I just finished listening to a podcast of Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow's novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. I enjoyed the book immensely because a) I'm a huge Disney fan (I worked at Disneyland for almost a year after high school), and b) I'm a Science Fiction fan, and c) the book is about how fans take over Disney World and start running, maintaining and improving the rides. Somehow, a story about keeping archaic machinery running appeals to me...
OK. Right after I figured out what (I think) I would need to get the Doctor up and running, I went to what to me is the #1 source of obsolete computer parts, eBay. I was happy to find lots of WPC boards and parts up for auction, including a guy -- pinballchuck -- who was parting out a Doctor Who playfield. One of the first things I got from pbc was one of the things I was most worried about, the lower playfield ramp. Before I saw that ramp on eBay, I was toying with the possibility of parting out the pieces I had... the ramp made me think that I would be able to assemble the parts to get this game running again.
But really, the first thing I bought was some lamps and sockets from chuck, which got me the 15 twisty sockets I needed. That cost me almost $12 (including shipping), but I may recoup some of that by selling the parts I don't need to the second place bidder. Next up was the ramp, which was a steal at just under $20. My final chuck purchase was the Bi-directional motor board, one of the few parts I knew was missing from the pictures when I bought the game; this set me back about $31.
Next came a lull in eBay, during which I scrounged for parts on the various online pinball places: Pinball Resource, Marco Specialties, and Bay Area Amusements. I was surprised to find almost nothing I needed at PBR, which I'm of two minds about. My left brain likes the fact that PBR has a good selection of high quality stuff at low prices. The right brain thinks Steve Young is a prick and I've been annoyed, irritated, or humiliated by my every interaction with him. At this point I save up all my purchases and buy stuff from his dealer's table at the Pinball Wizard's Convention in Allentown. Marco has always struck me as too expensive, but they have more stuff I need. Bay Area I had never looked into, but they have reasonable prices on a couple of boards I need.
That's all for now... next time: Adventures with Boards!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Victory is mine!
Despite massive eBay auction stress, I was able to pick up 3 boards that I needed, including a sound board that has the Doctor Who roms already. Sadly, I got the first driver board that came up... for no reason that I could see, the second board that went off 13 seconds later sold for $60 less.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
I hate power-listers on eBay
Tonight I have to stay up until midnight because a guy is selling boards I need on eBay. That by itself wouldn't be so bad, but I need almost everything he's selling and he listed nine boards within 4 minutes. This means, for example, if I lose the auction for one of the driver boards, I'll have 15 seconds to enter a meaningful bid on the next one. Similarly, there are 4 sound boards ending within a minute of each other. Then after this huge adrenaline rush of auctions, I have to try to go to sleep soon afterwards. Ugh.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Ganesha to Joe: Time to buy a new pinball machine
Being the story of how Doctor Who landed in my basement...
February/March is usually a time when we are flush with capital... I usually get my state and Federal tax refunds, and for the past few years my company has declared a bonus. After all of our prior indiscretions are taken care of, there is usually a fat wad of cash that has no contingencies on it. Every few years, I take some of that money and plow it into a new pinball machine. This year, I didn't have as much as I usually do, so I thought I would attempt --- a fixer upper.
Trolling eBay and Mr. Pinball for a few weeks, I finally came up with two likely candidates. One was a Centaur that had been in a barn for five years, and the other was a Doctor Who that had been cannibalized for parts. Centaur's positives were:
In the end the Centaur auction went beyond my stated maximum bid, so the decision was made for me. I did a Buy It Now on Doctor Who.
The next week dissolved in the haze of anticipation that surrounds any major purchase for me. I downloaded manuals, pictures, and tried to figure out if I'd made a huge mistake.
The next weekend I went down and picked it up. The seller turned out to be a pretty nice guy, though our tastes in machines were not identical (he traded the good Who for a Guns 'n' Roses... pretty much all Data East/Sega games make me barf). We put it in the back of my SUV (which I had bought assuming that a pin would fit in the back, but I'd never actually measured it... the game fit exactly, as though Honda designed the CRV as a single pin transport device) and I headed home.
Once home, we managed to get it on to a dolly and into the basement -- no easy task, as my wife is not a heavy lifter per se and we have no friends to speak of. In so doing I ruined one of the wheels on the dolly because it was flat to begin with and was made flatter by a few hundred pounds o' pin. We parked it just inside the walkout basement door and I marveled at both my stupidity and cupidity.
The latter is exemplified by the fact that I didn't really have a place for this game. The four games that I already owned take up significant basement real estate, my wife has carved out an area for crafts and art projects, and the rest is dominated by the TV. Utility rooms, a potential flood plain, and a faux bedroom with a door too thin for pin round out the basement. I had some ideas, but hoped a solution would present itself.
