New Pinballer

[BMHouze]

I dont head past the GTA that way.
If they were closer I would suggest VFW to get a nice sized list.
Lucky I even head to Pinfest.
Need to find a back road way there.
The main road has few passing opportunities. Fewer with a pin in the back.

 

[HappyChappy]

I dont head past the GTA that way.
If they were closer I would suggest VFW to get a nice sized list.
Lucky I even head to Pinfest.
Need to find a back road way there.
The main road has few passing opportunities. Fewer with a pin in the back.

Definitely planning to head to pinfest. Sorry, noob question... What is VFW?

 

[GUARD]

The pinball museum in Ann Arbor Michigan. He only opens it to the public a couple times a year. Very pricey [$80 US for one day] but 525 of finely tuned games of every generation and make. I've been twice now and still in awe each time I go.

The buildings were from a Veteran of Foreign Wars club [ like our Legion], so instead of changing the initialed sign out front, it became Vintage Flipper World.

 

[IVPinball]

Bally World Cup Soccer is a very family friendly game, just saying

 

[AlexRogan84]

Bally World Cup Soccer is a very family friendly game, just saying

https://www.pinballrevolution.com/threads/bally-world-cup-soccer-94.14836/

+1 on this!! World Cup Soccer 94 is a great game and lots of fun for all kinds of different people. This is a really good suggestion for the original poster as it meets your criteria. The theme is dated, but still relevant and honestly, you or your kids don't really need to be big fans of actually playing or watching soccer to enjoy this one. GOOOOOAAAALLLL!!! lol

I have one of these as well and would recommend this over my Cyclone. A little more expensive, but a better overall game (and era... WCP games are the Cadillacs of pinball). IVPinball mentions a few bumps and bruises. Not sure about the playfield touch-up, but all that other stuff you can pretty easily work on as you are inclined to (or don't!). LED bulbs are straight forward to finish replacing. Cabinet touch-ups aren't too difficult. And things like a new rubber soccer ball if you wanted a prettier one can be purchased and installed quite easily.

Also, if you bought this and went to IVPinball's place, I assume he can show you the game as well as others in his collection and give you the Pinball Owner's 101 lesson on beginner stuff, how to raise a playfield, etc.

From what is out there for sale recently, I'd say this is about your best bet.

 

[IVPinball]

https://www.pinballrevolution.com/threads/bally-world-cup-soccer-94.14836/

+1 on this!! World Cup Soccer 94 is a great game and lots of fun for all kinds of different people. This is a really good suggestion for the original poster as it meets your criteria. The theme is dated, but still relevant and honestly, you or your kids don't really need to be big fans of actually playing or watching soccer to enjoy this one. GOOOOOAAAALLLL!!! lol

I have one of these as well and would recommend this over my Cyclone. A little more expensive, but a better overall game (and era... WCP games are the Cadillacs of pinball). IVPinball mentions a few bumps and bruises. Not sure about the playfield touch-up, but all that other stuff you can pretty easily work on as you are inclined to (or don't!). LED bulbs are straight forward to finish replacing. Cabinet touch-ups aren't too difficult. And things like a new rubber soccer ball if you wanted a prettier one can be purchased and installed quite easily.

Also, if you bought this and went to IVPinball's place, I assume he can show you the game as well as others in his collection and give you the Pinball Owner's 101 lesson on beginner stuff, how to raise a playfield, etc.

From what is out there for sale recently, I'd say this is about your best bet.

Thanks Alex. Surprisingly, I replaced that soccer ball at some point and I'm surprised how quickly they wear. Luckily they aren't super expensive. I was thinking they might need a clear coat to protect it for longer. I bet the touch up can be sanded, touched up properly and clear coated by someone experienced. It just didn't bother me. And yes, happy to explain all things pinball.

 

[roar]

WCS94 was my first DMD and I’d also recommend it to new owners… very approachable game… obvious goals no pun intended, when the goalie stops moving it naturally leads you try and figure out how to get it moving again. Enthusiastic call outs, easy wizard mode to get to, just a fun game.

Agree with a lot of what is posted here, I like the idea of something lower cost to lower risk as you are very likely to lose money on this purchase id say. New people entering the hobby tend to overpay for games, even the most honest of sellers see an opportunity to maximize their return, unless you have an experienced buyer making the purchase for you I’d recommend to mentally prepare to lose money and be alright with that. You aren’t getting taken, it is just the way things roll. Good luck with the purchase it can be a fun hobby… it can also be a frustrating and expensive one.

