Picked up my first pins. Williams Flash and Bally Strikes and spares.

But unlike cars I don't need hoists, lifts welders and plasma cutters to work on pins. :ROFLMAO:

LOL, spoken like a newbie... Just wait until you get into WMS DMD era games and you start trying to lift the playfields out of the games to rebuild them. And all the broken scoops....

17 pins, what pin is your favorite and why?

Oof.. that's an amazingly difficult question.

E.g. I love my Cirqus Voltaire.. when my daughter was a baby (who is 24 now), she used to sit on the lockbar leaning up against my chest and watch me play the game. She'd get so excited at the end when the clown would walk across for the match. Hours of fun playing TZ with my wife. One son plays the hell out of AFM and I enjoy the battle with him. Other son is addicted to WhiteWater. Fish Tales call outs are THE BOMB.

I enjoy each game for different reasons. I'm not the guy digging into the noise of this looping shot is 19deg vs 20 and that makes it less good. Or shallow rules vs deep. I have fun playing, just like I have fun driving my Charger and tinkering with it.

Have to get a Cyclone someday (@tron guy's is tempting) because BITD a group of us used to sit down and cycle through 4 player games and BS for HOURS at the arcade.


If you're wondering what game really drew me in. It was F-14 Tomcat. I loved the looping shots and frankly the light show. It was, and still is NUTS.
 
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LOL, spoken like a newbie... Just wait until you get into WMS DMD era games and you start trying to lift the playfields out of the games to rebuild them. And all the broken scoops....
"Most human problems can be solved by an appropriate charge of high explosives." Blaster from Uncommon Valor


I have played Circus Voltaire and that would be my grail game. Very expensive though. F-14 is also one I would look for.
 
They're not too difficult to install, especially on single level games like Flash. Just a bit time consuming since you'll have to remove a fair amount of stuff to get it in. Could take the opportunity to install some cool white comet LED's in the GI. It's definitely the easier option than replacing the inserts, which is the only real way to get rid of cupping. Though some people who have clear coated their playfields have leveled them by applying super glue to level it before applying the clearcoat.
This sounds like the best option for my game as the playfield has several issues and would need to be replaced for a decent restoration. My goal with this machine is the same as my arcade cabs, make it fully functional and just presentable enough to go in the house.
 
"Most human problems can be solved by an appropriate charge of high explosives." Blaster from Uncommon Valor

We will get along just fine. :ROFLMAO:

I have played Circus Voltaire and that would be my grail game. Very expensive though. F-14 is also one I would look for.

Yea, pins are CRAZY expensive, but then again I'm old. I bought a Munster's last spring at 9k... That's easily 3x my most expensive purchase up to that point.
 
I'd probably upgrade the flippers and make them modern. Vid1900 has a how to on pinside.
Having owned system 9 and newer pins for 10 years prior to owing a few older solid state pins I just can't get past the weak 28v flippers.

Also, when your sound goes out on flash, one of the ics needs pins 39 and 40 bridged, i have no idea why, doesn't make sense to me how a game works for 40 years just fine then needs two pins bridged to keep working. I knew it could be the issue, but I rebuilt the sound board entirely (including non socketed ics) and it still didn't work. Bridged the pins and it worked fine again. I would have liked to make sense of it, but i'm just glad it worked.

I've had 3 cyclones (i still have one at my parents house) it's probably the biggest crowd pleaser i've ever owned, but compared to wpc games it gets boring really quick.

I don't particularly believe in new sterns, they all kinda feel the same to me, though i do own a stern mustang because i'm certainly no mopar guy, lol.

I've quite a few pins, i find that wpcs feel and play the best. The good ones also don't tank in value.
With that said, system 11's are the sweet spot financially.
 
I've had 3 cyclones (i still have one at my parents house) it's probably the biggest crowd pleaser i've ever owned, but compared to wpc games it gets boring really quick.

