Unofficial Tex Murphy

Can anybody enlighten me as to how I would go about purchasing a pinball machine?

It seems, mostly, that the ones I find on eBay are only shipped to the States, so I'm kind of boned as far as that goes. Google is not being very friendly with information either.

The only page I've found so far is a page for brand new pinball machines, but I'm not interested in a Spider-Man 3 machine, to be quite honest.

I'd like a vintage model, preferably used, in decent state and also not costing me in the general area of six thousand wing-wangs! Optimally, I'd like the early 90's model based around the theme of Tales From The Crypt. I used to play that to death in a local arcade in my early, pre-pubescent youth.

Any pinball enthusiasts here, by the way? Feel free to share knowledge and experience!

Also, I sense that Jen is (or maybe was) an avid pinballer! Please correct me if I'm wrong, Jen!

-Fred

I know little to none about pinball machines, but the first place I would look for one are arcades and other such parlours. You could find a few planning to sell their older machines, or at least point you in the general direction of where old machines go when they update for newer themes.

There is most certainly a club for this in your area or the closest metropolis. There are clubs for everything. Everything. One of my English teachers collected jukeboxes, and was member of such club. Jukeboxes are cool, mind you, but a collection of them? There's only so many you can put in a house before it gets a little weird.

I live in Norway, it's a tiny enough place. Just shy of 5 million people, we are. And we don't have any official pinball collectors guild, I'm sorry to say

-Fred

This would be the guy to talk to. He owns a pinball repair shop in Norway, and is a pinball machine collector.

http://www.pinballowners.com/olejkris

http://www.parts4pinballs.com/index.php?cPath=159_106

My other suggestion is trying UK pinball shops. There seems to be quite a few and maybe they deliver.


Yeah, I'm a fan. I go into Seattle to play. There's a great little dive in Belltown I like to go to. When I'm with my son though, it has to be gameworks. Shorty's is a bar. Check it out....
http://www.shortydog.com/tour.html

I used to be in the business a long time ago. I had a pin ball parlor back in the mid-70's on 8 Mile Road in Detroit. This was way back before video arcades, almost 40 years ago.

After I quit the business, my dad got into it for a while. Had a whole warehouse full of pin ball games, juke boxes and video games. But he sold all that stuff off about ten years ago. Nothing left but my Donkey Kong and Zaxon. No pin balls.

I wish you luck. PinBall is great. Especially the old games. My personal favorite was Jack-in-the-box by Gotleib. I used to have customers that would drive 50 miles to play my Jack-in-the-box.

Jen? If I ever make it to the States, can I come hang out with you? You are the coolest girl ever!

Thanks a heap!! Appreciate it!!

-Fred

Fred Buer wrote: I'd like a vintage model, . . .the early 90's . . .
-Fred

Early 90's is "vintage"?!? Ouch, that hurts!

Watching my Dad play pinball and ms. pacman always made me realize that while I thought I was good at games, you can be so much better. He's so good at pacman, it's just silly.

Oh, and Gary, that 90s "vintage" comment made me feel old at 25 ...

~Keck

Mmmmm Pinball, my secret poison. Sadly I miss the physicality of a pinball game. I have to admit that Simpsons pinball from 1989 (90?) was the one I spent a lot of high school hours on. (Well that, "Track and Field" and "Hyper Sports' by Konami but this is about pinball.) I think Simpsons Pinball is perhaps the MOST unforgiving table I've ever played but I did manage to master it. A buddy and I found it recently at what can technically be called an arcade and we played for about 3 hours straight. AND IT STILL TOOK QUARTERS!

After building my arcade machine about 9 years ago I was going to attempt to tackle building a pinball machine but never got around to it. Have you ever looked into pinball emulators? I used them to pass the time until I can afford to get the ones I would like. Also you can design your own, I thought that was fun. Here's some links if you're interested. They'll help pass the time. I do have to warn you though, they have questionable legality but if you wanna try em out it's a decent alternative. Also if you wanna play it safe I bought a game for the Wii called Pinball Hall of Fame The Williams Collection. It has some pretty good replication tables in it and it's good for a quick fix.

Here's the Wikipedia link to Visual Pinball the emulator of classic machines (and original tables.) Read up on it, it should have everything you would need if you wanna go that route:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Pinball


Here's the Wikipedia link to the Wii pinball game I was talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Ha ... Collection

I've made contact with someone who will build me a Tex Murphy Pinball Machine, once I get all the Graphics and any Audio files I want to use together... Gonna run a pretty penny too, so it's going to be a little while... But someone gave me the idea back when the picture of those Atari Cartridges were posted...

Pinball is an all time classic for entertainment... I didn't expect my son to like Pinball Machines, but he does...

Define 'pretty penny'

-Fred

The guy I dealt with said for a Unique Pinball Machine like I'm asking for will cost me 15 to 20 grand or more depending on the details I want in the game... So it will be a little while... lol
I'm thinking it might be possible to be done a little cheaper since a new machine only costs about 5,000, but I've only talked to one person so far...

I hope to have some quotes from the game in there, maybe when you've hit all the proper things to complete a mission the game will say "You Have A Fax, You Have A Fax" to signal the start of a new mission... Maybe when you lose your ball the game will cry "My Gun, I Love It Soooo Much"...
Then of course there is the music...

I can't give you any advice on where to get one, but I can tell you the one you should get: STAR WARS. To this day that is still my favourite pin ball game, i'm still trying to see if there's one in commission around the city.

There is one at this Pizza Joint just up the road that is based on the Addam's Family... I play it every time I go up there to get Pizza and Subs...

I loved pinball as a kid.

I just was never really good at it.

This lady that used to babysit me when i was young had one in her basement.

It was her sons. He lived at home til he was older.

Anyway, him and i used to play that thing all the time.

I don't remember what it was based on though.

it was fun to keep recycling the same quarters.
He usually charged other people to play it, but he let me play for free =)