First things first, I'm new to this site so please excuse any unintended ignorance on my behalf. I loved pinball growing up but that moved to the background as I had to "grow up". I've now got a family of my own and my kids have helped restore my love of the game. I'm looking to buy my first machine for what my wife is calling my "mid-life crisis". If anyone has a good machine for someone like me please reach out. Please not that I'm not skilled or knowledgeable in fixing up something like this but am willing to learn if I HAVE to.
WTB Newbie looking for his 1st
- Thread starter Adam1983
- Start date
luch
Super Member
luch
Super Member
Welcome and yes you will HAVE to learn or pay someone, if available, to repair along the way. These all have or will have issues. That said, they are a blast and worth the time and energy.
I have joined a league with my wife and oldest son. Little one still a bit to young to join but loves playing. Also have been asking questions and trying my best to retain the answers lol. It's a lot to take in, but I'm enjoying the challenge. Thought I'd try to find a cdn forum since pinside is all American and very expensive with the exchange and shipping costs(which is another thing I know nothing about)
Chris Bardon
Well-Known Member
General first game advice is to find something working. You could always go with something brand new to start with, but that's an expensive start. Main thing to figure out first is your budget-how much is a midlife crisis worth?
Enjoy the league-how's the scene in Winnipeg?
Enjoy the league-how's the scene in Winnipeg?
I was looking in the 4-6k mark atm. Which I've been told might get me something in good working condition from the early to mid 80's. Brand new is way outta my price range sadly(unless I can find a lengthy payment plan lol).
Scene here is small but extremely friendly and helpful. Usually about 15-30 people per gathering. Very hard place to find a pin though.
Scene here is small but extremely friendly and helpful. Usually about 15-30 people per gathering. Very hard place to find a pin though.
You've reached out to the right group - there are so many people on this site that are extremely kind, helpful, and generous with their time.
I'm very new to this hobby as well, and can't believe how much people are willing to help and share their experience and knowledge.
Thanks to all of you who make time for us newbies and make us feel welcomed and part of the community.
I can't offer you expert advice like these guys but could share my rookie experiences and how they have helped me get started and continue to help me.
I'm very new to this hobby as well, and can't believe how much people are willing to help and share their experience and knowledge.
Thanks to all of you who make time for us newbies and make us feel welcomed and part of the community.
I can't offer you expert advice like these guys but could share my rookie experiences and how they have helped me get started and continue to help me.
I'm brand new to this forum too but have owned a few pins over 10 years ago and just posted looking for advice on getting back into the hobby. I think my post went awry because I wrote a rambling post that was way too long and should have kept it short and sweet like your post 
.
While I don't know much about this forum specifically, I will echo everyone here about the overall generous nature of the community writ large. My experience from years ago on MAACA was really excellent.
Anyway, I see that you are in Winnipeg, have you checked out this YouTube channel? I think they are from there. They're a great instructional resource. https://www.youtube.com/@TiltPinball
.While I don't know much about this forum specifically, I will echo everyone here about the overall generous nature of the community writ large. My experience from years ago on MAACA was really excellent.
Anyway, I see that you are in Winnipeg, have you checked out this YouTube channel? I think they are from there. They're a great instructional resource. https://www.youtube.com/@TiltPinball
It's good you've found a group of people, they can be really helpful when considering your first purchase, lean on them, they've all been in your shoes at one time or another. As awesome as this hobby is and with the majority of people being really great it is still full of opportunist people looking to take advantage of new buyers, either through over priced pins on undesirable titles you may have a hard time offloading in the future or by being down right fraudsters. Not trying to scare you, just your normal buyer beware stuff. Getting to see a game in person is pretty critical imo, being able to touch it and inspect it, and putting "cash on the glass" as the pinball expression goes is something I would highly recommend for your first purchase.
Have someone local selling a jungle lord for $3200. Is that a good game/price? Can you pros help a novice out?
I always like to take the pinside average price, apply exchange and hst to it to see if the CDN ask is in the ball park. In Canada I've found sales prices to fluctuate regionally, but that approach as always grounded me from an expectations perspective. So in this case Jungle lord is listed on inside with estimated value between $1,760-$2040. High side of that in my world grades out to about $3,100 so my first reaction is the price isn't out to lunch... that is though if it is in pretty good shape. If I'm taking the high end of the estimated price I'm expecting a better example.
When you're looking at older games you have to look in a couple of ares.
1. The elecontrics/boards - Are they hacked to death? Do they all work? Are there burn marks on any of the connectors? Will the switch and solenoid tests all pass? For $3,200 my expectations is this game works top to bottom and the boards aren't hacked and any battery acid damage as been appropriately repaired.
