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:

1. It was on my short list of necessary games (Xenon and Fish Tales being the rest of it);
   
2. It appeared to have most of its parts;
3. C'mon! It was in a frickin' barn for five years, how cool is that!

Centaur's negatives were:

1. My wife has stated in the past that the Centaur backglass makes her physically ill, mainly because of the titular character's pubic hair.
2. It was in Ohio, a stiff 9 hour drive each way.
3. It had reportedly had mice living in it, and smelled as much.

Doctor Who answered all three of the negatives: My wife could stand within 10 feet of it without feeling unclean, it was closer (four hours), and had not been the home of any rodents that I know of. The biggest problem with it was its lack of parts.

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.

1. Power Driver Assembly
2. WPC CPU Board
3. Ribbon Cable 14”
4. WPC Transformer 115/230v
5. Dot Matrix Display/Driver Board
6. Ribbon Cable 22”
7. Ribbon Cable 30”
8. Dot Matrix Controller Board
9. Ribbon Cable 3”
10. Flipper Opto Board
11. Flipper Stop Assembly
12. Coil Tubing
13. Pinballs
14. Tempered Playfield Glass
15. WPC Sound Board
16. Flipper Coil (Orange)
17. Fliptronic II Board
18. #555 sockets
19. Motor & Cam Assembly
20. Lower Ramp Assembly
21. Bi-Directional Motor Drive Assembly
22. Metal Leg Assembly
23. Front Molding Assy.
24. 7-Lamp Board Assembly
25. Speaker/Display Assy
26. 2-10W Resistor Board
27. Star Post Double rubber
28. Star Post #8
29. Ball Launch
30. Mini-playfield surrounding plastics
31. Jet Bumper Cap, Red
32. Dalek Light Assembly
33. Dalek Assembly
34. Lock & Cam Kit
35. 4-Lamp Board
36. Tempered Backbox Glass 27”x18-7/8”
37. Lock & Plate Assembly
38. Cover Assembly
39. Toggle Latch
40. Level Assembly
41. Cashbox
42. Plum Bob