $300 is all I'd want to have to spend to get her playing again...



Thanks for the replies guys just the info I'm looking for... Keep it coming
 
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An Altek MPU is very reliable and you don't have to burn any roms to use. There are several other boards in the pin that could be working or not. If the flipper coil burt then there is a strong chance that some damage might have been done to the solenoid driver board, but it is usually repairable. For reliability sake the rectifier board will need updated to help bulletproof the pin. I recently bought a KISS pin that the owner claimed had a bad MPU. I bought it sight unseen and have rebuilt/repaired every board in the head except the lamp driver. Most older SS pins have underlying issues that are only apparent when you begin operating the pin. Paragon is a good example of the Bally SS platform that is very stable and relatively easy to work on with MANY parts being avaliable.
 
..Paragon is a good example of the Bally SS platform that is very stable and relatively easy to work on with MANY parts being avaliable.

Except, of course, the transformer which I am hunting right now. It fits about 25 different machines, but no one seems to have one.
 
@burt ... Do you know how long you've seen this one up for sale?... Info could be handy when trying to get him to knock the price down...
 
Definately going to need a new mpu, unless by some miricle the battery was moved off the board. Also the 5v filter cap will need replacing on the solonoid driver board as its pushing 30+yrs old. Rectifier board will either need to be serviced or replaced depending on how crispy it is. Dunno what he did with the flipper coil as it shouldn't have any connection with a logic circuit. Just coil, relay, drive transistor, fuse on rectifier bd. 850 is high but if pins are scarce in your area shipping will send a cheap one into the 850 territory anyway. If you were closer i'd be more than happy to teach you the ins and outs of bally boards and doing necessary repairs/upgrades on your machine. you can go to pinwiki.com and look at some of the steps to get 1 of these running again so at least you have an idea of what you are looking at before you go.
 
As pointed out, you most likely will need a new MPU and a rectifier board, so that is $275 or so right there. Now your $25 shy of your limit. That's assuming everything else is okay. The game will most likely need all of the connector pins re-terminated as these are usually corroded, not expensive just tedious.

Does he mean the coil shorted? Still it shouldn't take out anything.

If you haven't already, ask for lots of pictures of the playfield to inspect for wear and back of the backglass to really inspect for flaking and/or bubbling. Also check to see if the inserts are cupped. If the inserts are cupped badly they will have to be leveled or the gameplay is weird.

Paragon is an awesome pin. I love mine and it gets played a lot when people are over. It has beautiful artwork, and a lot of things to shoot for. It can also kick you a** which is nice because it doesn't get boring. That being said, Unless you really want a Paragon and been looking for quite a while and don't mind putting more time and money into it than anticipated, I wouldn't drive 3 hours each way for the one this guy is selling.
 
Bought it...


The condition (minus the MPU) of the game exceeded my expectations by a mile.

Yes the battery took out the MPU, yes the flipper coil is needing replaced, and probably other issues I've yet to find...


The back glass is a A+ it looks brand new...

The color on the play field is still quite vibrant , no fading.

The plastics are in wicked shape.

Yes a little wear around the pop bumpers and bonus lights... Not a big concern for me though.

Maybe I'm looking through rose glasses since it my first pin, but I was impressed with it... I'll post some pics later...
 
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