The THANKS-giving thread

[Fifty]

Tried it on the weekend at Rob's. Very decent machine. PF was near perfect!

[WARLOCK]

Rob, you will find that this Volley is a keeper and a time traveling machine as well. And since I am sure that Pindude took extra care to keep everything looking and playing as it did in the late 70's.

Beautiful work, and we should be thankful that some people still understand what these machines can bring us back to. Playing is fun, and some memories are extraordinary, it is amazing what these objects can bring back to our spirits.

The other Rob

+1

[WARLOCK]

Thank You Robert (ShootAgain) for the opportunity to meet another pinball fan and work my repair skills.

Well done sir!

[WARLOCK]

Yay! One more Volley in service is always a good thing.
A great game that is often overlooked due to its theme.
It has earned tenure in my lineup.

Here here!
As we have said before..
The "new" Volley; is still Volley...
Congrats Rob! And; enjoy her my friend.

Thanks to Drano and Justin for making me realize this a long time ago.

[R.A.B.]

In a world growing daily in the amount of electronic noise it transmits, and the larger and larger choir that participates in the chants written by madmen, there are people whose concrete actions have somehow resisted becoming part of those drunken songs of want & woe. It reassures me somehow.

I want to thank a few of them here for their help and time during the weekly Monday night line up check and repair at the North Star Machines à Piastres.

Tis a sort of social service we perform during these Monday night repair sessions, a sort of small effort in getting people to play something heavy and real that you can control to a certain point and remains a stand alone device that is not connected to a grid. A very real one on one interaction that focuses you on a single random and wild silver ball, and it is good to focus on one single thing in these times. A sort of pinball meditation thing which helps to forget your troubles for a while.

So a heartfelt thank you to :

Big Dave
James Schid
Pindude152

We spent a wonderful and real four hours free of distractions and learned lots of new stuff about pinball repair and maintenance that I for one will remember for a long, long time.

Thank you boys,

Rob

[Drano]

I have some big praise to hand out to some fellow pinheads. Some I've known for a while, others I've just gotten acquainted with. This year has brought more deals and purchases than I would have liked... but you have to make hay while the sun shines. And, although it has forced me to sell several games to raise money and space, it has also allowed me to reconnect with friends old and new.

Firstly a huge thanks to Pinballfan87 who remembered that I had been after a Heavy Metal Meltdown for a while and, in the normal course of his travels, located a very reasonably priced example and then went out of his way to collect and house it for me until it could be transported home. By a total fluke, the machine also appears to be a very early prototype or test machine with standard Bally Midway art and a space where a drop target should have been in front of the main ramp. A great find! Thanks Sylvain!!

Williamsfan also stepped in to complete the final leg of my EK's journey from Quebec City to here. Collecting and holding the game while it also awaits transport to its final destination. Thanks Jason!

And most recently, it was a true pleasure dealing with Andre on the purchase of his Medusa. It's a machine that I had searched for but had almost given up hope of finding. He was a straight up guy and very accommodating. I hope you find that new game you're hoping for! But it doesn't end there. This was a tag team effort and I owe Chris Silver a huge thanks as well. He was already set to pick up one of Andre's other pins and offered to bring Medusa 3+ hours closer to home for me.

And of course all these machines are being stored and will be transported so I have endless more people to thank; you know who you are

I think everyone should be reminded what a great group of people we have in this shared affliction, err hobby, of ours! So, good on all of you!

Thanks gentlemen!

[WARLOCK]

I've been delinquent in my thanking lately, so here goes.

Thanks are due to to Spiroagnew for 2 incoming pins and 1 outgoing pin and to Ed for recommending a nice couple who bought their first pin from me recently. 2 in and 2 out. Status quo. Whew.
Thanks to Spiroagnew again for ordering us manuals and schematics for what can only be aptly named "the great EM keeper escapades".

Thanks to Tim and Walt for helping @ BPL as they always do. Much appreciated gents. Nice to keep meeting new pinheads and long time friends alike every other week.

Thanks to Williams Fan for delivering an EM wedgehead to BPL and to Walt for receiving it while I was away.

Thanks to the regular crew in ON and QC who continue to assist each other in moving pins east and west.
Cheers. Salut.

More soon.

[Pindude152]

Thanks to Chris Silver for bringing my small Starburst order to Ottawa. It's always interesting to talk pinball with someone new. Cheers!

[R.A.B.]

Many thanks to Pindude152 for spending the large majority of his weekend in Montreal and helping out at The North Star and its adjacent shop in order to prepare the next machines for rotation.