The night after I picked up the game was the Academy Awards, which was perfect because I wanted to watch it but didn't need to watch it. I took my parts list from the manual are started inventorying like crazy. I had stuff I needed (pretty much everything in the head), stuff I had but needed fixing (the launch button is cracked), and stuff I wasn't sure about (the transformer is there but rusty). While inventorying, in addition to a soda cup lid and straw that were in the game, I also found a playfield plastic that was missing, so that was a plus.
After two weeks by the door (and after becoming a favorite cat hangout), I cleared out some space near the oil tank in the boiler room, just outside the basement's normal flood plain. I put the game on its back (on blocks, just in case). When I get around to working on it, I will lay it flat onto more blocks, then tilt it back up when I'm done.
Finally, we'll end with the horror... the horror... the list parts I need, roughly in order of priority to get the machine in its most workingest state as possible.
February/March is usually a time when we are flush with capital... I usually get my state and Federal tax refunds, and for the past few years my company has declared a bonus. After all of our prior indiscretions are taken care of, there is usually a fat wad of cash that has no contingencies on it. Every few years, I take some of that money and plow it into a new pinball machine. This year, I didn't have as much as I usually do, so I thought I would attempt --- a fixer upper.
Trolling eBay and Mr. Pinball for a few weeks, I finally came up with two likely candidates. One was a Centaur that had been in a barn for five years, and the other was a Doctor Who that had been cannibalized for parts. Centaur's positives were:
- It was on my short list of necessary games (Xenon and Fish Tales being the rest of it);
- It appeared to have most of its parts;
- C'mon! It was in a frickin' barn for five years, how cool is that!
- My wife has stated in the past that the Centaur backglass makes her physically ill, mainly because of the titular character's pubic hair.
- It was in Ohio, a stiff 9 hour drive each way.
- It had reportedly had mice living in it, and smelled as much.
In the end the Centaur auction went beyond my stated maximum bid, so the decision was made for me. I did a Buy It Now on Doctor Who.
The next week dissolved in the haze of anticipation that surrounds any major purchase for me. I downloaded manuals, pictures, and tried to figure out if I'd made a huge mistake.
The next weekend I went down and picked it up. The seller turned out to be a pretty nice guy, though our tastes in machines were not identical (he traded the good Who for a Guns 'n' Roses... pretty much all Data East/Sega games make me barf). We put it in the back of my SUV (which I had bought assuming that a pin would fit in the back, but I'd never actually measured it... the game fit exactly, as though Honda designed the CRV as a single pin transport device) and I headed home.
Once home, we managed to get it on to a dolly and into the basement -- no easy task, as my wife is not a heavy lifter per se and we have no friends to speak of. In so doing I ruined one of the wheels on the dolly because it was flat to begin with and was made flatter by a few hundred pounds o' pin. We parked it just inside the walkout basement door and I marveled at both my stupidity and cupidity.
The latter is exemplified by the fact that I didn't really have a place for this game. The four games that I already owned take up significant basement real estate, my wife has carved out an area for crafts and art projects, and the rest is dominated by the TV. Utility rooms, a potential flood plain, and a faux bedroom with a door too thin for pin round out the basement. I had some ideas, but hoped a solution would present itself.
The night after I picked up the game was the Academy Awards, which was perfect because I wanted to watch it but didn't need to watch it. I took my parts list from the manual are started inventorying like crazy. I had stuff I needed (pretty much everything in the head), stuff I had but needed fixing (the launch button is cracked), and stuff I wasn't sure about (the transformer is there but rusty). While inventorying, in addition to a soda cup lid and straw that were in the game, I also found a playfield plastic that was missing, so that was a plus.
After two weeks by the door (and after becoming a favorite cat hangout), I cleared out some space near the oil tank in the boiler room, just outside the basement's normal flood plain. I put the game on its back (on blocks, just in case). When I get around to working on it, I will lay it flat onto more blocks, then tilt it back up when I'm done.
Finally, we'll end with the horror... the horror... the list parts I need, roughly in order of priority to get the machine in its most workingest state as possible.
- Power Driver Assembly
- WPC CPU Board
- Ribbon Cable 14”
- WPC Transformer 115/230v
- Dot Matrix Display/Driver Board
- Ribbon Cable 22”
- Ribbon Cable 30”
- Dot Matrix Controller Board
- Ribbon Cable 3”
- Flipper Opto Board
- Flipper Stop Assembly
- Coil Tubing
- Pinballs
- Tempered Playfield Glass
- WPC Sound Board
- Flipper Coil (Orange)
- Fliptronic II Board
- #555 sockets
- Motor & Cam Assembly
- Lower Ramp Assembly
- Bi-Directional Motor Drive Assembly
- Metal Leg Assembly
- Front Molding Assy.
