Arcade Collecting > Pinball
Is a Xenon project pinball worth $300?
Neverending Project:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on March 24, 2008, 06:44:30 pm ---IMO, $300 if you want a Xenon, $200 if you want any pin.
BTW, a large project like that isn't what you want for a first pin. Get one that either works or is close to it - you don't want to spend 6 months figuring out how to repair your first one.
--- End quote ---
Well the guy selling the Xenon decided he was going to part it out. It's too bad, because it would have been cool if my first restoration would have kept one more machine in circulation. But it is for the best, I am sure... I talked to another pinball "restorer" in the area and as we got to chatting he mentioned that there were a couple of people to avoid. The one name he gave was the guy with the Xenon. I did get a bad overall vibe from him.
So this guy I talked to this morning has a few mid-90's games for sale (Judge Dredd, Breakshot, Bram Stoker's Dracula), but I'm not sure I want a $1200 pinball for my first machine. He also said he has a Panthera which needs some work, and he would sell for around $300.
He mentioned that Gottlieb System 80 are good systems to work on as your first project because there is lots of documentation available. I didn't get the feeling that he was trying to sell me on anything, but I just wanted a reality check. Does anyone think this might make a good first pin?
Thanks again.
ChadTower:
It's probably as good as any, but be aware, there is lots of documentation on pretty much all pinball systems at this point.
D_Zoot:
--- Quote from: Neverending Project on March 31, 2008, 12:51:15 pm ---He mentioned that Gottlieb System 80 are good systems to work on as your first project because there is lots of documentation available. I didn't get the feeling that he was trying to sell me on anything, but I just wanted a reality check. Does anyone think this might make a good first pin?
--- End quote ---
80x games aren't documented any better or worse than Williams, Bally or Stern. They are all very well documented! I should note that Gottlieb still enforces copyrights, so scans of manuals for specific titles are not readily available for download. However they are available for sale at Pinball Resource, and if you are going to own any pin, a paper copy of the manual is well worth it's small cost.
Many collectors turn a nose up at Sys80x machines and will tell you the electronics suck. In reality, the electronics aren't any better or worse than any other platform in that era. Where Gottlieb went skimpy was with the boot diagnostics, so if you have a board that doesn't boot fully, the machine won't tell you where to start looking (as other platforms usually did with LED's and such). Add to that some inherent grounding problems and the 80x systems got an undeserved bad rep.
The very good news is that shoring up the grounds is very well documented along with troubleshooting the boards. IMO once you understand the principals of the board design, working on them is quite straighforward. Once the grounds are fixed and a few other minor mods done these systems are very reliable.
The other good news is because of this undeserved bad rep, Sys 80x machines can usually be had for very reasonable prices.
D
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