My Game-Room

Flame on!

2011-12-23T12:20:00.004+01:00

I recently started cleaning, polishing and waxing all of my pinball machines. Most of it went just fine, but when it came to my plastic ramps I didn't dare cleaning them in the 'best' way: flame polishing.

As I searched for information on the internet, I came across several guides. One of the best guides I found was the one of flippers.be (Thanks Aeneas!)

This guide comforted me in such a way that I dared to try it myself.

After finding a useful flame 'tool' (one of my wife's kitchen tools) I started the flame polishing very carefully.

After a few passes (and some cooling down in between the passes) the ramp started to get crystal clear. I was amazed how easy this can be done when having the right information.

As per usual, I forgot to take a good 'before' picture, but I will post my best of that ;)

Before

After :)

Again, it's time

2011-06-13T19:16:00.004+02:00

to get Scared Stiff of course, as spoken of before.

The machine is in. I decided to go for a machine that was pretty dirty, but in good shape. Maintenance was needed for sure, but that's no problem at all.

I have cleaned the machine already, and replaced several switches. Also, I put some wax on the playfield for some nice vibrant colors, a shine and extra protection.

The game plays very good, and only a few minor adjustments have to be made.

Only when I have completely finished the work on the machine I will make some pictures and place them here.

Planning = horror

2011-05-24T12:31:00.002+02:00

It's hard to plan, at least right now it is. Many factors apply, and finding a good match seems to be very difficult.

Next week I will pick up the Scared Stiff machine, if all works out, and I hope to be able to clean and tune it soon afterwards.

Bear with me, and come back next week for an update :)

Tuning

2011-05-24T12:27:00.003+02:00

As I got more comfortable to tune my machines, I ordered some more parts to revise the flipper parts on 2 more machines.

Yesterday I have replaced the parts on the Medieval Madness machine, and tomorrow I will replace parts on the Lord of the Rings machine.

The game(s) play a lot smoother / faster after the tuning :)

I will probably revise the flippers on the Pirates of the Caribbean machine too, but they seem to be ok right now.

Friendly fixes

2011-05-18T12:32:00.002+02:00

Yesterday a good friend visited, who actually likes pinball as much as I do. He does not only like playing, but also fixing and adjusting the machines together with me.

Enjoying our evening, we fine-tuned my machines, fixed some problems and played some games afterwards.

It's really great to find someone who cares about the machine (how it plays, how it feels) living close enough to do this regularly :)

Soon we will try to find a nice way to film some pinball gameplay, to show my machines in action. The video's will be posted here as soon as we got some worthy material.

Tommy Gun

2011-05-18T12:24:00.002+02:00

What a strange message title.. But anyway, if you pronounce it in a certain way, it would sound like: Tommy gone..

Yesterday, the Tommy pinball machine was picked up. A new owner will hopefully be as happy with this machine as I have always been.

Tommy was the first machine that was picked up by my wife and me together, so it has some extra value added for us.

Bye Tommy, be a good boy...

No more nightmares...

2011-05-15T15:54:00.003+02:00

Today, the nightmares of Freddy have stopped haunting my game-room. The Nightmare on Elmstreet pinball machine left the room, picked up by a nice girl from Germany.

I'm glad to see that she is (as I am) a big fan of the movie series, so the machine will go to a safe place :)

The pickup went as good as it ever gets: a nice big car and lots of tools were brought to place the pinball safely for
transport.

This week (Tuesday) my Tommy will be picked up, decreasing the number of pinballs in my collection to 5. Soon I
will buy a Scared Stiff machine, and I will try to keep the collection in this state :)

Decisions decisions

2011-05-04T12:09:00.005+02:00

The plan of selling the Nightmare on Elmstreet machine was already there. At first this was started, to create some more space and as some kind of 'cash counter' for the Medieval Madness purchase.

This plan changed into leaving the machine, and putting it in the game-room. (as it was placed upstairs in our house) The machine is very nice and I love the theme and game of it, but I have (once again) been seduced by a mistress...

To even things up in cash, I am going to put up my Tommy pinball machine for sale too.
That's right, it really hit me, see?

The mistress I'm talking about is the mistress of the dark her self, Elvira.
She never left my (and many others') heart. I'm talking about a good old favorite : Scared Stiff.

Soon I will go try to find a nice Scared Stiff machine. The machine will be revised as much as possible afterwards, and mods will be placed to spice up the machine to it's fullest.

Estimated time of purchace of the machine: September / October 2011 :)

A day for odd jobs * UPDATED 04-05-2011 *

2011-04-16T11:55:00.012+02:00

Today, I'm going to take care of some small problems existing in my machines being:

- Freddy's 'boiler room' doesn't come up all the way, resulting in a failure of the 'top' optical switch
- Freddy's glove (flipper) needs some fixing, today I'll remove the glove, and take a look on how to fix it
(best would be to replace the plastic blades, for metal blades I guess)
Change levelers on Nightmare on Elmstreet machine
- Lord of the Rings has trouble with the switch matrix probably, when pushing the start button, the right
slingshot fires too :)
- Lord of the Rings left flipper coil stopped working, due to a (probably) transistor failure
- Medieval Madness needs the castle wall to be placed
- A switch in Medieval Madness needs adjusting

Let's hope for a successful day :)

** colors indicate the status of the items. (Green = done, Orange = Work in Progress, Red = Not started) **

Pre-starting a competition

2011-04-16T06:49:00.002+02:00

Last week would at first be the start of the Local Pinball Competition, but unfortunately one member couldn't show up.
The rest of us decided to just make sort of a pre-start, by playing some friendly games at my gameroom.

Being with 4 people, we played every machine together, and to make it a little competitive, all players (except for me) played for the NFV Ranking. (you can read more about it here in dutch)

It was a really enjoyable night, which took us quite some time to play through all the machines. (oh my what a pity ;))

A new date will be set for the real Kick-Off, and I will post scores here so if you're interested, check it out soon!

Some Medieval pictures

2011-03-29T20:46:00.006+02:00

Here are some pictures my latest pinball machine, some cleaning still needs to be done, but that will take some more time :)

Is this the end?

2011-03-20T20:56:00.009+01:00

Yesterday was one of those days, to remember. A day like no other, making a great change for me and the pinball hobby..
I was really wondering: Is this the end? Can it be?

I just still can't believe it, it suddenly is going all so fast. Yesterday started pretty early for us at home. Our daughter was up early, and we were dressed and good to go around 08:30 am. This day changed a part of me, eventually almost making me cry..

What is happening? What is this change?

Well.. me and my wife went for a drive some place north in the Netherlands. We bought the Star Wars Episode 1 playfield there earlier and we planned to meet the same person again.

This time it was a different setting. Arriving at the planned time, we were invited in for a drink, had a chat and then went for business.. This person had a storage room, and was cleaning up his collection. This made me think.. made me think a LOT..

At first my wife thought I was crazy (which I am for sure ;)) but in this case, oh well, it would be worth it for me.

After a long talk, we drove home. You can say I was quite satisfied when we arrived at home.

I'm guessing, this is not the end, but with this I have achieved one of the hobby goals in my life.

Well.. why this vague story, and what did you do / achieve???

