Your First

[puck]

What was your first?

If you could go back in time and get your first pin over. What would you get and why. Also, if you could do it again would you get a machine in mint condition or if you got a mint machine would you go back and get a fixeruper?

 

[stiffler4444]

My first was Phantom of the Opera. I literally wore that machine out. I don't think I would buy it again, but it must say that it is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful machines available. Piece of art. So having said that, if I wiped my ass with money, I'd buy it just to look at it!
As for the fixer up vs. mint.......if I let a machine go and really wanted it back, I'd buy a mint or close to mint unit and never let it go.

 

[Chris Bardon]

First game I bought was a WCS from Dan in ancaster back in 09. Great game to start with, and having something that was clean and working from the outset was a great way to get into general maintenance stuff.

If I had it to do over? I probably would have bought a lot more games back then with the way that prices have gone

 

[BMHouze]

My first was a Bally Wizard!
One of my good friends was moving out of the house and his dad said 'take all your crap even that pin'
It didn't work but it was free.
A few houra of cleaning and replacing the tin foil wrapped fuses and I had a working pin.
I have moved away from EMs as none of my buddies like to troubleshoot them over newer machines.

 

[stiffler4444]

Ya, bought my Phantom back in 04 or 05 and paid $1000 for it.....on Ebay of all places! How things have changed......

 

[Menace]

First game was Funhouse back in 2000 or 2001? After all these years, that game is still in my collection and no plans on it leaving. It wasn't mint by any means, but it was 99% fuctional and it plays great. (I actually haven't done much of anything to it since purchasing it) If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably do it exactly the same way. That game to me was the perfect blend of old school and new school. Simple to understand but a little more depth than earlier games and paved the way for the rest of my collecting.

D

 

[mwong168]

My first game was High Speed in November 2010. Turfed it 72 hours later and got a DM instead.

Would I buy it again? Hell no and ever since then it has been NO RAMPS, NO DMD, NO THANKS

 

[dnewman]

Stumbling upon a Bride of Pinbot at the Science Centre during their Game On 2.0 exhibit (2013) brought it all back for me. All the kids didn't care about the three pinball machines on display, so I just played them for a few hours. The sound effects from BOP evoked such strong memories from playing it when I was younger made me search for one for about seven months! I finally found one in Rochester that I liked.

I needed to re-pin to repair some battery leakage damage, and took everything apart to clean it all up, but it was a great project to get my feet wet with! No, not the deepest ruleset, but to me, BOP has a character that screams pinball! The Bride was the gateway drug for me...

 

[eh97ac]

Here is my first. I figured what was broke on one wouldn't be broke on the other. Fixed both, sold both and 2 years later bought 1 back.

 

[fantasygoat]

My first was Gottlieb Volcano. Bought it out of the back room of TOPEC back when they still did that. I think I paid $200 for it, if that. Being System 80 meant it had low plays on it due to being broken, but once we got it working again it was great.

I don't remember what my second game was, though. I've owned almost 300 at this point so it's all a bit of a blur.

If I had it to do over again, I'd have warehoused all the A-list DMDs I had that cost me $1,000 like TZ, IJ, etc. So many deals at the Starburst auctions in the 90s.

 

[spiroagnew]

I grew up seeing pinball machines arrive and leave my old man's garage. But the first one I bought with my own cash I earned from my first job was a Williams Solar Fire, around 1995 or 1996. I owned the game for over a decade before I had the nuts to trade it. You can't keep them all, I guess.

 

[Seven]

Mine was a Bally Hardbody a year and a half ago. It was working about 98% when I got it and started having little glitches here and there. I just dove in and started working on it.

My second machine a few months later was Alien Poker. It also had a few glitches. This one is a bit more basic than Hardbody and it has all the general elements in a pinball machine.

I enjoy working on the machines as much as playing them. I might actually enjoy working on them more. Starting with those two machines I got a crash course in working on them. They were probably the best I could have gotten. If I had a mint machine with no issues, it would have taken me longer to get involved in the hardware side of pinball.

 

[cdnpinballer]

Night Rider in September 2006 out of a storage locker from a super shady seller in St. Catharines. Dude was a crook but I didn't know any better. I made all the classic noob mistakes because I was super hyped about having a pinball machine to call my own. That pin should have been parted out but it's now the nicest Night Rider on the planet.

 

[medvet]

My first was a WCS which we still have. Never had played pinball before and went to look at an arcade machine at Regent in Ottawa. My son started playing a Hook in the store and I decided to get him one so being 6 yrs old, WCS was perfect. Within 6 months, had 6 and 10 years later, have bought many, sold a few and built a 2500 sq ft shop to house the overflow from the basement. Let's just say I have to learn to sell more and buy less!! Lol

 

[brewmanager]

In 2011 I was hunting fruitlessly for a High Speed - guess EH97AC had them all.

Came across a Williams Triple Strike and nabbed it, and not a month later a (now) friend in Montreal saw my WTB ad for a High Speed, and while the Triple Strike is long gone, that High Speed is still well loved and played often.

 

[WARLOCK]

Flash. Early Williams SS all the way! Steve Ritchie's first. Bought and sold 5 examples to keep 1, or 2.
Drove to the Blue Mountains in Tennessee for that 1st machine. I'd guess I'm at 100,000 km later by now...

 

[FastEd]

About 4 years ago, I wandered into Playdium to check out pool tables and ping-pong tables. I was pleasantly surprised to see a row of pinball machines. I hadn't seen a pinball machine in a long time and brought back memories of my youth and all the fun and trouble we got into because of pinball machines (that's another story). The fellow at Playdium was telling me about the machines that they had, but, these new machines were like a foreign language to me. He was showing me this Tron LE that he just got in from another customer, and what a deal it was for $6K. I was intrigued. I started lurking all the forums. I found Pinside. I found Maaca and then joined the Revolution. Then, about a year and half ago, I finally took the plunge, with the help of the enabler (mwong), and got my first machine. Congo. It was shortly joined by other machines, and I have been hooked on this hobby, even more, ever since. I just picked up my freshly brass-plated wireforms for Congo and ToM (that I'm slowly shopping out). Still on the lookout for "my precious...." In no hurry though, looking for the right one....

 

[websherpa]

An off route '63 Gottlieb Swing Along. Was a 14th birthday present from my uncle, a Coin-Op Distributor in Vancouver (they were probably going to junk it which they were starting to do back then). I cut my teeth cleaning, tuning, setting leaf switches on that. Ended up selling it to make some money to go to university and going into a long dry period (played for quarters).

Many years later a Data East Laser Wars (which I still have) was, I "think" the first personal purchase that set off a long and fruitful chain reaction. ;-) First DMD was a Shaq Attaq which I had bought, fixed and sold to Jim McFarlane in Ottawa (and MAACA was my stomping grounds back then).

 

[libtech]

Mine was a twilight zone in '07, I felt like playing some arcades pinball in particular, and quickly realized that all the locations and arcades were gone and it was hard to find any. So I went out and bought one, kinda snowballed from there..

 

[meegis]

What's a pinball?