No argument, nostalgia is powerful though. And as you say, it's a good game for folks being introduced to pinball. It's not really any less of a game than some of the early Solid State games. (Hey you, with the face)

I don't particularly believe in new sterns, they all kinda feel the same to me, though i do own a stern mustang because i'm certainly no mopar guy, lol.

There are many good ones in that space for me. Avengers Infinity Quest, Deadpool, Godzilla. I think just like any era you can't like everything.

Oooh a mustang guy... Sounds like some good beer convo.

I've quite a few pins, i find that wpcs feel and play the best. The good ones also don't tank in value.
With that said, system 11's are the sweet spot financially.

Most of my collection is WPC era. Probably because that's my youth. I also have a soft spot for some of the newer "older" Stern games (9-ball, Sea Witch, Meteor, Stargazer). I'd buy newer games but the price tags make them a difficult re-occurring purchace.
 
Thank you! Mine are cupped pretty badly as well. How difficult was it to install?
It was not difficult to install. If I remember correctly, you need to remove the pop bumper hats, the spinner, the flipper bats, one gate at the top of the playfield, the one-way gate by the shooter, the flat metal rails that separate the inlanes and outlanes by the flippers, and maybe the plastics for the four lanes at the top. We're talking like 15 minutes to take that stuff off.

This was my process: remove all the playfield plastics, remove the rubber, remove the other things listed above, clean and wax the playfield, install new bulbs (comet warm white retros for me), put down the protector, install new rubber, then clean and reinstall the playfield plastics.

If the protector does not fit perfectly, you trim it with a pair of scissors.
 
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It was not difficult to install. If I remember correctly, you need to remove the pop bumper hats, the spinner, the flipper bats, one gate at the top of the playfield, the one-way gate by the shooter, the flat metal rails that separate the inlanes and outlanes by the flippers, and maybe the plastics for the four lanes at the top. We're talking like 15 minutes to take that stuff off.

This was my process: remove all the playfield plastics, remove the rubber, remove the other things listed above, clean and wax the playfield, install new bulbs (comet warm white retros for me), put down the protector, install new rubber, then clean and reinstall the playfield plastics.

If the protector does not fit perfectly, you trim it with a pair of scissors.
That's awesome info thank you.

Do you happen to have a list of Comet bulbs you used? I looked at their site and there are a bunch of choices. It looks like there are also issues with using LEDs and them not pulling enough current to hold the transistors on.
Any idea on that? I have enough spare incandescent bulbs and diodes to do the whole game if needed.
 
That's awesome info thank you.

Do you happen to have a list of Comet bulbs you used? I looked at their site and there are a bunch of choices. It looks like there are also issues with using LEDs and them not pulling enough current to hold the transistors on.
Any idea on that? I have enough spare incandescent bulbs and diodes to do the whole game if needed.
I don't think that's an issue, but you do need non-ghosting bulbs for the insert lighting. The usual issue is that lamp driver boards will typically put some voltage on the other lamps in a column or row. This wouldn't do anything with incandescent bulbs but is enough to light up an LED so you get a ghosting effect without the right bulbs.

Comet actually has a kit for Flash, but the GI lights they provide with that one are "sunlight" or more of a warm white. I think cool white might look better with Flash's color scheme but that's a personal preference. If you wanna make your own kit then the general way to install LED's that don't suck is either warm or cool white for the GI and color match the inserts. Here's Comet's guide on color temperature.

Also, these kits usually include LED flashers but I don't think there's anything wrong with using incandescent flashers. If you do put LED flashers in though then Williams of that era used a warming resistor on em that you'll need to bypass, otherwise your flashers will be on all the time.

That last one is actually why most LED's are impractical for Atari pinball games, they used a warming circuit for all their insert lights so LED's just stay lit at all times.
 
Do you happen to have a list of Comet bulbs you used? I looked at their site and there are a bunch of choices. It looks like there are also issues with using LEDs and them not pulling enough current to hold the transistors on.
Any idea on that? I have enough spare incandescent bulbs and diodes to do the whole game if needed.
Man, there are so many different ways to light a pinball machine. It's really just your preference. Different colors, brightness, lens type, etc. I mean, Comet's got three different whites!