No words are needed... just this link

:)

(pics will follow ASAP)

Moving on down

2011-02-24T16:29:00.002+01:00

Yesterday me and my buddy Frank moved the Nightmare on Elmstreet pinball machine from my 2nd floor, down to the 1st, and into the gameroom.

After moving it up, I allready knew what kind of a trip it would be. Luckily, I kept my documentation of the cabling so I could disconnect everything directly without worries.

After disassembling, the trip downstairs started... Even without playfield and backbox, the cabinet is pretty heavy, and with no grip at all I was GLAD that I was wearing safety boots.

We slowly went downstairs, stumbled once in a while, but we got there in one piece!

Transporting it to the gameroom was a piece of cake! A bit of the assembling has been done (playfield is inserted in the cabinet again), this weekend I will put it back together completely.

With this move the gap of the Revenge from Mars has directly been filled, and a bit more room is created upstairs again. :)

No more revenge for me

2011-02-23T08:36:00.002+01:00

Easy to see in the title, yesterday I sold my Revenge from Mars pinball machine, including the Star Wars Episode 1 playfield and the NuCore system.

It was a great system, and as I said I was really happy with my collection, but hey there's always room for change with me :)

The empty spot will be filled with my Nightmare on Elmstreet machine for now, being upstairs in my home. This way I will have some extra space in the room where it's standing now, and the gameroom will be filled at it's maximum ;)

More info to come soon!

And they're in!

2011-01-31T20:16:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I finished placing the mods into the Pirates pinball machine, and today I shot some pictures and a video of them.

Next to the flippers, below the slingshots a cannon is placed on to a 'wooden' underground on each side of the machine.
Just at the end of the left ramp, is a set of barrels in some sand and on the shooter lane a large cannon is placed.

Next I placed a mod into the ship. The mod contains a set of LED's that have been placed into the cannon holes of the ship. Every time you hit the ship, the cannons will 'fire' giving a great effect!

I still have a sticker with some text that needs to be placed on the left ramp, but I will need to remove the ramp for it. I will do this soon, in combination with some cleaning of the playfield.

I'm really glad I placed the mods, take a look and see for yourself :)

Cannon on the right

Cannon on the left

The barrels

Cannon in the shooter lane

Ship with firing cannons

Mods are in, now to place it all :)

2011-01-26T15:34:00.002+01:00

At the moment the news rate isn't that high. Of course my time is a bit more scarce these days, but the other cause of this is that my collection is really stable at the moment. (Who would have thought that would ever happen ;))

Well, the news for now :

The mods are all in, most of them are easy to place items, except for the ship lighting mod.

I don't have much time at the moment so it will take a while before I can place them all, but when done you will see it all for yourself :)

Planned mods Update

2010-12-29T16:20:00.004+01:00

I'm thinking of ordering some very nice mods for my Pirates of the Caribbean machine, to make it even prettier.

The mods are coming from a site called BackAlleyCreations.com, so if you're interested check them out. When I have them, and have placed them, I will post some pictures ofcourse :)

*Update*

Order has been placed, some nice models to spice up the machine, and a LED mod for the pirate ship (to light the cannons)! Pictures will be posted after installing the mods!

Update

2010-12-21T16:51:00.002+01:00

Most people around me already know about this update, but since my last post is from August, an update fits nice here.

On December 4th, my wife and I became proud parents, of our daughter Elodie :) The new pinball wizard is in good health,
and all goes well around here, just a bit less time to spend with the pinball machines nowadays ;)

Still my hobby will continue as normal as possible, and I've been repairing some small issues of the Revenge from Mars machine lately. My NuCore setup was updated to the latest 2.0 version, making it possible to use the tournament option online!
Furthermore, some switches needed some adjusting, and a diode needed to be soldered at the 1-bank drop target to make it work like a charm again.

I would like to send my thanks to BigGuysPinball for making such a great effort to build NuCore, and maintaining it like you do, just amazing!

See you next update!

Took me a long trip to realize...

2010-08-03T15:03:00.003+02:00

It's been many many times.. Every time I bought a pinball machine, one other name came up too.. Strangely enough I never bought the machine.

I'm talking about Indiana Jones: the Pinball Adventure by Williams (1993). Because I finally decided I wanted to go and buy the machine, I had to sacrifice another. Being honest with myself, resulted in choosing the latest pinball machine I had acquired : Spiderman. (WHAT, you just bought it!!?.. I know I know.. ;))

While selling Spidey, I searched for the Indy pinball machine. Eventually, I found one, being really nice.. After mailing a while with the seller (being a great help / contact in this) we came to a 'deal', and I could prepare myself to pick it up. Preparation was REALLY needed as the machine had to be picked up in the east of Germany, being a whopping 470 km drive (one way trip)...

After thinking how to handle this, a good friend 'accepted' to join me on this roadtrip. (Thanks SO much Frank)
On Sunday 1st of August we went for a drive.. a LONG drive.. We left at 7 am, expecting some traffic jams due to the holidays. A 'few' hours later we arrived at our destination. The machine was in a basement, with stairs not built to move a pinball machine, as a matter of fact I'm amazed that we made it up with the pinball (weighing 264 lbs <-> 120 kg).

We placed the machine into the car and after handling everything else, we drove back, finally arriving home at 9:30 pm... We dragged the machine into the gameroom, and called it a day..

Pictures of the oh so great pinball machine have been taken, I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do ;)

Star uh.. Cat?

2010-08-03T14:56:00.002+02:00

Some time ago I played the Star Wars machine again, which is at my brother's home.. Nicely enough, the cat wanted to play too :)

Pictures of Freddy

2010-08-03T14:49:00.004+02:00

It took some time, but here are some pictures of my Freddy (Nightmare on Elmstreet) pinball machine:

Freddy's Home...

2010-05-24T12:30:00.003+02:00

After a long drive (more than 3 hours in total) Freddy has been brought home!

The pinball is looking good, and playing nice. As I wanted to place it on the 2nd floor, it was quite a challenge...

I disassembled the machine for as much as possible, to make it less heavy, as the machine needed to be lifted straight up the
stairs. (I should have done this with the Star Wars machine, when taking it to my brother's apartment :P)

The machine found itself a great spot, and I will make some pictures soon, but I've been busy fixing a small issue on it. The display was showing some garbage from time to time. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGOdiqrxKYQ)

After getting some help from other dutch pinball players, it seemed that the +5V leading to the display could be a problem.
The value of it was above 6V so I adjusted that back to around 5V, which fixed the problem :)

Check back for some pictures later, first I need to explore the machine completely ;)

It's just a nightmare

2010-05-17T15:48:00.002+02:00

Taking it slow is still active, but somehow it's just not me to do that :P

I decided to sell some audio equipment, which I wasn't using anyway so I planned to do this before. To fill up the space, and spend the money (it just doesn't stick to me :P) I contacted someone for another pinball machine.

This time no other machine leaves, and the 'new' machine will be a Gottlieb "Freddy: a Nightmare on Elmstreet" from 1994.

If all goes well, it will be in the collection next Saturday. Pictures will be posted then!

Taking it slow

2010-04-23T07:51:00.003+02:00

Except 1 lighting mod for the Pirates machine, no news since the last updates..