We had planned this busy service weekend a while back and I made it clear to Jean-Francois that we should not be too stern about hitting all the targets we set out for ourselves. The schedual was loaded, but I also really wanted this excursion to be fun for him. I think it was, but I will let him confirm that. What I want to do here and now is express my gratitude for his skills and company. His help was quite invaluable.

Pindude152, James Schid and yours truly preformed some major preventive maintenance on the machine line up at the North Star when the bar was closed on Saturday morning. After it opened at 1PM we head off to my parts locker, had lunch near Big Dave's place and set up the Sonic "Faces" in the new shop and began assessing the beast. A bit of a mess I would say, in fact J.F. called it a basket case, I am not sure if that is to be taken as a challenge or a warning at this point in time.

Thanks J.F. for being competent, attentive and knowledgeable in a non-hasty google type of way. Your reasoning is sound and consequential and not at all fragmented or reactionary. It is so important to be able to "connect the dots" of the mountains of information we gather and choose from when trying to understand a system. So all this to say that I am thankful for your ability to do this and that you shared it with us this weekend. I also hope that you enjoyed your time with us in our city.

We shall do this again in a couple of weeks and add a pow wow to the schedual.

Sincere thanks for your help, very encouraging.

Rob

[Pindude152]

In this prelude to Spring, when the Sun cast's it beautiful light upon everything, us included. That beautiful light we realize we've been yearning for during these long winter months.

This trip to Montreal was just the right thing at the right time. I had good fun. Yes, we got some work done. Yes, I worked my pinball repair skills. But this pinball stuff is also a pretext to meet new people and bond with friends. We did that as well.

The North Star, the way I see it, offers / sells (however you see it) a service. The way I see it, the most exclusive service it can offer me is their confidence in me working on their precious machines.

There's something ritualistic about walking down the Main with my toolkit, walking up the stairs into the closed bar, setting up my tools to work on the games. For me, it's the best way of “being there”.

Merci Robert

[R.A.B.]

There's something ritualistic about walking down the Main with my toolkit, walking up the stairs into the closed bar, setting up my tools to work on the games. For me, it's the best way of “being there”.

Merci Robert

"Being there".

And that is what we need to thank in the end. And while we are here or there we should do our best to share positive experiences with those that have good moral fiber.

[Drano]

Just a quick shout out to Ian for his help in transporting and "shaking down" the Heavy Metal Meltdown test game that Pinball87 found and purchased on my behalf.
Also some applause to guys like Menace, Cooke and others that have been pointing me in the right direction as I hunt down some prototype code for this rare beast.
I can't wait to be the first mere mortal outside of the Bally factory to play HMM as it was intended!!!

Also, thanks to our resident honeybadger for completing the last leg of my EK's trip from Quebec City to Toronto!

[Sparky]

No thanks needed. I just helped a friend and did the responsible thing.

[R.A.B.]

Many thanks to Pindude152 for his invaluable help and time this weekend in Montreal. Not only did he help at the North Star and it's adjacent shop, he fixed oddball Bally EM stuff that would have taken me hours to debug. I am so happy that he has joined the small army of apprentices and repair experts that I have been surrounding myself with as more and more people want to play well tuned pinballs in public. We are preparing some real gems for the spring and summer rotation schedule at the North Star Machines a Piastres.

Heads in the machines

Two guys and a Richelieu - Photo by James Schid

The souls in the shop

I am more than pleased to have put in his capable hands another North Star "Richelieu" I picked up a couple of years ago, it is reassuring to know that it will be taken care of for future generations to enjoy.

I will try to tell the full story of this extraordinary weekend in Montreal somewhere on MAACA. Unitl then I also want to thank Big Dave, JamesSchid, Mindstorm88, Robbie and all my friends who constantly watch my back as we navigate these new seas of what is left of the coin operated amusement industry.

Sincerely,

R.A.B.

[Pindude152]

Thanks Robert for the Richelieu.
I'm really stoked about it.
I always thought it would be awesome to have one of these but I never thought I could own one some day.
As Canada/Quebec/Montreal historically important pinball machines It doesn't get any better than this.
The Richelieu is going into my office to be revised electromechanically. I'm keeping the cabinet as is. I like that it shows it's a converted cabinet.

[Drano]

Since this thread has resurfaced to page 1 again, I should take this opportunity to thank Menace for all his recent help in burning (and often delivering) ROMs for my crazy HMM proto project.
Sadly, the last round fried his burner so just awaiting him to fire up the replacement.
Spiroagnew lent a hand in there also with my last delivery.

The code is getting very very close to being stable so, fingers crossed!

Thanks guys!

