In a pinball machine the player is in control of two or more "flippers" (small movable bars) that are used to shoot a metal ball against different physical targets inside the machine.
I've never played the Bride of Pinbot but I have played Pinbot, its very cool and its a pin made at a time where it feels like a mix between layout / feature styles of the 70's with some from the 90's mixed in.
For your first pin I would recommending something that wouldn't be terribly hard to work on, Pinbot and other mid to late 80's Williams machines can have electronics issues from time to time. If your not comfortable with soldering and working with electronics on a basic level you may want to get something newer. If you search the Google pinball boards you will find that issues with late 80's machines are common, luckily nearly everything can be fixed and hey with the internet you can find a guide to help you do it! I have a late 80's machine myself, F14 Tomcat, and have had several problems with it. One of the four display went out so I had to replace it, that wasn't hard to do myself. When I first bought the machine the battery holder (holds 3-4 double AA batteries to help store table settings and high scores) was ready to fall off, the soldering for the contacts was just about gone since the previous owner left the batteries in there for years while they were leaking acid (check the batteries / replace, especially if you just got the pin)...I ended up installing a remote battery holder and soldered new wires to the main board, problem solved. I also had a problem where half the sound went out on the machine as well as several game features, turns out a trace on the back of the main board itself was broken, a friend and I had to basically solder a piece of wire to two places on the board to jump the broken trace area.
Hmmm, as far as a first pin goes I would check out Getaway: Highspeed 2, that was my first pin and wow was it awesome, I regret getting rid of it! You may like the site below for more information.
Thanks for the tips, I've heard similar things from other people. Starting easy seems the best way to go. I found a guy who is selling a 1968 Williams Doozie machine for 200 bucks, he says it powers up and plays but needs some mild repairs. I'll be going out to take a look at it sometime this week. Any particular problems i should look for?
If you want a 90s machine I'd say go for it, there is plenty of help online so fixing the machines should't be too hard. There also maybe local pinball collectors that can stop by your place and help you fix your machine.
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