Pinball

All posts tagged Pinball

I enjoyed working on my Nugent so much that I had to get another machine to work on.

I knocked back a few machines in the process of searching which I’d love to own (and had the funds for) – but they required no work.

I wanted a machine that was in need of some love. After a few false starts in the hunt for a project machine, I ended up getting a Fireball Classic by Bally (1985).

As a game, it ticks many of the boxes I was looking for. Pop bumpers? Check. Multiball? Check. Messenger ball? Check. Ball save? Check. Early Bally/Stern SS? Check.

As I’ll show shortly, the machine does need some cosmetic love, along with some fixing up to the game play. I will be able to apply much of what I learnt while working on my Nugent here, and also extend myself into areas not yet explored. Perfect 🙂

I expect my work on this project to take a few months at least as time and funds permit. Given I now have two other machines, getting this finely tuned is less critical as I can always turn to my Nugent or Space Orbit for some awesome fun.

To start with, the machine boots up and does allow you to start a game. This wasn’t a requirement in my search, but is a bonus.

Fireball classic - Powered up
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On the home stretch now – the last part of the game under the hood to receive some attention is the saucer kicker. I haven’t really had to worry about this at all since it’s working fine from day one. But like everything else, it can do with a clean and this is a chance to learn some more about it.

Nugent saucer kicker
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First up for this update is the lock down bar. The condition of the bar itself is OK. It’s a little worn and has a few scratches, but is solid and doesn’t need replacing. The issue it does has however is it’s loose on the left side and does not lock down properly. I can lift the left side up with my hand.

Loose nugent lockdown bar
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After doing some work on my Nugent yesterday, the game play had some scoring issues. The game would start fine, but the moment the ball was in play, I was being awarded many more points than I should have been. Further to that, certain targets failed to register and some roll overs would cause the lights to flicker.

I took the glass off, started a new game and hit each target with my finger. I narrowed the issue down to the three roll overs at the top of the play field and the static target. All other targets and roll overs were functioning fine.

I then put the game into test mode and found that switch #4 was stuck. Looking at the Nugent manual. Switch #4 was the left and right roll overs at the top of the play field. Ok, so getting somewhere.
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I just have to keep tinkering with my Nugent. Since it’s my first pinball machine and my knowledge on pinball is small, I enjoy getting under the hood and making changes. I’ve started with a number of simple things like changing the bulbs and rubbers but want to start focusing on a few other areas of the game play. I’ve purchased a flipper rebuild kit, which I plan to use shortly. Before that though, I decided I’d change the flipper buttons and shooter/plunger.

The old buttons has faded in colour and were quite dirty. They are cheap to replace, so wanted to do it.

Old nugent buttons
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