What did you do today in the hobby?

[Azatotht]

Just unboxed a new NIB, does it count ?

[mrmikeman]

Received Portal last Thursday. Finally getting time to play it!
https://youtu.be/uH9xvHXEpOU?si=7Fv_HnPj3cT7Gtvf

[Luckas]

Been calculating the space in my gameroom for a potential 5th pinball

[Guard]

Been calculating the space in my gameroom for a potential 5th pinball

NO! NO! NO!

Just buy it and the room appears somehow....

[mrmikeman]

Been calculating the space in my gameroom for a potential 5th pinball

What did you have in mind for #5?

[Sparky]

Long days at work these days. So, last night, after getting home at 8pm, I turned on the games and played for a couple of hours. I managed 107500 on Wizard of Wor. The Pit got me. I got hammered on Mouse Trap. LOL And then I turned on the Colecovision and played Pepper II.

Brain switched off for a while. LOL

I do need to clean up the basement and organize. I have been procrastinating.

[Luckas]

Been calculating the space in my gameroom for a potential 5th pinball

What did you have in mind for #5?

Most likely a recent Stern game, like Godzilla or King Kong. Stacking some cash for it, ATM

[mrmikeman]

Most likely a recent Stern game, like Godzilla or King Kong. Stacking some cash for it, ATM

Can't go wrong with GZ

Seems like a pinhead fave. Not familiar enough with KK to have an opinion.

JAWS is pretty approachable too. Shots are not too difficult. Depends if the theme fits.

[Luckas]

Most likely a recent Stern game, like Godzilla or King Kong. Stacking some cash for it, ATM

Can't go wrong with GZ

Seems like a pinhead fave. Not familiar enough with KK to have an opinion.

JAWS is pretty approachable too. Shots are not too difficult. Depends if the theme fits.

Yes Jaws is also a good option but with my future budget, I am targetting a pro. And there are too many cuts in the Jaws pro :/

[cait001]

Been calculating the space in my gameroom for a potential 5th pinball

NO! NO! NO!

Just buy it and the room appears somehow....

Pssssh there is nothing experienced pinheads are better at than looking at a space and strategically figuring out how to fit just one more pin

[cait001]

This arrived today.

from https://pinballnovice.blogspot.com/2024 ... o-aka.html

[Luckas]

Been calculating the space in my gameroom for a potential 5th pinball

NO! NO! NO!

Just buy it and the room appears somehow....

Pssssh there is nothing experienced pinheads are better at than looking at a space and strategically figuring out how to fit just one more pin

I could find some by moving one arcade machine. I have used the Pinball FX VR game on my VR headset to test if it was possible to do

[hyann]

Team-building activities with the job, first we did an escape room, after we stopped at Funhub Dix-10 big arcades place. I bought an 1 hour unlimited card, played a few race games but found a partner for a gun games... made a lot of fun. Try another version of Stranger Thing pinball... still don't like it. I try to play John Wick, but the machine feed two to three balls each time so nearly unplayable

[cait001]

Here's something you have not seen before…
おもしろい 点取占い (Interesting Score Fortune Telling)
https://pinballnovice.blogspot.com/2025 ... lling.html
I am not yet sure what I am going to be doing with it, but it has been fun to research.

[Sparky]

Got a service call today. Another local poor soul that was sold a machine with the assumption it was completely shopped and refurbished. I get A LOT of these calls as of late. Almost one a week.

This one is a 1960 Williams Reserve. It wouldn't start. You put in a nickel and lights would flash for a brief second and turn off. When I lifted the playfield, I knew this thing was not refurbished. Black dust, dirty contacts... I showed the customer that the switch stacks were all very loose.

I tightened everything up, replaced all the bulbs with LEDs (30% were burned out, and all the others were "silverheads"... shopped and refurbished, my ass).

Turned the game on, put in a nickel, and it started immediately. Noticed a 1-pt switch that was stuck. Quick adjustment, and played it an hour, without any issues. I did also give him a power bar with a switch. I can't stand those kick-off switches to turn the game off. It was a wise decision to bring one, as the switch was showing it's age... and so was the bottom of the cabinet.

The customer was super happy, as his grandkids were there for the holidays. Let's see who gets the high score now!

Ian

[Sparky]

Decided to get Arena going.

The good... it turned on and plays.

The bad... it is rough looking, with a worn playfield.

The ugly... cab os so bad, the pin dolly went right through the bottom. Lol.

Oh well... looks like the game is giving me no choice but to build a new cabinet and retheme it at this point.

[Guard]

Decided to get Arena going.

The good... it turned on and plays.

The bad... it is rough looking, with a worn playfield.

The ugly... cab os so bad, the pin dolly went right through the bottom. Lol.

Oh well... looks like the game is giving me no choice but to build a new cabinet and retheme it at this point.

BLUES BROTHERS

[Azatotht]

The ugly... cab os so bad, the pin dolly went right through the bottom. Lol.

Awww man

[Sparky]

The ugly... cab os so bad, the pin dolly went right through the bottom. Lol.

Awww man

Ben non, it is funny as shit! I have been eyeing building a new cab for it at some point. So, this gives me the kick in the pants to get moving.

[Sparky]

Building control panels 2.0 for my 3 whiskey barrel games. I didn't like my first attempt.

Can't load the pic again. Lol. So, here is the link to my TikTok post.

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS5Fy648u/

[cait001]

barrel pong clones rule, can't wait to see yours

[semicolin]

I finally finished this Mata Hari project that I’ve had on the back burner for a couple of years now.

I’m going to give it a good home for a few months until I get around to listing it for sale.

[mrmikeman]

Continued working on a streaming/recording rig. Almost ready. Tried a “test game” last night that went on for 50 mins lol. New GC score on HP in the process. Still need to sort out the sound input. I was trying to record only game sound and not the microphone, which is why I don’t say a damn word for 50 mins lol. Turns out mic was on. Oh well.

https://youtu.be/RG1buqpXwOc

[cait001]

Completed my 2nd crowdfunded purchase of extremely rare Japanese arcade ephemera!
https://pinballnovice.blogspot.com/2026 ... a-and.html

and the prior
https://pinballnovice.blogspot.com/2025 ... eived.html

[semicolin]

Busy week this week auditting the repair/restoration work necessary on an Elektra that I picked up last summer. Four pages of notes of things that need to be worked on. Took the notes, made a spreadsheet, and spent the better part of a paycheque ordering replacement parts.

Elektra is an interesting game in that it has a weird display configuration for Bally: 4 7-digit displays, and 2 6-digit displays. Most of them except for a 6-digit had been converted to red Wolffpac LED displays. The 7-digit ones looked fine, but the 6-digit was their early "Classic" version where the font didn't look quite right.

I was going to spend about USD$100 replacing the two 6-digit displays to match the others, but I didn't like the red colour. I much prefer original gas plasma displays wherever possible. I have a Centaur 2 with a set of gas displays behind a sheet of red plastic. I took them all out and swapped them with the red LED displays. You'd never tell that they were swapped out, and the Elektra looks much better now... and all without me having to spend more money!

What else did I do? Oh, I sent Inkochnito some missing score cards for Mata Hari and I bid on some items in the Pinball Women of Ottawa fundraiser!

And with just a few minutes left before bed, I have a mason jar full of random LED bulbs that need to be sorted. No rest for the wicked.