My new pinball table, Pin-Bot

[Tanooki]

I had sighted a Black Knight table and kept trying to get the owner 2 hours away to talk but his rudeness and ignoring me almost entirely was grating on me. I did a craigslist search a few days ago saw a random posting for a Classic Williams Pinball table (vague) and my eyes popped out when I saw it was Pin-Bot, the only table of that period I loved more than Black Knight and had the most time on. I immediately called the guy, he still had it (and he had refreshed it 3 days ago and had posted it 3 weeks earlier.) He's a retiree as of now, moving down south in a month, wanted to not move it if he didn't have to (but would.) Long story short, he was willing to take a mix of cash and paypal, bought it 2 days ago and my body is still paying for it (had to take it up 3 flights of spiral stairs and stairs not to mention carrying it and tear down/reassembly too.)

Cool thing to note about it -- Home use only. Never been around dirty bars, chuck e cheese or the rest. The interior has excessively minimal wear, playfield is near cherry thanks to being 100% covered in mylar everywhere including the mechanical ramp on the left and it's a solid 9/10 in quality. The exterior has a few scratch and dent issues, minor, my black touch up paint cured much of it, and the light on top work but the topper is cracked to hell (not visible from front thankfully.) Translite(back glass) has little wear to it, it's a good 9/10 too, beautiful. He never knew it, and I only found it yesterday, but the very back of the unit had the original bag of spare bulbs, fuses and bulb sockets still there and the old blue/yellow pinbot key fob too which was amazing to see.

I've been fixing up issues with it since, somehow the playfield got tilted back and right a little, made the vortex impossible to get 1/2 up to 100K killing the skill shot but I fixed that. Green light center was out as were Pinbots eyes up top, replaced (have a box of spares from Gold Ball.) Orange light top left out, fixed that, and the wiring popped on the sensor on the blue ramp near it and resoldered that too. Owners (both) never cleaned the interior much if ever, had to wipe all the dust out and the black trails of funk off every rollable area with Novus 2 then 1 to polish it smooth. Currently on the to-do list is superficial mostly. The big one is the test switch someone pulled 3 wires, no idea where to re attach those, then the tilt bobber bob is gone(pole there) and the ball in the tilt ramp is gone too both easily replaced for under $10.

Thanks to anyone and everyone who picked up one of my gaming items off me from here, Racketboy and the big spenders last night on ebay too. It's amazing what just a few easily emulated or everdrive(n) overpriced NES and SNES carts can get you.

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[retroguy]

Nice! I have Pinball Hall Of Fame for the PS2 and that's one of the best tables in that game. Congrats on getting a real one.

[ProjectCamaro]

Wow congratulations, I wish I had the space in my game room for a nice pinball machine. I'm offically jealous.

[rhillfake]

If they made a set of Sonic Spinball tables, I would want those :P

[fluid_matrix]

So you going to keep both machines now?

[Mr Mort]

Holy crap, that is very nice.

Pin-Bot is my favourite pinball table. If I were ever to get one, that would be it.
Congrats, looks like it's in great shape.

[Emperor Megas]

Congratulations! Pinbot is my all time favorite Pinball table. I'm really envious of you.

[bb_hood]

very cool, is it as good as the NES game??

[celerystalker]

That's a slick table and a classic. Nice one!

[Tanooki]

It's considered I believe the peak game of the pre-DMD era of pinball due to the overall design, playfield, objectives and so forth with it.

There's no Sonic Spinball exactly, but there is this from Tomy, and they're known for making the best quality desktop pinball games: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vinatge-Rare-1992-Tomy-Sonic-the-Hedgehog-Sega-Blue-Table-Top-Pinball-Machine-/321727627299?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ae8760023

Fluid- Yup. I moved Gold Ball to the opposite side of the room in front of a disabled old gas wall heater, and Pinbot now sits where it was right next to my desk. Gold Ball is designed to be an electromagnetic style pinball game using solid state parts, so they're so vastly different in scope and design they're both fun to play and go between if you get pissed at one to take a break from it. Really if I wanted to be a nut about it (I don't) and had the money (again, don't) I could line up I'd bet probably another 6 of them in here if I got creative enough without removing my desk, tv, piano and book(game/lego) shelf but being a converted one car garage the walking space would suck as it would be crowded. If anything I'd part with Gold Ball to upgrade if I just had to, but I don't plan on it. It would have to be Black Knight, Space Shuttle, or above anything William's Indiana Jones. I don't really want to own a real modern one, too damn hard and over my head to maintain, Pinbot is a bit on the too much scale for me in places since I can't read schematics to do board level repairs. I probably could handle a Terminator 2 table though, just on the edge of being too much, and loved playing it at the college rec room in the day.

