How did you all get started?

[QuyN]

For sure! My wife and I (sans kids) are heading out to Alt to have a beer and play a few, if you're free this afternoon. I think we're heading out around 3 or 4, kinda early I know, but we have to take the time when we can. Our gracious friend offered to babysit for us! Anyone else is obviously invited too

I know there's a tournament at Schwoegler's tonight.

[cad-kid]

I started thinking about owning a pin in 2004. I didn't know anyone that owned them. After some research on the web to figure out if I could repair one I found Clay's site. This site was in layman's terms on how the electronics worked, what usually went wrong, recommended tools and supplies to get them working, and testing procedures. I started my search on the Mr Pinball website by looking at the collector register for someone local I could ask about machines for sale. It turned out the first person whom I chose had a Fire Power that was sitting in his garage (non working).

My life hasn't been the same since

[Compute]

A family friend growing up had an old electromechanical that he let me work on a couple times. Cleaning and little stuff. From there I wanted a pin, and bought an Aztec from a guy down the street when I was 18. I couldn't drive yet so we just wheeled it 4 blocks on an appliance dolly.

Nowadays my budget is not amazing, but I have found by networking one can put together a few games for not too much. Some day I'll spend over $1k on a game. To get those prices you need to roll the dice, though. Right place, right time. That said, everything I buy needs work. System 11 and similar Era games still seem to be a sweet spot. They can be had relatively cheap, have fun themes, and it'seems not hard to find help.

[Eric_S]

I got into the hobby in 2004. When I was younger, 12-14 years old, pinball was in the DMD renaissance. I remember playing games like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Addams Family and Rocky & Bullwinkle, but my all-time favorite was Twilight Zone. I graduated from college in spring of 2003 and had some disposable cash, so I bought Twilight Zone from a guy that ran a company called Pins Plus in Germantown for $2500. I figured one game would be it, but heck, a month later I had a project Sinbad, then a Cybernaut a month after that, so the hobby got out of control fast. I'm fortunate to have an engineering background and did a lot of circuit board troubleshooting and repair as a college intern, so that has served me well in this hobby.

[Hilton]

For sure! My wife and I (sans kids) are heading out to Alt to have a beer and play a few, if you're free this afternoon. I think we're heading out around 3 or 4, kinda early I know, but we have to take the time when we can. Our gracious friend offered to babysit for us! Anyone else is obviously invited too

I know there's a tournament at Schwoegler's tonight.

Just saw this now. We were at Alt for dinner and drinks but not till 530 or so. Bummed we missed you. next time...

[Fortytwo]

I have always hosted a friends NYE party. My first year married and in a new home I built a mame station (2003). This was on two trash cans with a home built MDF controll panel. Exposed wires and everything. It was a hit, and I fell in love with coin-op arcade. Buy the next year I had it in a cabinet. I wanted a pinball but seemed so far out of reach, actually passed on a creature cheap when buying empty arcade cabinets. I got a broke bad boards no flippers ss Hot Tip for $100. Spent months learning shopping board work flipper work etc.
Had it working by New Year's Eve. Since then I have added or had at least one new games by NYE. Always have been my goal to have he games in the best shape for the party. I now have many more, enjoy fixing as much as playing.

Advice, buy a cheap 1k or less solid state game. Play it, update and shop it. Keep it nice. Buy one or two this old pinball movies. Learn what you like and don't like from that game. Do you hate Bally boards, Williams? For a casual player having two or Bree 80s games goes a lot farther than one 90s game. I keep my pinball money separate to buy a game, shop supplies I buy normally.

This hobby offers many different areas you can parcipate in. Repair, tournamates, restoration, playfeild and cabinet art, buy and sel. Your choice what you enjoy the most.

[DeaconBlooze]

I started by trying to find a cheap machine with some staying power. I was ready for a project to start, but I don't think that's an approach I'd recommend to someone just starting out for the same reason others have mentioned.

