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Pinball Pool Restoration


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After my Joker Poker restoration turned out so well, I thought that I would go for another Gottlieb System 1 pin as I like that era.

 

In July last year, I saw that Tony from the pinball shed had a pinball pool for sale for $395 which I thought was a bargain, so I grabbed it.

 

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It needs quite a bit of work but that's what a project pin is all about.

 

The backglass was shot and I did try and source another one, but they are hard to find in good condition and the repro one was a bit expensive, so I made my own,

This was the thread regarding that part: https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/89536-Where-to-get-Backglass-glass-from-in-Sydney

 

Also, the playfield was a bit worn and I was expecting to spend a bit of time on that, but Dave @Fire_Power put one up for sale a few months ago, so I grabbed that.

It is in far better condition that my original one and is mylar protected. I put it on the rotisserie today and stripped it, gave it a quick novice 1 clean, and it looks good and should come up nice.

 

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The cabinet needs some body work, there is water damage at the front and back, so possibly a respray, not sure at this stage.

One of the rails is bent, but I have a spare set ready to go.

The legs were the wrong ones, as usual, but have sourced the correct ones now.

The coin door was fine, yeah.

The power board was missing but I'm replacing all the boards with a Pascal board, already purchased. I have one in my Joke Poker and it works great, no complaints.

 

I already have the targets and plastics, so I will put in an order next week to replace all the playfield bits and pieces.

So, even though I am only just starting, I have been accumulating parts for several months, so should hopefully make this a quicker restoration.

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I loved this machine. It took many a dollar off me.

 

Just something about it's simplicity.

 

One of those machines you can watch someone play and see straight away just how good they are at playing pinball.

 

With no shots hidden with an open playfield and quite apparent exactly what is needed, you need to be more than a "flapper' to beat this game.

 

Excellent choice of a machine to bring back and probably one of the best earners of it's time.

 

Small drop target coils to auto drop the targets burn out a bit on this machine but nothing to worry about. 5 ball setting doesn't even use them or at worst not every one of them.

 

I hope she comes up good for you.

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Will be following this thread, your playfield looks to be in nice shape.

 

I'm also restoring a Pinball Pool as well.. well i have been "on and off" for the last seven years anyway, hence my interest in this thread.

I only just recently started back on mine again, cabinet was resprayed about five years ago, starting on the playfield which isn't quite as good as yours!

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Good to see it’s coming along Trevor. I’m glad you got that other playfield from Dave, that saves so much time. Pinball pool is probably the only other system gottlieb I would get, or maybe Cleopatra. That would make six. All target games. Yeahhhh

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I loved this machine. It took many a dollar off me.

 

Just something about it's simplicity.

 

One of those machines you can watch someone play and see straight away just how good they are at playing pinball.

 

That's a really good point. I've been playing Game of Thrones a lot lately. That machine has a really complex rule set. I enjoy it because it's a rule set that is really well balanced, and there are many different strategies to get a high score, all with different risk/reward trade-offs.

 

The down-side is that pinball machines such as Game of Thrones seem to be "dishonest" in a sense. Basically, if I don't spend the time to learn the rule set and know exactly what to do in different situations, I don't stand a chance against a player who does know these things, even though, technically, that person may not be as good a player as me (as far as flipper and nudging skills are concerned).

 

So, in many ways, older machines are more "honest". If I walk up to, say, Trident, and I have never seen it before, I can just start playing and pretty much figure out how the machine works in five minutes flat. Thereafter, it's a battle between me and the machine, without any trickery that involves me spending hours of time reading rule sheets, watch video tutorials, or learning some obscure advantage that I get only if I combine the right modes with multi-ball at the right time in a "just so" way.

 

One of the things I realised early on when I got into competitive pinball was that, to be a good player, I need to have the rule sets of something like one hundred-plus machines in my head. Otherwise, I don't stand a chance. It's both a blessing (because it's a challenge) and a curse (because it de-emphasises mechanical skill.)

 

Pinball has gone more and more intellectual since the early nineties, and the more recent the machine, the more intellect I need. TNA is a refreshing exception…

 

Michi.

Edited by Michi
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You probably hit the reason kids these days simply aren't interested in pinball.

 

While deep rules sets are what a household owner of a machine wants so as to not get bored with the same machine in quick time, the kid on the street has little time to learn that is why they spend $1 a go to try and get one ball in one hole on a redemption machine.

 

Simplicity was the key to machines like Pinball Pool.

 

Quick accurate shooting with nothing in the way of the required shots.

