Pinball Ninja Webzine, a Spiro Agnew review.
September 16, 2013
As far as the online presence of pinball repair goes, it appears to begin and end with Clay Harrell. His long, “lost” pinball repair guides (which can still be found mirrored in the neither-regions of cyberspace) have helped me out of a jam more than once, and are usually the first place I look when things don’t work. Heck, there is a whole section titled “When Things Don’t Work”. Mr. Harrell’s This Old Pinball series of DVDs and TOPcast Internet radio shows established that he was just as comfortable in front of a camera/mic as he was behind a keyboard. Through watching and listening to him talk about pinball, I can safely say that he oozes a passion for this hobby and seems to feed off of the attention garnered from being somewhat of a niche celebrity. The Pinball Ninja Webzine blends all of his prior work into a juggernaut of pinball repair information to help keep your machine in tip top shape.
Mr. Harrell moved onto the greener pastures of the Pinball Ninja Webzine (http://www.pinballninja.com) long after removing the repair guides from his website, halting production of the TOPcast videos and ceasing affiliation with the Pingame Journal magazine. PNW takes the best of what Mr. Harrell has been successful with in the past and creates something new with plenty of substance. Whereas the pin repair guides were general outlines for fixing specific machine platforms (Sys11, WPC, etc.), PNW takes a more TOP approach, looking at a specific machine and using it as a repair test case. Some of these repair candidates are projects located in Harrell’s shop, but most often they are in people’s homes or out on location. Each entry looks at one specific machine and what ails it. As of writing, Harrell is two repairs short of 800 fixes, and are a part of nearly 900 overall total entries in the ‘zine. All are written with Harrell’s signature panache (often tongue-in-cheek and with a hefty dose of sarcasm) and are accompanied with plenty of photos and a summary video of the actual troubleshooting/repair. The earlier entries of PNW have Mr. Harrell writing in the third person, ie. “The Ninja suspected problems with the driver board”, but this was back when the project was started in an attempt to do 500 fixes in 500 days. Since that time, Mr. Harrell has “come out of the closet” as the “Ninja” doing the repairs (it was the worst kept secret in pinball, wasn’t it?), and it really cleans up the prose–easier to read, much more flow, much more creative freedom.
As an example of a repair, say Mr. Harrell visits a customer with a non-functioning Star Trek: The Next Generation. His write up and video will help the viewer glean some insight on both repairing WPC machines in general and repairing specific toys or common problems in a STTNG machine. Lots of helpful tips and tricks located throughout. Would I have put French’s Mustard on my boards before watching a video of the Pinball Ninja doing it? Probably not. Would I now? Probably still no, but seeing what Mr. Harrell cooks up in the field is entertaining and informative. The catch is that you almost have to sift through all 800 repair entries to find what is useful to you. Lots of content but somewhat difficult to navigate. A search function does exist letting you search for a specific machine or operating system, and helps somewhat alleviate getting lost in the absolute sea of information Mr. Harrell has provided. However, if you are like me, you’ll watch each and every repair video for the sheer entertainment value of it. You almost take on the role of Harrell’s apprentice, looking over his shoulder and getting a front row seat for every fix. Will I ever own a Mr. & Mr’s Pacman machine? Any Bally-35 machine at all? Probably not, but I enjoyed watching Harrell troubleshoot and repair the big blue monster all the same. Be warned, there are lots of corroded batteries that need fixing. It seems nobody that Mr. Harrell visits knows there are batteries in a pinball machine, so lots of times this becomes the harbinger of all problems. To his credit, Harrell edits out the removal and installation of the remote battery holder and focusses on fixing the damage the corrosion has brought. Harrell tends not to dwell on common problems he has documented in the past. Early videos will show System 80 ground mods in detail, but the more recent fixes will just point out that he did them and not get into the intricacies of how they were performed. Also, there are lots of EM repairs, so if that is your thing, you are covered. Not being an EM collector/restorer myself, I can’t glean much from watching the videos, but if I ever took on an EM project, I’d certainly start with PNW, as Mr. Harrell tackles a whole laundry list of problems in these old, oft-neglected machines.
