The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Arcade Collecting => Pinball => Topic started by: Ken Layton on April 20, 2011, 01:04:28 pm
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Just discovered that the pinball repair website, pinrepair.com has switched to pay format. The indexes are still free, but if you click on any of the parts, you are directed to login/password now. No advance notice was posted.
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Although this news is somewhat disheartening, it only costs $10 for a CD-ROM of the entire guide. Supposedly it is a charity fund raiser for the Pacific Pinball Museum. Is the place hurting that bad?
I know I have ALREADY got my 10 bucks worth of info from the site as have many others I'm sure.
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Sweet! So they are selling other people's stuff? Love it!
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Feeling much better about printing the stuff that I have already printed from Clay's site.
Although, I don't mind paying for good info ... I paid Randy Fromm and it was worth it ... lack of warning and lack of info on Clay's site is disturbing.
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WOW. Just, wow.
Although I could agree that the content contained within is worth $10, this puts a total damper on my late night reading on the iPad before heading to bed, as well as killing any way of bringing that content with me to the machine I'm fixing. Getting it on CD would be great, but it'd mean having to run upstairs each time I wanted to find something new, or it'd mean printing out great gobs of info off the CD "just in case" I needed it.
I had just finished reading the Pinball Ninja blog right through from start to end, then it was taken offline. Now this... so much for all those bookmarks I made to individual pages or blog entries with particularly useful tidbits of info. All gone. :cry:
Saddest part is that without this guide having been online in the first place, I wouldn't even have bothered to go down the road of buying my first pinball (a project machine I'm restoring). Had I needed to buy this before I could even get started, I would've left the machine behind (where it would've gone straight to landfill).
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I think they've shot themselves in the foot by doing this. Especially since you'd be forced to donate to that particular "museum".
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I think they've shot themselves in the foot by doing this. Especially since you'd be forced to donate to that particular "museum".
Agreed. Had they instead made the CDs available as well as having the content available online, I would have been more inclined to want to send my $10 along.
It makes Saint here look like a, uh, saint... two printings of his book, and BYOAC is still here and the content is still available. I've purchased several items through Saint's Amazon click-through so that he gets something back for his efforts. Were Clay and the museum to have done something similar I would've been happy to help them out.
Hate to say it, but it really does reinforce the (unfortunate) poor impression I have of "pin-heads". From "the guy that buys everything that comes up for sale within 100km, then flips it w/o shopping it for double/triple what he paid for it", to the various clique-y pinball groups/clubs I've run across that won't even talk to you or let you come out and see what their meetings are like without first forking over the $30-40 annual fee.
/me shakes fist in the air
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I figured something out.
Copy the Pinrepair URL into the wayback machine at http://www.archive.org (http://www.archive.org) and you can still access the free versions!
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The Wayback Machine is awesome. Thanks for the tip.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman strike again!
:applaud:
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All of the "index" pages still state, "updates are available online at no charge".
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I read somewhere that his truck needs $7500 in repairs, on top of the Tilttown brouhaha. Thing is, in most other online hobby communities people often willingly help a guy out (Like Ken's internet for example!). There is no need to be a dick and just shut out your followers/supporters like that, then holding info ransom. Why support a guy like that? Why support actions like that?
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Google's cache still has most of the guides (for now anyway).
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I've been keeping a local mirror for years. I update it periodically with a site downloader. That guide has gone away in the past when the moon is full and this won't be the last time.
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I've been keeping a local mirror for years. I update it periodically with a site downloader. That guide has gone away in the past when the moon is full and this won't be the last time.
Link or STFU
LOCAL mirror, dumbass. It's on my LAN. Try a tool like HTtrack (http://www.httrack.com/) to create your own.
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Why on earth would I make it available to you when you ask like that? It's an internal apache server for my LAN. It's not externally visible.
PPM refunded my $11. Odd.
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I think they're refunding donations because contributors to pinrepair.com revoked their permissions.
