Board 8 > Trying to buy a pinball machine!

(+) Yeah! (+)

More specifically, my mom's trying to get one for my dad soon and she's enlisted my help...so I'm enlisting yours! I don't know if anybody here actually has one (or even an arcade machine), but there's no place I know and trust on a subject like this like you guys.

We're trying to find one from the early-to-mid-1970s -- preferably with some sort of sex appeal since one of his old favorite pinball machines was Miss America-themed and he'll keep it in his garage. I imagine music-themed machines will be fine too, especially since he loved The Who. It should have flippers, in case that needs clarification. What kind of price range would we be looking at to get him something like this? I'll start seriously Googling the subject soon for more info and leads, but I understand Bally is/was a good pinball-company.


On a related note, I also just watched "Special When Lit" (pinball-documentary). Hopefully that'll help educate my search!

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Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.

Get a gumball machine instead and pocket the extra cash

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**R.O.B.A.Z.O.I.D**

I have no advice to give, I just wanted to say that if you get one and fix it up it's a great project.

I got an old pachinko machine working and it was a lot of fun, so I would expect that a pinball machine would be tons of fun too.

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##Alec
Congrats to Guru champ SuperNiceDog! All hail our Guru overlord.

You should get the Addams Family pinball machine. That thing was so awesome

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

I remember hearing a long time ago the Adams Family-machine is supposed to be one of the best.

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Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.

It IS the best. Not from the time period you want though

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[NO BARKLEY NO PEACE]
If you can't slam with the best, then jam with the rest.

Oh man, I remember the Addams Family one.

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"The great GF...Bahamut."
"...GF? I...? Using my powers...It is you humans...I fear..."

Only bump.

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Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.

I used to go to this bar that had a Demolition Man pinball machine. It was pretty sweet.

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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized - http://img.imgcake.com/smartmuffin/barkleyjpgde.jpg
http://dudewheresmyfreedom.com/

A couple hundred for a pinball machine depending on the quality and type. Really old ones could probably be less than 100 and some rare ones around a grand.

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Congrats, SuperNiceDog.

Get the rocky one

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Married to my Sugar mama, CrimsonOcean. Oct. 10, 2007
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4020/bigpunry4.jpg ~by Seginustemple

The best pinball machines were from the 90's. Even less than stellar ones, like Street Fighter, tended to have neat gimmicks (Car Breaking Mini-Game inside the pinball table!). Limiting it to that timeframe and to games that relied entirely on the name of the product to sell limits the quality.

Playboy and Penthouse both have pinball machines. Playboy is late 70's and Penthouse should be around the same time, but the models have a lot of clothes on and I can say nothing about their quality. Imagine they should be cheap though and they fit all your criteria.

Elvira and the Party Monsters is from the 90's, but the table should be better and she's wearing less clothes on the artwork:

There's a "The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard" machine out there. That could work, since you mentioned them and it's based on an approrpriate song.

Bally's and William's are probably the two best company's out there. Think I prefer William's myself, but I'd have to research them.

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You know what they say: If you can't beat them, join them. If you can't join them, burn their house to the ground!

I actually just saw a Playboy pinball at a turnpike rest stop last week. Yeah, the artwork is pretty clothed

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SuperNiceDog is a vicious breed and should be banned from further Guru contests.

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl

Big database of pinball tables that can be searched in a variety of ways, typically with pictures of the playing field. It could help narrow things down quite a bit. Entries of most games mentioned thus far:

The Addams Family (Best selling pinball machine ever and for good reason. Meets none of your criteria, but if you want quality): http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=The+Addams+Family&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#20

Elvira and the Party Monsters: http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Elvira&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#782

Demolition Man: http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Demolition+Man&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick

Penthouse: Sorry, apparently this was in 2008 and might be one-of-a-kind; even if production finished, it was in extremely limited quantities. High sex appeal though, not sure the pics are entirely safe for GameFAQs...but really no chance you can get this one. Lack of research on my part.

Playboy: Actually there are a lot of them! 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond. Search it yourself.

Rocky: http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Rocky&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#1993

Wizard! (Correct name of The Who's Pinball Wizard) http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2803

There's also a Baywatch table; 1995 so it's much later than what you're looking for, but it has some sex appeal: http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Baywatch&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#2848


Other than that, poke around the database yourself and see if you find anything interesting.

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You know what they say: If you can't beat them, join them. If you can't join them, burn their house to the ground!

You should try to find out if there's a pinball/arcade collecting scene in your area and try to make connections with them. You'll often be able to find better deals than on eBay or Craigslist, and you might have an easier time finding something, because a lot of the time people will make deals through local connections and sell machines without ever listing them on eBay/Craigslist. Plus it's much easier to pick up the game if it's someone who you can drive to instead of paying through the nose for cross-country shipping. You'll also be able to get advice and help from them once you get the machine, because odds are even if you get a machine in good condition you'll need to do some work on it to get it running perfect, and even if it is 100% when you get it you will need to maintain it.

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[NO BARKLEY NO PEACE]