Masco73
04-13-2008, 09:15 PM
I was kind of delaying the purchase of a pinball machine, but this one was too good a deal to pass up.
I was doing my daily search on Craigslist and came across a machine at an estate sale. Not much of a description, it said williams older arcade pinball machine. Only problem the sale was on Friday and Sat and I saw this add on Friday night. I said what the hell and sent an email to the poster asking if it was still for sale. I got a quick response saying it was in fact still there for $295, but tomorrow was the final day of the sale and everything was half off!!
Needless to say, I was the first one to get there at 7:30 am( it opened at 8). I quickly ran down the basement(where it was kept) to check it out. It was a 1980 Williams Firepower with some wear, but not bad. The problem was it said needs work. It would power on, but nothing else. I looked at the price sticker and it said $245($50 cheaper than I was quoted) and half of that is $122.50. At that price I didn't care and said sold.
After about 2 hours of taking it apart and lifting it out of the basement with my Brother, I finally got it home.
After putting it back together and turning it on, I was able to figure out by a website the error code on the display. It seems they used aa batteries attached to the board to store high scores when the machine is shut down. Well these batteries had been left a long time and leaked corroding away the contacts on the board and some surrounding area.
So, this is where I am at. My Uncle is good with this sort of thing and is going to replace and clean the damaged part. Hopefully this will be the only problem. Even though I haven't fixed it yet, I am thrilled with this purchase. Even broken, it has to be worth $250-300 just for scrap parts, but I really hope it works, I am dying to play it.
I will get pics later if anybody cares.
I was doing my daily search on Craigslist and came across a machine at an estate sale. Not much of a description, it said williams older arcade pinball machine. Only problem the sale was on Friday and Sat and I saw this add on Friday night. I said what the hell and sent an email to the poster asking if it was still for sale. I got a quick response saying it was in fact still there for $295, but tomorrow was the final day of the sale and everything was half off!!
Needless to say, I was the first one to get there at 7:30 am( it opened at 8). I quickly ran down the basement(where it was kept) to check it out. It was a 1980 Williams Firepower with some wear, but not bad. The problem was it said needs work. It would power on, but nothing else. I looked at the price sticker and it said $245($50 cheaper than I was quoted) and half of that is $122.50. At that price I didn't care and said sold.
After about 2 hours of taking it apart and lifting it out of the basement with my Brother, I finally got it home.
After putting it back together and turning it on, I was able to figure out by a website the error code on the display. It seems they used aa batteries attached to the board to store high scores when the machine is shut down. Well these batteries had been left a long time and leaked corroding away the contacts on the board and some surrounding area.
So, this is where I am at. My Uncle is good with this sort of thing and is going to replace and clean the damaged part. Hopefully this will be the only problem. Even though I haven't fixed it yet, I am thrilled with this purchase. Even broken, it has to be worth $250-300 just for scrap parts, but I really hope it works, I am dying to play it.
I will get pics later if anybody cares.