Funny, Strange, Random Pics
- Thread starter Wintermute
- Start date
When I was like in 7th grade my dad bought my brothers and I the Mousing Around Pinball machine for Christmas. We played the shit out of it, but god damn was it loud in the house. Eventually, we just unplugged it because it would randomly scream "Hey, wanna mouse around?" at 2 a.m. and give you a heart attack.
Also, one of my favorites was the Freddie Kruger pinball machine this local bar had.
Also, one of my favorites was the Freddie Kruger pinball machine this local bar had.
How you people have missed one of the best tables ever created is beyond me...
If I ever win/make a lot of money I am creating a pinball rec room and buying up and refurbishing every table I can find.
If I ever win/make a lot of money I am creating a pinball rec room and buying up and refurbishing every table I can find.
Gamma Rays
Large sized member
- 3,958
- 9,474
That outrun pinball was really cool. You used to get multiple balls going into the loop at the top that was supposed to be a supercharger belt. The balls would zing around at speed.
Also the point of the game was to build up speed (car speed) and you'd change up the gears as you went. Really good fun.
- - - - - -
Here's another pinball from an earlier time still. The early 80s, Centaur. "Destroy Centaur!" it would call out when it was in stand-by mode.
When you played it, it would verbally challenge you and insult you when you lost the ball down the side, all pretty good for the day.
Also the point of the game was to build up speed (car speed) and you'd change up the gears as you went. Really good fun.
- - - - - -
Here's another pinball from an earlier time still. The early 80s, Centaur. "Destroy Centaur!" it would call out when it was in stand-by mode.
When you played it, it would verbally challenge you and insult you when you lost the ball down the side, all pretty good for the day.
All this pinball nostalgia made me think back to the 'rich' family on our block growing up, the dad had a bad ass workshop and was always building one thing or another from the Popular Mechanics projects section. One day he rolled out an Air Hockey table he made from scratch bigger than a full sized pool table. They stocked good shit in there fridge too. That house was kid heaven.
Royal
Connoisseur of Exotic Pictures
- 15,077
- 10,641
I think she's just there to give them snacks. That's why they're playing in the kitchen, cause she can't leave the room.
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 42,505
- 50,701
Kithani
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 1,069
- 1,339
Does anyone happen to know how realistic it is to try and repair old pinball machines these days? I've got a Star Wars machine that I got for Christmas as a child but it doesn't work now 15 years later (when I try to turn it on it tries to boot up and never does). Whenever I looked around on the internet about fixing it it almost felt like I would need an electrical engineering degree to even get started.
Depends on what is broken about it. They aren't particularly complex from a component standpoint, but if your MoBo is fried, you aren't going to fix that with your bare hands.
Gamma Rays
Large sized member
- 3,958
- 9,474
Okay, I did work on servicing pinball machines during the mid 90's, I never did have any electrical degree, but I was trained quite well before starting and also had other experienced managers etc to ask if I got stuck. The bulk of pinball repair came down to fixing the effects of wear and tear, from heavy use. 9 times out of ten you could find the problem by eye. See the loose wire or broken part and then its a removal and soldering job. So a bunch of spare parts is needed.
But like I said that was 9 tenths of the time. The other tenth got harder. There were even times when we needed to remove and replace chips out of the big circuit boards up behind the main display. You needed to trace the issue back using the big schematics in the manuals (hope you have that).
Now to your problem, not being very familiar with the machine makes it a bit hard. It could be as simple as the power supply isn't putting out enough current. We did need to replace those things quite often, they run for hours a day for years and it slowly kills them. So the pinball machine might look like it's starting up, lights & fans will come on, but the low current will make it so the board can never power up fully. If you can get (borrow) a multimeter and check that the power is a solid 5V, put one connector on the earth and the other on one of the 5V DC outputs at the power supply (manual will tell you which is which - if you have no manual it's likely raised letters on the power supply, as long as you're only touching with the multimeter connectors you can't damage anything machine-wise.
THIS IS IMPORTANT - Be careful though that you're only touching the output part of the power supply. This will be the only work to do inside the machine with any power running, lean in and touch the connectors to the output side of the power supply and touch nothing else. The danger is only where the mains supply runs into the cabinet, but you've got to be careful. For all other work have the machine turned off and remove the power cord from the mains supply. Totally remove the outside power supply. Why?? A simple thing like dropping a small screw when you're working on some other part of the machine. You think damn, and reach down to pick it up without looking where it's sitting. So totally remove mains power.
A new power supply should be find-able on Ebay I guess.
If the power supply is good then its possible that the issue 'failure to start up' is due to some kind of diagnostic test, that is failing due to some problem. Which could be anything, still it could be visually seen, have a good look about (get right in there with a torch) and use the multimeter to check that you're getting continuity (tracing the wires back through the system). Sort of a big job, perhaps be methodical and go through bit by bit. Good luck with that.
Oh and pic for the FSR gods.
- 41,534
- 178,117
- 41,534
- 178,117