 

Simple but challenging enough for the player but extremely easy for the first timer to know exactly what is expected of him.

 

Rules....Knock down the targets for extra ball....Targets and ABC lights specials. ABC gives multiplier. That's it.

 

As for Game of Thrones I have absolutely no idea on the rules and if I have no idea you can only imagine how little interest a new player would have in learning them before they put in a coin.

 

Interestingly, two of my mates and I that play pinball regularly and have since we were kids played a Lord Of The Rings in a bowling center were able to continuously get free games out of it yet none of us knew the rules and just played with the intention of "keep the ball long enough and games will follow", and it worked.

 

What I will say is I think the pinballs of today are in general faster as in ball speed and less stop time but are far less brutal as in quick to rob.

 

Maybe they are slowing them down a bit to allow for our older age and substantially slower reflexes.;)

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What I will say is I think the pinballs of today are in general faster as in ball speed and less stop time but are far less brutal as in quick to rob.

 

Maybe they are slowing them down a bit to allow for our older age and substantially slower reflexes.;)

 

I think it's a commercial reality. Think about a machine such as Flash Gordon, Trident or, heaven forbid, Magnotron. I put in a dollar for three balls. I plunge and, less than five seconds later, the first ball has gone STDM, without me having gotten a flipper on it. I plunge two more balls, and the same thing happens. Game Over. How many dollars will I put into that machine?

 

Manufacturers did learn that lesson. The ball saver was born of that dilemma. The add-a-ball feature was born of it, too: "What, you mean, I had to work for a whole three minutes to earn the right to start that multi-ball, and you think it's OK to take that away from me in three seconds flat?" (See Grand Lizard and various other machines from that period.) And, all the while, operators are bitching about the machines getting more expensive and the ball times getting longer, meaning that they much rather put two arcade machines in the space taken up by one pinball machine, with earnings that are far higher (because, for some obscure reason, people accept a video game that is over after 30 seconds much more easily than a pinball game that is over after 30 seconds…)

 

So we end up with machines such as Spiderman, Twilight Zone, and Wizard of Oz. Where, at times, I find myself thinking during game play that I wish the game would end. Because, after ten minutes or more, it just becomes plain boring.

 

There is an element of gambling in pinball. The rush in gambling comes from the quick and easy way to "try again". (See slot machines. You get to try again every, what, seven seconds or so?)

 

If "trying again" means that I might potentially spend another ten minutes only to learn that I didn't do better than last time, how many times am I going to try again?

 

The endorphin release frequency of modern machines is too low…

 

Michi.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

PS: I believe the above is the main reason for why TNA is such a successful machine. It's honest and rewards the player more often per hour.

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That's a really good point. I've been playing Game of Thrones a lot lately. That machine has a really complex rule set. I enjoy it because it's a rule set that is really well balanced, and there are many different strategies to get a high score, all with different risk/reward trade-offs.

 

The down-side is that pinball machines such as Game of Thrones seem to be "dishonest" in a sense. Basically, if I don't spend the time to learn the rule set and know exactly what to do in different situations, I don't stand a chance against a player who does know these things, even though, technically, that person may not be as good a player as me (as far as flipper and nudging skills are concerned).

 

So, in many ways, older machines are more "honest". If I walk up to, say, Trident, and I have never seen it before, I can just start playing and pretty much figure out how the machine works in five minutes flat. Thereafter, it's a battle between me and the machine, without any trickery that involves me spending hours of time reading rule sheets, watch video tutorials, or learning some obscure advantage that I get only if I combine the right modes with multi-ball at the right time in a "just so" way.

 

One of the things I realised early on when I got into competitive pinball was that, to be a good player, I need to have the rule sets of something like one hundred-plus machines in my head. Otherwise, I don't stand a chance. It's both a blessing (because it's a challenge) and a curse (because it de-emphasises mechanical skill.)

 

Pinball has gone more and more intellectual since the early nineties, and the more recent the machine, the more intellect I need. TNA is a refreshing exception…

 

Michi.

 

I agree with you i like the older machines they level the playing field they give people like myself (with my below average skills) who arnt able to play the moden games once every couple of days to learn the ruleset a chance

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The endorphin release frequency of modern machines is too low…

 

PS: I believe the above is the main reason for why TNA is such a successful machine. It's honest and rewards the player more often per hour.

 

Correct and TNA I thought would be a killer machine. Simplicity and an open playfield.

