Tonight I went to pick up my daughter at college, and I thought we were going to eat dinner together, but when I got there and called her she was already eating. That annoyed me, so I went and got my own food at the local pizza place (called Pizza House probably because it's in a house, but it's next to a bunch of frats so I like to think it's a Greek joke). While I was eating, I heard the tell-tale sound of flippers, so I scouted the hidden alcoves of the restaurant and was surprised to find a Medieval Madness! Needless to say my mood improved. The game wasn't in bad condition, either... a couple of things didn't work and it was in a completely dark room, but I payed for two games and got two replays and a match.
And I did a bad thing. After all that high and mightiness about not getting more games, I bought a Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man playfield on eBay. Nobody bid on it until yesterday, and I was really hoping to get a $1 playfield, but no such luck. It went for $32, the plastics for $12, and in theory shipping is about $10 because it's just down in Richmond... my ideal playfield cost is $50 or less, so that's at least in the ballpark. I'm hoping it will arrive while my wife is out of town so I have a chance to secret it in some dark corner of the basement. M&MPM is actually a second-tier game... in the group after Xenon, Centaur, and Fish Tales. I always have great fun playing it, even though it's a relatively simple game.
I probably forgot to mention, but with one of my orders from Marco or Bay Area, I got one of the Life After Death videos on a whim. I can't say that I was impressed. From what I can tell, their raison d'etre appears to be to give people who hate the guys in This Old Pinball videos to buy. The two guys try to do the same basic shtick as Shaggy and Norm, but they are lacking in charisma. The production isn't as well done, though there is some useful info... but nothing that I hadn't already gotten from TOP. And despite the title they didn't bring a dead game back to life, they just tuned up a working game. I'll stick with TOP videos unless LAD comes out with a video on a game I actually own, which TOP has NOT (KISS and Black Knight/Firepower are on their upcoming productions list, but... and when I pulled up the page to get the link, I saw that they released another video which is NOT the two I need). Plus TOP videos are way cheaper.
My wife -- usually the villain of these pieces, I know -- has been trying for a while to get me to attempt to "trick out" a pinball machine... kind of like case mods for computers, with after market parts, etc. Well, I finally came up with an idea that's worth doing. I told her and she's pretty interested. I have to flesh out the idea, find a beater playfield that I don't feel bad about sanding, cutting the hell out of, & repainting, and develop metal working, woodworking, and electrical skills that I don't currently have. Probably it would help to get some nunchuck and bo skills, too.
I'm always amazed at guys who retire and can't figure out what to do with themselves. Clearly they don't have pinball machines.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Quick! To the Monster Slide!
Some easy stuff to catch up on. I got EBD cleared off except for the trays of playfield parts, so it's ready for me to work on it (sort of... I have to move some stuff next to it before I can get to the backbox).
My daughter mentioned a few weeks ago that she'd never seen Doctor Who working... I guess I always worked on it while she was asleep or out of the house. So when she was home from college last Saturday -- we went to see Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D -- and after she had (appropriately enough) caught up with the last two eps of Doctor Who on TV, I fired it up for her. Thankfully it worked, so I loaded it up with balls and she had fun shooting the balls around the playfield. I locked the balls in the mini-playfield so she could see the Cybermen on the DMD, since they were featured in the episodes she had just watched. Her "game" went along until I had the bright idea to hand-lift the mini-playfield so she could hit the targets... when she got the ball into one of the Dalek holes, it fell into the cabinet because the under playfield ramp isn't attached properly. She had more fun with that than she had ever had playing any of my other games for real, which was parentally gratifying.
One thing I did find out while she played is that the half-assed repair job on the Tardis opto switch that I did worked -- all I did was twist the wires together. Yay for our side.
My CPU sold on eBay for $168, which means it almost paid for itself and the other board that I got at the same time, not counting fees. Still, I can use the money. The guy who bought it was super Type-A about packing... I finally had to tell him to lay off, I know to use non-static bags, GEEZ.
And lastly, I had a successful post to rgp tonight... I asked if there was a special doodad that closed the playfield glass switch, because my glass doesn't. The answer was no, the glass should contact the switch, so at some point I'll have to try to either adjust or disconnect it. I really would like it to stop telling me I'm going to maim myself.
My daughter mentioned a few weeks ago that she'd never seen Doctor Who working... I guess I always worked on it while she was asleep or out of the house. So when she was home from college last Saturday -- we went to see Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D -- and after she had (appropriately enough) caught up with the last two eps of Doctor Who on TV, I fired it up for her. Thankfully it worked, so I loaded it up with balls and she had fun shooting the balls around the playfield. I locked the balls in the mini-playfield so she could see the Cybermen on the DMD, since they were featured in the episodes she had just watched. Her "game" went along until I had the bright idea to hand-lift the mini-playfield so she could hit the targets... when she got the ball into one of the Dalek holes, it fell into the cabinet because the under playfield ramp isn't attached properly. She had more fun with that than she had ever had playing any of my other games for real, which was parentally gratifying.