What's up? Well building the collection and modding it all costed a lot of money. I am thinking of buying some more mods, but it will be spread out over the next months.

The mods will probably be:

- some of the custom made mods for the Pirates of the Caribbean machine (http://www.backalleycreations.com/bac%20poc%20pinball%20addons.html)
- some of the custom made mods for the Spiderman machine (Not available yet)
- lighting kits for the 2 other Stern machines

Other than that, I've allready got some figures to put into the Pirates machine as well. That will be the first step I think, if I find a good way to place them.

Next to modding, I need to stabilize and align the monitor in the Pinball 2000 machine. It's not quite centered, and hasn't been attached to the cabinet in any way yet.

So in short: I'm still alive but just taking it slow :)

More Mods

2010-03-31T19:51:00.003+02:00

Spiderman is just in, but today I received the order lighting mods from PinballLife.com (which is a really good shop in the US).

The mods include several lights for 2 locations in the game:

The Venom area, and the Green Goblin area. A few bulbs and flashers were replaced to get a really nice effect, making the characters come to life yet some more!

Seeing is believing, but photo's won't do the mods justice, therefor I will try to make a video soon to show the effects in full glory!

For now, just check out these pictures coming from the PinballLife website:

Green Goblin mod

Venom mod

Green to red...

2010-03-30T14:58:00.005+02:00

It's happened.. Shrek has left the building, and along came Spidey!

After a good meeting with the seller, we put the Shrek machine into his vehicle .(first taking the box containing the Spiderman machine out offcourse ;))

Unpacking the machine was nice, as this is the first New In Box machine I ever got.
Next to this, it seemed to be that my 'normal' Spiderman machine turned out to be a Limited Edition Spiderman machine, with webbed siderails and some extra plastics!

I'm very happy with it, now to find some more time to check the game out to the fullest :)

Some pictures (bit low-light) below:

Shrek ready to leave..

The box, containing the Spiderman machine

The machine itself :)

Webbed siderails

Head of the machine

Incy wincy spider

2010-03-26T08:52:00.002+01:00

Next Monday, it's time... Shrek will be picked up and be put out of the collection. But to be honest, I don't really mind, because a brand new Spiderman (New In Box) will be put back instead!

I'm really looking forward to it, and I will try to make some pictures of it all.

Perhaps it will take some time to put up the photo's as I will be pretty busy playing the new machine ;)

What else is new...

2010-03-19T12:17:00.002+01:00

Well as changing as I can be, I'm going for another change in the collection.

Most likely the change will involve the Shrek machine to go out, and a Spiderman machine to go in...

If anyone's willing to buy the Shrek, drop me a message :)

Update on Star Wars playfield

2010-03-10T07:57:00.004+01:00

As I was having some problems with the lamps on the brand new Star Wars playfield, I tried to split up the problems:

- The flashlamps didn't work, a fuse is clearly out
- The lamps in Lamp-Matrix A aren't working at all

For the first problem, I have to wait for a delivery of fuses. As I think I fixed
the problem causing the short-circuit in the flashlamps, replacing the fuse should be enough.

The second problem turned out to be a simple one, after searching a lot and thinking of what it could be, I found out that the connector for this series of lamps connecting to the playfield had some problems. After fixing this the lamps shine bright once more :)

Today, if the delivery is in, I will replace the fuse, and the balls as these are the old ones of the Revenge from Mars. When fully functional, I will make some pictures and maybe a video of the complete system including the built-in NuCore.

** Last update **

Everything works fine again, and looks amazing :)

Star Wars Episode 1 NIB arrived!

2010-03-08T10:25:00.004+01:00

Last Saturday we (me and my wife) drove to Amersfoort, to pick up a NIB (new in box) Star Wars Episode 1 playfield, for the Pinball 2000 machine!

The meeting with the seller went very smoothly and nice, and after making some pictures we went back home. In the evening we placed the playfield into the Pinball 2000 cabinet, with only 1 little drawback: removing the autoshooter button of the Revenge from Mars game.

The switch of the shooter had to be removed to place the plunger of the Star Wars game, but removing it took some time. The switch had to be pulled out with some force, but eventually we got it out without breaking it :)

After connecting and placing the playfield we booted the NuCore system, and it all works fine. The game looks and plays really good, and as a Star Wars fan I completely love the game.

One more drawback after playing some games: in transport one of the connectors of a flashlamp got bent, contacting the second connector of the lamp, resulting in a broken fuse and a lot of lights not working. As the fuses in the machine are different in size compared to the Stern machines, I didn't have a replacement for it. This week I will replace the fuse, and everything should be fine again.

Some pictures of the Star Wars can be seen below:

The complete box

Stickers and backglass art

The playfield :)

Final stages

2010-02-18T20:25:00.002+01:00

The NuCore system is ready, in place, and every function is working now (had some trouble with the jukebox of NuCore, but it works perfectly now)

I connected the power cables of the Revenge from Mars machine to the PC and Monitor, after I set the PC power supply to 115V, I can close the cabinet soon..

Just one more thing to do: Put a second PC power supply in, and connect it to the Audio Amplifier to prevent static noise.

In a few weeks I will have the Star Wars Episode 1 kit, and I can't wait for it to just slide into the machine and work smoothly with NuCore as intended :)

I really need to make some new pictures, and post them here so you can see how it looks like now.

NuCore system operational!

2010-02-13T15:13:00.006+01:00

The NuCore system had already been installed earlier, but some testing needed to be done now. As the original PC cabinet needs some modification to fit in the new parts, I decided to hook up the PC in a normal cabinet.

I put the PC next to the Revenge from Mars pinball machine, and plugged in all the cords, including the NuCore hardware, turned on the pinball machine and the PC... and started praying :P

So far, so good, the machine was working and NuCore was responding to the button input of it.

To use the original Audio Amplifier, I had to solder some resistors and a stripped stereo audio cable to it, so I did :)
Next step was to plug the cables into the Amplifier, and the stereo cable into the PC. After another start of it all,
the sound was playing very well over the speakers!

I made a short shaky movie and some pics with my phone, to show you how the rickety setup looked like while testing:

The NuCore board

The Audio Amplifier

UbuntuutnubU

2010-02-11T19:51:00.002+01:00

I bought some PC gear last week, and the NuCore module is in, so I decided to start the installation.

The operating system on the PC needs to be Ubuntu, some version based on Linux. I didn't have
any experience with the system, but there was a CD and a user manual with the NuCore module so no
worries there. Or..?

The install went pretty fine, and everything seemed to work great, but after looking around, the video card
wasn't working properly.

After trying a lot, and asking experts on a forum, I finally got it working.

Next step to do now, is to modify the Audio Amplifier of the original Pinball 2000 machine (Revenge from Mars) so I can connect it to the PC.

I have to do some difficult soldering (at least for me it is) and connect another PC power supply to the Audio Amplifier. I can connect it to the PC power supply powering the PC, but it seems that the sound would get a 'hum' in it, and we don't want that!

Last part that has to be done after this, is to modify the original PC case of the Pinball 2000 machine, so the new PC parts fit into it. I hope to get all this working and done this weekend, but this last task might be more difficult than I expect.

When I finish the system and got it working, you will read it here :)

Mars divided

2010-02-01T20:28:00.002+01:00

The Revenge from Mars machine has been put together again, and plays and looks really nice again!

