Xenon pinball game UPDATE Pics Added

[2PacMan]

A friend of a friend said he had a Xena pinball game he'd be willing to sell me.

[Chris]

There is no record in the IPDB of a Xena pinball machine.  I've only found one reference to such a beast on the Net, in a guy's personal blog saying he has one in his bedroom.  Not sure what to make of this.  Either this is a really rare machine, like a prototype, or it's a toy machine.  Get him to send you pictures, and find out if it's coin-operated or not.

[TheOtherBob]

Xenon?

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=xenon&searchtype=quick#2821

[2PacMan]

yeah, it's a xenon machine, my friend's an idiot!!  Well, in any event, is 800.00 a fair price for this if it's in decent condition?

[ChadTower]

You'd have to elaborate on condition, but that is a very cool machine.

[alphamonster]

800 bucks is a good price if the playfield is in excellent condition and all the displays work 100%. I would get some serious pictures before travelling any distance. I bought mine for around 300 with some playfield wear, and put like 100 bucks in parts into fixing it up to work 100%.

eric

[2PacMan]

Cool, well i guess i'll just have to go play it and find out...it's not too terribly far away, about a half hour.  I'm not sure of the exact condition, all i know is my friend said he played it and everything appeared to work OK and didn't notice anything majorly wrong with it while he was playing, but he's not a pinball/arcade wiz by any means.  he probably doesn't have as keen of an eye for this stuff as us BYOAC'ers.  I was thinking of offering 4-500 if it was in decent shape, we'll see i guess....but it's a fun game, huh?

[ChadTower]

It is a fun game, great art, a nicely shopped Xenon is a great visual.  A half hour is NOTHING to drive for a good pin at a good price.

[2PacMan]

OK, you talked me into it    I'm going there Thurs. evening.  I'll keep you posted on how things go.  Thanks for the info guys.

[ChadTower]

Where are you?  If you don't want it, I'd love to get a Xenon.  Hell, I have two lesser valued pins I'd trade for a nice Xenon.

[2PacMan]

I'm in Omaha, NE. 

I really don't have my heart set on a Xenon specifically, i just wanted a pin in my gameroom, and got in touch with a friend of a friend, and the xenon looks kinda neat from the pictures i saw.

What 2 pins do you have that you were looking to trade for it?  I'm about 90% sure i'll buy it if the seller would bite at 500.00. if he sticks with his price at 800.00, i doubt it.  I should be able to talk him down some, unless he's one of these idiots that thinks old pins are worth thousands of dollars, who knows, he knows it the first pin to use the voice thing, so i guess he thinks that makes it worth more....but even if i buy the Xenon, i'd still be open to a trade depending on what pins you have.  But i don't want an old 70's EM pinball, i mean, they at least have to have the digital scores and ramps, and multiball and stuff.

[TheOtherBob]

Make sure you check for battery corrosion on the mpu.

[ChadTower]

I'm in MA, so it wouldn't matter what I have to trade.  You say you require multiball, but Xenon doesn't have multiball.

[alphamonster]

I have that strip installed with a new tube and it looks awesome. If it has the original strip expect to replace it. Good advice on the battery leakage, mine luckily had the batteries removed.

[TheOtherBob]

FYI: Bieza's guide puts Xenon at $1250 - $750 - $300

Anybody have MrPinball's values?

[2PacMan]

This may sound like a silly question, but i've never owned a pin before, so i've never looked at the guts of one before.  Where do i need to look to find this battery to check for corrosion??

What was it originally used for, how were you able to take the battery out and it still ran properly? 

Is that really the only thing i need to look for other than the obvious playfield marks/ flipper sensitivity?

I checked out that blue light strip....def. cool.  I will get that if i buy the pin.  The light seems reasonable priced too.

[ChadTower]

The batteries are going to be standard AA.  They will be behind the backglass in the head, clearly visible once the glass is removed.  There will be a green trail of dried acid if they have leaked.

Don't check for the crispness of the flippers, just make sure they at least attempt to work.  The artwork is most important, followed by operation.  Remember, something that doesn't work can be fixed, but art that has been trashed is much much harder.

[2PacMan]

Is the glass easy to remove??  I'm going to his house to look at it, but i don't know if he's gonna want me to take it all apart, does the glass come off fairly easily?  What were the batteries used for??  Even if the batteries were corroded, couldn't i just remove them and not use them like that person who posted earlier did?  Isn't corrosion easy to clean off?  Or does it do perm. damage?

So if the flippers don't work very well, i should still buy it and just have them fixed/?  What type of buttons are the flippers?  Just standard leaf-switches??  And any burned out lights on the playfield are easy to fix too, right, just replace standard bulbs?  So artwork should come first, correct?  I might try to bring a camera to take pics, i'll have to see..i'll post them if i can.

[ChadTower]

Is the glass easy to remove??

