Would this be a good first pinball machine?

disjaukifa

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Hey Guys,

My wife really wants a pinball machine and I want to get her one! I'm looking at getting a Gottlieb Touchdown Pinball Machine. Is that a good one? Is Gottlieb a good brand? Any information would be very helpful!

I honestly don't know anything about pinball machines. I just want something that will be fun for my wife to play!

Let me know!

Thanks
Disjaukifa
 
Hey Guys,

My wife really wants a pinball machine and I want to get her one! I'm looking at getting a Gottlieb Touchdown Pinball Machine. Is that a good one? Is Gottlieb a good brand? Any information would be very helpful!

I honestly don't know anything about pinball machines. I just want something that will be fun for my wife to play!

Let me know!

Thanks
Disjaukifa

Welcome to the insanity. What's your budget? I got into pins about 2 years ago, have a stable of 7 and have probably had 15 come in and out of my gameroom.

My advice for a first pin is get a solid solid state that doesn't need work.

You will slowly learn how to adjust them, deal with issues. 'one at a time' as they come up etc.

As the other poster said, gottliebs were great until the SS era.

If you can pay 1k for a pin you can get a ton of very good, solid pins from Williams/Bally or even stern.
 
You want a good pinball that is reasonable, look for a Williams System 11 /11A/11B/11C . You can find the list I put up at this old post:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=217001

You could add Funhouse, Bride of Pinbot, and Harley Davidson to the list as well. There not exactly system 11s. More like WPC/system 11 hybrids that were right before the DMD.

System 11 had some great pins with plenty of titles to find a theme you like. But there is also some good reasonable DMD pins. Particularly by Data East. Games like Jurassic Park, Last Action Hero, WWF Royal Rumble and I'm sure there are others. A few high production williams dmd pins exist as well. Games like The Getaway:Highspeed 2, Fishtales, Terminator 2, The Shadow, Johnny Mnemonic, Bram Stokers Dracula, Black Rose, and Judge Dread. Prices always vary...greatly at times depending who has it and what they have done to it. But you should be able to pick up most system 11s between 500 and 1500, most low end DMD Williams between 1200 and 2K, most Data Easts 1500 or less. Of course it varies ALOT. Best Bet is to pick up Mr. Pinball's 2012 price guide. At least I think Mr. Pinball is the one that prints it up.
 
I agree with timiskander about Electro mechanical and solid state. Unless you like to tinker more than you play I would not suggest a Gottlieb to start with. They can test your patience fixing them when even when you have a lot of service experience.
 
Thank you guys for the information! I'll start looking at the Williams 11s and see what theme my wife likes!

Yeah, +1 for the system 11's. Easy to work on and reliable.

Whirlwind and earthshaker are two that I dont think will ever leave my gameroom. Lots of fun, nice art and they are easy to work on.
 
the suggestions above sound great.
i kinda learned that the hard way.
had a 1962 gottleib machine. really wasn't a wise start to learning because it's way too mechanically intricate and you need a mechanic there with you to explain it.
the schematics don't translate well into the mechanical machines.
not fun, just mostly frustrating. would have been fun if i had a friend that lived nearby that was an expert, though.

learned a lot more that i could understand on my own learning with the schematics with an early 80s machine that was 95% working when i got it.

someone stated there is no sense in buying a 300 lb paperweight. that's the best wisdom i've seen.
 
I agree with what's been said already...

You can't go wrong with a Williams System 11.

Also, Gottlieb System 1s and System 80s sound like they can be hard to upkeep (I've never owned one). I'd like to add, though, that you can probably get a good deal on a Gottlieb System 3 (i.e. a Gottlieb with a DMD) and those have great hardware that are less prone to being hard to upkeep. Gottlieb System 3's are not as popular with collectors as their Bally/Williams contemporaries (hence the reason you can get a good deal on one), but I tend to like them. I own a Frank Thomas Big Hurt and would buy another System 3 if a deal came along.

Just my two cents.