The writeups and photos are fantastic, but the real gems here are the videos. Many commenters ask Harrell to get a GoPro camera to wear on his head while he repairs–most times he needs both hands to demonstrate a repair, but one hand is always busy documenting with the camera. Think about it though, a repair guy who appears to be talking to himself in your basement while fixing your machine is weird enough...what would you think if he was talking to himself AND showed up wearing a bicycle helmet with a goofy camera attached to it? Many of Mr. Harrell’s clients are more than willing to be in the video to outline the symptoms of their busted machine, but more common, Mr. Harrelll finds himself whispering to the camera in a garage or basement while hunched over the machine (in true Ninja fashion--under the radar). Many of the board repairs are done off-camera, leaving Clay to quickly explain what he has done before the components are put back in the machine. If there is one suggestion, it would be to see more in-depth repair videos of board work, as we have seen in the This Old Pinball DVDs. I know watching a guy solder isn’t rivetting video, but setting up the camera on the bench and watching Clay buzz out, troubleshoot and work on boards would be helpful to some, like me, that are just getting the courage to do dabble in that area. Mr. Harrell has a lot on the go with his current pinball museum set to open in the fall, but I would also like to see him work on specific projects reminiscent of This Old Pinball. Take a junker machine and rebuild the thing over the course of a few months giving weekly video updates. PNW updates have been fewer lately due to the aforementioned Ann Arbor pin museum that Mr. Harrell is boosting, but hopefully with the addition of the museum to Harrell’s stable, the webzine will benefit from the documentation of museum repairs!
Before everyone navigates over to this fantastic website, please know that it is a pay-to-read service. Mr. Harrell requests $20 for a membership to the site (payable via PayPal to cfh@provide.net). In my humble opinion, it is well worth it. To some it won’t be. Those who fill their collection with newer Stern machines, they may not be happy...there are not too many Stern games up for repair. That being said, Harrell takes the time to review new Stern titles as they are released (the Avengers didn’t fare too well in the most current review). There is a great cross-section of E.M.s, Solid State and DMD machines of all makes and sizes repaired on the site–more than enough to keep the majority happy. Hell, there are a few slot machines and puck bowlers thrown in for good measure. Also included are video visits to swap meets and estate auctions in search of arcade treasures...there are not many at the time of writing, but are a real treat when the do come up and something I hope to see more of in the future.
From my perspective as a relative newbie to fixing my own machines, I feel the Pinball Ninja Webzine is an invaluable tool to have in my arsenal, well worth the money. If I’m paying nearly $20 per issue for the Euro-chic Pinball Magazine, surely $20 for an online all-you-can-read/watch buffet of pinball repairs is a fair deal. I give my recommendation despite being Canadian, and being fully aware of Mr. Harrell’s apparent distaste for Canadians and their abilities in the arena of pinball maintenance. All that aside, those looking to be an armchair pinball repair apprentice will almost certainly revel in the beauty of the pinball repairs chronicled by the Pinball Ninja Webzine.
September 16, 2013
As far as the online presence of pinball repair goes, it appears to begin and end with Clay Harrell. His long, “lost” pinball repair guides (which can still be found mirrored in the neither-regions of cyberspace) have helped me out of a jam more than once, and are usually the first place I look when things don’t work. Heck, there is a whole section titled “When Things Don’t Work”. Mr. Harrell’s This Old Pinball series of DVDs and TOPcast Internet radio shows established that he was just as comfortable in front of a camera/mic as he was behind a keyboard. Through watching and listening to him talk about pinball, I can safely say that he oozes a passion for this hobby and seems to feed off of the attention garnered from being somewhat of a niche celebrity. The Pinball Ninja Webzine blends all of his prior work into a juggernaut of pinball repair information to help keep your machine in tip top shape.
Mr. Harrell moved onto the greener pastures of the Pinball Ninja Webzine (http://www.pinballninja.com) long after removing the repair guides from his website, halting production of the TOPcast videos and ceasing affiliation with the Pingame Journal magazine. PNW takes the best of what Mr. Harrell has been successful with in the past and creates something new with plenty of substance. Whereas the pin repair guides were general outlines for fixing specific machine platforms (Sys11, WPC, etc.), PNW takes a more TOP approach, looking at a specific machine and using it as a repair test case. Some of these repair candidates are projects located in Harrell’s shop, but most often they are in people’s homes or out on location. Each entry looks at one specific machine and what ails it. As of writing, Harrell is two repairs short of 800 fixes, and are a part of nearly 900 overall total entries in the ‘zine. All are written with Harrell’s signature panache (often tongue-in-cheek and with a hefty dose of sarcasm) and are accompanied with plenty of photos and a summary video of the actual troubleshooting/repair. The earlier entries of PNW have Mr. Harrell writing in the third person, ie. “The Ninja suspected problems with the driver board”, but this was back when the project was started in an attempt to do 500 fixes in 500 days. Since that time, Mr. Harrell has “come out of the closet” as the “Ninja” doing the repairs (it was the worst kept secret in pinball, wasn’t it?), and it really cleans up the prose–easier to read, much more flow, much more creative freedom.