One thing I did find out while she played is that the half-assed repair job on the Tardis opto switch that I did worked -- all I did was twist the wires together. Yay for our side.
My CPU sold on eBay for $168, which means it almost paid for itself and the other board that I got at the same time, not counting fees. Still, I can use the money. The guy who bought it was super Type-A about packing... I finally had to tell him to lay off, I know to use non-static bags, GEEZ.
And lastly, I had a successful post to rgp tonight... I asked if there was a special doodad that closed the playfield glass switch, because my glass doesn't. The answer was no, the glass should contact the switch, so at some point I'll have to try to either adjust or disconnect it. I really would like it to stop telling me I'm going to maim myself.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Number 1 in the Hood, G
Well, I did clear off and play Quicksilver for my birthday. Life intervened with the fixing of the EBD, though. We'll see how that plays out this weekend.
Another Doctor Who purchase, courtesy of eBay: The plastic backdrop of the Master from the mini-playfield, courtesy of my good friend pinballchuck. It includes a Tardis, which I don't need, but I'm hoping that the other guy who bid on it needs one. I'm kind of sad that the other guy bid on it, since I would have been very happy getting this for $4. As it was, I paid $23. But after living through what is now know as The Lexan Cutting Incidents, the fewer plastics I have to make the better (at least until I get tools that can effectively cut plastic). I think that leaves only the pictures of the spaceships on the ramps as the only things standing between me and a completed playfield.
I hope at this point I'm caught up on all the purchases.
Now on to the selling. I'm selling one of the WPC CPU boards on eBay. Money is a little tight these days, and I owe the family a bunch of money for mostly pinball-related purchases, so I decided to sell the two CPUs that I got back in April -- the ones that didn't work until I goofed with them. I plugged them into the game -- back in those days I didn't have a working game -- and found that one didn't boot if the multi-stop ribbon cable (J202) was plugged in, and the other booted up and tested fine. I actually did a really dumbass thing, but it's a long and boring story, the moral of which is: Always read the Switch Matrix chart carefully.
So, I've posted that board on eBay for $10, it ran up to about $100 in the first day, and it's been holding there since. It's still got 2.5 days left. My sincere wish is that this board pays for both boards from the original auction and then some (I paid $160 for both, I think). My timing is actually really good, because when I bought it there was a board or two showing up every week... now the pickings are a little slimmer, so I think I'm getting a better price.
With the other CPU, I could have it fixed professionally, but that's usually about $60. My "I don't know much about electronics" spot diagnosis is that the J202 connector is bad. I can either sell the board as is and get a somewhat diminished price for it, or level-up my soldering skills and try to fix it myself. We'll just give that one some thought and see what comes up.
Another Doctor Who purchase, courtesy of eBay: The plastic backdrop of the Master from the mini-playfield, courtesy of my good friend pinballchuck. It includes a Tardis, which I don't need, but I'm hoping that the other guy who bid on it needs one. I'm kind of sad that the other guy bid on it, since I would have been very happy getting this for $4. As it was, I paid $23. But after living through what is now know as The Lexan Cutting Incidents, the fewer plastics I have to make the better (at least until I get tools that can effectively cut plastic). I think that leaves only the pictures of the spaceships on the ramps as the only things standing between me and a completed playfield.I hope at this point I'm caught up on all the purchases.
Now on to the selling. I'm selling one of the WPC CPU boards on eBay. Money is a little tight these days, and I owe the family a bunch of money for mostly pinball-related purchases, so I decided to sell the two CPUs that I got back in April -- the ones that didn't work until I goofed with them. I plugged them into the game -- back in those days I didn't have a working game -- and found that one didn't boot if the multi-stop ribbon cable (J202) was plugged in, and the other booted up and tested fine. I actually did a really dumbass thing, but it's a long and boring story, the moral of which is: Always read the Switch Matrix chart carefully.
So, I've posted that board on eBay for $10, it ran up to about $100 in the first day, and it's been holding there since. It's still got 2.5 days left. My sincere wish is that this board pays for both boards from the original auction and then some (I paid $160 for both, I think). My timing is actually really good, because when I bought it there was a board or two showing up every week... now the pickings are a little slimmer, so I think I'm getting a better price.
With the other CPU, I could have it fixed professionally, but that's usually about $60. My "I don't know much about electronics" spot diagnosis is that the J202 connector is bad. I can either sell the board as is and get a somewhat diminished price for it, or level-up my soldering skills and try to fix it myself. We'll just give that one some thought and see what comes up.
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