I was determined to get the Funhouse to MIDNIGHT and get Rudy's mouth open, after owning the thing for six days. Tonight I did it! It's set for a replay at 7 million and I managed to snag 7 million as well.
I made my first order for parts. I have two problems: the left plunger has a broken part ... er.. well, it's the part you actually grasp.
Rudy's eyes are also open all the time, and I understand that they are supposed to be closed during attract mode. So I needed a new part for that, too. With shipping, these two parts came to $20.50.
Going to repaint the table, then? It's both good and bad that the tables are painted and not, say, a large sheet of replaceable plastic vinyl or something.
Paint looks classier but is not something easily repaired.
Is as far as what should change in attract vs. revenue modes*, are you referring to the face on the <s>backboard</s> backbox** or the head in the <s>table</s> cabinet?
Is it me or does the head in the cabinet look like Star Trek's Mr. Spock?
Something I just thought of that I'd never have had the guts to try if I was playing a pinball machine in an arcade. If you put a strong magnet on the glass at the <s>center gutter</s> drain, would it catch the ball instead of allowing it to go out of play?
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* The standard name for the display of a game that does not have coins inserted is "attract mode." I don't know if there's a term for once the user is playing, perhaps "play" mode would be better, But I got the term from transportation companies, when vehicles are actually collecting fares, they're said to be in "revenue service." So I called it revenue mode. However, since a game can be set to play for free, perhaps "game mode" or "play mode" or "operating moce" would have been better.
AArdvark wrote:Going to repaint the table, then? It's both good and bad that the tables are painted and not, say, a large sheet of replaceable plastic vinyl or something.
Paint looks classier but is not something easily repaired.
It plays 100% though?
THE
MECHANICALLY
WORKING
AARDVARK
I think what I'll do is grab a tiny piece to improve each month. So I've got the plunger and part for Rudy's head this month, and maybe next month I'l buy the decals for the backbox and a quart of paint and make that look better.
There are some lamps that are out that I'll try to fix this month as well.
It definitely seems to be working 100%. I'm kind of happy that it is in a state where I can "tinker" with it. And there is a nice one available in Lyons, CO so I can compare mine and his. For instance, he has this giant blue light somewhere in the mid-right area. My playfield is just dark there. Dark as your heart, Vark!
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Tdarcos, thanks for the link to the glossary of terms. That should help! Do you have pinball stories and memories you'd like to share??
Back during the 1970s and 1980s that I was there, Long Beach, California, had an amusement park on the south side of town, one block south of Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue, called The Pike. It had been open since before there was television, I think. 1930s or 1940s. It had a few rides and a number of arcades with lots of coin-op games.
They had a game similar to Bingo called Light-A-Line which, because you could win cash prizes, you had to be 18 to play, and was before I was old enough. You shot a ball into your board of 25 numbers, and whoever got 5 in a row, across, horizontal or diagonal, won the current prize.
I doubt as far as entertainment was concerned there was much in the way of changes from the 1960s until late in the 1970s or early 1980s.
They had other games around including shooting games, baseball throwing games, throw a dime and land it on a dish to win, and other such things that if you got a high score or made some difficult task you won something.
If you remember those days, you had the typical helicopter game (you're trying to touch certain targets with a wand on the copter to get a score), the claw game (where you tried to get a prize), ski ball, and lots of pinball games. They actually had quire a few that were still a nickel.
One of the ones I would "cheat" on was the baseball game. I think it was supposed to be two player but I'd play both sides. I'd do real easy pitches and miss catching them, so I could load the bases, then hit one out of the park for a grand slam home run.
I don't think I did much playing of pinball as much as I watched other people, some of these kids were fantastic at it.
During that time the video game became popular, which probably made the place kind of anachronistic. Shortly after I left California The Pike lost its lease with the city, which I think had probably been something like 40 years. The place was torn down and a redevelopment project was started.
If you've ever seen the movie The Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwartzenegger, the hotel where the kid uses the crane to move the guy with the bomb in his belly into the tar pits is located is where The Pike was.
