Best Pinball Machine

[Fawkes007]

There was a great pinball app called a Pinball Arcade that featured a lot of the old Williams, Bally, Stern and Gottlieb titles. I have it, and it’s great. Unfortunately, Williams/Bally decided not to renew the licensing agreement. Fortunately, I got in before this occurred and was able to download a lot of my old favorites.

Pinball Arcade | Real Pinball

The Pinball Arcade - Classic pinball tables recreated for the iOS, Android, Playstation, xBox, PC and Mac

pinballarcade.com

 

[emwolf]

One quarter, 20-30 minutes of play. I ruled this table, back when.

View attachment 1110089

one of my favorites as well, used to play at a bar in Urbana, IL. It would always say this one word that we all thought sounded like he was saying "SOUP" in a very deep, commanding tone.

 

[emwolf]

plunked a few quarters into this beast at the White Horse Inn in Champaign, IL. I was always disappointed when overnight, it seemed, all games went from 5 balls for a quarter to 3.

 

[Canadian Mountain Man]

If you can solder and de-solder, you are good to go!

Yup!

Back in the early 80's Dad bought a Wiliams Riverboat machine that looked like it had gone through a war. Only one flipper worked, bumpers would randomly go off, etc. Turned into a multiyear project including being moved to a few cities but eventually he got the dead coils and other electronics replaced and the machine working. Thinking back it was a pretty cool project for all sorts of skills.

 

[esswun]

If you buy it "shopped" (pinball term for restored), and it's TRULY shopped (some places SAY it is, but it is just cleaned up), your maintenance should be very little. Especially if you can do some of the work yourself.

I have owned my TZ for a good 22 years, and I would say I have spent less then $500 on it in that whole time... only using a pinball repair guy twice, with the lions share of the work being done by myself. If you can solder and de-solder, you are good to go!

The bulk of the money is going to be in the initial purchase. It can be upward of $10,000 depending on the popularity and rarity of the pin.

Right, I found some "high-end restorations" for like $18K! There was a sweet Twilight Zone one too, maybe the one you have? It's good to know a new one or a well restored one doesn't require much work if any.

There was a great pinball app called a Pinball Arcade that featured a lot of the old Williams, Bally, Stern and Gottlieb titles. I have it, and it’s great. Unfortunately, Williams/Bally decided not to renew the licensing agreement. Fortunately, I got in before this occurred and was able to download a lot of my old favorites.

Not familiar with Pinball Arcade but I have Zen Pinball for PlayStation and it's really good. They have a lot of licensed tables (Star Wars, Marvel, etc.) but I really like their originals. I have Earth Defense, El Dorado, Excalibur, Mars, Paranormal, Shaman, Tesla, and V12.

 

[Bakker1964]

Always loved pinball, was never particularly good but I'd like to have one in my house. I can see how much they are to buy but how much do they cost to maintain? If bought new or professionally rebuilt, is there much cost in maintenance? Do things break often?

Also, the newer tables have so much going on. Does anything think they're too busy, taking away from the game itself, or does all the extra and complicated stuff really make it better?

Black Knight was, for me, right on the cusp of the "too much going on" machines.

 

[Ad Astra]

This thread has be losing my mind (again).

I could'a SWORE we played Black Hole in the 1976-79 timeframe .. but it says 1981 is the date it came out.

By 1981, I was interested in other things. Well. More seriously pursuing other things.

So what WAS that dang game we beat up so bad? Lists aren't helping. AArgh.


AA

 

[Aldwyn]

Right, I found some "high-end restorations" for like $18K! There was a sweet Twilight Zone one too, maybe the one you have? It's good to know a new one or a well restored one doesn't require much work if any.

Yep! To my knowledge, only one TZ was made, though you may see different modifications people made to it... slightly different color schemes, different clock or clock face (like I replaced my original clock with an LED with heat holes I drilled in the top), etc. but they are all aftermarket changes.

Suppose I should post a shot of mine:

 

[elswood]

I put enough quarters into Gorgar in the late 70's - early 80's that I could've just saved them and bought the real thing! There wasn't much else to do in my small town back then.

 

[Doc4]

This was my go-to ...

 

[esswun]

Yep! To my knowledge, only one TZ was made, though you may see different modifications people made to it... slightly different color schemes, different clock or clock face (like I replaced my original clock with an LED with heat holes I drilled in the top), etc. but they are all aftermarket changes.

Suppose I should post a shot of mine:

Nice. Love your score legend hehe.

 

[Aldwyn]

Nice. Love your score legend hehe.

That's my wife's! I love it... "5 balls... that's three more than most."

 

[Fawkes007]

I love Cyclone. The bar I worked at years ago had it. "Hey you with the face!"

Red Whale Coffee in San Rafael has a bank of pinball machines, including Cyclone!

 

[Sukeroku]

The 1978 Bally Playboy pinball machine...a classic.

 

[shavefan]

I'm no pinball wizard, and never realy got into them much, but there was a bar in Del Mar that my buddy and I would frequent in the early 90's and it had a Diner pinball machine. We pumped a lot of quarters into that thing. Good times...

 

[Hydguy]

We had a jukebox and a pinball machine in the basement of the house we were renting when we moved to northern VA in '87. I spent hours down there listening to the jukebox ('50's, '60's 45s) and playing the pinball machine.
Eight Ball (not Delux) was the machine.

 

[The Knize]

Eight Ball (not Delux) was the machine.

I had forgotten the difference, but they are different! Bally!

 

[Mountain Grown]

1980 - The empire strikes back.. Lot's and lot's of rolls of quarters on this game..

 

[Hydguy]

1980 - The empire strikes back.. Lot's and lot's of rolls of quarters on this game..

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I used to work with James Earl Jones' brother in law (Bill's sister is EJE's wife). He has/had a SW pinball machine.
Got to meet him when he was doing something at the Kennedy Center back around '05. He stopped by the gun store we worked at, and spend a while there. He He is a very humble guy and took the time to talk to everyone who wanted to talk to him. He is also a collector of old Colt Single Action revolvers.
Funny story: When JEJ was asked to do the voice over, he was offered a lump sum, or a smaller lump sum with a % or residuals of toy sales. His agent told him that movies don't sell toys and to take the larger lump sum with no residuals. After the movie sold millions in toy sales, JEJ saw what a mistake that was, and got the residuals when he signed to do ESB. He lost out on a LOT more by taking the large lump sum.

 

[MyOldKentuckyHome]

Eight Ball (not Delux) was the machine.

I can still hear the machine scream “Eight Ball Deluxe” if I close my eyes and think of it.

It was at my favorite local restaurant growing up (Angilos Pizza in Cynthiana, KY - home of the “stromboli” which was really a meat hoagie with cheese, pizza sauce, and pickles).