| In 1976, I received a gift from my grandfather - King Of Diamonds.
This was the start of my Arcade.
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| Firecracker was the next pin to
join my collection. When the ball drops into the Firecracker hole, a spinner under the playfield
makes a random popping noise which is supposed to sound like firecrackers going off. I modified
the game by wiring the free game cracker to the firecracker spinner which makes for a much more
realistic sound effect.
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| Nip-It was acquired during the years I ran
a pinball restoration business. I was 17 at the time. The game is one of the few electro-mechanical
pins which can play multi-ball, and it has a unique player controlled Balligator!
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| I'm a big fan of the artwork on Bally pins from the 70's. Dave Christensen, heading up the Bally
art department during that decade had a thing for belt buckles.
Check it out on Bon Voyage.
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| Wizard is another example of Dave Christensen
belt buckles. This backglass was damaged during delivery of the game and replaced. Although I sold
the pin (which I now regret), I kept the cracked backglass.
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| Air Aces was purchased at a garage sale near Fort Lauderdale. Unfortunately, termites had taken up residence in the wooden sides of the machine. The playfield
was salvaged, as was the backglass. Another interesting belt buckle!
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| Duotron was the pin I took to college - mostly because the side art was in bad shape and I didn't care if beer spilled on it.
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| The story of how I acquired Majorettes is rather interesting.
It was previously owned by a colleague and friend, who at the time was willing to sell it to me if I could pick it up
from his parents house in Indiana (we live in PA). I never took him up on the offer. He later went on to
create SiliconInvestor.com, and subsequently sold the site during
the height of the dot com boom.
One day a moving truck showed up at our front door and dropped off Majorettes.
Thanks Brad! It's actually the oldest pin in my collection (1952).
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| I found Flash at a local vending distributor.
The playfield glass was broken and the pin was covered with so much glass and dust that you couldn't
see any of the artwork. I purchased the playfield for $20 and converted it
to a rather heavy piece of wall art! Sequencing Christmas lights were used to light it up.
See the blinking lights in action.
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| Haunted House
was purchased as a gift for my aunt and uncle, although it lived in my basement on and off over the years.
I believe the machine was truly haunted and the ghosts inside did not want anyone to play. It was constantly
malfunctioning. We eventually sold it many years later on eBay. After several months of pestering, the buyer finally drove from
Kansas to south Florida to pick up the pin. One mile from my uncle's home he had an accident and wrecked his truck!
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