Jolt Country

In this thread, I will detail my year-long quest to acquire a TZ pinball.

Twilight Zone is the finest pinball machine ever made, and it would plug a hole in my heart if I had one. If I can get it without selling my Tron pinball I will try that, but it would be nice to have many less games in the garage, two pins, and constant parties. People like pinball games at parties.

The goal is $10,000. Here is what I have managed to save so far:

$100 for the sale of the broken Atari Jaguar this month.

Now! I am seeing BOXES go for over $100. I am seeing gamepads for the Jag go for like $60. I could have asked for more, but I didn't want to ship it (more on that in a second) and I sold it to a guy whose name a bunch of us heard and we pretty much knew he was a good guy (and he was).

So while it would have been more for the project, we got QUIK KASH. Quash.

Target goal: $10,000
Amount acquired: $100
Remaining total: $9,900

Shipping. Let's talk about that. One of the events that enrages me in my history is that I tried to ship an Atari ST to Jizaboz through the post office. The following happened, and then hopefully I can move on:

1. It didn't make it to Best Carolina.
2. They simply did not respond to my attempts at an insurance claim.
3. I tried to get my Chase credit card to at LEAST give me the $40 back in shipping, and they declined to do so.

The only thing I think I could have done differently would have been to drive to the post office where I sent it and be a problem customer. Or somehow gotten their attention online. But what we are learning as Americans is that if you simply DON'T do a particular thing in life, nothing happens.

That is why I want to make this project happen without selling stuff on eBay or shipping items to fund it. Additionally, as a seller you are safe if you get cash, Venmo or Zelle. Anything else can be clawed back. eBay will always side with the buyer. All a buyer has to do is lie and you lose the item and the money, so that won't be part of this project.

Here is a fun link at pinside, where Twilight Zones are listed. $10K seems to be the going rate.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/clas ... 71#results

Milker and his wife sold a few through pinside. It's a forum with a buy/sell section. I am not too worried about scammers through pinside.

We also need to talk about the TV show.

There was a revival in 2019 and 2020 that had Jordan Peele as the narrator. I can't remember, but I think that in every episode Rod Serling opened up the narration by being there "off to the side" or something in the beginning, and I have a memory of him being physically present at the end as well. I don't remember if there were certain episodes where he didn't show up at the end? Where it was just his voice?

Jordan definitely does not appear at the end of every episode (though he does do the voice over). So I am not sure if I need to be upset about this or not. It seems like it's cheating if he's not there.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2024 9:14 am We also need to talk about the TV show.

There was a revival in 2019 and 2020 that had Jordan Peele as the narrator. I can't remember, but I think that in every episode Rod Serling opened up the narration by being there "off to the side" or something in the beginning, and I have a memory of him being physically present at the end as well. I don't remember if there were certain episodes where he didn't show up at the end? Where it was just his voice?

Jordan definitely does not appear at the end of every episode (though he does do the voice over). So I am not sure if I need to be upset about this or not. It seems like it's cheating if he's not there.

Loved Key and Peele, can't get into Jordan's movies and was immediately bored by his Twilight Zone. Rod Sterling rocked!

Anyone have a favorite Twilight Zone? Mine is probably "I Shot an Arrow into the Air", 4 astronauts crash land on what they think is a foreign planet and proceed to fight amongst themselves until one is left and the final scene he goes over a hill and sees telephone poles and a sign for Reno. Doh!

The one where all the household appliances start ganging up on Crowley

I did play the pinball game tonight. It's great. I was texting gsdgsd and playing pinball at a brewery where they let ya bring dogs!

Good question about favorite episode. I will have to think about it.

I like Jordan Peele's stuff, but HOLY GOD is the first season of the 2019 series getting to be a little much. The episode I had on last night had a premise of a meteor poisoning the water supply and turning all of the town's MEN (fucking cis white males) into brutes and savages and so forth. The episode's title was "Not All Men." It had Rhea Seehorn in it, so I was trying to give it a chance, but I had to let it go and fast forward to the next one. Everyone involved was clearly terminally online and it's not like any of these episodes so far in season 1 of this revival had an ending so great I was filled with child like wonder. The writers involved can get people to play pretend with their personal essays but I don't need to watch it. Just because it's on TV doesn't mean that everyone involved doesn't need to go touch grass... in the Twilight Zone.

Edit: Get out of here Finchley!

For some reason the old black and white Outer Limits disturbed me (or made me think) more than the black and white TZ, but TZ def had some awesome episodes. "Maple Street" is one of the first to come to mind. I also really liked the one where the dude had the pocket watch that would stop time.

