A good pinball month for MameMaster....

[MameMaster!]

Sold my Cyclone on Tuesday. Star Trek Next Gen is coming on Sat. Pic soon.....

The line up will now be-- STNG, TOM, Stern Indy, VirtuaPin full sized emulator, and a Stern Spiderman.

(cue the "Stern Indy sucks comments  ) 

[TopJimmyCooks]

It's a really different pin- played it a few times at the beach recently.  Looks more like an array of things to shoot laid out discretely/separately on the pf, with lanes or shots in between them, rather than a continuous wall of stuff like most pins.  Not explaining that well but it is an interesting layout.  I wanted to do more with it but the one I saw had a problem.  it kept launching balls into the ark like it was ready for multiball, but would dump them out every minute or so onto the pf.  So, high scoring, but no fun sweeping 4 balls off the flipper all the time. 

I've heard a lot of great stuff about sttng as well, need to find one to play.  nice get. 

[ChadTower]

STTNG has always struck me as a game for which you really have to like the theme.  Not being a trekkie it just doesn't play that well for me.  It feels to me like an older Bally widebody mistakenly trapped in a DMD game.

[MameMaster!]

 

[MameMaster!]

We'll STNG is safely in my basement-- but it put up an incredible fight!

The guy who I got it from is highly reputable in NY. He brought it over with the head removed but it's over 350 lbs so I guess it made sense. He and his partner brought it down my stairs and set it up.
 
Unfortunately, when he connected the head the flippers didn't work. He then fiddled with the connectors- and when he hit a flipper we saw a spark, and the whole machine went dark. He literally killed it right in front of me. 
 
He said would I take it for $3500 (that's less than what we agreed delivered) and I said no thanks, but I would give him an offer- but I just didn't want to insult him and gave him a much lower offer.
 
He said no, he couldn't do it- and we thanked each other. As he was packing it up he decided he'll take it.
 
I rolled the dice and it turns out I won on this one--- I put in an old extra power board I had, reconnected everything and noticed where he had misconnected the board. I turned it on-- an it worked perfectly! Thankfully he only damaged the power board.
 
This was pure luck- an a roll of the dice for me as I mentioned.....as I am afraid of tech issues. But I've had enough experience as this point to take an educated guess on the fix.

Score one for the MameMaster! 

(and cue those who will say I still overpaid!-- even though you don't know what I ultimately spent---  )

[ChadTower]

Haw, good on you for beating the price down.  Personally, I won't deliver unless the machine has been paid for.  Nothing to stop a spouse from throwing a fit or finding out it's too big for their living room if they don't have any skin in the game.

(oh, and if you don't want people commenting on what you paid, then stop bringing it up)

Yep, yep, yep.  And I make it clear, very clear, that moving a pin can cause issues during setup in the new location.  They're usually easy fixes but they do happen and there may be a certain adjustment period before we get the game 100% working again.  It will get to the same working condition as it was before we broke it down before the transaction is complete but there is an outside chance that will require a second trip on my part.


This is why I usually will sell, for a lower end collector's market price, to other collectors.  That way you can sell it cash in hand with a tail lights warranty.

[MameMaster!]

I offered to pay our original price if he would fix it- he said no. 

[TopJimmyCooks]

That sweet moment when the pin you're looking at stops working.  A sigh escapes the seller's lips.  Your eyebrow slides skyward.  Your hand pushes your halfway extracted wallet back home.  Just like in this case, the sellers overwhelming desire to consummate the deal and be done with it clouds good judgement.  Fun for the buyer, oh so painful for the seller.

Of course, I've seen the other side too.  Get a pin home, play it 5 times and the MPU croaks on you. 

[MameMaster!]

Well the parts are ordered and the shopping has commenced.....I always start with the easy stuff, buttons, coin door etc.

I've rebuilt the gun plunger (the spring was squashed and the handle as beyond messed up), and I just put in all new flipper buttons, start, continue etc.

Here's the newly refinished coin door, w/its new inserts and fixed plunger/gun.

.....there's a lot to do- but the machine is 100% working (fingers crossed I don't kill it).....

[jasonbar]

(cue the "Stern Indy sucks comments  ) 

VirtuaPin sucks.


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