- 7-Lamp Board Assembly
- Speaker/Display Assy
- 2-10W Resistor Board
- Star Post Double rubber
- Star Post #8
- Ball Launch
- Mini-playfield surrounding plastics
- Jet Bumper Cap, Red
- Dalek Light Assembly
- Dalek Assembly
- Lock & Cam Kit
- 4-Lamp Board
- Tempered Backbox Glass 27”x18-7/8”
- Lock & Plate Assembly
- Cover Assembly
- Toggle Latch
- Level Assembly
- Cashbox
- Plum Bob
A quick side trip to laugh at some guy on eBay
We'll return to our regularly scheduled broadcast in a sec, but I had to relay this gemlet of information that makes me collapse in hails of derisive laughter.
Since Doctor Who is pretty much boardless in the head, I'm trolling eBay for replacements with saved searches and whatnot. So, this morning I see that some guy posted some boards that I need, and they're pretty funny. His description is basically just the title of the auction and his outrageous shipping charge ($15 for one pcb?). He apparently put the boards on his couch to take his picture -- which I'm sure is excellent if you want to give the board an extra zap with static electricity. The starting bid on one is $30 less than you can buy a brand new replacement, and both of them have parts missing.
I looked at some of his older auctions and it looks like he picked through the junk box at a gaming convention and is now trying to sell the stuff on eBay. I swear one of his earlier auctions looks like one I bought for $5 so I could practice soldering.
I'm watching the auctions just to see if anyone is silly enough to bid on them.
Since Doctor Who is pretty much boardless in the head, I'm trolling eBay for replacements with saved searches and whatnot. So, this morning I see that some guy posted some boards that I need, and they're pretty funny. His description is basically just the title of the auction and his outrageous shipping charge ($15 for one pcb?). He apparently put the boards on his couch to take his picture -- which I'm sure is excellent if you want to give the board an extra zap with static electricity. The starting bid on one is $30 less than you can buy a brand new replacement, and both of them have parts missing.
I looked at some of his older auctions and it looks like he picked through the junk box at a gaming convention and is now trying to sell the stuff on eBay. I swear one of his earlier auctions looks like one I bought for $5 so I could practice soldering.
I'm watching the auctions just to see if anyone is silly enough to bid on them.
Monday, March 20, 2006
De profundis, man
Hey howdy hey. Welcome to Joe Entropy's Pinblog. "Pinblog" has already been taken somewhere else, and some guy in Turkey nabbed Pinblog on blogspot. I glanced at it, and even with no understanding of Turkish I didn't see anything about pinball or flippers or whatever so I'm pretty sure I was robbed on this name thing.
So. Ostensibly this is a blog about Pinball, but I'm sure I'll probably stray from my core competency frequently. The reason I started this is because I just got a new pinball machine and thought it would be fun and/or entertaining for people to read about my comic mishaps and wacky adventures attempting to bring it up to even minimal functionality. If anything, you can guffaw heartily as I stumble through a repair job which I'm probably not capable of doing!
Since I've been thinking about doing this for a few weeks, I've already got a few posts mentally queued up; I'll probably spew those out over the next few days then update when something happens or I feel like typing.
We'll get into details later, but here are the basics. I currently own 5 pinball machines, which all told are about 50% functional. They are, in the order I acquired them, Stern's Quicksilver, Bally's Paragon, Williams' Black Knight, Bally's Eight Ball Deluxe, and our bloggy inspiration, Bally's Doctor Who. I bought Doctor Who off a guy on eBay for $260... it is pretty much a cabinet and most of a playfield, with no boards or anything.
That reminds me, you can most likely howl with derisive laughter at how much money I'll end up sinking into this... I estimate that I will be able to buy a fully functional game plus shipping for what I'm going to shell out to get the Doctor up and running. I'll try to keep an accurate account of what I'm spending for better or worse. Those are going to be some self-deprecating good times, let me tell you.
So, let the cartoon... begin.
So. Ostensibly this is a blog about Pinball, but I'm sure I'll probably stray from my core competency frequently. The reason I started this is because I just got a new pinball machine and thought it would be fun and/or entertaining for people to read about my comic mishaps and wacky adventures attempting to bring it up to even minimal functionality. If anything, you can guffaw heartily as I stumble through a repair job which I'm probably not capable of doing!
Since I've been thinking about doing this for a few weeks, I've already got a few posts mentally queued up; I'll probably spew those out over the next few days then update when something happens or I feel like typing.
We'll get into details later, but here are the basics. I currently own 5 pinball machines, which all told are about 50% functional. They are, in the order I acquired them, Stern's Quicksilver, Bally's Paragon, Williams' Black Knight, Bally's Eight Ball Deluxe, and our bloggy inspiration, Bally's Doctor Who. I bought Doctor Who off a guy on eBay for $260... it is pretty much a cabinet and most of a playfield, with no boards or anything.
That reminds me, you can most likely howl with derisive laughter at how much money I'll end up sinking into this... I estimate that I will be able to buy a fully functional game plus shipping for what I'm going to shell out to get the Doctor up and running. I'll try to keep an accurate account of what I'm spending for better or worse. Those are going to be some self-deprecating good times, let me tell you.
So, let the cartoon... begin.
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