If you ever saw the 1970s Blaxploitation film Three The Hard Way, the arcade scene where the firefight takes place - the heroes have cap pistols, the bad guys have fully-automatic weapons at nearly point-blank range and are terrible shots - was filmed at The Pike even though I think the movie makes it look like it happened in New York or Chicago, I think.
Here's a scene from Three The Hard Way where a bunch of cops are going to frame a guy by planting drugs in his car, and he informs them in no uncertain terms that he's not going to put up with it.
[youtube][/youtube]
I will remember those days of the amusement parks and the old, old mechanical games fondly.
"When I die, I want it easy and peaceful in my sleep, like my uncle.
Not screaming and crying like his passengers."
They had a game similar to Bingo called Light-A-Line which, because you could win cash prizes, you had to be 18 to play, and was before I was old enough. You shot a ball into your board of 25 numbers, and whoever got 5 in a row, across, horizontal or diagonal, won the current prize.
At Seabreeze amusement park, this game was known as 'Fascination'. Very nice.
Speaking of which, they had a really nice selection of pre-video amusement games there. Then the carousal burned down and took out the arcade with it. Stupid fire..
AArdvark wrote:Speaking of which, they had a really nice selection of pre-video amusement games there. Then the carousal burned down and took out the arcade with it. Stupid fire..
Yeah, that fire burned the place down without our permission. Just for that, we had it killed. That'll teach it.
<s>Someone</s> Robert A. Heinlein through one of the characters in his books, I think it was (Maureen Johnson-Smith) once said that two moves equal one fire. That's how much you potentially lose from moving around.
"When I die, I want it easy and peaceful in my sleep, like my uncle.
Not screaming and crying like his passengers."
Flack has a story about an arcade that burned down.
So, having seen Cirqus Voltaire at the 2UP, I will absolutely be getting an LED kit for my Funhouse if I have $165 left over at the end of the month. I should start a Kickstarter, because it is something that benefits me with questionable benefits to others.
Funny, earlier in this thread I was going to suggest replacing the regular bulbs with the lower voltage kind that don't get so hot. S'wat I did for the Bon Voyage, it keeps the paint from discoloring, so they say. LED technology is taking over everything these days.
The good! I got the LED kit and the colors are really popping in the thing.
The bad! I set the glass down next to an arcade game in order to put the lights in. I backed up and somehow shattered the fucking glass into a zillion pieces.
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:The good! I got the LED kit and the colors are really popping in the thing.
The bad! I set the glass down next to an arcade game in order to put the lights in. I backed up and somehow shattered the fucking glass into a zillion pieces.
It would have been perfect if you had inserted "The Ugly!" before "I backed up..."
"When I die, I want it easy and peaceful in my sleep, like my uncle.
Not screaming and crying like his passengers."
AArdvark wrote:The playfield glass, not the backglass, right? Backglass could be pricey. You wanted to replace the playfield glass anyway, right? Right?
It was the playfield glass, yeah. So I gotta come up with a piece of glass that is 43 x 21 - 3/16 thick today. Because I really want the thing to be A-OK for the weekend.
I just ran through a pricing thing on Elite Custom Glass.com and it gave me a price of $45.46. Plus shipping.
I think both Lowe's and Home Depot carry sheets of glass and will custom cut them for you for no additional cost.
I also checked and if you are willing to go with plywood or possibly a combination of duct tape and saran wrap, I get get a better price. If you are patient and still have all the pieces, you can get some gorilla glue for only a buck or two.
On a serious note, that sucks that your glass got broken. I accidentally broke the glass on the front of my multicade a few months back and I am still finding pieces of that glass in corners of my garage.
It does! Thank God it was tempered. I'd have been cut up like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Which has been ruined for me due to the number of times Tdarcos has written, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."
I got a quote: $54 for a piece of clear, tempered glass with no logo. (Who ever wants the logo??) And it's local. I pick it up Thursday. Excellent!
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:It does! Thank God it was tempered. I'd have been cut up like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Which has been ruined for me due to the number of times Tdarcos has written, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."
Why? That quote is from "The Outlaw Josey Wales" with Clint Eastwood. Why would it have an effect on Die Hard?
"When I die, I want it easy and peaceful in my sleep, like my uncle.
Not screaming and crying like his passengers."