2. The playfield - Is it roached? Missing paint? Planking like crazy? Cupped inserts? Busted up/missing plastics? Incorrect posts or pop-bumpers, spinners or drop targets? Is there any mylar on it? Is it peeling? Holding up well? How about underneath? Have they swapped out old incandescents for LED's? Have the flippers been rebuilt...ever? For $3,200, again, expectations are that everything is their topside, the occasional warped or cracked plastic I'd let slide for the age of the game, but for that money it better be complete. Game converted to LED's would be nice as would a flipper rebuild, drop targets wouldn't be broken and ideally would be the right ones, for $3,200 on this game I've got some expectations... playfield doesn't have to be NOS (New old stock) but I'd expect it to be mostly complete paint wise.
3. The cabinet - Do the legs look alright? Not bent or rusted, the leg levellers work, the bolts are matching and not stripped and the legs are on solid... the cabinet has the right paint job and isn't missing chunks of it, no one has done a crappy repaint job on it, no signs of water damage and the whole thing feels solid and doesn't smell like a cigarette. I'll lump the backglaass in here... these suckers can flake like no ones business, taking it out and getting a look at the back side is a good idea. For $3,200 I'm expecting it to be a solid cab, not perfect, the game is old, so some bumps and bruises are totally okay, I'm expecting a matching set of legs though that look good, not mismatched bent and rusted. I don't want a game that smells like an old stale cigarette so I always look for that. Backless should be sold, no major flacking, but a couple of scraps and bit of missing paint isn't out of line for old machines.
Then you gotta ask yourself do you like the game, you're only gonna have one, so does the music and sounds not drive you nuts? They could, 80's games can have some funky stuff going on. Youtube the game, I'm sure there are game play videos of it. Go play it, check out some of the things I've mentioned. I haven't played a Jungle Lord in a while, the artwork does nothing for me however. I don't mind the cabinet, but the backless and playfield just don't appeal to me at all.
When you're looking at older games you have to look in a couple of ares.
1. The elecontrics/boards - Are they hacked to death? Do they all work? Are there burn marks on any of the connectors? Will the switch and solenoid tests all pass? For $3,200 my expectations is this game works top to bottom and the boards aren't hacked and any battery acid damage as been appropriately repaired.
2. The playfield - Is it roached? Missing paint? Planking like crazy? Cupped inserts? Busted up/missing plastics? Incorrect posts or pop-bumpers, spinners or drop targets? Is there any mylar on it? Is it peeling? Holding up well? How about underneath? Have they swapped out old incandescents for LED's? Have the flippers been rebuilt...ever? For $3,200, again, expectations are that everything is their topside, the occasional warped or cracked plastic I'd let slide for the age of the game, but for that money it better be complete. Game converted to LED's would be nice as would a flipper rebuild, drop targets wouldn't be broken and ideally would be the right ones, for $3,200 on this game I've got some expectations... playfield doesn't have to be NOS (New old stock) but I'd expect it to be mostly complete paint wise.
3. The cabinet - Do the legs look alright? Not bent or rusted, the leg levellers work, the bolts are matching and not stripped and the legs are on solid... the cabinet has the right paint job and isn't missing chunks of it, no one has done a crappy repaint job on it, no signs of water damage and the whole thing feels solid and doesn't smell like a cigarette. I'll lump the backglaass in here... these suckers can flake like no ones business, taking it out and getting a look at the back side is a good idea. For $3,200 I'm expecting it to be a solid cab, not perfect, the game is old, so some bumps and bruises are totally okay, I'm expecting a matching set of legs though that look good, not mismatched bent and rusted. I don't want a game that smells like an old stale cigarette so I always look for that. Backless should be sold, no major flacking, but a couple of scraps and bit of missing paint isn't out of line for old machines.
Then you gotta ask yourself do you like the game, you're only gonna have one, so does the music and sounds not drive you nuts? They could, 80's games can have some funky stuff going on. Youtube the game, I'm sure there are game play videos of it. Go play it, check out some of the things I've mentioned. I haven't played a Jungle Lord in a while, the artwork does nothing for me however. I don't mind the cabinet, but the backless and playfield just don't appeal to me at all.
