A Tale of Two Pin*Bots

So... last October or so, I bought a Pin*Bot. PB has long been one of my favorite pins. It's brutal left outlanes make me weep like a baby girl, but I love the backglass art, I love the cabinet art, I love the sounds and speech, I love the playfield art, I love the helmet toy, I love the miniplayfield, etc. I LOVE Pin*Bot. I found one in pretty rough shape, but its PIN*BOT, so I bought it anyway. It was part of a group of pins, so the actual price for it wasn't bad at all, and it's better off in my garage than in a barn, right?

Fast forward to February. I bought ANOTHER Pin*Bot. Again, another group of pins, and this PB was in much better shape than the earlier purchase (which was still sitting, untouched, in my garage). Well, I got home, and packed it away. Didn't even turn it on... until today...

The plan is to fix up both machines, and donate one to the church across the street, and keep the other for my collection. The 'worser' PB works ok. I've turned it on and played a quick, unleveled, game here and there, but the cabinet is trashed. I'm not a big cabinet guy, but I'd love to try repainting it and restoring it. That's always been my plan. Here's a photo of the bad cabinet, but it looks even worse in person...


So, tonight I fired them both up. The better-looking-but-allegedly-far-more-broken PB fires up right away. Looks pretty great too! It's sitting on the floor, but I try a game... The balls don't kick out into the shooter lane. The drop target bank doesn't rise. The visor doesn't close. The eyes don't pop out. Hmmmm... could it just be a bad fuse?

...

YES! It is, just a bad fuse. Swap fuses and everything works great! Or, everything works great for just powering it on for five minutes. I turned it off and will dig deeper soon, it was getting dark.

Then I turn to the dirty, ugly game. Power it on. Half the backglass doesn't light up. The alphanumeric displays are very very very broken. It looks like the alien from 'Sphere' (15-year-old spoiler alert) is trying to communicate with me during attract mode. I switch it off. Looks like I'm in for the long haul on each...


I'll keep you posted, and with a little luck we'll all be able to play one, or both, of the 'Bots later this month at the second Duke City Pinball Open House!

TOTAN LEDing

In an effort to maintain interest, I have decided to include all my mundane pinball goings-on in this blog. I originally set it up for specific DUKE CITY PINBALL entries, but we haven't really had many yet, and it just looks like an outdated, dead, boring site in the meantime! Hopefully a league will start soon, and we can post photos and weekly rankings!

Today, I cannibalized a few other LED kits from Cointaker.com to begin preparing my 'Tales of the Arabian Nights' for the DCP open house, later this month.


Due to a shipping error, I was left with a bag full of high power, warm white 44's that came with my 'World Cup Soccer 94' for the GI. Unfortunately, WCS94 uses 555's for its GI. Luckily, TOTAN uses 44s! On top of that, a friend gave me their unused 'Fish Tales' LED kit, so I stole a few bulbs here and there to add a little color to TOTAN.

This is the first pin I've done with high power LEDs in the GI lamps. I've outfitted a half dozen pins or so with LEDs, but the High power bulbs are very different. Overall, I'm pleased with the results. It's definitely brighter, without the obvious change in tone that the cool bulbs offer.


I placed a few colored bulbs below the lamp, and in the saucers, but they really need flex LEDs for the proper effect. I was also wishing to add just a little more color. The kit for the playfield inserts is on it's way, so maybe that will be enough color to add a 'pop' without changing the feel of the game. We added a ton of color to a 'Congo' recently, totally changed the look of the game'. Here's a pic if you're curious.

More photos of today's project are available here.

Duke City Pinball Party

We're holding another DCP Party, this month, July 30th, at 4pm. Email me or check out the Facebook page for more info...

This round will be more laid-back, just for fun... We'll probably mix up some sort of prizes though. Oh, and it's potluck style, so bring something to share if you can!

The DukeCityPinball rolls into Facebook. *cough*

Join our Facebook group! Facebook has many clever and interesting ways to integrate their site with yours, or your site with Facebook.... and I can't figure out how to work any of them. So here's the link, to the group page.

I'll probably post both places when events start happening, but Facebook is much easier to post to.

Wake Up!

So... Here in the Albuquerque area, where do you play pinball? Home? Bowling alley? Gym? Where do you go to get your fix?

Chicago Pinball Expo

We're in Chicago right now, enjoying the Chicago Pinball Expo! So far, we've toured the Stern factory, stopped by the Illinois Pinball flea market, had a great time at the Pinball Life World Headquarters open house, sat in on several seminars and pinchats, and played a lot of pinball!

Running around Chicago, dropping off cards and meeting friends. I was given a lot of great ideas on how to drum up a Duke City Pinball League! I'll be trying to get the ball rolling in the right direction soon. Comment or email with ideas and suggestions. Thanks!

FORUMS GO!

So, the forums seem to be the main focus of the DukeCityPinball users at this time, so please, join and get involved!

Also, I'm thinking of hosting a DCP get-together in my home soon. Again, testing the waters... Please leave a comment or email dukecitypinball@gmail.com and let me know if you are interested!

Thanks!

- Don