Next step, is to setup a PC system, with a NuCore Emulator in it, and with that I will buy a New In Box Star Wars Episode 1 playfield!

The NuCore system will detect the playfield that has been connected, and so I can turn one machine into another, in just a few minutes! I think the total setup will be ready in about 2 months (including buying / shipping / building the PC etc.) so be sure to check out the pictures when I'm done!

Revenge Revision

2010-01-26T15:48:00.008+01:00

The Revenge from Mars machine was crying out for new rubbers and the shooter 'broke down' recently... 2 reasons to start revising it.

I ordered some gear to be able to finish it all, hopefully I will receive it tomorrow, then I will put the machine back together ASAP.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone during the 'dismantling' of the machine:

Everything in place

Connectors of the machine just before removing the playfield

Removing the 'ball catching' system

Cleared some more here :)

Time to remove the evil looking martian

Overview of the playfield so far

Cleaned the flippers

More will follow offcourse, the machine will shine again! :)

Practice makes... My goal far far away

2010-01-19T21:04:00.003+01:00

Well I don't know what it makes, but I might not be able to practise enough on the other hand.

I've set a new goal : Reach Far Far Away on the Shrek pinball machine...

To reach it, a set of 6 goals need to be completed. As I've only managed to finish one or two of
them, I'm wondering if I can make it happen at all :P

The goals which are clear to me:

- Score 5 Puss jackpots
- Finish the mirror
- Make 10 Repay your Debt shots
- Get Donkey Super Jackpot

Less clear are:

- 15 Multi JPS (I'm thinking 15 jackpots in multiball, but in which multiball then?)
- Swp wiz 25M (I guess it has to do with the swamp items.. but that's all I know for now)

Anyone willing to give me some advice on beating this goal, you're welcome to contribute :)

the goals...

Needing to work things out..

2010-01-15T16:31:00.002+01:00

Again, a few parts of some pinball machines fail. Not really hard to fix, but it will cost some time again :)

To start with, the starter for the lighting in the backbox of Lord of the Rings wasn't working any more. I allready fixed this by placing a new one.
Another problem I allready had with the machine, was hard to find, but easy to fix.

The machine was acting strange from time to time, activating wrong switches (e.g. : when shooting the ring spinner, another switch was responding).

I eventually found out that this was occuring due to the pinballs that had become magnetic. So the easy fix: put in some nice carbon-core pinballs :)

In the Revenge from Mars, the ball launcher isn't working properly. I think I have to replace the coil sleeve here, the coil fires the ball, but the plunger part isn't returning to 'base'.

Next to this, the Pirates of the Caribbean machine needs some cleaning, and the boat is sometimes not dropping the sails, resulting into not completely sinking into the playfield. I'm not sure how to fix this one, but I'll figure it out for sure.

For the cleaning, I have to remove a large number of items to clean nicely. This is not on the list of most fun things to do, but the priority is high for me now!

Now only to find some time... to be continued soon :)

Think think think...dream dream dream...

2010-01-12T21:22:00.003+01:00

There's always something to dream for, but what if you're not able to work out your dream?

At the moment, I have 6 pinball machines, 2 of them are not at my place because I don't have
enough room for them. It's not really a problem, but still I would love some other pinball machines!

My mind keeps returning me to a few nice machines:

- Indiana Jones (Williams)
- Cirqus Voltaire
- Class of 1812
- Medieval Madness

Thing is, financially, it can be a matter of time before I can afford one of them, but room is hard to create if you don't have any.
All of this is just a luxury problem, I know.. I just keep thinking: why dream, if you know it can't be done?

That's why I keep on thinking... and thinking and thinking...

If I ever have a sollution I will post it here, in the meantime I'll just keep dreaming ;)

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-01T09:59:00.001+01:00

To all of you offcourse! Let's make it a good year, for me hopefully full of pinball and musicmaking :D

Snow and cold? No reason to stop moving!

2009-12-18T07:09:00.002+01:00

Yesterday it was snowing and it was pretty cold, but we had decided to move the Star Wars machine to my brother's new home. It all started pretty easy, loading it into the car, and driving to the apartment. But then, we had to climb 3 stairs with it...

At first there were 2 straight stairs, but partly outside. As it was snowing before (it had stopped) and it was freezing, some ice was on the stairs. We tried to remove the ice as much as possible because we didn't like the idea to slip with a pinball machine in our hands :P

After climbing the first 2 stairs, there was no way back. The third staircase had a corner, so due to the width of it, we had to turn the machine. This was harder than we thought, but luckily we were with 3 people, 1 up front and 2 carrying the back of the machine.

Well it took some effort, but the machine has arrived in good shape! I'm sure my brother will have lots of fun with it there :)

Game on!

Busy busy busy

2009-12-09T07:57:00.003+01:00

As you might have noticed, I'm really busy lately..

Most likely, the Star Wars machine will be transferred to my brother next Saturday, after that it's time to finish the gameroom completely :)

These days I've been busy with rehearsals (music), creating some graphics for
the NFV magazine, and helping a friend with soldering. Nice things to do, but
I didn't have that much time left to modify or even play the pinball machines.

Ah well that time will come soon I'm sure!

Signing off...

Pictures

2009-11-22T13:09:00.005+01:00

Here are some pictures of the gameroom as it is now, and some pictures of the modifications to the Pirates of the Caribbean machine so far:

New floor: (Sides need to be finished)

Pirates 'mods'

A very busy day

2009-11-22T11:21:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I have been working on some adjustments in the gameroom itself, Jojanneke dropped by to continue the paintjob, and Rene and I worked on some modifications of the Pirates of the Caribbean machine.

The gameroom adjustments included some cleaning, throwing away old unusable stuff, and putting some flyers in a frame and to a wall.

Jojanneke is allmost done with the 2 walls she started on, and had some great ideas for the remaining wall. I still find it unbelievable how she does it!

As for the Pirates machine, I painted the remaining part of the deadman's chest (the top was done, the lower half was hard to get out of the machine but it worked out ok now) and Rene created a custom plunger with a nice Disney item I had acquired. I'll try to make some new pictures of the gameroom today.

It's in!

2009-11-15T20:03:00.004+01:00

The floor is in, I've made some small lo-res photo's with my phone, better pictures will be posted soon.

It was a pretty rough job, as the pinball machines were inside the room while we placed the new floor, thanks dad for your great help again!

After putting the machines in place again (against another wall) we had to do a play-test ;)

Rene played too, and well he took first place on the Shrek again, great job there!

Pictures - Before:

Pictures - After:

Next floor please...

2009-11-13T12:06:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow, we will place a new floor in the gameroom, now there are carpet-tiles, but we will replace it with plywood for several reasons.

This will be a great opportunity to put the machines in perfect place, and to level them all as best as possible.

For protection I have allready purchased some rubber items to put under the legs of the machines, this way the machines can be tilted without wrecking the floor ;)

Simpsons gone allready

2009-10-28T10:32:00.002+01:00

But hey, a nice Pirates of the Caribbean machine came back for it!

The Pirates pinball machine is so awesome, it just had to come over to my gameroom!

Pictures of it will be posted ASAP

Arcade sold, time for some Revenge!