[WARLOCK]

I will bump this to the top again.
Everyone who knows I am thankful, knows.

I will do a detailed accounting of all required soon.

[WARLOCK]

Thanks to everyone involved during the last Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal Journey.

Thanks to Spiroagnew for making the trip with me.
Thanks to RAB for hosting the North Star Pow-wow.
Thanks to James, Jason, JF, Sylvain + Sylvain for games.

Great to see everyone in Ontario + Quebec again. Maybe more Tales in 6 months.
Cheers. Salut.

All the very best.

[WARLOCK]

It has been six weeks since my last confession....
I owe a great number of thank you's to a large number of people...
Thank you my friends; and, one day I will get to thanking you all publicly..
For now, please accept my gratitude and many continued thanks. On or off: (line) Thank you all.

[Drano]

Where are my manners? It's been a slow summer, but still several helping hands have made a world of difference towards my ongoing struggle to acquire, preserve and play these beautiful machines we all love.

Warlock of course for providing transport and refuge to transient pinball machines when and where required.
Spiroagnew for his great assistance in the parts and paint procurement department
Mursky for his donation of some much needed and hard to locate parts for Fathom as well as a little help in the art department (Quicksilver thanks you!)
Thanks to Gino for his skill and attention to detail. The contributions to my classic stern projects will be very visible.
Menace for being on-call for my electronic repair fails
Monkeybug for the encouragement on Batman '66... even when I'm feeling not so dynamic
Not sure if he's here, but GorgarSpeaks... thanks for a great transaction. The kids (and me) are loving our new Bally Frontier. It's never easy to do these long distance deals, but nice when they go off without a hitch.
Mr. Hanley for sharing a treasured and beautiful piece of history with me. I will endeavor to be worthy of it.
And of course thanks to everyone who takes the time to post, respond and offer encouragement. It makes the work just that much more rewarding.

It's funny how many people go into making this a great hobby when you stop to think about it.
Hope I didn't miss anyone.

Cheers!
Adriano

[WARLOCK]

Thank you to the veterans who have helped me for many years...
Thank you to the new guys who inspired me to help and who help in return.

Thank you to all of those individuals who post and help and assist us all repairing these things.
Thank you to all of those people those who buy things from me and also offer to sell things to me here...

Thank you to Brewmanager, Drano, Wong, Menace, Monkeybug, Spiro, Tim; and RAB, Sparky, Jason, Murrsky, Chris Silver, Sylvain, Pindude152 and many more.
There are so many friends whom I am in contact with "offline" that I can no longer actually take time to name everyone here. But, I really should do so at least once.

Cooke, Speedy, Mark, Milkman, Terry, James, Slama, Poolman, Ian H., Randy, Squiddy, Eric H., Ancient Games, McMean, Bish, Hanley, Doug @ SB, and so many new and old friends.
This is a really fascinating hobby. I have touched only upon a few of the people who help me regularly with this hobby and I really can't acknowledge every name of everyone I have dealt with here.

Thank you all. (and Barry and Eddie and) and. and...
Keep flipping them boys. All of us who play as well.

Be good to each other and enjoy.
All the very best.

Warlock
Scott

[Sparky]

It is kind of appropriate being Thanksgiving weekend to post a message here... but my inspiration really came from sitting in my basement, looking at the machines, and reflecting on things a bit.

I have been very blessed in the last few months... but then again, I can say so about the last few years. But I will start with things happening lately.

I do want to start off by thanking my wonderful wife Marie-France. I have been with her for 19 wonderful years... and it still seems like yesterday. This woman has put up with so much of my shit yet remains my rock. She, along with my 3 great kids, are the reason that no matter how bad stuff gets, I can still smile at home.

At the last MPL meeting, I reminded myself on how truly lucky I have been to have met such wonderful people through the years, through good times and rough patches. Azatotht... the brother I never had (I got another moron instead... LOL), Splitskull and JD3 my original brothers in arms, Mindstorm, Paidge, Toeckeder, Warlock, Brewmanager, Drano, Redketchup... Jesus I could go on forever. LOL.

So the easier statement would be simply to thank you all, every single one, past and present, for being there through, MAACA, at an MPL meeting, in my basement, in a factory bathroom picking up pins, in an old bowling alley in Hawkesbury or simply chilling on a Friday night in an ex-toilet factory.

Thank you for being there and part of my life. I am a better man for it.

[Azatotht]

Cheers !

[WARLOCK]

Salut!
All the very best.

[Chris Silver]

Azatotht made the house and we made the home. I'm thankful that we all have a place to be. I've met an amazing fantastic huge group of friends in this network.