I finally landed a well-played Flash for a good deal in September about 5 years ago. It was playing, but not particularly well, and needed some work. I took some time to do a shop job shortly after getting it. I learned a lot in doing that. Taking them apart can be intimidating, but doing it slowly and with the aid of a lot of pictures can quickly give you a lot of confidence early on.

I attended Pinball Expo for the first time just about a month after getting my first machine. I went with the intent of playing everything I possibly could to get a better idea of how all the machines I'd been reading about actually played. I focused mostly on the early SS or alpha numeric games, since that was the type of price range I would be looking for my next game.

I wanted a PinBot from day 1. I never thought I'd actually get one. At the time I felt it was too expensive to justify. I landed one in December of that same year. My life situation changed as I started making some more money, and I more disposable income. There was a TSPP that I played daily at Schwoegler's. It stopped functioning correctly. I contacted the operator, and they didn't seem all that interested in repairing it, and said that pinball was really such a small part of their business, but required so much up keep. I decided to make an offer, and they surprisingly accepted. I now had my 3rd game in January. It needed some serious work, and I took it apart almost immediately. It cleaned up well, and I eventually sold it to finance part of my first NIB purchase of ACDC Premium.

By that time I was constantly looking for machines. I never needed anything to be in perfect condition, so I was searching for those that had been played and needed a shop job, or non-working projects. I got them cleaned up, and some of them have stayed. I was searching and buying for probably about 3-4 years pretty regularly. In the past couple years I've slowed down substantially. There are still machines I'd like to own, but I'm not actively searching as I once was. Now I'm tapped out for space at 13. I did have machines in my living areas upstairs at one point, but that annoyed my wife.

Most people seem to go through that cycle -- a slow start, a buying frenzy, and then a cooldown. I think it's a great hobby, but it can easily run away from you at times. It's great to have other friends in the hobby so you have someone you're comfortable doing temporary trades with, or jumping over to play a different collection.


---

I get wanting a couple of specific titles, and the ones you've picked are great games.. On the other hand, I've often thought about how I wished I would have started grabbing almost anything when I was starting, rather than trying to build a collection of keepers. The reason for that is, once you have a machine you really want to keep, it makes bringing in other machines much more difficult. Now you're stuck trying to figure out if you should get rid of one of your keepers, or keep a static collection. I think it would be more fun to just rotate through games freely until you start finding games that you want to keep.

[Hilton]

just to let it be know. Decon is talking about a previous operator at Schwoeglers We keep all out games running swell!

[Cloud7]

just to let it be know. Decon is talking about a previous operator at Schwoeglers We keep all out games running swell!

Yes! The machines at Schwoeglers are in amazing condition!! My friends and I drove up from the Racine area just to play them!! Had a blast!!

[Hilton]

just to let it be know. Decon is talking about a previous operator at Schwoeglers We keep all out games running swell!

Yes! The machines at Schwoeglers are in amazing condition!! My friends and I drove up from the Racine area just to play them!! Had a blast!!

Thanks! We try our darndest to bring in good machines and keep them running well.

[QuyN]

just to let it be know. Decon is talking about a previous operator at Schwoeglers We keep all out games running swell!

Yes! The machines at Schwoeglers are in amazing condition!! My friends and I drove up from the Racine area just to play them!! Had a blast!!

Thanks! We try our darndest to bring in good machines and keep them running well.

The machines at Alt, Pooley's, and Schwoegler's are all in top notch condition. I played AFM the other night and though I was playing a new pin! It was amazing, hadn't played it in years!

There's a CL ad for a Data East Simpsons in Verona. Have any of you played it? What do you think? Looking to possibly check it out, since the price is in the ball park of where I'm comfortable. Is the seller a member here?

[Hilton]

Thanks Quy!

That DEsimpsons is a fun game but quickly becomes about just the left ramp when playing for points. I personally would not be interested in it, but that does not mean you wont like it. I would highly suggest playing one before buying (I would suggest that for any game).

