As soon as I pulled in the sellers driveway, I knew I was at the right house. Sitting outside his garage door was the backbox to the World Series pinball machine, complete with the awesome backglass. As he opened up the overhead garage door, I saw about a dozen pinball machines in various stages of assembly/disassembly, a number of arcade cabinets and more parts than you could shake a stick at. Another guy that “got it”! We chatted briefly about our collections and he asked if there was anything I was looking for. Naturally, I put a bug in his ear for a Galaga machine. After the small talk, we loaded the machine, exchanged some cash and I was back on my way home.

So let’s talk about this “grail” of mine. I knew that it wasn’t working when I picked it up. The machine powers on just fine. When you press the credit button for a new game, the reset wheels start spinning like they are supposed to. One problem…they never stop spinning. At some point, the playfield componenets should all reset to start a new game, the wheels should quit spinning and the ball should eject into the shooting lane. It never happens. There is either a misaligned switch somewhere in the cabinet, a bad relay somewhere in the cabinet or a combination of the two. If you’ve got about 4 hours to kill and want to learn a little bit about EM pinball machines, give this document a read. Since I want this machine to be perfect, I’ve made the decision to call a local repair guy out to fix it. I’ll watch him and hopefully learn a few things but EM games are a different beast than solid state games or arcade games with circuit boards in them. To give you an idea, here are a couple of shots of the inside bottom panel of the machine:

The number of switches and relays is overwhelming and that doesn’t even include the ones in the backbox which control the scoring and runs. One thing you’ll learn in this hobby, everyone who has a broken game claims “it’s probably just a fuse”. Not the case here, I’ve checked them all…they’re good.

The cabinet is solid. It’s not coming apart anywhere and appears to be built like a tank. The paint on the cabinet, not so good. Fortunately, if done properly, that is one of the easiest things to repair. I’ll take precise measurements, make my own stencil set and repaint the whole thing. Color matching will be the hardest part.

No pictures of the right side of the cabinet. It looks about the same as the left side of the cabinet. Unfortunately, with the basement remodel ongoing, I don’t have a lot of room so I took the best pictures I could. The coin door is going to need a good polishing! The backglass has a few spots that will need touchup. Again, color matching will be the hardest part. I’ve considered creating a vector image of the backglass and having a translite made but I just don’t think it will look right. I may still experiment with this option later. By the way, if you’re confused about any of the terms I’m throwing around here, have a look at the pinball glossary.

So, what about the playfield? It’s actually in better shape than I could have hoped for. There are a couple of wear spots near the first and third base kick-out holes. This is present on almost every machine I’ve seen that hasn’t been completely restored. The biggest issue is in the upper left hand corner near the top, far left rollover switch. There is a bit of paint flaking in that area. It’s important to get this under control as it will just continue to flake away and grow if left untreated.

One other small problem. Above the roto-target you see two lightbulbs. Those lightbulbs should be capped with a metal cover. The metal cover is missing. I’m trying to locate one, but worst case scenario I will have to rely on another collector to take measurements for me and get one made.

I really want this machine to be the showcase piece in my collection. If I intend to repaint the cabinet and make it nice and shiny, I think I should do the same with the playfield. Unfortunatately, that’s totally out of my comfort level. I can hardly draw a stick figure, let alone touch up a playfield and make it look nice. Did I mention that I’m colorblind? Fortunately, there are others with far more talent than I. Several other collectors have directed me to HSA Pinball.  They are located close enought that I wouldn’t have to ship the playfield.  As an example, take a look at the before and after work on this 1971 Dimension / Galaxie or this 1974 Big Indian.  While I haven’t made a decision yet, I am currently talking with HSA Pinball and feel that I will probably opt for a playfield restoration.

Finally, here’s a few shots of the underside of the playfield.  Since the game won’t go into a playable state right now, I really can’t test any of the switches or solenoids.