2009-09-07T21:30:00.002+02:00

Yep, the arcade machine has been sold.. as planned

The Revenge from Mars pinball machine has been placed allready so the gap has been filled ;)
New pictures follow soon, the machine needs to be cleaned a bit first.

I also put a remote controlled dimmer for the spotlights and put a light switch at the door for it so I
don't have to reach behind the machines for it.

The room is really working out nice!

Put some color to the art!

2009-09-02T17:39:00.003+02:00

Look at the art that's being finished! :

Jojanneke is so good at this :D It will be finished up soon!

A movie of the Mount

2009-08-30T13:04:00.003+02:00

Today I made a small movie where you can see the effect we added to Mount Doom. Check it out below:

Project... reveal yourself!

2009-08-24T07:49:00.008+02:00

At last... we will reveal the project to the public... at last we can show it all...

Project 'Mount Doom' has been finished, and the name of the project reflects the ease of it. As Frodo and Sam had a hard time climbing Mount Doom, we had some hard time and some setbacks but we managed to survive the trip!

Time for some explanation, right?

The idea:

As we were playing the Lord of the Rings pinball machine, we had a good time I must say, but hey, something was missing in our opinion. A shot in the ring results in a magical moment holding the ball 'hovering' in the middle of the ring. After this, the ball is leaving behind a backplate, and comes back rolling out of 'Mount Doom'. Note the quotes, as this 'Mount Doom' was merely a drawing of the Mount. Pretty nice ok, but we thought: That can be done much better!

Take a look at this picture to see what I described:

The ring, and 'Mount Doom' next to it on the right side.

So, let's move on... We decided to create Mount Doom, from scratch, as a physical model, and place it into the pinball machine.
To make it look as authentic as possible, we sampled the size and shape of the drawing as seen on the previous picture.

To make it feel a bit more effective, were thinking of making some extra light-effects with it.

Because I'm not experienced in making electrical schematics, I posted a question on the NFV website, to get to know how to make our plan possible. One of the members of the forum, Michel, drew me a schematic to work with, which was just perfect! Thanks again for all the help Michel!

René started to mold Mount Doom, and I started on the light-effects schematic.

Time went by, the climb went steeper, but we kept fighting for our project.
And finally... our Mount Doom.... is finished... And we are proud of the work!

The custom built model blends in so nice... Check out this picture from a distance, in the dark, I reckon you won't see much of a difference :)

Look at the next pictures to see the model in a close-up:

I tried to make a picture of the light effect, but I will describe it first. (I will make a video of it soon, to show it better)

3 red LED's have been built in the model, placed carefully to make the light shine on the right place. The model has an opening on the top where light comes out and brightens the picture of the lava coming out just behind it. 2 'cracks' were grinded into the model to create the effect of lava-streams coming down.

On the picture below, taken from the side you can see the model (hard to see 'cause it's dark) with the lava coming out of it, and the lava stream (on the left of the model in this picture) lighted up.

The effect is the set of 3 LED's fading (one LED is visible in this picture) for about 3 seconds,when the ball comes through the model.

You should see it for real to see the full effect of it, that's why I will make a video soon to show it some more :)

Wow.. we're done.. but before I forget:

To finish the modifications on the cabinet, I ordered a really cool model of the Balrog online, placed it as a topper, and put a red light behind it. Check out the result! :

That's it for now.. Allready? Hey we worked hard on this ok? ;)

Check in again soon for the video, and some more pictures of the game-room!!

This weekend for real?

2009-08-21T13:38:00.003+02:00

After the previous weekend, I have some doubts if we can finish the project this weekend :P But I think there will be a great possibility that we will finish it, and even start on other items of our to do list.

Jojanneke will come by (for real now, just as last Wednesday :D) to paint, and I will help her out here too.

New ideas are allready coming up for extra adjustments on the pinball machines. The arcade machine will be upgraded in the Graphical User Interface, to make it look a little more classic, as I've seen the new interface, it's really beautiful.

Can't wait for the weekend to start :D

Art for the Gameroom - updated with foto -

2009-08-20T10:25:00.002+02:00

Today Jojanneke came by to make a start on some art for the gameroom. Using the theme of the Pinball 2000 machine: Revenge from Mars, it's going to be really nice!

The outer lines have been drawn on 2 of the walls, next stop: painting :)

Check out the first step on this 'project':

And the second step :

Step 3:

Yellow Packages

2009-08-19T13:31:00.004+02:00

I've been watching Ebay sales closely lately, as a lot of nice items are sold there, even good as new!

I was looking for figures of The Simpsons, from the Playmates manufacturer. Some figures were easy to get, but some, like Moe the Barman, were somewhat harder to find even.

Today my final bidding closed, and I 'won' the item!

The first 2 of total 4 items came in yesterday :) I'm picking them up
later today from the postal office which is around the corner. (How comfy :))

The other 2 items are coming from the US, and it will take a little longer.

As said before, pictures of all the new stuff will be made when the room is ready, just a little patience please.

Just one preview of the 2 new items :

Monday came even faster than expected...

2009-08-17T08:10:00.005+02:00

And what a weekend it was...

Starting off with Rene not being able to take the car from home, so I went out to pick him up, because we were both so excited about the weekend!

We made a start at Friday, played some pinball afterwards and went to sleep..

Then it happened, next morning... We woke up, had a bite, and went outside. I made a great start on the soldering, as Rene was opening his glue-tube... Suspecting nothing, a group of masked men came behind my house and took me, I got masked and tiewrapped, and was put in a car where we went for a drive... This is no joke, it was real... Check it out:

Luckily I recognized some voices and was calm enough from the beginning.. OH NO: The bachelor's party!!!!

Well my friends did a GREAT job surprising me that's for sure!

After some horror-related assignments / puzzles and frights, we went to the city, where I had to find an antidote. My friends were scattered all over the city, dressed up in different themes.

After finding every part of the puzzle, we went to eat in the open. Next to eating I got to draw some subjects, which had to be guessed by my friends. With every subject came a letter and a small gift.. great laughs :D

Next step was a 20 minute drive, to a forest environment, where we went to play paintball. This was so cool, but also so hot as it was REALLY warm outside.

Because of the energy-consuming activity, we went to eat afterwards, a BBQ at my parents house. Again, a well arranged setting!

In the evening a guy named Albert came by... A workshop playing Djembe was the next thing to go for! (check http://www.speeldjembe.nl/ for more info on these workshops)
Playing around was really nice, we learned a lot and it was MUCH fun.

To conclude the day we played a boardgame, but as most people were so tired the attention slipped away sometime :P

Thanks guys for such a great day! I enjoyed it at the most!

Up for a great weekend!

2009-08-14T10:03:00.002+02:00

It starts tonight, lots of tension for our project, will it be finished this weekend? We certainly hope so, and then we will show it with pride!

