Looking for a new pin an not sure which one to get

Looking forward to seeing this open, they say early December. I heard about this place last month, they’re going to have a “one price all-day” play charge. I bet they will do well in this location.

So I’ve decided I’m going go for building my own homebrew pinball machine, with the theme of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.

My fav band. I seen these guys live many many times and honestly can’t think of a better theme. Between the music, art by Galea and their bootlegging, there’s just so much you could do with it. The possibilities are pretty nuts.

I’m an art director and designer, been doing it for about 20 years, so I’m feeling good on the design stuff. Playfield art, cabinet, animations, branding, all of it. And absolutely zero AI slop. I want this thing to look and feel like a legit, beautifully designed machine.

I’ve been digging pretty deep into the hardware side and have a decent plan coming together. Looking at FAST Pinball controllers, MPF for the game logic, proper coils, switches, lighting, custom mechs, the whole deal. I’m not under any illusion that this is going to be easy, but I’m pretty comfortable getting my hands dirty and figuring stuff out.
I’m thinking this will be about a 2 year project, with a budget somewhere around $12–15k. Not trying to rush it. I want to take my time and build something really special that I’ll have forever. Does that seem doable??? I have kids and many dead hours in the night to tackle.

Still super early but figured I’d throw this out there and see if anyone has any rad ideas or wants to get involved. Especially anyone who’s done a homebrew before or knows their way around playfield design, CAD, coding, or mechanical stuff.

I’m already imagining some pretty wild things with Nonagon Infinity, Murder of the Universe, PDA, fuck all of them could be epic. Could be such a sick machine if done right.

Would love to hear what you guys think. What songs, mechs, toys, or modes would you want to see in a Gizz machine? And if anyone’s interested in collaborating, hit me. Stoked to get going!!!! Sorry for the novel thanks

Do manufacturers do table revisions to fix issues with the original production models? For example, if Stern ships a table that ends up with a very a common problem (like a mech easily breaking, or ball getting stuck or a scoop not working etc.) that's happening to a lot of owners, do they fix that issue internally to ensure that newly produced tables of that game don't ship with those issues? Or is it a case of, when the table ships, that's it, warts and all and nothing will be fixed/changed going forward? I know they'll push out code updates, but I'm talking more hardware issues. I guess it would be shitty to be an early adopter who gets screwed with the worst version of the table, but it's also shitty to just keep producing busted shit for $10k.

So the announcement for this game has me scratching my head marketing wise.

Teased a date but didn't put the trailer up on said date. Instead went up the next day.

Unlisted the trailers from YouTube & took off social media after a few days.

Pinball Machine wasn't on the Pinball Expo show floor.

I'm confused. Only thing I can think of is they weren't allowed to show it because of some licensing issue and thought it was better put the stuff up and then take it down after being asked to from license owner. But that is just me taking a very wild guess.

My wife, Abi, made some oil paintings for a pinball professor character we created. Really proud of her and wanted to share!

Check out pinprof.com if you want to see more!

Hi,

I have noted that there is no good place to support registration process of pinball tournaments. There can be tournaments that contains multiple competitions, they can have max player limits, queues and so on. Registration can be surprisingly difficult process. So I decided to create website called Final Tilt (https://finaltilt.net) to fulfill this need. Idea is to offer website that can handle player registrations, but also offer helper tools for tournament organizers.

For players:

• Offer map that shows upcoming tournaments near you (configurable range).
• Allow easy one click registration with IFPA numbers etc. provided for tournament organizers.
• Show important tournament information like registration dates, tournament dates, prices and location details.
• Easy way to unregister from tournaments.

• Show personal list of upcoming and past tournaments.

  For organizers:

• Handle registration process with limits and queues (automatic or manual promote)

• Get list of registered players in Matchplay suitable format

• Ability to split tournament into competitions

• Upcoming: Notify tournament players if your tournament changes or gets cancelled

This site does not replace Matchplay. I don't want to offer tournament structures and diagrams. Just handle the registration and later maybe help with marketing tournaments.

I would appreciate all the users that could test the site and provide feedback. If you are tournament organizer or a player. All feedback is welcome.

Currently the site is free to use, but I might need to apply later some kind of basic fee for tournament organizers to keep the site running. Maybe something like 10€ or 20€/year.

I have a nice chance to buy a Space Station in good shape with LEDs for $2000. What are your thoughts on this game? Worth the spend? I do love system 11 games but I haven’t been around this one much.

Thanks!

An old coworker texted me about selling his Data East WWF Royal Rumble pinball machine. I’m already determined to buy it, but I want to know what to look for and consider before I make an offer. A few details/questions:

This machine came with the house he bought 20 years ago and it works, but he doesn’t play it very much. So it’s probably very low plays! No idea how long it was in the house before that, or how it was maintained. Could be HUO, could have been on location.