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The Electromechanical Pinball Repair Guide is back:
http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index.htm (http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index.htm)
Here is an alternate pinball repair site:
http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page (http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)
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So much drama in the pinball world... I just don't get it :dizzy:
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So much drama in the pinball world... I just don't get it :dizzy:
Pinball is coincedentally attractive to people with lower than average social skills. That is probably both a curse and a blessing. Many of those same guys become so obsessive about it that they are the backbone of the continued existence of pinball. Clay may be a prime example of a guy who has substantial social issues but has also made very high level contributions to the entire hobby.
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Well, you consider that probably 99% of all games played are single player... and that the machines generally sat in a back corner of bars... you're going to attract loners with money. They don't play well with others.
And there is a large attraction to high functioning autistic men. Complex rulesets, flashing lights, random sounds, narrow objectives. Probably substantial overlap in all of the aforementioned factors which leads to a volatile collector community.
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And there is a large attraction to high functioning autistic men. Complex rulesets, flashing lights, random sounds, narrow objectives. Probably substantial overlap in all of the aforementioned factors which leads to a volatile collector community.
Are you basing this whole supposition on the documentary about the autistic kid from Seattle?
I've only been to two shows, Allentown and York (White Rose) but the people were great. There are a-holes in every hobby. My experience is that pinball actually has a lower than average number of miscreants.
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Are you basing this whole supposition on the documentary about the autistic kid from Seattle?
I'm basing it on nearly a decade in the hobby. I've gotten to know a lot of pinball collectors IRL and many many more online. I've been observing RGP and other pinball forums in the same period. My opinion has nothing to do with anything I saw on TV and everything I have experienced both in person and online with dozens of other collectors.
It's rare that pinballjim and I are in total agreement on anything. I'm not saying these are bad guys. This hobby is, though, the only place I have ever encountered so many of them.
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what i will never for the life of me understand
why do we post :pay-for-link's: ?
suck it up ppl
who built these thing's ?
and who in the hell are u loyal to ?
a company that went bankrupt ?
or a group of ppl who just love the dran game ?
fiq it out!!!
ken thk-u for the link's but no thank-u
ed
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Damn, dude, I'm pretty offensive but even I don't call autistic people "a-holes" or "miscreants."
Not what I meant at all. The only autistic person I've ever heard anything about in any element of the arcade hobby was that kid (Rob Gagno) in the documentary I referenced. Just referring to the number of bad people in the pinball hobby, and I find it equal or lower than every other hobby.
I can kind of see how you'd have a hard time dealing with anyone, so I don't expect to hear good experiences from you. You are possibly one of the miscreants. ;) :cheers:
Link to story I'm talking about. Its pretty cool:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-12-08/news/robert-gagno-the-rain-man-of-pinball/ (http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-12-08/news/robert-gagno-the-rain-man-of-pinball/)
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We've all seen that show. That guy is probably not high functioning. I was clinically specific. You're either going to have to read up on the autism spectrum or just believe us on this one.
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We've all seen that show. That guy is probably not high functioning. I was clinically specific. You're either going to have to read up on the autism spectrum or just believe us on this one.
Or neither.
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There are definitely a lot of odd individuals in the pinball and arcade hobby. It's disproportionately high, in fact. Ever since I started doing shipping for pinball/arcade machines, I've seen firsthand how crazy people can get. You tell them that they'll be contacted by someone to finalize billing and set up their pickup/delivery dates, and they'll start emailing you within 20 minutes that they haven't heard from anybody. Then they'll start emailing every 10 minutes after that wondering why they haven't been called. You try to tell them that it can take a couple of hours because they have a queue to get through with scheduling, but you'll still have them on your back nonstop.
I still love the people in the hobby though. Their eccentric natures make it interesting. Even when they're blasting me with panicked emails, I still have fun interacting with them. Sure, there's always the "WELL IF I DON'T HEAR FROM SOMEONE IN THE NEXT HOUR I WILL GO ELSEWHERE!" few, but the vast majority of guys I have dealt with in pinball have been really nice guys.
I try not to be weird, but who knows how weird others see me as being...
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I think you just tend to notice it because you're involved... I've been in and out of a bunch of other hobbies, and their are weird/eccentric people in all of them. Go to anything involving radio controlled planes and you will see just as many screwballs as you see at an arcade show. I also think what tends to happen is that you notice the weird behavior and that is what sticks with you.