"The Shadowman" was my favorite 1980s TZ episode, followed by the one where dude has to receive a mark on his head in the future. I have vivid memories of watching that show on a small black and white TV at my grandparents house in a spare bedroom and being legit creeped the fuck out by the intro every time.

I really do like the pinball machine.. but I would rather own Funhouse one day. I had lost a lot of interest in pinball until that game arrived at the big arcade in Long Beach, NC in the early 1990s. Much like the Neo-Geo.. at 12/13 years old I told myself "When I grow up I will own this." Funhouse just hits many nerves for me as an entire pinball machine.

Amazon Prime kept fucking around until they found my breaking point. They slooooowly upped the ads they were showing, as I was on the treadmill watching the Twilight Zone.

Last one, which caused me to come here and write this, had 2 minutes and 30 seconds for the ad break. Ad 1 of 7. 7 fucking ads for something that already costs $139 a year AND was the 4th ad break for the show. (I think the new TZ episodes are 45 minutes long.)

They could have run an ad or two forever, as I try to get steps and be healthy, but because it's CAPITALISM, they had to keep going. So they lost me forever. I would have canceled Prime when it came up for renewal, but my in-laws all use it for various things. Such unbelievable greed.

I need to find a way to play movie files in a manner that lets me stop the thing and then resume later with the machine powered off. Or maybe I just need to go the Plex route and leave the Raspberry Pi running Plex on.

I'm pretty sure I'm cancelling Prime when mine comes due in August. $139 just aint worth it anymore.

Prime is awful but I still like free shipping on a $2 item so they probably still got me.

Casual Observer wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 12:56 am Prime is awful but I still like free shipping on a $2 item so they probably still got me.

I get it, but is it worth $139???

That’s a lot of 2 dollar items SIR

I am 43% of the way there for a machine. Should be able to up that a bit in 5 days.

I listed Wizard of Wor on a private FB group I'm on which exists for the sale and purchase of arcade games in Colorado for about a dozen guys. It did not get any interest there. The next step is to open it up to non-private groups, but I have to be in the right mood to deal with the general public. I have had no luck trying to sell much recently. Ah, well.

I gotta be able to park in the garage this winter, though. Part of me wants to buy a storage container for the games so I do not have to sell them. I don't want to sell any of my PRECIOUS. Something like this goes for $2800 used (used is .... 10000% absolutely fine)

https://onsitestorage.com/product/used- ... denver-co/

I dunno if that is a good price. Also I just did the math and that is enormous and way more than I need.

Home Depot has these plastic sheds that are 4x6. That would allow me to store 6 games, I think. But I don't want a plastic one.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Storage-Org ... z2Z1z1byjm

This one seems to be metal. Maybe it would be perfect?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/VEIKOUS-4-f ... /329179107

I am really, really out of my element with this, any help, advice, ACTUALLIES or anything else would be greatly appreciated. If I can get Wizard of Wor, the ArPiCade cabinet, Zoo Keeper and Crystal Castles in there, I could have room for a pinball machine and be able to park in there.

Ok, a metal storage shed that is rain proof is what I want and need. The rain proof part is important.

It also seems like you have to assemble these yourself, which I don't want to do.

Also, rather than make a paper list, I am going to look around this room for things I could sell to finance this:

Atari Jaguar games, boxed
- Trevor McFur
- Alien vs Predator
- Raiden
- Iron Soldier

Because I don't want to unplug my Atari Gamedrive from the Jaguar, due to how fragile the cartridge connectors are, it makes more sense to sell the boxes copies.

I have a sealed copy of Stationfall. I have a copy of "Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7" that is listed for a lot on eBay, but not sold for much in terms of actual sales, but I don't think I will ever make a game in I7. I am sure I could go digging for other stuff. I wish selling stuff wasn't so difficult.

So now we ask the hard questions. Is there any way at all to store the cabs in an indoor spot in your house? Keeping them outside in Colorado winters is going to be No Bueno for them no matter kind of unheated shed they get stored in.

AArdvark wrote: Sat Aug 10, 2024 2:17 pm So now we ask the hard questions. Is there any way at all to store the cabs in an indoor spot in your house? Keeping them outside in Colorado winters is going to be No Bueno for them no matter kind of unheated shed they get stored in.

They are already in a garage that doesn't have heat going during the winter. It has not had a negative effect on them. Honestly, the ones that have been susceptible to the change of temperatures have been worked over by a technician enough times that I feel they are good for the rest of their lives or mine.

There is some room inside. If I had 5 games or so, I'd just keep them in the room down the hall from where I am.

I guess that is also a solution. A storage bin for the ones I can't bear to live without, and then throw the rest of them that I want easy access to in this unnamed room.