Over the last two weeks I’ve been waiting on the arrival of a parts order from Marcospec so I can continue on with my work on Funhouse. The upside to the wait is it allows me to get more done on my BoP 2.0 until that arrives. This update will be focusing mainly on the lower playfield area, with a few extra things thrown in. So assemblies like the flippers and sling shots will be rebuilt. The playfield area will also be cleaned up and any metal parts like the ball guides and mini posts will head to the tumbler. I have coloured Titan rubbers to install and also LED’s from Pinball Life. Let’s get started.
Pinball
Documenting my adventures into pinball repair and restoration
Welcome to a new Repair & Service log series. I’m still working away on machines for other people, but it feels good to also be making time to work on a game of my own again. This time I’ll be going through a Bride of Pinbot, which has the 2.0 upgrade kit from Dutch Pinball installed. Originally released by Williams in early 1991 and over 8000 machines made, it’s a game I’ve been wanting to own for awhile. The kit from Dutch Pinball was released in late 2014 and updates the machine to a colour display with an entirely new rule set. It also allows you to switch to the original game rule set too – which basically means it’s two games in one. It runs the original game under emulation though and as a result there is some sound quality issues on a couple of the original speech sounds. I’m told this is due to the quality of the original speech clips being played out of the updated sound system. All up though both games are a hell of a lot of fun to play. I plan to do my usual clean and rebuild of the game, with additional plans in the future for a playfield swap (game came with a clear coated playfield) and new cabinet decals (to be purchased later). For now I’m keen to tackle it in small doses to keep the game in a playable state as much as possible.
I can always tell the level of enjoyment I get working on a machine by how much it consumes my free time. Funhouse has been consuming a lot of my free time over the last few weeks which means progress has been good. So I’m back again with the third update. In this update, I’ll be focusing on the playfield area (and assemblies) in the middle stretch of the playfield. This includes the right scoop, pop bumpers and left upper flipper. There are various plastics and metal posts that will need to be removed and cleaned. There is also a ramp that runs below the playfield connecting other assemblies to the scoop which I’ll remove and clean too.
Now I feel like i’m getting back into the swing of pin updates 🙂 Progress on the Funhouse has been moving along smoothly this week, so I am keen to get another post up. For this update, I wanted to focus on the lower playfield area. In general, everything just needs a really good clean, although the sling shot plastics will be replaced. Some of the screws used on the clear posts are not correct and these will be replaced too. All up though, it’s a solid base to start with.
My recent pinball updates have been infrequent, which isn’t common for me as I like to keep on top of them. Usually my updates sit around 1 -2 weeks behind my actual progress. The Sopranos machines have been coming along well and I have plenty of content to get more posts up – I’ve just been a little slack in writing. Not slack on the actually physical side though and have been going non stop on doing various pinball things for people. To help get back into the swing of regular updates again, I’ve decided to start tracking the next machine in the queue since it’s so fresh in my mind. This next machine I’m working on is one I’m extremely excited about. This time I’ll be doing a repair & service on a “Funhouse” from Williams pinball. Released at the end of 1990 and over 10,000 units made, it’s a game I’ve been really looking forward to working on since the owner mentioned it to me a few months back. As with a number of my previous write ups, this isn’t a fancy restoration, nor a basic service as it sits somewhere in between. I’ll be working my way through each assembly and playfield part on the machine, cleaning and repairing as I go. Various things will get a face lift while staying within a budget. The game is quite dirty (although I have seen much worse) but is in a mostly working state.