Right now, the basement remodel is a priority. Other than a possible visit by the repairman, there won’t be much happening with this at the moment (or any other game for that matter). Other than stenciling and repainting the cabinet, most of the work on this one will not be done by me. Of course, I’ll continue to document any work being done, even if it’s by others. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some flooring to throw down this weekend:

If you’ve taken the time to read the About page on this site (and who wouldn’t want to learn as much as they can about a guy that collects arcade games as a hobby), you’ll know that there is one game I have been seeking for almost 15 years now. It’s not an arcade game…it’s a pinball machine. Stick with me, this will be one of the lengthiest posts I write….

In 1979, my sister and I received the best Christmas gift ever. Well, at least in my opinion. Her opinion is probably different. Santa brought us a slightly used Gottlieb Grand Slam pinball machine. Until I left for college some years later, the pinball machine probably saw more play than it would have on an operator’s route and more action than….well, nevermind. I absolutely loved the game and so did most of my friends.

When I got into the hobby, my first thought was back to that glorious pinball machine. I knew dad had given it away but I was certain he had given it to a family friend whose son with Down’s Syndrome was rather fond of playing it. I made some phone calls but the machine was nowhere to be found. Finally, dad recalled giving it away to some workers who were re-siding his house. Not only did he pay to have new siding on the house but he also gave them the machine for free as long as they hauled it out of the basement! Ever since, it’s has been my mission to find my own Gottlieb Grand Slam pinball machine.

Over the years, I have searched E-bay, Craigslist and Google repeatedly looking for one to call my own. I’ve located several but all were located too far away. Even most of those were not in a condition that would warrant the cost of shipping fees (these things are heavy!). I’ve placed my own ad on Craigslist, hoping whoever took the one out of dad’s basement would see the ad and return it. Hell, I would have paid them to return it.

I had pretty much given up hope. I regularly scour the craigslist ads of any city within a 200 mile radius of me for bargain arcade machines and pinball machines. That rarely works, as most are grossly overpriced or are old machines that someone cleaned up and dropped a xxx-1 board into.

And then it happened. I clicked on an ad for a reasonably priced Gottlieb World Series pinball. The machine I saw pictured was not a World Series pinball but rather that machine I so fondly recall from my youth, Grand Slam. I looked close. Yes, the backglass said “World Series” but that was the machine I was looking for. I knew every detail of the playfield. Knew the vertigo inducing background on the backglass. It wasn’t a World Series, it was a Grand Slam, damn it! So off to the Internet Pinball Database I went. Turns out, Grand Slam and World Series were clones of one another with one exception. Grand Slam rewarded free games if a certain score or run total was reached while World Series rewarded extra balls if a certain score or run total was reached. Why the difference you ask? Seems us pinball players and arcade addicts were “bad apples”.

Pinball machines were banned in numerous locations because they were seen as gambling devices. It started with what we call the “bingo” machines. Bingo machines offered free games as a reward for landing the ball in a certain pattern. Often, they rewarded multiple free games that could then be redeemed for cash. There were numerous laws written to ban these machines as gambling devices. In the early 70′s many of the mainstream pinball machines that didn’t award multiple free games but just a single free game still fell under the law as a gambling device. New York for example, would seize these machines and destroyed them. LA also had laws on the books. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia believed the machines robbed children of their hard earned money (source: Wikipedia). In an effort to combat this thinking and legitimize the machines, some games were reintroduced with a reward of an additional ball as opposed to a free game.

So there it was, right in front of me. The machine I had been searching for! Different name, same damn game! The pictures sent to me are appealing. The backglass appears to be in great shape. There is some wear on the playfield but hell, it’s a 40 year old pinball machine. What do you expect? The cabinet looks solid. Here’s the Internet Pinball Database entry on Gottlieb’s World Series pinball machine. To make a long story short, with any luck, I’ll be picking this up tomorrow! I have no idea if it works and don’t really care. Fixing is half the fun! Stay tuned….