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Thanks for all the info roar. Definelty think being new to this scene I'm gonna have to ask one of the people from the local league to come with me to inspect it since I not a little more than nothing about the machines other than how to play........ kind of lol
Chambahz
Active Member
Keep in mind that no pin is likely to be your "forever machine" so what you need to make sure of is that you're not over-paying for it and/or you're ok losing a little when you sell it again in the future. (If you overpay by $400 but play it for 6 months and get to learn a little about the hobby is that so bad?). Odds are good that you'll either get bored of it and sell it/move on, or save some more money and sell this one, then step up to a more expensive machine. When I started over 10 years ago, I bought an ACDC Premium for $7500 taxes-in, brand new. I've bought and sold over two dozen games since then and my pin budget is way higher now. In fairness, to the point where I am uncomfortable with paying this much for a new game despite having cash in my "pinball fund". It's gotten pretty stupid lately. My point is: think of this as your opening move, not your end-game.
There's 2 machines I have my eye on atm. Both are priced close enough not to make a difference and condition is the same as well. Looking for some opinions here on which machine to go for.
Option #1 - Lethal Weapon 3
Option #2 - Johnny Mnemonic
Option #1 - Lethal Weapon 3
Option #2 - Johnny Mnemonic
As a general statement 90's Bally/William games are more desirable and have better resale value than 90's Data East/Sega. Sure there are some outliers like GNR goes for top dollar but I'll stand behind that as a general statement.
I've spent plenty of time on both and would take JM if they were priced the same every day of the week. The only gotcha on that title are the damn gloves, make sure they are working well, maybe others with experience maintaining the game can chime in on what to look for as it is my understanding that they can be a pia from a reliability perspective.
LW has a nice bright art package but the sound call outs on it grate on me after a while and I've never owned it at home either where in a single pin collection I think it may drive me crazy. Depending on what you're paying, JM is the easy choice for this pinhead.
I've spent plenty of time on both and would take JM if they were priced the same every day of the week. The only gotcha on that title are the damn gloves, make sure they are working well, maybe others with experience maintaining the game can chime in on what to look for as it is my understanding that they can be a pia from a reliability perspective.
LW has a nice bright art package but the sound call outs on it grate on me after a while and I've never owned it at home either where in a single pin collection I think it may drive me crazy
. Depending on what you're paying, JM is the easy choice for this pinhead.
Fifty
Active Member
A new machine is just as likely to have something go wrong as an old machine. If you are fearful of looking under the hood, or opening up the backbox then prepare to have a $4-6K paper weight sitting there unplayable for weeks. A lot of the tech's are busier than ever before and there is often a queue you'll have to get into for repairs.
My first game was a Sys11. I don't think I could have made a better choice. It was old enough to give me a baseline for repairs, but new enough to teach me what was to come. Even the first week I had it I made a point of opening up the game and at least looking at bulb replacement, rubber replacement and adding back the odd missing screw here and there just to give me an understanding of what was needed and where to find things.
After that I started rebuilding things. VUKs, Flippers, Pops to help me understand the mechanics. Each time I did something like this I always ran into problems. Broken parts, mismatched parts, hacks. It was all a great learning experience.
If you aren't very handy, then well... it's not as enjoyable.
I would suggest going with a theme you and your family can get behind. It'll make it more enjoyable. It doesn't have to be a perfect theme, just one you enjoy. Perfect themes can come later.
My first game was a Sys11. I don't think I could have made a better choice. It was old enough to give me a baseline for repairs, but new enough to teach me what was to come. Even the first week I had it I made a point of opening up the game and at least looking at bulb replacement, rubber replacement and adding back the odd missing screw here and there just to give me an understanding of what was needed and where to find things.
After that I started rebuilding things. VUKs, Flippers, Pops to help me understand the mechanics. Each time I did something like this I always ran into problems. Broken parts, mismatched parts, hacks. It was all a great learning experience.
If you aren't very handy, then well... it's not as enjoyable.
I would suggest going with a theme you and your family can get behind. It'll make it more enjoyable. It doesn't have to be a perfect theme, just one you enjoy. Perfect themes can come later.
BMHouze
Well-Known Member
I went to some shows,
Played many pins,
Made a short list of the ones I liked.
Had my cash ready,
Jumped on one of my short listers that came up at an acceptable price.
Played many pins,
Made a short list of the ones I liked.
Had my cash ready,
Jumped on one of my short listers that came up at an acceptable price.
Both of those are great, fun games. I was just about to say LW3 and then saw that you already came across one. There are a couple for sale in Ontario for under $5k. As mentioned, Johnny Mnemonic is better built/better title and if they were both the same price, I'd go Johnny too.
LW3 is fun and has a ton of variety in shots and modes and video animations. That was my first pin and at some point I'd like to get another. Easy enough to learn on. Data East is more the Buick if Bally Williams is the Cadillac.
If I was you, being new to the hobby and fixing games, I might go with Johnny if for no other reason than the Data East boards can get fussy with fuse clip holders breaking and other unreliabilities. Not for certain, but I would take fixing the Johnny glove over circuit board repairs anyday.