Funny Pinball Stories ...

[BigDaddyBanjo]

Hi Everyone,

I found this site the other day (http://www.flippers.be/learn.html). It is full of funny anecdotal stories from other pin collectors of things that happened along the way in the hobby. Here is one of my favorites:

2012-02-01: Entertaining shot.. by Bob.
Bought a Roy Clark the Entertainer. The stupidity does not end there.
I discovered a whole big bunch of hacks, one of which was the coil stop was missing on one of the flipper coils and it had been replaced with...wait for it...beer coasters.
Basically disassembled the flipper mechanism and made a list of parts to search for. I had an Allied Leisure parts game at the time, so there was hope. Didn't do anything with the machine for a while, and completely forgot about the flipper disassembly.
I got the game to boot up a week or two later, and was playing a test ball while kneeling in front of the game. The coin door was open. Can you guess what's coming? Yep, hit the flipper button, and the coil shot the disconnected plunger through the open door, right into the jewels.

It made me think that I would love to hear from you guys of the various things you have run into/done along the way:

Here is one from me...

I am always looking to learn from other more experienced PinHeads about how to do various repairs etc. I had a badly acid damaged board and one of the guys in our gang down here says to me "What I do is put the board in the dishwasher and run a cycle, cleans em right up". Thinking this is one of the best ideas I have ever heard I waited until my wife was gone on an errand (because getting permission to put pinball parts in the dishwasher wasn't going to happen) and threw it in set to "normal" and went out to clean the garage. An hour later I open the door and knew I was in huge trouble when the smell hit me. I hadn't thought to cancel the heated drying cycle of the dishwasher and the board heated up enough to peal 1/3 of the green mask off! I also noticed that the relay casing on the board was now full of water. Amazingly, I drained the water from the casing and used a couple of bottles of fingernail polish to replace the mask and the board worked fine afterwards! (BTW: When my wife got home I was able to blame the smell on a lamp in the corner that I had always hated anyway and we threw it out...please don't tell her the truth )

[cad-kid]

Good stories, I will have to check out that site. Thanks for posting it

[DeaconBlooze]

When my wife got home I was able to blame the smell on a lamp in the corner that I had always hated anyway and we threw it out...please don't tell her the truth )

WELL PLAYED!!

[ralphwiggum]

I hadn't thought to cancel the heated drying cycle of the dishwasher and the board heated up enough to peal 1/3 of the green mask off! .

Note to self... When sharing tips with Garrett, make sure you tell him EVERYTHING.... LOL


I have a recent one that involved Mike S.....

He and I were at Chris S.' about 6 weeks ago while Chris was out on the road. We were pumped to play Metallica, fired the game up, and it said "ball missing"..... We both looked around the playfield for a solid 5 minutes looking to see where the ball may be stuck so we could start playing. Neither of us could find the missing ball. We turned the machine off and came back to it later, fired it up... same message. Looked around a little more, still couldn't find the ball, then after a step back and a moment of clarity we finally saw that all the ramps and Sparky were removed from the game. We stared at that machine for a good 10 minutes total and it never dawned on either of us that it was missing half of the stuff on there.

[noncommittaldave]

My BSD made U2Sean bleed. Not real funny ( i felt bad) but it is odd that dracula bit someone.

[ralphwiggum]

My BSD made U2Sean bleed once.

?????????????

[noncommittaldave]

My BSD made U2Sean bleed once.

?????????????

"We" had the playfield up and he bumped into something under the playfield and gashed his head. The only thing "funny" about it is that it happened on Dracula. He claims that is the only time he's been bitten by a game. Once again, sorry about that, Sean! Did it leave a scar?

[u2sean]

Did it leave a scar?

Yup - emotionally scarred for life. And now everyone knows. Thanks for opening up that wound again. I still remember Dave saying "ooohhh....Drac bit you!" It was pretty funny, actually. Maybe that's why I don't care much for that game.

[ralphwiggum]

Did it leave a scar?

Yup - emotionally scarred for life. And now everyone knows. Thanks for opening up that wound again. I still remember Dave saying "ooohhh....Drac bit you!" It was pretty funny, actually. Maybe that's why I don't care much for that game.

I am curious to see what happens to you if Dave lifts the hood on a Playboy machine for you....

[DeaconBlooze]

Speaking of the misfortunes of the Spindler's, that reminds me of Ryan's battle with my ceiling.

I was hosting Madison league. Most people were finding their way into the basement. I got down there a little late and saw most people playing games, but Ryan was in a kneeling position with his head on my pool table. I didn't really know what he was doing, maybe some occult ritual? maybe he's just psyching himself up?

It turned out he was recovering. I have a soffit about midway across my basement to accommodate duct work. Ryan and Sean were talking as they headed towards my games, building up some decent speed. Being a normal sized human, Sean safely navigated my basement without issue, but Ryan caught the top of his forehead square on the soffit without ever noticing it.

Sorry about that Ryan!

[noncommittaldave]

Did it leave a scar?

Yup - emotionally scarred for life. And now everyone knows. Thanks for opening up that wound again. I still remember Dave saying "ooohhh....Drac bit you!" It was pretty funny, actually. Maybe that's why I don't care much for that game.

I am curious to see what happens to you if Dave lifts the hood on a Playboy machine for you....

The world will never know unless someone drops a free one off at my house.

[u2sean]

I guess that Ryan and I are always willing to take a few lumps so that you'll have good stories for later on. I remember Ryan nailing his head. We were walking and talking and then all of a sudden...he was just missing and I continued to walk forward, seemingly talking to myself. Looked back and saw him in his recovery position! Glad I'm not feakishly tall.

[Methos]

Got plenty of my own, but one of my favorites is when I first met Pauly at the first Mad Rolling Pinball. He took the pf glass off of JD, put it on the floor and it slid all the way down. I just happend to look over and I would never have ever thought glass could just disintergrate like that.

Worked out for me as I traded him a spare WB piece of glass for a STTNG board repair he did for me.

My own stories deal mostly with almost breaking my back getting an F-14 out of a guys basement. This was my "first time" and I didn't realize how heavy they were.

[Hilton]

Recent one that I found funny.

There was a Dr.Dude on ebay and I think it was in WI somewhere. I contacted the guy and attempted to work out some sort of deal off ebay. He was thinking of going for the deal but then backed out the day before it was going to end and wanted to let it ride.

Auction ended and Mike S messages me to tell me he just missed out on a Dude on eba as it went higher then what he would pay. I laugh and tell him that I was working on it also. Later that week we find out yet another MadCity Flipper is the guy that bought it... Take a wild guess who it is... ^^^^

[Methos]

Recent one that I found funny.

There was a Dr.Dude on ebay and I think it was in WI somewhere. I contacted the guy and attempted to work out some sort of deal off ebay. He was thinking of going for the deal but then backed out the day before it was going to end and wanted to let it ride.

Auction ended and Mike S messages me to tell me he just missed out on a Dude on eba as it went higher then what he would pay. I laugh and tell him that I was working on it also. Later that week we find out yet another MadCity Flipper is the guy that bought it... Take a wild guess who it is... ^^^^

So like 20% of the entire Mad City Pinball League bid on the same machine - go figure.