 

[BMHouze]

My 1st DMD was Checkpoint.
Got it cheap at an auction at the edge of town.
Online repair guide nailed the capacitor that was out on the dmd before I bid.
Fun game, but early games get predictable after a while.
Once you have the ramp shot down on High Speed it gets old fast.

 

[HappyChappy]

WCS94 was my first DMD and I’d also recommend it to new owners… very approachable game… obvious goals no pun intended, when the goalie stops moving it naturally leads you try and figure out how to get it moving again. Enthusiastic call outs, easy wizard mode to get to, just a fun game.

Agree with a lot of what is posted here, I like the idea of something lower cost to lower risk as you are very likely to lose money on this purchase id say. New people entering the hobby tend to overpay for games, even the most honest of sellers see an opportunity to maximize their return, unless you have an experienced buyer making the purchase for you I’d recommend to mentally prepare to lose money and be alright with that. You aren’t getting taken, it is just the way things roll. Good luck with the purchase it can be a fun hobby… it can also be a frustrating and expensive one.

Thanks for the feedback. I have a friend who's also trying to point me in the right direction to help minimize potential losses.
I saw Dave posted Spiderman yesterday and although it was over budget, the whole family was into it...I was just too slow to message him last night and it was already gone.

 

[Joker19]

Thanks for the feedback. I have a friend who's also trying to point me in the right direction to help minimize potential losses.
I saw Dave posted Spiderman yesterday and although it was over budget, the whole family was into it...I was just too slow to message him last night and it was already gone.

I think @ManaPinball.com might have one for sale and he is great to deal with.

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[Ced's Atomic Dustbin]

WCS94 was my first DMD and I’d also recommend it to new owners… very approachable game… obvious goals no pun intended, when the goalie stops moving it naturally leads you try and figure out how to get it moving again. Enthusiastic call outs, easy wizard mode to get to, just a fun game.

Agree with a lot of what is posted here, I like the idea of something lower cost to lower risk as you are very likely to lose money on this purchase id say. New people entering the hobby tend to overpay for games, even the most honest of sellers see an opportunity to maximize their return, unless you have an experienced buyer making the purchase for you I’d recommend to mentally prepare to lose money and be alright with that. You aren’t getting taken, it is just the way things roll. Good luck with the purchase it can be a fun hobby… it can also be a frustrating and expensive one.

I spent an hour playing World Cup Soccer for the first time in about 30 years at The Pint Pub in Toronto yesterday and it was a blast. I'd vote for that as a good option too.

It's really easy to pick up and get an impressive-looking score on. The callouts, playfield lights and DMD direct you really well without having to read the instruction card, let alone watch YouTube videos to figure out how to play it. It's fun to play and bright, noisy and colourful. I think it would appeal to most families and the soccer theme is pretty universal/timeless, although it is based specifically on the World Cup in the USA in 1994.

Even at that, you have the FIFA Club World Cup coming to the USA this summer, and the World Cup returning to the USA, Mexico and Canada in 2026, so although the machine is 32 years out of date, the cities, opponents and theme are suddenly bang up to date again next year.

The only caution I would have is owning a machine that's over 30 years old as a 1-pinball collection.

Do you have anyone that can fix it, or are you confident that you can work out the small (or large) things that will inevitably go wrong? I bought my favourite game from the 90s and it played beautifully until a ball went missing somewhere and when I opened the playfield a wire caught on something and stripped it away from the scoop, rendering the game useless until I got someone in to fix it. After another few months of playing beautifully, the DMD display began to flicker and show horizontal lines until it stopped working altogether. I have tried taking the connectors out blowing any dust out of them and reseating them, but this looks like another call-out for repair unless I can figure it out. I think I am more likely to make things worse than improve things if I poke about with it too much as I don't know what I am doing.

If that is a big concern for you, maybe something newer in a Stern Pro might be a better fit for a 1-game collection. If you like one of the less popular games, you might get a better deal on it than the games that everyone seems to want in their collections like Godzilla, Jaws and Jurassic Park).

 

[HappyChappy]

I spent an hour playing World Cup Soccer for the first time in about 30 years at The Pint Pub in Toronto yesterday and it was a blast. I'd vote for that as a good option too.

It's really easy to pick up and get an impressive-looking score on. The callouts, playfield lights and DMD direct you really well without having to read the instruction card, let alone watch YouTube videos to figure out how to play it. It's fun to play and bright, noisy and colourful. I think it would appeal to most families and the soccer theme is pretty universal/timeless, although it is based specifically on the World Cup in the USA in 1994.

Even at that, you have the FIFA Club World Cup coming to the USA this summer, and the World Cup returning to the USA, Mexico and Canada in 2026, so although the machine is 32 years out of date, the cities, opponents and theme are suddenly bang up to date again next year.