BB: Nah ;) I always like having digital ghosts pop up in the middle of the screen and just grab my ball and throw it down the center where there's no survival. Kind of cheap really, High Speed is the same way on NES but they're still fun to have around.

I actually have a few conversions/versions of the game around. The real table, Pinball Arcade version(a few), the NES cart, and also the later 90s Tiger LCD handheld (rare to find, even rarer is the Attack From Mars LCD which I have too.) Thanks everyone. I'm glad I was able to pull this off and even with the few little things going on with it that need addressing it's stunning. I just ordered new plunger tips, tilt ball(though that carriage I found out is disabled using the one off my Gold Ball table), the bobber for the other tilt, and a box of bulbs for the bigger ones the table uses. I took a few pics of the table as you saw, that one I clone stamped out the background on the left (overhead) I did this on Gold Ball a month ago, going to upload it to my iphone as background art when it's locked. :D Now if I could find the music to match it.

[Einzelherz]

I'd understand if you don't want to say, but how much did it cost you? It's gorgeous!

[Tanooki]

I don't mind, I'm sure some could add up what I sold on my price list that was here and ebay if anyone watched and got a ballpark out of it. $1500. www.pinside.com the largest pinball forum and data site (aside from the IDPB) lists their range for $1700-2000 on them though I don't know how they come up with it because people were saying to me $1500 was the high end if it was in great shape (which it is) and should be happy doing that if it is (it is.)


By the way for the readers curious here. Took the to-do list down a peg, big one too. Those floating wires with sheered off tips locking me out of the setup and high score reset. FIXED. A guy took a clean digital camera pic of his setup on his coin door like 6hours ago and I saw it a little while ago. I went digging, found a 4th hidden wire stuffed up into a bundle (ugh.) Someone said I should just get a new switch since putting those loops back would be a bitch. I don't solder well, took me maybe 15 minutes. I heated up existing solder and barely attached, then added a little fresh to tighten it up. I first got the reset going, then tested the other, and it worked too. Initially the test switch was having a fit auto scrolling, but I figured it could be my stupid hand moving the wire, it was, it works too.

Now to wait on my parts, and if I'm daring once that's here maybe see about fixing that tilt ramp the ball will go into but it's not necessary. I also was able to hit #4 slot on the machine (4 of 4) got to put my old 80s arcade name of JEF in, that was awesome with a 1.8M score (3M is the default for #1.)

[Nz17]

Well all I gotta say about this is, "PINBOT... ACTIVATED."

By the by, what all did you have to sell to be able to afford this? I know you mentioned S/NES games, but which ones?

[Tanooki]

Since it's on the forum side of racketboy (EVO and stack of guides+1 free along with rogue squadron n64), and here bonk, bubble bobble 1 and 2 I don't think I should broadcast numbers, but that plus the ebay stuff below got me to it.

Then on ebay since it's public record there.
$10 - Pokemon X&Y hardcover guide w/dust jacket
$200 - Mega Man 7
$45 - Mega Man 5 manual
$300 - Wild Guns
$100 - Pocky & Rocky
$20 - Firepower 2000 w/manual
$30 - RC Pro Am 2 manual
$32.50 - North & South NES
$13 - Blackthorne GBA
$16 - DKC2
$16 - DKC2

Everything listed $782.50 (-101 for 13% fees ebay10%+PP3%=~$681.) Any manual or game over $50 was free shipping.

Last night I sold my Frogger(excalibur) and QBert tabletop games for $50 and $56, that'll cover the ebay fees which I paid last night which ate that up entirely so I'm in the clear. 17 old video games/gaming items did it alone.

[Nitrosport]

Congrats! I don't blame you for not wanting to deal with the owner of black knight. People like that don't get my business. When it's all said and done, I think what you got was better.

[Tanooki]

Yeah I know, we think alike on that entirely. I'm sorry, craigslist or not, it doesn't matter. If you place an ad, put up a description that isn't that good with a lot of ok but not great(totally useful) images, and someone writes and asks how clean the playfield and glass are (BK is known to have horribly crumbling back glass with light holes through it) saying if they're clean you'd buy it at asking price, and you send back like a one sentence email and ignore any followups, let alone ignore the first email that went out. Screw you.

BK is great, but PB has more going on for it and a lot better environment if you compare the two. I may still get BK one day, but not from that clown. For now I can use it on Pinball Arcade just fine.