I attempted to make mine appear "period correct," so wherever a bare bulb was visible from the player's view, I left it incandescent. This includes the clear inserts. Wherever a bulb was hidden, I used a frosted retro warm white:
https://www.cometpinball.com/products/retro-smd-bulbs
These are the same color and brightness as the original incandescents, but don't run as hot (won't warp plastic), use less power, and won't burn out. In the backbox, I swapped all the GI with the same retro warm whites, but I used non-retro non-ghosting warm whites for the controlled lamps (game over, etc.):
https://www.cometpinball.com/products/1smd-non-ghosting

I found the non-ghosting retros to be slightly dimmer than the regular retros, so I used the brighter option. I did not use any colored bulbs anywhere, since I was going for an "older" look. No issues at all with the transistors.
 
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That's awesome info thank you.

Do you happen to have a list of Comet bulbs you used? I looked at their site and there are a bunch of choices. It looks like there are also issues with using LEDs and them not pulling enough current to hold the transistors on.
Any idea on that? I have enough spare incandescent bulbs and diodes to do the whole game if needed.
I've bulbed quite a few machines.
Buy a variety of cool white bulbs, bayonet, wedge, frosted, 4smd, faceted and my favorite opmax (these are expensive, so don't put them everywhere) bulbs. Buy them in 25 packs (other than the opmax) to save money, yes you will have way too many bulbs, but it's better than get whacked for shipping over and over.

Colored bulbs aren't all that useful, a little here or there but i would avoid them in the GI.
Now and then some inserts could use them.
I do use color under the roll down lane guides at the top of the playfield.

Not a fan of warm white or using any kind of incandescent the warm white just lights poorly and the incandescents melt and warm plastics.

Don't be afraid to leave bulbs out of the back board, many times the leds are too much in there.
This is also a place that if you strategically use colored bulbs (frosted) they can really bring out the color. Takes a little effort and require you to have many colors on hand.
 
I've bulbed quite a few machines.
Buy a variety of cool white bulbs, bayonet, wedge, frosted, 4smd, faceted and my favorite opmax (these are expensive, so don't put them everywhere) bulbs. Buy them in 25 packs (other than the opmax) to save money, yes you will have way too many bulbs, but it's better than get whacked for shipping over and over.

Colored bulbs aren't all that useful, a little here or there but i would avoid them in the GI.
Now and then some inserts could use them.
I do use color under the roll down lane guides at the top of the playfield.

Not a fan of warm white or using any kind of incandescent the warm white just lights poorly and the incandescents melt and warm plastics.

Don't be afraid to leave bulbs out of the back board, many times the leds are too much in there.
This is also a place that if you strategically use colored bulbs (frosted) they can really bring out the color. Takes a little effort and require you to have many colors on hand.
Excellent info! Thanks!
 
I'll add that i buy colors by the 10. 10 doesn't save you money.
Installing bulbs is kinda fun, but you need a pile to pick from as you do it.
I also do it with the machine on always, i'm not all that worried about getting zapped, i do electrical for a living.
Just wrap you 1/4 nut driver in electrical tape, you need to see how (or if) they light as you do them.
This isn't for safety it's so you don't touch too much and blow a fuse.
 
I'll add that i buy colors by the 10. 10 doesn't save you money.
Installing bulbs is kinda fun, but you need a pile to pick from as you do it.
I also do it with the machine on always, i'm not all that worried about getting zapped, i do electrical for a living.
Just wrap you 1/4 nut driver in electrical tape, you need to see how (or if) they light as you do them.
This isn't for safety it's so you don't touch too much and blow a fuse.
Once I get the machines safe enough to turn on I will let the wife start experimenting with the lights and colors. She is interested in the Flash game so I will let her loose.
I want to keep the Strikes and spares as close to original as possible while getting the benefits of the cooler running LEDs
 
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