As an example of a repair, say Mr. Harrell visits a customer with a non-functioning Star Trek: The Next Generation. His write up and video will help the viewer glean some insight on both repairing WPC machines in general and repairing specific toys or common problems in a STTNG machine. Lots of helpful tips and tricks located throughout. Would I have put French’s Mustard on my boards before watching a video of the Pinball Ninja doing it? Probably not. Would I now? Probably still no, but seeing what Mr. Harrell cooks up in the field is entertaining and informative. The catch is that you almost have to sift through all 800 repair entries to find what is useful to you. Lots of content but somewhat difficult to navigate. A search function does exist letting you search for a specific machine or operating system, and helps somewhat alleviate getting lost in the absolute sea of information Mr. Harrell has provided. However, if you are like me, you’ll watch each and every repair video for the sheer entertainment value of it. You almost take on the role of Harrell’s apprentice, looking over his shoulder and getting a front row seat for every fix. Will I ever own a Mr. & Mr’s Pacman machine? Any Bally-35 machine at all? Probably not, but I enjoyed watching Harrell troubleshoot and repair the big blue monster all the same. Be warned, there are lots of corroded batteries that need fixing. It seems nobody that Mr. Harrell visits knows there are batteries in a pinball machine, so lots of times this becomes the harbinger of all problems. To his credit, Harrell edits out the removal and installation of the remote battery holder and focusses on fixing the damage the corrosion has brought. Harrell tends not to dwell on common problems he has documented in the past. Early videos will show System 80 ground mods in detail, but the more recent fixes will just point out that he did them and not get into the intricacies of how they were performed. Also, there are lots of EM repairs, so if that is your thing, you are covered. Not being an EM collector/restorer myself, I can’t glean much from watching the videos, but if I ever took on an EM project, I’d certainly start with PNW, as Mr. Harrell tackles a whole laundry list of problems in these old, oft-neglected machines.
The writeups and photos are fantastic, but the real gems here are the videos. Many commenters ask Harrell to get a GoPro camera to wear on his head while he repairs–most times he needs both hands to demonstrate a repair, but one hand is always busy documenting with the camera. Think about it though, a repair guy who appears to be talking to himself in your basement while fixing your machine is weird enough...what would you think if he was talking to himself AND showed up wearing a bicycle helmet with a goofy camera attached to it? Many of Mr. Harrell’s clients are more than willing to be in the video to outline the symptoms of their busted machine, but more common, Mr. Harrelll finds himself whispering to the camera in a garage or basement while hunched over the machine (in true Ninja fashion--under the radar). Many of the board repairs are done off-camera, leaving Clay to quickly explain what he has done before the components are put back in the machine. If there is one suggestion, it would be to see more in-depth repair videos of board work, as we have seen in the This Old Pinball DVDs. I know watching a guy solder isn’t rivetting video, but setting up the camera on the bench and watching Clay buzz out, troubleshoot and work on boards would be helpful to some, like me, that are just getting the courage to do dabble in that area. Mr. Harrell has a lot on the go with his current pinball museum set to open in the fall, but I would also like to see him work on specific projects reminiscent of This Old Pinball. Take a junker machine and rebuild the thing over the course of a few months giving weekly video updates. PNW updates have been fewer lately due to the aforementioned Ann Arbor pin museum that Mr. Harrell is boosting, but hopefully with the addition of the museum to Harrell’s stable, the webzine will benefit from the documentation of museum repairs!
Before everyone navigates over to this fantastic website, please know that it is a pay-to-read service. Mr. Harrell requests $20 for a membership to the site (payable via PayPal to cfh@provide.net). In my humble opinion, it is well worth it. To some it won’t be. Those who fill their collection with newer Stern machines, they may not be happy...there are not too many Stern games up for repair. That being said, Harrell takes the time to review new Stern titles as they are released (the Avengers didn’t fare too well in the most current review). There is a great cross-section of E.M.s, Solid State and DMD machines of all makes and sizes repaired on the site–more than enough to keep the majority happy. Hell, there are a few slot machines and puck bowlers thrown in for good measure. Also included are video visits to swap meets and estate auctions in search of arcade treasures...there are not many at the time of writing, but are a real treat when the do come up and something I hope to see more of in the future.
From my perspective as a relative newbie to fixing my own machines, I feel the Pinball Ninja Webzine is an invaluable tool to have in my arsenal, well worth the money. If I’m paying nearly $20 per issue for the Euro-chic Pinball Magazine, surely $20 for an online all-you-can-read/watch buffet of pinball repairs is a fair deal. I give my recommendation despite being Canadian, and being fully aware of Mr. Harrell’s apparent distaste for Canadians and their abilities in the arena of pinball maintenance. All that aside, those looking to be an armchair pinball repair apprentice will almost certainly revel in the beauty of the pinball repairs chronicled by the Pinball Ninja Webzine.