 

A super fast single level machine that reminded me so much of FirePower with a few more features like in line drop targets with a twist and finally no mandatory cluster of 3 bumpers shoved in an area of the playfield that score virtually nothing and appear to put in solely for the sack of being able to say, "there are the bumpers" when the playfield of such machines would probably have been better with no bumpers leaving the playfield a lttle less cluttered.

 

Honestly 3 bumpers jammed in is getting ridiculous. If your going to use them like that leave them off the playfield I say.

 

It was cool on Space Station and that vintage machines because the score did help and the machine's weren't cluttered but bumpers underneath other stuff so you can't even see them like is so common these days, just leave them out and open the machines up a bit.

 

Let the ball move around not just in narrow lanes. Bring back the open playfields where being a good shot counts I think.

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  • 6 months later...

It's been just over a year since I bought this project pin, so after some health issues and now finally getting the Lawman finished, it's time to start.

 

The backglass was trashed so I made one in a separate thread last year https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/89536-Where-to-get-Backglass-glass-from-in-Sydney

 

so now to start on the cabinet.

 

I removed everything from the cabinet, including the side rails, and its in worse shape than I thought.

 

The front has a bit of water damage and delamination, should be able to fix that alright.

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The back is a shocker, water damage up to about 10" in and affecting the back and both sides. The paint is the only thing holding it all together.

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Even the wood under the headbox mount (I think that's what its called) is rotten and the previous owner has glued it onto the cabinet as the screws that should have held in on were screwed into rotted wood.

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I have only been using builders bog to fix minor issues before, but this is out of that area and will need serious rebuilding.

I'm not quite sure how to proceed with this at the moment, maybe look for another cabinet to start with? Not sure if I'd have much luck but i'll put out a wanted thread and see what happens.

 

In the meantime, I might work on the stencil as I'm going to need one which ever way I go.

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I’d be getting a donor cab or using what you’ve got as a template to build an new cab or even get a carpenter to at least cut the pieces out for you to build a new cab.

The machine I was almost going to get before I grabbed the Funland and are still thinking about getting needs the same thing done the cabs a mess

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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No bites looking for a donor cab, no surprise there, so I have decided to learn a bit of carpentry and try and fix the damage myself.

 

I have a couple of gift vouchers from Bunnings, so I'm looking to buy a biscuit joiner and a plunge router as that seems to be what I'll need (I think).

I see that Ozito has some cheap stuff on offer, maybe go the mid price range with Ryobi?.

 

Not having used these before any suggestions on what to buy or features that would be good?

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No bites looking for a donor cab, no surprise there, so I have decided to learn a bit of carpentry and try and fix the damage myself.

 

I have a couple of gift vouchers from Bunnings, so I'm looking to buy a biscuit joiner and a plunge router as that seems to be what I'll need (I think).

I see that Ozito has some cheap stuff on offer, maybe go the mid price range with Ryobi?.

 

Not having used these before any suggestions on what to buy or features that would be good?

 

go with ryobi mate, all my power and battery stuff is ryobi. never, ever had a problem with them.

 

ozito is okay and seeing you only have one job maybe go with that? not as accurate as ryobi.

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  • 3 months later...

I have started working on the cabinet, and with my new found skills, I have rebuilt the back of the cabinet. Many thanks to my new biscuit joiner and router.

 

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I have also started with the bondo to fill in the gap and make it smooth.

Next job to fix up the front which has some bad delamination.

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The bondo work has been done and it looks good, the paint will hide the evidence :)

 

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Now starting on the front.

Unfortunately the delamination was too bad so I have removed 2 layers of the ply and I will replace it, after a trip to Bunnings.

 

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I will probably have to wait till after xmas now.

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Nice job so far! Hope the joins don't show up under your paintwork, they can be harder to hide than you might think (I found out the hard way on a couple of cabs over the years repairing them the same way as you have done). The joins can look and feel seamless but can show after the primer and/or paint goes on! I've found the quality of filler used to conceal the joins makes a lot of difference.. i used to use Builders Bog until i found out it shrinks so much.. i use Selleys Plasti-bond now.. it's more expensive but works a LOT better so its worth the extra expense. Its also good practice to let a primered cabinet sit for a couple of weeks (maybe longer) to allow time for any issues to show.

 

I almost considered abandoning my own Pinball Pool project several months ago due to financial problems and thought of contacting you to see if you wanted my freshly repainted cab. I can see you're progressing well with what you have to work with! My own plans for my own Pinball Pool have since changed.. the goal now is to complete it in time for Pinfest next year!

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