Wouldn't you expect someone shipping an expensive, heavy and fragile pinball machine is going to be more concerned about it than someone shipping standard stuff? You example seems like excessive behavior, though.
Maybe I've just been really lucky. I've been in the hobby for a little under 10 years and I haven't dealt with a genuine screwball yet. Deals here, KLOV, and the video and pinball newsgroups. Jim says the pin newsgroups are terrible, I've had like 10 good deals there and no personal run-ins. Yea, I've seen the crazy arguments there, but its an unmoderated newsgroup. There are a couple of people that I'd consider just as wacky here. ;)
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There is nothing fragile about a packed up pinball machine. People act like they are made of crystal but it's a plywood box with parts screwed into another piece of plywood. Pack it up properly and we're talking standard cargo.
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There is nothing fragile about a packed up pinball machine. People act like they are made of crystal but it's a plywood box with parts screwed into another piece of plywood. Pack it up properly and we're talking standard cargo.
Excellent info, given your proven expertise in material loading/handling. :dizzy:
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(http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/8/27/ohgodthatshi128643279148966364.jpg)
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Don't pay more than a couple hundred bucks for a dead classic SS. You'd be surprised how many of them have bad MPUs and displays.
How true that is!
I've seen many that not only have corroded CPU boards (due to leaky batteries), but whole game wiring harnesses with corroded connector pins, burnt coils due to overfusing, and bum power supplies due to the owner attempting to fix it himself.
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that whole thing well very very true olny touch's the top of the problem
plastic's/kicker's/proper lube/over fuseing god oh yes
---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- sleve's/i can go on
black tape on coil wire's and or eos-switch's
man do not get me going
35 year's ltr i have thought i had seen it all
went on a call
were a local >repair< guy put in a bridge rect..in a gottileb to change the coil from a/c to d/c..i had to go wtf,or how about wd40 as a lube ??
ed
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OK, I maybe should have qualified my RGP deals as buyer only. I haven't sold parts/machines and I definitely wouldn't ship a pin.
I have seen guys complain about some pretty minor stuff on purchased items.
The flakey buyer thing seems to be a growing trend everywhere. Constantly reading about guys getting dicked over on ebay and particularly craigslist deals.
I did have one RGP experience that could have gone bad... I bought an MPU listed as working and when I received it, not only was it apparent it wasn't working, it was obvious that it hadn't worked in years. All corroded, badly bent over transistors and missing parts.
I contacted the dude preparing for the worst and he just refunded my money and kept the board, saying he was getting out of the hobby. It still screwed me up because it delayed getting the machine working by at least a month.
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Gottlieb System 1 repair guide is back:
http://www.pinrepair.com/sys1/index.htm (http://www.pinrepair.com/sys1/index.htm)
Alternate guide:
http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_1 (http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_1)
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ya great site
>http://www.pinrepair.com (http://www.pinrepair.com)<
u get just about everything u need rom's/repair advice/pic's of the game's
so if u need to overhaul a cab,u can get ref material
ed
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Is Clay just releasing the content every month or so? It was a pretty dick move to lock em up... and I don't give a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- who's feathers I ruffle with that comment.
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I wish Clay would have done repair videos without all the joking around. Humor is fine, but they got a bit too silly and the washed up strippers were tacky.
Rob and Steve (Silverball Podcast/Life After Death videos) could make some great repair guides, but they're more interested in being entertainers than educators. There's a real lack of great how to videos available on DVD.
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The best was when I ordered his TZ repair video. He had a clean version and an adult version. I wanted to watch it with my (then 9 year old) son so I got the clean version. He sent me the adult version. I emailed him asking if he could send the clean version and he said "nobody has ever ordered that". When I told him I had in fact ordered that he said "oh, well, you must be nobody" and that was that.
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I also ordered the clean version. Was surprised it wasn't so clean when I was watching it on my laptop.
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Yeah, if you're looking for specific info rather than just general tips, you end up backtracking a lot. Signal to noise ratio is really out of whack.
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They were good when I was new for picking up troubleshooting techniques. I spent a lot of time in those early days just figuring out how to do basic things that had nothing to do with pinball. I suspect if I went back and watched them now they would not be nearly as useful.
Either way, it was worth what little I paid for them at the time, and I agree that there was too much noise in there.