New to pinball

[prock]

Hi all, stumbled on this forum as I was browsing the web looking for pinball resources. Just wanted to say hi and give you a little bit of my story. I recently got bit by the pinball bug and have been playing pinball wherever and whenever I can thanks to a PS3 game I purchased recently. It has some pretty cool tables like Tales of the Arabian Nights, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Black Hole, and Theatre of Magic. I find myself finding any excuse to turn on the PS3 to try and beat my wife's high score on Arabian Nights. Yes you heard me correct, my wife's high score.

In any case I've been trying really hard not to run out and purchase a real pinball machine on a whim. I'm somewhat electrically and mechanically inclined so a pinball machine would be a great fit for my interests (at least that's what I'm telling myself). I think if someone had Tales of the Arabian Nights for sale we might have picked it up but we couldn't find one for sale near here. That's probably a good thing because I think it would have been a bit out of our budget. I'm a bit more open minded when it comes to selecting a pinball machine and I would be okay with purchasing an older more affordable machine however my wife is a bit more picky and trying to convince her that an older machine can be fun as fun as Arabian Nights will be difficult. I've been trying to track down pinball machines in Winnipeg so we can try out a few which might help convince her otherwise. Unfortunately we are a bit late in the game and finding a pinball machine in good working order is proving to be difficult. We don't want to purchase something that we aren't going to fully enjoy playing as we don't have money to burn. Do you guys have any suggestions for tables that we might enjoy?

I've been keeping an eye on Kijiji for tables and this forum. Is there any other places I should keep an eye out for a pin? Have you guys had any luck with getting one shipped to you?

Okay that's enough questions for now. Thanks in advance!

[Malibu-ss]

Hi Prock and welcome to the forum and to pinball.
It is awesome that both you and your wife are enjoying playing pinball!

Tales of the Arabian Nights...that one is very hard to find........and not cheap anymore.It took me along time to find one,and I have only had mine about 6 months.

There are a lot of pinball machines that are just as fun as Tales.
Games like Terminator 2,Fish Tales,Congo,World Cup Soccer,Jurassic Park...etc I could go on as there are many that are also fun to play.
Actually I have enjoyed most pinball machines that I have played...they all seem fun to me..its all personal taste

My advice to you is try and buy a machine that is fully working and then learn on that game fixing the little things that can go wrong first.
Once you buy one,it will be hard to stop.LOL

As for shipping a pinball machine.......there is a lot of junk out there so be careful.....its best to play the machine and see the machine in person.

I have a few games on Kijiji for sale Fire,Arena and Silver Slugger....they are not Tales but they are each fun in there own way.

You could try Intercity Leisure and see if Darryl has any games left...but I do not think he has much left.

If you do not mind traveling......Minneapolis has a lot of machines for sale and is close enough to drive
You could try Al at Pinball Warehouse
http://www.pinballwarehouse.com/pinballs.htm

He has a lot of nice games that are priced pretty decent.

You could also check out Craigslist,there is always something popping up in Minni for sale

Hope this answers some of your questions
Rick

[prock]

I managed to find myself a Williams High Speed in decent shape for fairly cheap.. It's 100% in working condition and plays like pretty much like new. I have a few little tweaks I'd like to do but for the most part it plays well. It's 1:00am and I just shut it down for the night. Very fun game.

There is some wood showing through the paint on some of the playfield. I know it's pretty common in games of this age so it doesn't really bother me. What I'd like to do is protect it from getting worse. It looks like someone had put a thin layer of plastic on parts of the playfield at some point which seems to have worked. Does the plastic affect the play at all I wonder?

I'm also thinking about giving the playfield a good cleaning and waxing. I hear that nova 2 is the way to go for cleaning. What about wax? What do you guys use? Will the wax help protect the playfield from further wear?

[Malibu-ss]

congrats s on your first game.If that is the one that was on Kijiji that used to my friend Daves machine.

You can use what they call Mylar on the wear spots,which is not really removable later on.The only place I know that you can buy Mylar is from pinball suppliers in the US.
Or you can use a product called Avery Self Adhesive Laminating Sheet which is removable and available at Staples
As for affecting game play.....they say is does,but I have never noticed

For cleaning Novus 2 works well and is available in Winnipeg at Pal Plastic at 1917 Logan Ave.They also carry Novus 1&3.Novus 1 can be used to clean plastics.Novus 3 I would not use

As for wax I use Mothers Pure Carnuba Wax and it is available at Parts Source.It will help protect the playfield and it will make the game play a little faster.

[Bay78]

Yep, used to be my machine. Welcome to the hobby and if you need any help just let any of us know and we'd love to help

[prock]

Great! Now I can say I know where it came from. Where did you get it from? I'm just curious to hear what sort of travels this game had. I think it must have come from the states since it only accepts american quarters.

[Bay78]

Believe it or not it came from an operator in Winnipeg and the machine was in terrible shape when I got it. I spent a lot of time and money on it getting it to how it looks now.

[prock]

A Winnipeg operator? Weird... In any case thanks for fixing this one up man cause it's great fun to play. I have a line on a NOS playfield for it but the guy wants $1250 USD plus shipping for it. I'd so love to drop the coin on it but I'm having a hard time justifying it. He says it's flat and mint condition.... must..... resist. What I'll probably end up doing is finding another playfield that is in a little better condition than this one and restore it and clearcoat it while I can continue to play this one... but a NOS playfield... damn.

[Malibu-ss]

They are redoing the playfield here.Alot cheaper than $1250.00

http://www.classicplayfields.com/order.html

I have 2 of there playfields now.they do nice work

[Bay78]

I just finished my first playfield swap. I did my Star Trek the Next Generation and it was a BIG job. In total the whole thing took me close to 60 hours! But....... it sure does look nice now!

[prock]

Yeah I signed up for the repro of a High Speed playfield there. Hopefully they do a production run sometime soon. In the mean time I'm going to grab a cheap playfield from ebay and practice my painting and clearcoating skills. Think I might attempt a automotive clearcoat.

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