[mp2526]

unless he's one of these idiots that thinks old pins are worth thousands of dollars, who knows, he knows it the first pin to use the voice thing, so i guess he thinks that makes it worth more

FYI...I believe William's Gorgar was the first commercially released pin to have a voice, although Xenon was Bally's first voice pin.

[TheOtherBob]

I looked at a Xenon once that was for sale that the seller listed as a small amount of battery corrosion.

[ChadTower]

You know, this pic from IPDB would seem to bear out what you're saying... especially with the lock on the side of the backbox like that.

[alphamonster]

Xenon has a key that unlocks the head, and the whole thing swings open on a hinge. The playfield artwork is by far the highest determinate of price on pinballs. Everything else can fairly easily be fixed, but a new playfield is gonna cost some bucks. You will want to do something with the batteries otherwise the game will go into diagnostic mode/ stats mode everytime you turn the game on. I went the capacitor route, though there are a couple other routes to go with such as putting the batteries off the board, or using a nicad equivilant.

eric

[ChadTower]

A lot of people, excellent pin people, just follow the "buy high quality batteries and replace them every 12 months" method.

[mp2526]

A lot of people, excellent pin people, just follow the "buy high quality batteries and replace them every 12 months" method.

That really only applies to more modern pins that actually use standard AA batteries.

[2PacMan]

OK, I  went to check out that game last night.  First off, the artwork is in very good condition I think.  I didn

[ChadTower]

The Xenon, working, is a good game.  I'd focus on that one, but if you can get both for around 800, you'd be doing great.

[2PacMan]

Pic 1

[2PacMan]

pic 2

[2PacMan]

pic 3

[ChadTower]

Uh, dude, buy that machine.

[2PacMan]

Ok...i want to.  I might go as high as 500.00 if it'll make the deal...we'll see, he's gonna get back to me next week.  He wanted 800.00 for just the Xenon, not the road kings, i have no idea what he would want for that, but he said it's a better game, so i imagine he'd want over a thousand for it.  I really don't have room for 2 pins, so i'm gonna focus on getting this one...hopefully for 400.00. 

Is it supposed to talk more do you know??

[ChadTower]

I've never played Xenon myself, but you're not going to find many machines with a prettier backglass.  This is a sought after pin.

[mp2526]

That pin looks like it is in great shape for it's age.  I actually have all the pieces for a Xenon (well, most of the pieces), including an empty cabinet, and I plan on putting it together to make my own Xenon in a sense.  I'd easily pay $700-800 for a machine that worked and had good artwork.  In fact if you end up buying it, when you are shopping it out, I'd be willing to work out a trade of some sort if I could get a 1:1 scans of the playfield (mine has some major wear, and I'd like to touch it up, but large section of the playfield art is missing)

I like Xenon, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a modern pin, but it's a classic and in good shape will always bring a decent price at resale.

To answer your question about the vocabulary, the game uses I believe about 12 separate voice recordings.  It's vocalizer bord may need some repair.  The Xenon used a different sound board and an extra vocalizer board than other games of the era.  These can be hard to find, but they do pop up on eBay from time to time.

here are a few links that might help you out

http://www.dreamstasys.com/xenon.htm
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~xenon53827/xmain.html

[ChadTower]

Did you end up buying this pin?  Don't leave us hanging!

[2PacMan]

Oh man, can you believe i'm still working on it??  This guy, he's an idiot.  It's sitting in his garage, covered in dust, he'll never play it again as long as he lives, i can give it a good home in my game room....he wants 800 for it, i said i'll give him 400.00 but i'm open to negotiations (there are some problems with it).  The voice board is bad on it and he lost the keys to it, so i will have to drill out all the locks.

He keeps saying he'll think about it....unfortunately he's rich, so he can just keep it sitting in his garage and ruin it, be out the 400.00 and could care less.  he's not into arcade games at all, he just has it....he also has a neo geo just collecting dust in his garage, but that one plays blind, i think there's monitor problems.

I''ve told him he needs to decide pretty soon, cause if he lets it sit in his garage all winter, i'm not going to want it...it can't be good for it to sit in -0 degree temps for months.....l have a feeling i'm not going to get it   I feel like i'm getting the run around, but i'm gonna keep trying!!

[ChadTower]

You can be pretty sure that it has already survived multiple winters in there, so one more will do nothing.

I'd up my offer to $600, myself, because that machine, if in good shape, is still a steal at $600, imo.

[RayB]

Locks are $4 each. They are hardly a bargaining chip and he probably knows that.

[SirPeale]

Get a truck and a friend.  Show up at his house when he's not home, but the wife is.  Bring $800 in cash.  Offer $600 for the first game, and say you'll take the second off her hands for $200 more.

[ChadTower]

Then run so you don't have to see when he gets home and chucks her off the patio.

Peale is right.  Show up with truck and cash in hand and he will sell.  They nearly always do.  Cash and removal tools talk.  Phone conversations do not.