--Luke
 
System 11 machines:

Bad Cats
Banzai Run
Big Guns
Black Knight 2000
Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball
Cyclone
Diner
Dr Dude
Earthshaker
Elvira ATPM
F-14 Tomcat
Fire!
Game Show
Grand Lizard
High Speed
Jokerz!
Millionaire
Mousin' Around!
Pin*Bot
Police Force
Pool Sharks
Radical!
Riverboat Gambler
Road Kings
Rollergames
Space Station
Swords of Fury
Taxi
Transporter
Whirlwind

My HS has been reliable for 4 years now with only flipper rebuild and some targets replaced, easy fixes. So ya They are reliable. let us know what you end up getting?
.
 
I honestly think that asking other people "What is the best pinball to buy" will often result in an unwanted purchase. I bought a Doctor Who as my 2nd pinball. Tons of my friends were all "Why would you do that?". I like Doctor Who and I like the game.

Find some friends near you and go over and play some of their games and look for "Features" that you like. Then look for games with those features and read reviews of the games. Spend time before buying anything unless the deal is just "Too good to pass on".

Unlike most others on this and any other Pinball forum, I like older and newer pins. Some games play real fast and others have a "pace" to them. EMs are more like works of art to me. To think how much they do without the use of a chip to control it is amazing to me. They are different to work on - actually more like a car than a SS pin would be.

I agree with the rest that Bang for your buck, System 11 games are awesome. But that said, if you're getting an EM, make it a Gottlieb. They are so well built that when it is working right, it will probably work that way for years. If anything goes wrong, you can probably LOOK at it and figure it out.

Good Luck - and if the budget can take it, my recommendation is "The Simpsons Pinball Party". Tons of stuff to do, fun to play, and a goal that will take you a while to accomplish.
 
Hey Guys,

Thank you so much for all the advice. My budget is now limited at the moment, I've bought Berzerk Cabinet, Smash TV Cabinet, Centipede Cabaret, and a bunch of Frenzy parts in the last weeks.

There is a Gottlieb Touchdown pinball I'm going to be looking at this weekend and depending on shape and condition I might get it, I might now.

I'm very mechanically inclined. My other hobby outside of video games is cars. I've rebuilt a dozen carburators and I've done a couple of engines as well.

Kind of gotten myself into a whole because I showed my wife a Gottlieb Touchdown video off of youtube and she likes the simplicity and yet how colorful the machine is.

I'll just play it by ear this weekend and see! My wife does love the Simpsons so that would be a good one as well!

Thanks
Disjaukifa
 
since you are mechanically inclined i'm guessing you will like this.
ask the person if he has the schematic so it is included.
otherwise check that steve young site and see if you can get one.


it's a bear to figure out an EM visually without the diagram for hints because some of the stuff is hidden from view.

I had a cold solder joint down inside the scoring motor on an inside angle, that i'd never have found without completely pulling it off the wood.
 
Sinbad. You can get a EM and an SS and put them next to each other. Most mid to late 70's Gottliebs are good choices, especally ones with lots of drop targets like big shot.
 
I totally agree with the system 11. High speed was my first game and with minimal repair knowledge for pins, just some on arcades, I was able to poke around with the meter and get things fixed. It obviously just took some time.


Since then I've snagged a big guns, fire!, taxi, diner and earthshaker. All awesome pins! Any pin by steve richie is not a let down thus far.

(until ACDC comes out)
 
System 11 machines:

Bad Cats -YES!
Banzai Run
Big Guns
Black Knight 2000
Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball
Cyclone
Diner
Dr Dude
Earthshaker-YES!
Elvira ATPM
F-14 Tomcat
Fire!
Game Show
Grand Lizard
High Speed
Jokerz!
Millionaire
Mousin' Around!
Pin*Bot
Police Force
Pool Sharks
Radical!
Riverboat Gambler-YES!
Road Kings
Rollergames
Space Station
Swords of Fury-YES!
Taxi
Transporter
Whirlwind

My HS has been reliable for 4 years now with only flipper rebuild and some targets replaced, easy fixes. So ya They are reliable. let us know what you end up getting?
.

I have placed a YES! next to the titles that I feel are the best in this list, just my opinion.
 
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