The owner is not a pinball guy. So basic maintenance is probably needed (flipper rebuild, rubbers, cleaning, etc).

I’m sure he didn’t know to change the battery on the CPU… how much damage could be done with a 20+ year old battery leaking?

My maintenance experience is limited to my 1980 Bally Skateball that I fixed and restored with a Hardtop and keeping my Evil Dead clean and spotless. Is there anything about a Data East machine that I should know (other than all of the posts about the hum)?

Any other costs I should consider when evaluating it? I don’t even know if he has the keys for it, so I may not be able to open it up and take a look under the hood.

I appreciate any and all input!

My local arcade has a beetle juice but it’s always down. I heard spooky quality control has improved. For those of you that have owned an Evil dead or Beetle Juice have you had many problems? I want to buy a spooky machine but I’m curious how your experience has been.

Soooo,

I was playing Mandelorian today. I'm the 'pinball wizard' of this bowling alley 😅😅.

The action button wasn't working. I messaged them ans they said it's fixed! I went and played and it wasn't working 😕.

But as I was playing, the entire LOCKBAR came off the game 😲!

Like I was holding it 🤣🤣🤣. So before replacing it and letting them know I looked at the action button and pressed the switch inside. It registered totally fine.

The "contact' to the button was out of alignment it seemed, so I fixed it myself before putting it back on and notifying them.

Isn't that like really bad? Can't someone shady try (MAYBE successfully) to access cash?

They're lucky it was ME, a seasoned pinhead and not some thug!

Ever happen to anyone else?!

(Pic is just of the button, not the displaced lockbar'.)

Did a Nuka Cola start button. Drop-in replacement for the Stern. Full details, instructions, and files available here:

https://www.printables.com/model/1885173-nuka-cola-start-button-for-stern-fallout-pinball

You're welcome to print a copy for your personal use. No commercial prints, sales, or other use. Thanks! Drop me a like on Printables if you wish.

These good scores? Im nearly 60, but used to be somewhat a 'pinball wizard' in my youth.

Finally cracked the 100M mark on TOTAN.

I ordered some fancy balls from Pinball Life and received this invitation in the package.

I know absolutely nothing about owning a pinball machine and would appreciate any help.

I just got a brand NIB Stern. I was planning to order these leg protectors.

So, if you don't have leg protectors, over time, the legs will wear on the decals and into the wood.

But if you install the leg protectors, won't that metal wear on the decals and wood? Or is it like the energy from the legs doesn't transfer into the protectors and then onto the cabinet?

Thank you!

Edit: Thank you, all. Based on feedback, I decided to order some plastic and some felt protectors and see how I like those.

Hey yall, I was wondering what is any differences in gameplay does the wizard and CE have over the arcade? Are the more expensive models just different art packs and nicer toppers etc? Are there any actual differences in what's on the playfield or how the game plays?

Hey everyone, Seen a few videos now and most machines when using the auto launch with lane diverter shoot the balls up to the soul drop targets, mine fires them directly to the lower 3 drop targets instead, wondering which is the norm?

Happy to post a video if that will help.

Thanks

I’m thinking of changing up my game room lineup. Turtles was my first machine and I’ve had it for about 2 years. The 2nd spot with Iron Man has been an every 6 month trade spot. It started with 2017 Star Wars. That got traded for Mandalorian. And the last trade is what we have now. I’m thinking of finally letting go of TMNT. What would your 2 pin lineup be of around the same dollar amount? I’m thinking Uncanny X-men and Walking Dead. Any other suggestions in that price range?

I know I've seen most people on here that said to just save for a used pro but at 4500 would that be worth grabbing?

I have the opportunity to get a Star Trek Premium vs Lord of the Rings. Both are in very good condition. Star Trek would save me about $2k. I’ve played both and like both a lot. Just curious what folks’ thoughts were.

Wow. Much better in person than I thought. Might be the best overall soundtrack ever, too. Just a home run from Keith and company.

This game is packed.

I recently got into pinball. When I mentioned it to my dad, he mentioned that there was a table he and his siblings played when they were young. A few weeks later and he got it out of storage! It's been a lot of fun working on it with him, but it needs some serious love before it's in any position to be played lol.

Since Steve Ritchie recently announced his retirement, I felt like sharing an article I wrote earlier this year regarding my favorite pinball machine (which was designed by him). Whenever I go to an arcade or a movie theater, I am always curious if one of his machines is up and running, as they're the ones I tend to find the most exhilarating and satisfying to play. To the King of Flow, thank you for all the fantastic memories and enjoy your retirement!

Hope you all enjoy and have a great rest of your day.