Pinball
My father and I previously maintained a personal collection of pinball machines. For us, they weren’t collection objects or show pieces; these pinball machines were meant to be played.
It has been many years since this era ended for us to make way for new projects, but it was a lot of fun and taught us so much.
Documented Projects
We restored a Medusa.
We rewound the electromagnet feature on a Centaur.
We saved a Gorgar from the dump.
Meet the Machines
Our collection topped out around 12 machines, though some of those had to live at friend’s homes since there wasn’t enough space in the Silver Ball Arcade.
To the best of my knowledge, we had these games (in rough order):
- Hot Shot
- Jungle Princess
- Odds and Events
- Pat Hand
- Riviera
- Gorgar
- Buck Rogers
- Black Knight
- Comet
- Atlantis
- Space Invaders
- Embryon
- Flash Gordon
- Firepower
- Swords of Fury
- Paragon
- Space Station
- Haunted House
- Centaur
- Hurricane
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula
- Fish Tales
- Vector
- Xenon
- Medusa
We pride ourselves with the fact that all of these machines were in near-fully functional condition, ready to be played.
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History
Like many, we began with older electromechanical (EM) games, but within a year we had gotten a taste of solid state (SS) games, and from then on we’ve been collecting SS machines.
The Silver Ball Arcade
Not a commercial establishment, but a fitting name for a popular Friday night hangout. It started with thinking “you know what would look cool? Blacklights.” Not long after, glow in the dark and fluorescent paints began appearing, with lettering and design to follow. A lucky find while buying a machine resulted in two laser projectors being added, providing starbursting and sound responsive shape effects.