Tomorrow we will start painting the wall art, more pictures will come :)

When there's time (which I doubt there is), I will make a schedule for JPT 2nd Edition, as all competitors are known by now. The schedule will be posted so everyone can make a strategy plan in advance :D

We will make extra mod's soon, a list of items we allready know :

LOTR

- Align Sword Lock

Simpsons

- Add Action figures
- Put a light (blinking) behind Moe’s tavern sign

Shrek

- Change backglass lighting to a more soft / warm light

Star Wars

- Add a Tie Fighter model above the Tie Fighter ramp
- Check middle X-Wing target-connectors, something's wrong somehow
- Add some extra action figures

Tommy

- Place color changing LED's in the back of the cabinet

Revenge from Mars

- CRT replacement by LCD screen

A lot to do, but it's oh so much fun :D

Little green man.. (not that little actually)

2009-08-05T20:00:00.000+02:00

A green 'man' has entered the building, or should I say, a green OGRE! Yes it's true, another cabinet rolled in.

This time Scared Stiff went away... and you guessed it: Shrek has been placed!

The machine is so pretty, as it is from 2008, and it was with someone who took REALLY good care of it :)

Pictures of all the changes in the gameroom will be posted when the room is done. (painting, modding etc.)

The new machine is good for a 'war' in scores as Monique got a high score at first, but Rene topped that on his last play in the weekend.. He had to walk home for this.... :P

This will be our finest project so far!

2009-08-02T22:13:00.003+02:00

I will not tell too much about it, but Rene and I are working on a project for a mod on a pinball machine!

We have finished about half of the mod allready, and we want to finish up next weekend, or maybe the weekend after.
The mod will involve pretty much sculpting and soldering.

As we see it, it will be a real improvement on the machine but you will see :)

Curious? Come back for more later!

D'OHHHH!!!!!

2009-07-28T08:17:00.002+02:00

Again, a machine leaves...

This time, White Water will be sold. Not because I don't like anymore, not because of failures or whatsoever, just because I spotted another machine I just wanted to have, and so space needs to be created.. (Wish I had more space ;))

So now, we have welcomed a new machine: The Simpsons Pinball Party!

Pretty hard to get, but with some stroke of luck we found one (or more it found us) just about 10 kilometers away from our home! What are the odds?

The machine is really nice, and plays really well. A simple fix had to be done, as a flipper in the upper playfield budged sometimes (the flipper went up, but not down, so stayed in upper position).

As I like the newer Stern machines very much it's most likely that another Stern will come to the game-room :) More on that soon!

My preciousss

2009-07-01T10:06:00.002+02:00

Here we are, back from uh.. whatever ;) Still no pictures ready though, sorry for that, but they will come I promise! Next to pictures I want to make some video's too to show the gameplay and mods some more.

Rene and I have been working on some finishing touches, cleaning of the Tommy pinball machine, and most of all working on the Lord of the Rings machine.

We now have a list of mods / updates we want to make:

- Update software (the machine has 4.0 and there is allready a 10.0 available!)
- Put a LED in Ballrog
- Mod the character figurines, they are now on a plateau stuck with tiewraps.
- Mod Mount Doom.. this will be hard to do.. (When we have a concept I will show it)
- Remove ugly stickers on the frontside of the cabinet
- Place a different light in the backbox (softer light)
- Place an extra light in the backbox for extra effect

The machine will be reborn after these changes I'm sure!

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

2009-05-25T21:37:00.003+02:00

Here we are again, after a weekend of pinball repair and revising!

This weekend we have been working on some remaining issues / improvements and I must say, it went
really well.

Rene and his girlfriend Iris came over, Rene helped out on the machines, and Iris, well I didn't expect it
to happen, but she got REALLY addicted to the Scared Stiff pinball machine! I think we have some new
competition here!

The fixing and improving included the following:

- Fix Star Wars Flippers (Ready)
- Clean Star Wars under the playfield, where inserts are lighted (Ready)
- Create propellers for Tommy (Ready)
- Re-align the sword-lock mechanism on Lord of the Rings (Ready)
- Adjust the sensitivity of leaper 3 on Scared Stiff (Ready)

This week I will make some pictures, and upload them to the blog soon, so be sure to come back later
to check it out!

2009-05-14T21:09:00.002+02:00

Well, another day in the fixing-life has passed, and I must say, Rene and I did some great work on it!

The Lord of the Rings machine is totally A-OK! The sword locking mechanism is working for 100% and
the second ring-wraith has been positioned and tightened on the plastic 'pedestal'.

For the White Water machine, I have painted the backbox cabinet because there was pretty much visible
damage on it, now it looks quite nice again :)
The playfield has been cleaned too, and sprayed with Superflipp (or as we call it, the magical spray!).

The propellers on the Tommy machine were broken, so Rene decided to start duplicating them out of some
nice steel! The start on this has been made and we are finishing this next time.

So all that's left now is:

- Star Wars (flippers, and popbumpers)
- Scared Stiff (3rd leaper contact)
- Tommy (propellers)

More on this next time, photo's will be posted when all has been finished!

Keep on Going

2009-05-05T21:54:00.001+02:00

Update on the fixer-upper-list :
On Star Wars, everything except for 2 items has been completed succesfully. Still to do:
- Place some new screws on the popbumpers
- Replace flippers / mechanisms

Tommy needs two new minor tweaks:
- Replace propellors of the airplane
- 'Smoothen' the right spinner

For the LOTR cabinet, we had some more work. After replacing a fuse, the sword lock still wasn't working. After some checking up and some thinking, we knew we had to replace a transistor on one of the mainboards. As I'm not that experienced in soldering, Rene and I decided to do it together, and take things slow.

Well slow it went, as we first had some trouble removing the old transistor in a clean way, but we did it.
Next thing to do was soldering the new one on the board, and I must say we did a good job, it all looked crisp and clean! :)
After some more testing, we got everything working again (yay!), and to finish the work on the cabinet,we decided to 'mod' the machine a little. In the cabinet there is one ringwraith, and there was room
for one more, so we placed a second ringwraith on the plateau. The look of it is great, I will post a picture soon!
Scared Stiff is completely done, White Water still needs the leveling and some cleaning.
We are proud of the work we have finished, but we still need to finish some things up :)

Some good and some bad...

2009-04-27T12:22:00.005+02:00

Ok the weekend is over, and so is the maintenance on all the pinballmachines? Not quite..

We started to analyse the machines, and eventually found ourselves spending lots of time on what seemed

little issues. There was sweat, there was blood, but no tears as we did not give up. After the first

day, we had some good and some bad feelings about the maintenance day, somethings went really

well and easy, but some things just didn't work out as expected.

Below a summary of the items planned, marked green for finished items, blue for new items and red for

comments on things 'to-do'.

As you can see, Star Wars is allmost ready, which is great, but some of the other machines had to wait to

get serviced :) This will be continued soon!

Star Wars

- Replace / fix The Force lampholder
- Place new plastic for The Force
- Replace lower part of one popbumper
- Place some new screws on the popbumpers (the screws available did not fit quite well, and the local hardware store was closed.. bummer)

- Check X-Wing targets

- Check X-Wing Targets' bulbs
- Place protector at Sarlacc Pit
- Tighten Jabba 'post'

- Replace flippers / mechanisms

- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

Tommy
- Replace Ballshooter springs
- ReplaceBallshooter sleeve
- Replace Autoshooter
- LED checkup
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

LOTR
- Replace solenoid at sword lock (21)

- Replace fuse..
- Replace bulb -> Ring Modes
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

White Water
- Level the cabinet
- Remove some dirt in the bottom of the cabinet
- Straighten the left ramp
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

Scared Stiff
- Replace Switches atj side-lanes
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

Spot-Order-Fix

2009-04-21T20:07:00.005+02:00

Well, that's how it goes.. Every pinball cabinet I own, has some little issue now and then, so after spotting the problem / issue, it's often time to place another order at the partsshop.

