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You never forget the 1st pinball you owned, what was yours and how would you consider it now? An all time classic or a lemon?

First coin op game Barcrest CIRCLE SKILL fruity bought in June 1983 and played by my mates in my Dads shed where they could (illegally of course) win £3 in tokens
Nearly bought a Zac EARTH WIND and FIRE for £100 from Happy Dayz in Small Heath Birmingham but Dad said no. 2 more fruities followed. When I eventually got my own space at uni the madness began...!

First pin Stern MAGIC
Second pin BLACK KNIGHT
Third which I still own here at Electric Circus - CENTAUR (although like Triggers broom its on it third backglass and second playfield)

MAGIC RECEIPT.jpg
 
First pin was a LW3 in 2014 always collected arcade cabs before that.. Used to see LW3s up all the time then and it was classed as an ideal starter dmd pin along with HS2.. iirc i paid £900 (you could get them cheaper) but it was fully stripped and rebuilt..probably one the nicest condition pins ive had.. I dont have one now but i did have another after it.. used to be able to find and swop pins in and out easy then 🤣
 
First pin was 3 years ago. It was going to be an overpriced BK2000 from Home Leisure Direct.
Fortunately just before I bought it, I found this forum, and Pinball Republic (then Flipout), and happily ended up with a very lightly used TNA, which is no longer very lightly used, but continues to be a superb game, and still gets played pretty much every day.
 
Fishtales, 2008, from Eddie Mole, think it was £400, players machine. Bought as we felt needed something to do at home with impending first baby. Still love it at any meet, even the tune! 12yo daughter loves Godzilla, that’s her ‘first’ proper machine…..
 
My first was the very machine we played in the pub in the early 90's.
Black Rose, bought it from the operator a few years later around 96 and paid £550 for it. Loved that game and still do , sold the first a few years later but I've since owned around five Black Rosies as I have such a soft spot for the machine. One of the best bang for buck games out there.
Still own one to this day , fantastic machine. "Give em a broadside mate."
 
My first machine was Star Wars Trilogy, bought in June 2012. I'd played it at Matty and Danny Fligg's place in Leeds a few times. One time we were visiting and Matty said he was moving it on, and a few beers in, I bought it. When I got it home a few weeks later, it wouldn't fit through the back door, and since I lived in a row of terraced houses, we had to wheel it all the way down to the end of the row and go around the side of the last house, then all the way back up to the front of the house. Only to find it barely fit through that door either. And that's why there's white paint on the backbox screws.

Still have it now, though had to move it to @Big Phil 's house when Alice was born so we had room for her stuff! :D
 

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M4carp said:
Was about 1998/99 that I bought 4 at the same time out of a dingy damp warehouse in Portsmouth. Was living in London at the time.
Dr Who - £500, Xenon - £200 and two Vectors for £200.

Dr Who is ok and so was Xenon but Vector😂💩

Had arcade cabs before that, Defender being my all time favourite which the cafe near my house was throwing out and was outside on the pavement. Luckily I was passing at the right time in my van, power supply rebuilt and was great😎
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Just came across this pic, about 2001 when I moved into my current house. You can see the topper on DR Who and Defender on the left, should have kept Defender😏
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First machine for me was Laser War. Bought from the forums very own John Beveridge over 5 years ago now. This was me showing me daughter it for the first time.
I don't think John knew how helpful he was to me at first. I showed up without a strap, that's how green I was when it came to Pinball. But he was really great and showed me a few things and gave me a few pointers and it really stood me well going forward with the hobby. Such a top man.

He had 3 pinballs for sale at the time but only wanted to sell one so when someone bought one he removed Laser War from sale.
Another forum member at the time was selling 3 pins up in Fort William. Corvette,Lethal weapon and I think No fear. John ended up buying Lethal weapon (and corvette at a later date) so was kind enough to sell me Laser war and I still play it every other day today. Probably put several thousand games on it and plan to never sell it.

And this is her now, almost 6 and loves knocking around the silver ball.

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Mine was 1967 Gottlieb Sing a long - paid approx 150pnds back in 1997 ( way too much) for a non working game.
Owned for a year or so before selling to buy something else because rather poor in those days.

I wouldn't mind owning it again.
 
I was collecting vids since 1997/98 and me mumsy would always keep an eye out for me. She went on holiday to Guernsey about 2003 and found a gameroom in the hotel and took the service number down on one of the games.

I phoned and bought about 15 Space Invader cocktail tables and the Operator also wanted out of pinball.

I had only ever really played RS and was a pinball noob.

I got RS, TZ, BSD, BR, Hook, Operation Thunder and a couple of others for £400 each. I drove over there and was helping the Operator get the games that were still on site from Pubs! I remember picking up the RS and TZ with him.

I still have the TZ and RS. Don't have a pic of RS but the TZ is at work.


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Alpha1 said:
I was collecting vids since 1997/98 and me mumsy would always keep an eye out for me. She went on holiday to Guernsey about 2003 and found a gameroom in the hotel and took the service number down on one of the games.

I phoned and bought about 15 Space Invader cocktail tables and the Operator also wanted out of pinball.

I had only ever really played RS and was a pinball noob.

I got RS, TZ, BSD, BR, Hook, Operation Thunder and a couple of others for £400 each. I drove over there and was helping the Operator get the games that were still on site from Pubs! I remember picking up the RS and TZ with him.

I still have the TZ and RS. Don't have a pic of RS but the TZ is at work.


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So that's where all our games went! :D
 
Alpha1 said:
Ah yes it was me!

I was still a noob though, I didn't ask him about anything on Jersey, and about a year later he sold the ones on there I wasn't aware of and it included MM, AFM and an SS 😥
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Ah that's a shame, would have thought he would have mentioned it after buying that many games, still a decent haul though :thumbs:
I'm doing my best to replenish the islands supply of Pinball machines :D
 
Have been going to Southend since 2003, they used to have 5 or 6 pinball machines at one of the arcades there, incl. Stern Playboy, Elvis, etc. I used to play them more and more as the number of arcade games gradually diminished over the years.

2017, helped AndyPC pick up his first pinball, Williams Indy. Great game, played that a fair bit as well over the years on holiday and in Southend.

2018, visited Pinball Republic where we met Tony (Medway). By this time I was already thinking about getting one, didn't know which. Ran into Tony again during Play Expo in London that year, saw they had a Stern Playboy for sale. Tony helped me enquire and I ended up buying it. Tony even helped drive it back to my place with me from Pinball Republic where it was sited at the time.

Still love it. It's an easy game. When you get "Mansion Mania" it's really fun.
 
TAF was my first in 1998. I bought, along with a 7x4 Superleague, as a treat to celebrate buying my first house in Leeds.

In the wild TAF was the first game I put a "proper" high score on that stood for months. The only possible choice of first game for me

Expected it to be a heavy millstone round my neck and that it would lose money. Left it behind in that house for 4 years for my tenants to play when i had to move to Manchester.

Wife (then gf) hurt her back when we moved it to Manchester from Leeds in 2004 armed with a borrowed company 99 plate Volvo estate and a stair climbing sack barrow from one of my clients.

Went into storage for 2 years when I worked abroad in 2006. Two strong guys carried it out.

Moved to the village in 2012 using the same old Volvo that I now own.

Still with me. Been superbly reliable. Only needed rubbers, balls, a fuse plus a linkage for the vault.

Original invoice.
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