Author Topic: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?  (Read 3230 times)

wartoy

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Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2022, 06:27:22 pm »
I wish I could say I do but because of lack of space I could never make it happen.I do have one Street Fighter ll cabinet and a couple home arcades with one pinball machine but i'm at my max.

What pinball machine? :-)
It's a very old home pinball machine called Skyhawk.

dashv

PRO Supporter

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #16 on: January 06, 2022, 07:02:10 pm »
I'm on the verge of buying a house finally either this spring or summer and making sure I have adequate space for my very home home arcade is actually a priority of mine as silly as that might sound lol. I have every intention of creating my dream arcade which will probably consist of about a dozen arcade cabinets and anywhere between 5 and 10 pinball machines. Obviously I don't plan on doing this overnight and will likely be acquiring and building my arcade over many, many years. But I'm fairly committed to getting my first cabinet within my first two years of living there. This is definitely the next stage in my evolution as a collector and gamer and I am beyond excited to get started on it!

Doesn’t sound crazy at all. This is basically what I did the last three years.

Let’s keep in touch. If you want I can give some tips. I have separate power, voice activated, etc. :-)

Looking for folks to swap ideas, advice, and stories with.

Stuff like “should I get a house with wall out basement and double doors? Or keep ‘em all in my garage?” And “what did you do for power?” Etc. :-)

I’ve already faced and answered a lot of these questions on my own.

Happy to share what I did or what I wish I’d done. :-)


I really appreciate that. There's one house in particular I am very, very interested in for a variety of reasons, but I'd be lying if I said a third of the reason I wanted it wasn't because it has a large dedicated space in the basement (almost 1000sqft) designed specifically to set something like a game room up. I know I shouldn't count all my eggs before the house is actually mine, but I frequently imagine how I'd place various machines in it and whatnot. If it were about 50k cheaper I'd have already moved on it, but it's currently out of my reach, a least for another month or two. It's already been on the market a while so I'm very hopeful, but who knows.




I did the same thing. So many houses I passed on or pined over.

There was one on a lake with a dock and paddle boat. But the arcade would have been 1/4 the size and surrounded by windows. So my cabs would have been bleached by sunlight in just a few years.

That said, real reason I passed was the driveway was at such a wicked angle my Volt and Leaf would have been constantly bottoming out.

I still wish I’d gotten that house sometimes. But it was way more expensive and smaller than this one.

Walk out basement with double doors is totally worth it.

Also, if you have a choice of carpet vs hardwood, I’d recommend going carpet for several reasons.

Carpet is warmer on your feet and easier on your back.

Carpet absorbs noise. hardwood echoes.

Magic Sliders work great on carpet. Tuck your cabinet feet into them and you can slide around most of your cabs without a lift and they won’t tear up the floor. :-)

Even if you don’t reorganize, you’ll need to move them for service (at least swapping cmos batteries) once a year.

Another thing I did, I drew the floorplan to scale and then made arcade and pinball cutouts to scale. Then used that to “test” how many machines I could fit in particular floor plans and layouts. Sometimes there is not as much space as you think when you take spacing, standing, and walking around the room into account!

dashv

PRO Supporter

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #17 on: January 06, 2022, 07:04:34 pm »
My parents have 2 pinball machines which they purchased when they remodeled their basement about 20 years ago. One is Theatre of Magic, which they bought on my recommendation (possibly my favorite pin ever). They also bought the Star Wars Episode I Pinball 2000 table (with the video projecting onto the glass). They’re planning on moving within the next few years so they said I’m welcome to take the tables, I just have no place to put them ATM.

I did some restoration work on the Theatre of Magic table: replaced most of the lights with LEDs, replaced the trunk and a broken piece of background, partially disassembled the playfield so I could give it a good cleaning, etc. The bumpers were so dirty you could barely see the lights inside them; it was like night and day when I got done. Most of the “flasher” lights didn’t work even back when we bought it, but they do now. Still needs work (badly needs a new plunger) but I live hundreds of miles away so I can’t just pop over to do work on it :)

Me, I would LOVE to have my own mini-arcade. First thing I’d buy is a Q*Bert arcade machine, either original or an official reproduction that came out about 10 years ago, as long as it has a working voice chip. Q*Bert isn’t Q*Bert without the random vocal sounds ;)
Again, I just don’t have the space or the money to do something like that right now.

That p2k is one I’ve never seen or played in person.

Is the light saber in the cab as cool in person as it looks in pictures?

I have it’s sibling Revenge from Mars. :-) Two in fact. I am in the process of restoring them. :-)

undertakerprime

PRO Supporter

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #18 on: January 07, 2022, 11:27:56 am »
My parents have 2 pinball machines which they purchased when they remodeled their basement about 20 years ago. One is Theatre of Magic, which they bought on my recommendation (possibly my favorite pin ever). They also bought the Star Wars Episode I Pinball 2000 table (with the video projecting onto the glass). They’re planning on moving within the next few years so they said I’m welcome to take the tables, I just have no place to put them ATM.