The seller is a guy by the name of Don. I am not sure if he is a memmber here, but Don is well known in these parts. Don is a good guy but typically does some things to games that are not super desirable form a collector/restorers perspective. He is known to slightly melt ramps/plastics when 'flame polishing', he is known to clearcoat games with rattlecan clear and not correctly prep the area or sometimes even clear over mylar, he tends to use super cheap LEDs and most find they need switched out to a better quality. Again, Don is a good guy, but I find his work to be less than desirable and in some cases he has completely ruined machines from a collectibility point of view.

Midwest gaming classic is just around the corner > www.midwestgamingclassic.com Apr 7-9th. I personally would suggest to start squirreling away funds, plan on a day of playing pins all day long on Saturday (leave the younguns at home so you can focus on just playing), and then possibly making a purchase if you find something you like. There will be lots of other locals at the show and many of us would be happy to look over a game with you and provide our advice/opinion. In past years this has seemed to be an effective way for many to buy their first game.

I am always happy to go along and check out a game if there is something local you are interested.

Heck, when you get some pinball repair skills under your belt I am happy to even loan you a game to clean up and then keep/play for 6 months (I have more games than i can fit and have done this with a few different locals in the past once they have the skills).

[QuyN]

Thanks Quy!

That DEsimpsons is a fun game but quickly becomes about just the left ramp when playing for points. I personally would not be interested in it, but that does not mean you wont like it. I would highly suggest playing one before buying (I would suggest that for any game).

The seller is a guy by the name of Don. I am not sure if he is a memmber here, but Don is well known in these parts. Don is a good guy but typically does some things to games that are not super desirable form a collector/restorers perspective. He is known to slightly melt ramps/plastics when 'flame polishing', he is known to clearcoat games with rattlecan clear and not correctly prep the area or sometimes even clear over mylar, he tends to use super cheap LEDs and most find they need switched out to a better quality. Again, Don is a good guy, but I find his work to be less than desirable and in some cases he has completely ruined machines from a collectibility point of view.

Midwest gaming classic is just around the corner > http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com Apr 7-9th. I personally would suggest to start squirreling away funds, plan on a day of playing pins all day long on Saturday (leave the younguns at home so you can focus on just playing), and then possibly making a purchase if you find something you like. There will be lots of other locals at the show and many of us would be happy to look over a game with you and provide our advice/opinion. In past years this has seemed to be an effective way for many to buy their first game.

I am always happy to go along and check out a game if there is something local you are interested.

Heck, when you get some pinball repair skills under your belt I am happy to even loan you a game to clean up and then keep/play for 6 months (I have more games than i can fit and have done this with a few different locals in the past once they have the skills).

Thanks for the advice and the notes. Yes, this is Don that is selling. I don't really care for taking shortcuts when performing any kind of job. I always like to do it right, and to take my time doing it. And if I can't figure it out, to find someone that can. I will look into the MGC and plan a trip, either alone or with my wife. We would definitely leave the kids at home, with a sitter. I think what I'll do is take a look at his game, and very closely inspect it, and look for signs of the things you mentioned. As far as skills go, i obviously don't have anything to "practice" or work on, but I would be open to spending a couple hours when you are working on something, to observe and learn. I'm a car guy, so tools are definitely not foreign to me. I could use a bit of practice soldering, but I can learn anything. I'll definitely take you up on that offer!

[Fortytwo]

Quy,
Why don't you pick up that Gorgar project Eric_s advertised for $600. Its an early solid state, you will definitely learn solder and board diagnostic skills. But not have a lot into it to start a good shop. Plus its a popular enough game where pictures and finding others with the game for advise wont hurt.
Williams system 6 isnt that hard to work with and it is the first talking pinball released. Plus i know theres alot of experience working on those boards here. And being williams not gottlieb, the manuals and roms are easily downloadable. I will also say again look into the "this old pinball" videos. get one that focuses on the era of game you get or want.

Just my 2 cents.

[Hilton]

I agree that the Gorgar Eric has cuold be a GREAT started game for you Quy!

Cheap and a great classic to learn on. It is also a VERY tough game that will take some time to perfect.

Worse case is that you get it running, find you are bored with it, and will likely be able to sell it for what you have into it.