Time had come, I had to order some parts.. plan now is to fix them in the upcoming weekend, together with JPT 2009's winner and great friend Rene van Beek :)

I've made a list for each machine, what has to be done, to make sure nothing will be forgotten:

Star Wars

- Replace / fix The Force lampholder
- Place new plastic for The Force
- Replace lower part of one popbumper
- Place some new screws on the popbumpers

- Check X-Wing targets

- Check X-Wing Targets' bulbs
- Place protector at Sarlacc Pit
- Tighten Jabba 'post'

- Replace flippers / mechanisms

- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

Tommy
- Replace Ballshooter springs
- ReplaceBallshooter sleeve
- Replace Autoshooter
- LED checkup
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

LOTR
- Replace solenoid at sword lock (21)
- Replace bulb -> Ring Modes
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

White Water
- Level the cabinet
- Remove some dirt in the bottom of the cabinet
- Straighten the left ramp
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

Scared Stiff
- Replace Switches atj side-lanes
- Overall Cleaning / spray Superflipp on playfield

JPT 2009 - a success!

2009-03-15T09:34:00.011+01:00

The games have been played, the tournament is over... But it was a great success!!

12 people in total showed up, to battle for the 1st prize.

Dennis playing the White Water

A quick summary of the players :

- Rene van Beek - Jojanneke Gijbels

- Dennis v/d Hurk - Roland v/d Heuvel

- Ger de Jong - Ge Cuypers

- Roger Ristenpatt - Peter Briels

- Monique Beerens - Gerry Leplat

- Jord Knapen - Fred Cuypers

Roland telling Roger how to play ;)

As this was the first tournament to be organized by me, I could only hope that

it would all work out as planned. To be honest, everything went pretty smooth.

I mentioned 12 people playing, but to make things a bit more fair, 2 players

were left out for competition (My girlfriend and myself).

Me playing Lord of the Rings

As the evening went by, the games were being played, filling out the scores

of every game in my schedule, to make all the counting as easy as could be.

The 2 players with the most wins, were bound to battle each other in the final

match.

Jojanneke on the White Water

The two best players were Rene van Beek and Roland van den Heuvel, both

having 8 wins each! Below you can see the scores of every played game:

Summary of the played games

The final game, played on the Lord of the Rings machine was exciting, tension could

be felt as the match went on. After a great match the winner was known...

Crowded?

THIS is crowded ;)

The winner of JPT 2009 is: Rene van Beek! Congratulations!!!

Rene holding the JPT 2009 trophy

Fixing my arcade machine

2009-02-02T03:16:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago, the PC in my arcade machine just stopped working. Doing some troubleshooting to see what was wrong didn't help, the machine was just 'dead'.

Luckily the hard disk of the PC still works, phew! So, assuming more is still working,
I got to take an empty PC (only case, motherboard / cpu and powersupply) from my
job. I have placed the harddisk and the memory into the machine, and it seems
to be working fine.

Due to the hardware change, I needed to re-install some of the driver-programs for
the 'new' machine.

As from today, the Arcade machine is working perfectly again.

Pinball Tournament

2009-01-29T08:43:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago, I've decided to organize my own Pinball Tournament. To make sure that people were interested, I've created some kind of survey. It turned out good, so the Tournament seemed like a good idea.

After some research to determine the best date for this event, the chosen date was the 14th of March 2009. Due to the size of my game-room, I've chosen to put a limit to the amount of competitors.

To spice things up a bit, a prize will be available for the winner of the tournament. To make things as fair as possible, the rule-sets of all the games will be explained at the beginning of

the tournament.

Below you can see the invitation that has been sent.

Pictures will be taken, so make sure to come back later to check them out!

The invitation that has been sent

Some more pinball fun!

2009-01-28T12:54:00.002+01:00

Last Monday, we went to take a look at a pinball machine, as the Addams Family machine has been sold, another machine obviously has to be placed ;)

The machine was standing in Berghem, Netherlands, in some kind of shop, where
a LOT of pinball and arcade machines were available. (http://www.flipperkast.nl)

A nice welcome and a small talk made us feel comfortable, and went to check out
the machine. The chosen one, was Stern's The Lord of the Rings.

After playing it sometime in the shop, it was clearly a great machine, beautiful
design, and fast and fun gameplay. The choice was easy, this one had to go with us :)

So since last Monday, the Lord of the Rings machine is standing in my gameroom,
full of glory! Some pictures will be posted soon, you will like it for sure!

A smile, and a tear?

2009-01-25T20:23:00.003+01:00

Not long ago I posted the message of one of my machines,
not long ago my thoughts brought me to something I would
never think it would happen.

What is it you ask?

Well, today was the day, I have sold the Addams Family Gold pinball
machine..

The main reason I started thinking about selling it, was because I
noticed that my girlfriend just didn't play this machine. She liked
the other 4 machines, but this one remained untouched.

I then decided to check some other machines out, and place
an advertisement on the internet.

The machines I have been looking at, were Sterns The Lord of the
Rings and The Simpsons Pinball Party.
I will post a message soon which one it will be ;)

After bringing it to an excellent collector, Giel van de Kop (The Addams Family
Gold will be his 41st pinball machine!!!) I had to leave it behind. Well, a tear
was really not shed, I felt that it was the right thing to do, a smile
appeared on my face, thinking of what brilliant machine will replace it.

Many thanks to Giel van de Kop and Bertjan Postma for the smooth
'wrap-up'.

White Water update

2009-01-12T21:41:00.002+01:00

Today I have placed the latest version of the ROM of White Water, to add some features I was missing. The thing I missed most, was the ability of enabling the ball-saver. The version of
the game is now LH-6, which is a Home ROM, what means that it's not able to be setup
for coin operation, but only has Free Play available.

Next to this, I had ordered one of the mountains in the 'Boulder Garden' area, which was missing on delivery. The person who sold me the game told me this, and I agreed to order it myself (as it was coming to my costs anyway).

So now the White Water machine is absolutely complete, and playing really really good!

Star Wars Revision continued

2009-01-12T21:22:00.003+01:00

The Star Wars machine is allmost completely finished, but some work still has to be done..

Yesterday I have placed one of two protectors in the playfield. The protectors are basicly to protect parts of the playfield, where damage is easily done.

For people who know the machine: Two places are going to be protected, the scoop-outhole of 'The Force' and the scoop-outhole of the 'Sarlacc Pit'.

The outhole of 'The Force' has been done now, but because it was pretty much of an adventure to find out how to place it, I didn't have enough time to install the second protector.

My to-do list is not long anymore:

- Place protector for 'Sarlacc Pit'
- Revise flippers (parts have arrived)
- Fix a few lights (The Force, Middle X-Wing targets)
- Find paint for the Backbox of the cabinet, and paint it

Possible I have some time next Wednesday to finish the work on this cabinet.
When I have installed the second protector, I will make some pictures of it to make it
clear to people who don't know the game very well.

