Silverball Restorations – Pinball and Arcade Restorations

It’s always nice to get a good project in, especially if it’s going to be a keeper, but the past couple of weeks have been particularly kind and I’ve been hit with four projects at once. Here’s what I have in the garage right now, and what I have to do to each of them.

World Cup Soccer ’94

I had this one shipped in from South Carolina and it got here in one piece, but the shooter assembly was completely trashed. The shooter rod was bent at nearly a 90 degree angle and the housing was hammered. I already ordered a replacement assembly and installed that, but here’s what’s left to do.

• Install new service menu buttons, these ones are shot
• Full teardown and cleaning
• Replace several broken plastics, replace soccer ball
• Replace a handful of flaky switches
• Install an off-board battery holder
• Polish up all the metal, including legs and lockbar
• Get a new sheet of playfield glass, this one is carved/scratched up
• Clean the cabinet inside and out

Revenge From Mars

I picked this up while out at the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown. It was filthy, but I already tore it apart, cleaned it, and put it back together. I’ve had to do some board work on it as well, and I may not be done with that. The right flipper stops working at times, so there’s an issue there to address. The game also has about 4 broken switches that I need to replace. I swapped the CRT out for an LCD, and I think the image has improved dramatically. Here’s what’s still needed.

• Fix the broken playfield switches
• Fix the right flipper issues
• Clean the cabinet exterior
• Replace the translite

Attack From Mars

This was a local score, and it’s in great condition. The game recently had new decals installed, so it looks absolutely mint. Not much to do here, but a light shop job.

• Topside playfield teardown and clean
• Install a new Cliffy protector on the middle target and the right scoop (Stroke of Luck already has one, need one for the backside)
• Put a few LEDs in some of the inserts that could use more pop, such as the blue ones between the flippers

Spider-Man

This was another local pickup, and I feel fortunate to have come across this before it was officially listed for sale.  Huge thanks to kickback, an RGP user and another local collector/good guy, for the insider info on this one. Unfortunately, this is the dirtiest and most needy machine of the bunch, but there’s literally no wear anywhere, so it will clean up nice.

• Drill the locks and install new locks (done)
• Fix the fluorescent bulb (it won’t light, even after replacing the starter and bulb)
• Full teardown and clean
• Cabinet cleaning
• Install Cliffy protectors to prevent future wear from happening (none on the machine as of now)
• Install new webbies from Steve Richie’s site
• Install LEDs into the inserts, replace all GI bulbs (keeping them incandescents)
• Convert the coin mechs from tokens back to quarters

I’m starting to see that it might be tough to keep all four machines, so one of them might get put on the for sale list, but I’m really hoping to find a way to keep all four. Space is the biggest issue for me right now, and I like to save garage space for shopping out pins and arcade machines that I’m selling. Either way, it’s a fun haul to have around. Look for more how to videos and pinball machine reviews coming soon as these machines give me a good canvas to work with.

Last month, out in Golden, Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown was held where tons of games were put on free play, a tournament was ran, and tons of people gathered to swap stories, games, and parts. It was a great experience for all who went, despite some turbulent weather. I took out my Williams Indiana Jones to sell, as well as a Judge Dredd that I was delivering as a favor for a local collector. On the way home I brought back a Revenge From Mars, Guns N’ Roses, Funhouse, and Dr. Who; but only the Revenge was for me to keep. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. Here is some footage from the show.

Here’s a quick local news piece about Clay and his collection of games. It’s short, but well worth checking out.

Here’s some video from a test location. Software is version 0.5, so it’s quite incomplete at this point, but it’s looking pretty good.

An RGP member posted some impressions of his time with Iron Man, the next pinball machine coming from Stern. It was a test location game with incomplete software, but he seems to have had a favorable experience overall. Here are some of his posts.

I just happened to be eating lunch at GW and Pat Powers shows up with
a brand new IRON MAN.  He set up the game and I got to play first.
Software is 0.5

Art package is great

Audio was incomplete but the sounds and music that were there is
AWESOME.  Lots of cool sound effects.  Neat sound for the tilt
warning.  Some new sounds when putting you name in for the high
score.  NO AC/DC or Sabith [sic] that i heard.

There are 2 magnets in the game.  One for Iron Monger and one for
whiplash.  Iron monger is a cool bash toy.  Definetly needs a LED mod
for his chest.  The war machine kick back is like the one in JP FAST.
Cool left orbit shot.
3 multi balls so far.  Monger, War machine and Whiplash.

Good flow in the game with the orbit shots and ramps.  However if you
miss thoses shots you will pay the price by hitting the Drone stand up
targets.  The bounce the ball right back at you like in POTC.

The magnet become active when Iron Monger lifts from the playfieild.
You riase him by hitting orbit shots and the up the middle shot.  The
ball was not held in the multi ball that I had however it grabs the
ball while bashing the monger and flings it back at you, FAST…

I have not played AP [Austin Powers] but the monger comes up fast.  He also has 2
positions.  He comes up half way to bash his sholders.  and all the
way up to bash his knees or nards.  Pat told me there are 3 optos that
register hits, one for each sholder and one for the knees.  monger is
plastic.  however Pats says they tested the heck out of it.

DMD stuff is way early but it was a mix of Movie and animation.  One
cool thing in the DMD was when you make an orbit or ramp you see iron
flying with some cool sounds.

[speaking of the Iron Monger piece]

Its a nice piece of engineering.  He is kind of on a Flat metal piece
sort of on a pivot spring thing in the middle.  Hard to explain but it
felt sturdy when I was messing with it.

More impressions should star popping up all over RGP and forums soon as more test locations are set up and the machine makes its way to the pinball shows and expos.

This is pretty amazing, and Rob deserves all kinds of kudos for creating such a killer video. Check it out. There’s an HD version available, so make sure to watch it in 720p and put it in full screen for the best experience.

Here’s a report on what goes into making a pinball machine. Most likely this aired back around 1993. Enjoy!

Here’s another pinball review. I promise I’ll get to some arcade stuff soon…

Here are parts one and two of my review for Twilight Zone. This game was designed by Pat Lawlor and produced by Bally. I think I make it pretty clear in the videos, but this happens to be my all-time favorite pinball machine.