Pinball, Resurrected

THE FLIPPER’S SWEET SPOT STRIKES THE be prepared to look at many before finding a good steel sphere, sending it through a gantlet of one to buy. For first-timers, even those with back-colorful obstacles. Electrical relays fire, bells grounds in electronics or mechanics, I recommend ring, lights blink, sounds play, and the world vibrates spending the extra dollars to buy a machine that’s with a dizzying barrage that only sharpens your focus. at least in decent shape. There will still be plenty of You parse the steel ball’s trajectory, then adjust its things to tune. course by nudging the 300-pound machine under- You can buy pinball machines in better condition neath; there’s nothing “virtual” here. You are playing from restorers, who range from hobbyists to full-pinball, and it envelops you in a sense-filling physical- time professionals. The most pristine are “home ity that video games can’t begin to approach. use only” machines, which were never operated in Even though the once-ubiquitous pinball machine public places. You can also pick up machines from is a rare sight in arcades and bars today, you can arcade operators and “route operators” who place still fulfill your wildest pinball dreams by buying them in bars and restaurants. In my experience, you and restoring one yourself. The machines and should be more careful with these. I have seen evi-the parts are out there, and many games in good dence of numerous dubious ad hoc “repairs” done or reparable condition are collecting dust, waiting to on-route machines in order to avoid the effort for a loving home. Old pinball machines are tough, and expense of taking them off-location for proper designed to survive with little maintenance in maintenance. The worst offense is the use of spray rowdy, smoky roadhouses. They’re also built for lubricants such as WD- 40. Pinball machines were repair; different models share many of the same designed as sealed boxes with mechanical sys-mechanical and electrical subsystems, which you tems that don’t require oiling, so they could work can easily swap around. I’ve enjoyed restoring sev- maintenance-free in smoke-filled bars for months. eral pinball machines, and my most recent adoption Extraneous lubricant sucks up dust and smoke, was a Williams Cyclone, a great solid-state pinball and turns into a thick, damaging sludge. machine from 1988. Here’s how I did it, along with To find machines for sale, I scanned craigslist.org, more general advice on pinball restoration. the rec.games.pinball forum, and Mr. Pinball classifieds (see makezine.com/08/pinball for more resources). I prefer late-80s and 90s Williams/Bally pinball machines, and my search led to Thursday Night Pinball ( pinballnight.org), a group in San Jose that meets in a battery shop. The group’s organizer had a Williams Cyclone for sale for $1,000. Cyclone is one of my favorites; it’s a brilliant machine from

Photography by Bill Bumgarner

Find a Machine Pinball machines can cost anywhere from $100 for an as-is electromechanical to nearly $10,000 for a particularly collectable game in good condition. Prices vary wildly, so unless you absolutely must have a particular, hard-to-find game, you should

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