I did some restoration work on the Theatre of Magic table: replaced most of the lights with LEDs, replaced the trunk and a broken piece of background, partially disassembled the playfield so I could give it a good cleaning, etc. The bumpers were so dirty you could barely see the lights inside them; it was like night and day when I got done. Most of the “flasher” lights didn’t work even back when we bought it, but they do now. Still needs work (badly needs a new plunger) but I live hundreds of miles away so I can’t just pop over to do work on it :)

Me, I would LOVE to have my own mini-arcade. First thing I’d buy is a Q*Bert arcade machine, either original or an official reproduction that came out about 10 years ago, as long as it has a working voice chip. Q*Bert isn’t Q*Bert without the random vocal sounds ;)
Again, I just don’t have the space or the money to do something like that right now.

That p2k is one I’ve never seen or played in person.

Is the light saber in the cab as cool in person as it looks in pictures?

I have it’s sibling Revenge from Mars. :-) Two in fact. I am in the process of restoring them. :-)

The lightsaber really is a cool little addition, especially when you’re about to start a battle against Darth Maul. The table goes dark and then the lightsaber ignites, as though you’re Qui-Gon about to take him on. I personally think the whole Pinball 2000 idea of the projected screen was really cool and it’s a shame it didn’t catch on, but I guess that can mostly be blamed on interest in pinball already being in a major decline at that point. Also, I’ve heard how pinball enthusiasts don’t really like the SW:Ep1 table due to its simple ruleset compared to more classic tables. My kids love it though, more than Theatre of Magic :)

I did play Revenge from Mars at an arcade around the time it came out, and it was fun. Honestly, I recall it being more fun than the SW:Ep1 table, just because of the humor. Although over the years I’ve played that one so much its novelty has worn off somewhat :D
Not for Theatre of Magic, though…if I could play one pin for the rest of my life it would be that one (or possibly Addams Family).

tripredacus

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #19 on: January 07, 2022, 12:28:39 pm »
I forgot to mention that I do have some arcade "things" besides not having any machines. Such as some arcade marquees and manuals. Also I have the undertable "rug" from Dutch Pinball's The Big Lebowski table. The rug comes with the game and is intended that an owner/operator put the rug underneath the machine. I got it as a prize for winning a Big Lebowski tournament. And of course I do have some pf plastics and keychains. Years ago I got some AC/DC drop target labels and I put them on my car. I also have some translites like Spider-Man VE and World Poker Tour i think.

undertakerprime

PRO Supporter

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #20 on: January 07, 2022, 04:26:47 pm »
Not sure if this counts but it’s related to pinball…

I forgot to mention, for a couple of years in the mid-2010s I attended the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta. A large hall full of arcade and pinball machines, plus I got to meet people like Walter Day, Jerry Buckner of Buckner & Garcia, Billy Mitchell (haha) and the current Q*Bert record holder.

Anyway, there I bought a stylized poster representing the pinball machine Pin-Bot, autographed by designer Barry Oursler. I just thought it was really unique…I’m guessing there’s not much memorabilia autographed by pinball luminaries  ;D

dashv

PRO Supporter

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #21 on: January 18, 2022, 12:08:43 am »
Not sure if this counts but it’s related to pinball…

I forgot to mention, for a couple of years in the mid-2010s I attended the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta. A large hall full of arcade and pinball machines, plus I got to meet people like Walter Day, Jerry Buckner of Buckner & Garcia, Billy Mitchell (haha) and the current Q*Bert record holder.

Anyway, there I bought a stylized poster representing the pinball machine Pin-Bot, autographed by designer Barry Oursler. I just thought it was really unique…I’m guessing there’s not much memorabilia autographed by pinball luminaries  ;D

That’s pretty cool!

I’ve started kind of collecting cheap used up or factory rejected playfields.

I have 3 so far.

Some people get them signed.

I forgot to mention that I do have some arcade "things" besides not having any machines. Such as some arcade marquees and manuals. Also I have the undertable "rug" from Dutch Pinball's The Big Lebowski table. The rug comes with the game and is intended that an owner/operator put the rug underneath the machine. I got it as a prize for winning a Big Lebowski tournament. And of course I do have some pf plastics and keychains. Years ago I got some AC/DC drop target labels and I put them on my car. I also have some translites like Spider-Man VE and World Poker Tour i think.

That’s really cool that you won a tournament. I am honesty terrible at pinball and would never win a tournament. :-)

tripredacus

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #22 on: January 19, 2022, 09:55:39 am »
That’s really cool that you won a tournament. I am honesty terrible at pinball and would never win a tournament. :-)

I've won a few. Hmm IFPA only has 6 wins but I'm fairly certain that I've gotten more than that, oh well. If anything, I'm consistantly just above average but sometimes that is just enough.

dashv

PRO Supporter

Re: Anyone here collect full size Arcade and/or Pinball machines?
« Reply #23 on: January 19, 2022, 05:15:25 pm »
That’s really cool that you won a tournament. I am honesty terrible at pinball and would never win a tournament. :-)

I've won a few. Hmm IFPA only has 6 wins but I'm fairly certain that I've gotten more than that, oh well. If anything, I'm consistantly just above average but sometimes that is just enough.

I consistently think I may be getting gud only to go on to have embarrassingly trash plays. :-)