Author: metatron

I was contacted by a couple that had two “old pinball machines” in storage. They thought one worked and one did not. Apparently about 25 years ago 10 pinball machines were found in a warehouse on Powell Street in Vancouver. This couple decided to take two of them home. They played them for about 10 years until they were retired to storage space in their house. That’s where they sat until I showed up – shoved in the back corner, covered in dust, surrounded by boxes and other unused items.

Backglass is in good shape, just a few minor areas where the paint has worn away. Depending on light placement you probably won’t notice it. The playfield looks good. It’s just dirty. All plastics are in great shape. One drop target is broken. Luckily you can buy new sets of these.

At this point I’m not sure what is wrong with it mechanically – if anything.

El Dorado, a classic Gottlieb wedgehead pinball machine from 1975.

I found this machine near 150 Mile House in BC Canada – over 5 hour drive north of where I lived at the time.

This machine is going to take a little work to get running, but it should be a pretty good player once it’s complete.

Our Ship-Mates is in fair condition considering it’s age. The backglass is in great shape expect it has a clean break along the top right corner. I should be able to repair it so the break is barely noticeable.

The cabinet on this machine is a strange one. It also has a lockdown bar which has the ball plunger attached to it.

I quite like Volcano. I put it up there with Black Hole and Haunted House – also made by Gottlieb in the same era. Volcano doesn’t have the lower playfields like the other two, but it plays about the same. It has 10 drop targets and a funky skee-ball ramp – which then carries the ball under a subway and fires it out through a flap in the playfield. It’s similar to how a pitch and bat fires a ball. Volcano also has a crazy number of active bumpers and slingshots. For an older wide body, the ball really flies around the playfield.

This is an interesting pinball machine from 1980 – James Bond 007. Instead of having the common 3 or 5 ball game, this one is based on time. You start with a particular amount of “time units” and earn more during game play. As long as you have time left, it doesn’t matter if your ball drains.

Apparently, when this machine came out, this rule change just confused people. The machine was not a big hit. In response, Gottlieb released new programming to change the game to 3 balls. I think this probably made matters worse because earning “time units” during game play means nothing – and that was half the point.

This game has the original “time unit” code in it and it actually isn’t that bad.

This machine is huge. A widebody from Gottlieb’s “Star Series 80” line.