It's time to get Scared Stiiiifff!!!

2009-01-04T21:50:00.008+01:00

Ok, I got this in my head for some time, but now it just had to happen. I have started
the search for a Scared Stiff pinball machine, and found some people who were selling one.

Side effect of 'wanting' this machine was that I had to sell one of my other machines. The choice was made pretty quick, the Back to the Future machine would have to go.. although I like the machine very much, it was the least favorite of my girlfriend, and next to that, the only machine without a Dot Matrix Display.

While 'price-checking' and finding someone for the Back to the Future machine, I was contacted by a member of the dutch pinball association, who's friend was selling a Scared Stiff AND who was willing to buy the Back to the Future machine.

The best part is that this Scared Stiff had modifications to make it look like the prototype of the machine.

After making some arrangements, we set a date for the exchange of the 2 machines.
This all went really smooth, and so, now I have the Scared Stiff in my collection!

The game plays perfect and is so much fun! I will record some movies soon, to show the game for whoever is interested :) Photo's below :

White Waterrr!!

2008-12-27T22:45:00.004+01:00

Today I have finally picked up my White Water pinball machine, as it is ready after revision!

After some placement issues, I have decided to change the layout of the room.
The game is really nice, as I allreay knew, but I'm really glad I finally have it!

Next to this new machine, I'm selling my Back to the Future machine, and buying a Scared Stiff instead.

I finally have my camera back, so I will make some new pictures of the changes in the room, and of the new pinball machines. I'm off to bed, and tomorrow ready for some more pinball :D

*Edit* Below, some pictures of the White Water:

Star Wars Revised

2008-12-01T11:31:00.006+01:00

That's right, I've been doing a revision of my Star Wars pinball machine. The reason I decided to start on this, is the lack of electricity in my gameroom ;) Next to this reason, the Star Wars machine has been in my collection the longest, and revision never took place..

The revision includes only the playfield and the items on the playfield itself, not the parts
under the playfield. Cleaning will be done there, and lights will be replaced where needed,
but that's about it.

The playfield was stripped, so I could clean and wax the board very easily, every part on
the upper playfield was cleaned, and where needed replaced. I've ordered some 'new' plastics for the slingshots, and some other broken plastics, at http://pinballheaven.co.uk/. (Great shop
by the way! Real fast delivery too)

I've also replaced some targets, as they were almost split in two!

I must say, I'm proud of the work I've done on this machine, it looks and plays great again!
The only thing I'm waiting for is a new translite (the picture on the top part of the machine) after this and some minor changes / protection issues, the machine is good to go!

Logo for the dutch pinball union created

2008-10-07T10:24:00.007+02:00

For a part of the union, it is wanted to create a logo, so I decided to make one for myself.

With some help of photoshop, I created this logo:

The logo will be presented on the page of the union (http://www.nfvpinball.nl/clubvan100/) soon!

NEXT!

2008-10-05T16:54:00.004+02:00

Yes it has happened..

On Saturday the 27th of September, I've been to the opening of the clubhouse, of the Dutch pinball group, which was great! Playing the machines there was great, but entering my first pinball competition, and ending up 3rd was even better!

Playing a lot of pinball games, is risky offcourse as I have noticed.. Risky because I found a new machine which I liked so much, I HAD to search for it and eventually buy it!

The machine I'm talking about is White Water (a Williams machine).

Today I've been to a pinball-salesman, and heck.. I bought a White Water pinball machine!
The machine will be revised first, so I have to wait for it, but the waiting will be worth it!

Pictures of the machine will be posted when I have it, more pictures will be posted too, as I didn't have time to make pictures of the Addams Family Gold yet.

Fixed my Star Wars backlighting

2008-08-04T12:14:00.003+02:00

As you could see on the picture of my collection below, the backlighting of my Star Wars machine didn't work anymore.

After searching for a while, I encountered a connector that had some burn-marks, being
the connector I was searching for!

Now I must tell, I'm not very experienced in soldering, but I thought: 'heck I must give it a try someday' so I ordered a new set of connectors, and tried to fix the connection.

Full of excitement I turned on the machine after plugging in the connector again.

All the lights shined as bright as they could (need to replace some :P) so proud as
I could be, I can play my Star Wars machine in full brightness!!

'New' pinball in my collection!

2008-07-31T14:02:00.004+02:00

I finally convinced myself to do it.. buy a 'new' pinball machine, that has been on my list
for a loooong time! The machine I am talking about is: The Addams Family Gold

The game impressed me a pretty long time ago, in a pub in Germany, ever since that
day I've been willing to buy such a machine.

My gold version has number 705 in the list of 1000 machines ever made of this
model. The machine is complete with Certificate and Plaque, and has become
a very nice adding to my collection!

My Pinball Collection UPDATED

2008-07-12T15:47:00.005+02:00

My collection of Pinball Machines, containing The Lord of the Rings, White Water, Tommy, Scared Stiff and Star Wars from Data East. (Photo will be updated)

The building of an Arcade Machine

2007-06-28T13:31:00.000+02:00

The biggest dream on gaming ever for me, was to build an arcade machine.. From scratch!

I've always been a big fan of arcade games, but with the coming of all the great console machines, arcade centers faded away here..

After a few years with this idea in my mind, I finally decided to start a project for it. First I've collected as much useful information I could find, to find my way in a maze of information available on the internet.

The goal of the project was to make an arcade cabinet, that looks nice but plays good too.

My second step, was to create some kind of a project-team, because I'm not good at all aspects that are needed to build a full-size cabinet.

I asked a few friends (Bart, Xander and Joep) and my dad to help me out. They were all pretty eager to help, so we decided to plan and assign tasks to start the project.

Most of the work could be started allready, building the cabinet itself went pretty smooth.

For finishing the MDF panels, we have used black Formica. Applying this was not as easy as it looked and sounded on the websites I've seen :P The Formica has been used for making a Bezel too (The black

Choosing the TV was not easy at first, where can you find a decent TV that's not flat these days.. The TV screen had to be about 28" and the TV cabinet itself had to be not wider than 30". Luckily my parents had a TV that was just right for this project, and the best part was that I could use it!

The control panel 'gear' and coin-door were ordered online, at http://www.ultimarc.com/. Several pushbuttons, joysticks, an interface (IPAC 4) and a coin-door were sent to me very quick and smooth, thanks Andy for the great work! I would recommend this store to everyone who's willing to create a total custom control panel!

A test control panel has been created for 2-players, final goal is to create a control panel for 4-players in total!

This is what the four player control panel concept looks like :

At this point the cabinet is finished pretty far, what's left is :

- Finish design (sidepanel, control panel, marquee)- Create a Marquee, and install light behind it - Create a full-size 4-player control panel with designed graphic plate on it
- Install a coin-mechanism in the coin-door
- Put T-Molding in the sidepanels (check http://www.t-molding.com/)
- Paint and put a 'Lighted' Logo in the sidepanels
- Put a plexiglass plate in front of the TV

After lots of minor tweaks and configuring, the machine is ready now, Check out the pictures below for the final version of my arcade cabinet:

The Control Panel looks like this now:

For more information on my project, just mail me at enlighted17@hotmail.com