Pinball Machine Repair

[Ed Golick]

Can anybody recommend a pinball machine repair person in the metro Detroit area?

[pgn421]

Union music in Harper Woods, or Eastside Amusements

[HazenPingree]

The best is Ron, who can most easily be reached at the Wheel House bike shop in Rivard Plaza of the River Walk. He is their bike mechanic, and is also an astoundingly talented pinball and juke box restorer and repair specialist.

http://www.myspace.com/mechanical_ron [[by the way, I just had some work done there, and I will say I am EXTREMELY impressed. I have taken bikes to many, many bike shops and the Wheel House is one of, if not THE best for repair quality, time, and price.)

[Ed Golick]

Ron it is. Thanks!

[Angry Dad]

What kind of pinball repair?

Digital or electromechanical?

There is one site that might be interesting for you to visit.

Marvin Yagoda [[I think I spelled it right) out at Marvelous Marin's Museum in Farmington has a site that can teach you about repairing various machines.

http://www.marvin3m.com/

Don't know about his prices, if you can fix things yourself, you can save a lot of money.

[professorscott]

The age of the machine makes a huge difference - not the exact age, just the generation. Any pinball repair guy can fix a modern electronic job, basically anything newer than 1995 and most things from the early to mid 1980s forward. If you have an electromechanical wonder from the earlier years, you want to find somebody who still knows how to deal with those.

The essential thing that allows anyone to spot the difference is: does the score display on LED boards or on mechanical ratchet-wheel setups?

The Prof owns, but does not have, a beautiful mid 1970s mechanical wonder, "Top 10" from Chicago Coin. It's in his ex brother in law's place in Noo Yawk; too much bother to try to transport it to the great midwest, and it's old and fragile, so I hope he's still enjoying it. Ten cents a play or 3 for 25, as configured.

[compn]

anyone got a list of places to play ?

arcadia - ford + inkster - one or two older ones 60s-70s.
luckys - fountain walk in novi - world poker tourn, high roller? and another.
marvin's - 14 and orchard - family guy, indiana jones [[stern crap) , simpsons, pirates of the caribbean
pinball pete's - downtown ann arbor - theater of magic, attack from mars, elvira scared stiff, lots more.
american fun center - oakland mall in troy - wheel of fortune
gameworks - great lakes crossing - family guy , another?
star theater - 12 and telegraph - wheel of fortune
paradise point [[cove?) fun center in novi - simpsons

unverified listings:
wagon wheel in northville - dive bar had a pinball last time i was there.
star theater - great lakes crossing - used to have world soccer game, might be gone now.
phoenix theater - 9 and middlebelt [[west oaks) - has/had leathal weapon 3
meribowl - 5 and merriman - had one?
cloverlanes - schoolcraft and middlebelt - had one or two.
another bowling alley in livonia/westland i cant remember had terminator 2.

used to , but gone:
mr b's in royal oak - removed most games and put up more bar stools
time zone - livonia mall - southpark, elvira, rescue 911, pacman pinball
american movie center - livonia mall - bride of pinbot [[fun game!)
wonderland mall food court - twilight zone. outdoor mall? yeah thats a great idea in michigan.

i saw one in an FYE once, but now cant remember where it was, maybe wonderland...

[Angry Dad]

Since it's going on today and tomorrow, this weekend is Pinball at the Zoo. A few collectors get together out in Kalamazoo and have a swap meet this weekend.

But the best meeting happens every year out in Chicago in the fall. The pinball expo may be the best place for seeing the most games brought together by collectors.


http://www.pinballnews.com/


http://www.xmission.com/~daina/classified/


http://www.ipdb.org/

[Single Malt]

I miss a good pinball arcade. They were big in my childhood, being a child of the 80's. They rocked. I used to go to Galaxy on Gratiot in Roseville in the mid 90's. They had some good games there and nice rotation. Seems to me arcades are a thing of the past.

[Ed Golick]

What kind of pinball repair?

Digital or electromechanical?

A friend has a Williams Dealer's Choice from 1974 that needs repair.

I have four pingames, a Super Pacman, a coin-op bumper pool table and various other coin operated trade stimulators that I usually repair on my own, but I don't have the time to check out my friend's machine.

[smogboy]

I love pinball.

Compared to the video games [[which take up much less floor space & easier to maintain), I'd still take a good playing pinball game over a video game any day. With pinball, each game truly is different and the skill required to get a top score is that much more tricky. One almost has to study a pinball game to really understand all of its nuances and see all the scoring opportunities.

I really do miss the good ol' arcade days when there were more than a handful of choice games to play. Outside of Marvin's & Pinball Pete's, there really aren't any larger arcades in the area any more. It's too bad.

[hamtownharry]

marvellous marvin is kind of pricey and is really picky who he does work for.i would suggest someone find else before you call him.

[cfh]

I do pinball machine repair in the Detroit
and Southeast Michigan area. Feel free to
check my website or email for details.
http://www.pinrepair.com

[dodgemain]

Cfh, I have a late 50's Chicago Coin bowling machine in decent shape. It works, but doesn't keep score correctly. When I get it uncovered, I will send your website pictures. I want to get rid of it.

DODGEMAIN - EASTSIDER

[East Detroit]

Where is a good place to buy a pinball machine and what should I expect to pay?

Just looking for something middle of the road that is fun to play and durable, no particular game.

[cfh]

where to buy games.... what game to buy?
loaded questions for sure, and hard to answer.
kind of like buying a car!

best to do some research and some 'test play.'
by far the easiest way is to just find a place
that has a lot of games and try them. they don't
have to be for sale - you just want to try games
and see what fits your fancy [[and price range.)

generally speaking, the older the game, the less
expensive it will be. older games don't mean they
are less fun either. it's all about what appeals
to you, and only you can figure that out for sure.
some people love the "classic" 1970s EM pinballs
of their youth. These are excellent values for
the money too. But some people want all the toys
and gadgets of the newer games [[and you'll have
to pay a bit more to have those.)

a good place to play is the Detroit Pinball Museum at
http://www.detroitpinball.com
as they have 50 games from the 1960s to present.
so in one stop you can get a good idea of what
appeals to you. You can visit them during the week,
other wise you'll need to be a member as it's a club.
Nothing there is for sale, but
you can see what you like and talk to the
patrons there about prices. Marvins at
http://marvin3m.com is also a good place
to play and check out games, though their pinballs
are all pretty new [[and hence more expensive titles.)
Again nothing there for sale, but they usually have
about 10 pinballs to play.

http://marvin3m.com/mipinfix.htm