The only caution I would have is owning a machine that's over 30 years old as a 1-pinball collection.

Do you have anyone that can fix it, or are you confident that you can work out the small (or large) things that will inevitably go wrong? I bought my favourite game from the 90s and it played beautifully until a ball went missing somewhere and when I opened the playfield a wire caught on something and stripped it away from the scoop, rendering the game useless until I got someone in to fix it. After another few months of playing beautifully, the DMD display began to flicker and show horizontal lines until it stopped working altogether. I have tried taking the connectors out blowing any dust out of them and reseating them, but this looks like another call-out for repair unless I can figure it out. I think I am more likely to make things worse than improve things if I poke about with it too much as I don't know what I am doing.

If that is a big concern for you, maybe something newer in a Stern Pro might be a better fit for a 1-game collection. If you like one of the less popular games, you might get a better deal on it than the games that everyone seems to want in their collections like Godzilla, Jaws and Jurassic Park).

Thanks for the detailed thoughts. I wouldn't be confident doing repairs myself Right out of the gate and although I am fairly handy and could probably figure things out with some support from some of the guys here or YouTube videos, I quite honestly don't have a whole lot of spare time in my life, so what little I do have I wouldn't want to spend it tinkering. Because of this I'm starting to lean more towards a newer Stern although I realize I'm probably going to have a hard time making that happen with the budget of 5k that I had originally set out. I might be willing to go up to 7K for something that's newer and in good repair.

I kept thinking about Terminator 2, that's a real nostalgic one for me as it's the first machine I distinctly remember playing every weekend as a teenager and I absolutely loved it. But because it is a bit older, I'm worried about parts, repairs etc for those things that like you said, inevitably will go wrong.

Gonna keep my eyes peeled for something like Spider-Man or Iron man. Mana pinball has a Spider-Man but it's over the budget and not as updated as the one that was just posted here the other day that I missed out on.

 

[BMHouze]

My kryptonite pin was Alien Poker.
Played it for many years at the local mall arcade.
I owned it for a while, brought back a ton of great memories. Later, it funded Aerosmith with a few other titles.
It all starts easy, then you just ending up wanting more features.....
And then you have 4.....

 

[IVPinball]

All pinball machines will break. Stern (just look online how many people complain about them), Williams, Bally, Gottlieb, Chicago Coin (Although my MM still hasn't had any real issues), Spooky etc. Tinkering is part of the hobby imho. I have owned machines for more than 30 years. I'm still not a great repair guy, but there is so much information available now, online through social media, youtube, pinside. None of that was available when I got my first machine at age 16 There's always the pro repair guys that will do house calls as well.

 

[HappyChappy]

All pinball machines will break. Stern (just look online how many people complain about them), Williams, Bally, Gottlieb, Chicago Coin (Although my MM still hasn't had any real issues), Spooky etc. Tinkering is part of the hobby imho. I have owned machines for more than 30 years. I'm still not a great repair guy, but there is so much information available now, online through social media, youtube, pinside. None of that was available when I got my first machine at age 16 There's always the pro repair guys that will do house calls as well.

Fair enough. I guess what I'm hoping for is to at least be able to find parts if something does go wrong. I've read a few threads with people labouring trying to find parts. Hoping with a slightly newer Stern I might be able to avoid that frustration.

 

[IVPinball]

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[AlexRogan84]

- You're on a budget.
- You aren't interested in tinkering or doing your own repairs.
- You don't have very much spare time.

I apologize for being blunt or rude as it isn't my intention, but considering the above, buying a pinball machine for your home is a poor choice.

 

[MrMikeman]

- You're on a budget.
- You aren't interested in tinkering or doing your own repairs.
- You don't have very much spare time.

I apologize for being blunt or rude as it isn't my intention, but considering the above, buying a pinball machine for your home is a poor choice.

Agree with the above statement. Double your budget and you're less likely to run into those 2 other "conditions" you mentioned.

 

[GUARD]

Maybe keep saving up and attend Ontario Pinfest May 31/June 1st. There will be pins for sale, seminars on fixing things, and sellers who are there all day and can take the time to talk you through stuff, rather then a set up and quick tutorial.

 

[BMHouze]

You can get Stern parts pretty easy.
Even earlier Whitestars like Elvis are tanks.
Just do your homework, and buy what you like (within reason)
Stick with something popular.
I consider a pin a 5 year game. By then I have them zoned in and am looking for another challenge, another game.

I may have 4, but I have only played Deadpool with any regularity as it's the latest. I put on 4-8 games a week when they are fresh.