What other pinball cab is the same as KISS?

ARCredux

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I'm thinking of builiding a kiss from the ground up. What would be a good donor cab to use assuming aI can find an empty one in decent shape. Are there any that are almost a direct swap for the playfield and roms?

Any and all pointers would be appreciated.


Arcredux
 
Kiss is my Favorite Pinball. (no, I don't have one yet :))

The prices are high on every one of them, hard to believe. A play field for one went for $1100.00 the other day
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120834765354&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:AU:1123


I wish you all the encouragement in this epic ambitious endeavor, but may I politely ask, will it be cheaper to buy one of the overpriced machines?

All the best, I hope it happens, as I thought about it too (for a few minutes)
 
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Wow I hadn't looked up any of the repro items yet. Whoo that's a bundle and even after dropping that kind of cash there is still a bunch of stuff to get.


But I shall not be deterred....someone has to know if the cab sizes are the same between kiss and similar machines of the era.

I can do this...i can do this...
 
Try searching Bally 1978 and 1979. I'm pretty sure Playboy, Evel Knievel, Star Trek, etc. are all the same cabinet, but what I'm sure you're looking for is a less desirable title like Mata Hari, strikes and spares, lost world, six million dollar man, harlem globe trotters, Dolly Parton, etc.

If your goal is to have a "like new" looking pinball I guess theoretically it could be cheaper to start with a fully working cheap other name donor rather than a beat to shit KISS that needs a new playfield and backglass anyway.

You could also sell your donor playfield and backglass for some money towards your kiss parts.
 
+1 on the beat to shit KISS. Even the worst cabinet can be salvaged, or at the very least reproduced. It's all the guts inside that will set you back 2 Large.

You can buy mine if you want - it works, but it's still in pieces.

:D
 
I'm basically ground up building one. The project cabinet - upper/head in ok shape, lower cabinet rough around the edges and some delaminating. Whole thing had smoke damage, darkening from being in a fire or something. The playfield - intact, but harness sooty and playfield not only warn, but faded and discolored. I got all that for cheap to use in an all-repro build.

I reglued the bottom panel into the lower cabinet, before I knew that Gorilla Glue was terribly messy for woodworking. It looks like expanding foam around the bottom, but the lower panel is still warped and there's some delaminating of the plywood. My plan now is to get a lock-miter router bit so I can properly join the corners and build a brand new lower cabinet.

Got the repro backglass and plastics and have been unable to justify buying the repro playfield yet.

It's an expensive as hell game to build from repro stuff, but they're expensive used and beat as well.

Keep in mind that if you get another cabinet, you'd still need a light panel/door (in head) from a KISS, as it has to match the configuration of lights for the backglass. Also, KISS uses an Aux lamp driver and a power supply only used in 2 other games - Space Invaders and Future Spa.
 
Paragon is another wide-body so the cab will not work, and it is also not the same audio set up as Space Invaders, etc.

Also, if you don't have the Kiss wire harness you will have to modify whatever one you end up with, unless you build that from scratch. I had to do this with a Playboy that I bought blind at an auction that ended up having a rectifier fire in the head destroying everything to the right of the audio board. A donor harness from a long ago parted SMDM was modified and after going through it twice to re-locate some wires I now have a nice working Playboy.
 
I thought about building one with a repro playfield and backglass because I've got several early Bally cabinets but I probably never will due to other projects. Unless I find a good deal at a show and feel spendy.

Most cabinets from the early Bally SS era should fit the playfield and backglass and be the same dimensions as KISS (other than wide bodies, obviously). It needs to be one with the extra border around the head but games up to Vector should have that. On some heads that border will open up and on some the glass will just lift out. Either way the blackglass should fit.

Whatever you're going to use. Measure it.

I wouldn't worry about getting the original Kiss rectifier board. I would rebuild whatever you get with the cabinet you're going to use. Any of the Bally/Stern rectifier boards can be made to work in any game. If you get a cabinet with the newer transformer/rectifier board it's better and easier to use that one. The sound is another consideration but that's easy to wire in from scratch. You're going to have a wiring nightmare anyway ;)
 
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