Turn to Stone

She is stamped EME3627. Bally produced only 3250 of these beautiful games in October 1981 and they threw everything they knew into it. This one had done arcade time in the day, then it had been stored in a dank place for too many years. It was October 2021 when I was handed this Medusa to “shop” it ready. Working at Game Exchange the last 4 months with Rob had brought a completion to the line, so some oldies were yanked down from the shelves here and there —basket cases that would require a lot of attention and effort. This one came back from a storage in Missouri.

Her butt was cracked open and the rear particle board was blistered out, and the whole game wreaked of old barn odor. I convinced the bosses that whilst I worked the playfield restore on my bench there, I should take the cabinet home and let it air out in the dry Colorado sunshine on my back porch. I could there too more easily tend to the wood repairs with my home tools. Slow sanding, wood glue, clamps and popsicle sticks (literally perfect for the ply layer sides and securing points for the large fills), wood filler, more sanding, priming, the ass of this girl got solid and shiny perfect and she started smelling much much better. I know too well what good this sunshine and dry air here can do. I couple of runs to a skillful Home Depot paint man, I also had a perfect match to the blood-red magenta in a can, aptly matching the head, the oxidized fade, and the factory fresh hues.*

I had hauled my HUO Breakshot into Game Exchange. Rob had a good buyer for it - a customer of his recovering from brain cancer was buying a sweet collection back. There was also no Capcom testing unit at work there, so this Capcom Breakshot served as a test repair for some other pinball games while I shopped it sweet clean. Then this fighting hero man unfortunately had the cancer return --he could not even play pinball again.

It was about the same time I learned of my own precious German Shepherd’s diagnosis: hemangiosarcoma.

The job had been difficult enough through the summer, trying to get my bones up everyday just to drive to that silly time clock. Leaving my two Shepherds alone for the 5-6 hours was bearable, but cut against my entire gain of 30 years working from home just so I could give my two dogs the complete day outside. Dog door sufficed for freedoms to pee, but the tired human home late made the daily walks difficult. My dearest most cherished life became ill while I wasted time. Busying myself so much for someone else I lost track of the real reasons I wake up and keep busy. 

Like my dad ten years ago, it was aggressive and unstoppable, where only palatial care and time are important. Real life games and I’m worried about some …game.

Empathetic as dog people are, I asked if I could just take the entire machine home and work on it so I could be next to and tend my dying baby girl. When the Breakshot sale fell, and the odd hours repairing the Medusa became brain damage to account for that stupid time clock, I just negotiated a straight trade. Medusa was already dear just from time working on it at home on the porch with Ella. 

It was also a better pinball machine. 

Making sure they all live again, fixing individualized maladies and abuse, overriding the neglect and disrepair, all with tender care and passion. This hobby is about resurrections and love - living for the play and the smile.

So 2021 ended in a very sad death. Despair of unappetizing days set in for 2022 and my 3 year old Shepherd. Thank god I have him --bonds are strong and the living is deeply clarified with loss and pain. My life plan revolves around my German Shepherds, not the games, yet once again a pinball game takes the note of the life and the loss. I should write inside the Medieval cabinet: for Django. I most certainly have written in this Medusa. By the time I could even get back to the bench there and that time clock job I had decided —by my January absence alone— I wasn’t commuting for this anymore. Happiness to put tools back on my bench and start my own clock again.

Medusa sits front now in my shop next to the Blackout. Parts are accumulated and ready for assembly (including a new CPR plastic set to go with the corrected reproduction, properly-sexy, back glass. PinDoctor rotisserie is soon here to put that playfield back sweet (and finally take it off its bench-leaning space). I’ve ordered it in blood red powder coat just to pay homage to this Medusa, and it will break-in good for the 3 swaps I have yet to do. During the duress of the job exit, I had gone over to friend Ben’s sandblaster and cleaned the legs, had him powder coat them black matte textured —just beautiful black. Had him weld a couple of wings to the top of the 2 back box bolts (no wrenches needed), powder coated them the same great black. Before completion I’ll have to decide whether to put the missing Bally hinges back or finagle some some old-style latch (leaning to a Williams interior catch bar). More later.

*Honest decision here, as sometimes you have to make a point restoring something original. The pint of Behr match I have has done the best places well, ie. interior sides, back box, and back side. The left side is not bad and includes the patent applied for sticker, but the right  and front are weathered. I should strip the thing now, purchase the $130 stencil and repaint the entire game. That’s a lot of work in a space I can’t make to do it …just to make 2 more sides “pretty.” Like the cancer and the dedication to this fight against time, I want this game to show its war wounds. There’s a character in this wood and I want the contrasts of perfectly new clean next to perfectly aged fine. I want the player to know he’s toying with a veteran. I want to define this thing we call pinball as —indeed what it is— subjective. It is my game and I love to see the original scratches tastefully preserved alongside the sweet discreet upgrades and detailed fixes. What’s pretty is the playfield and the best tastes for a Bally classic, the game. 

War wounds and medals of honor, never-ending and always ready. 

For Ella

STTNG $4900 (SOLD)

Captain!

July 2012  - barcade business plans pizza place game museum investing...

Wolf Man
email (from a rare operator warehouse)
"I have Pins coming"
<Star Trek NG .. how much?>
"$$$$
Clean and working 100%.

Paid a premium on all these Pins. 

Paid more an I usually sell Pins for because of condition."

Attack From Mars.  

Dracula 

Twilight Zone.

Star Trek NG. 

World Cup. 

Big Hurt.

Getaway. 

Tales Arabian Nights.

Junk Yard 

South Park.

Starwars EP1

South Park.

This becomes a bulk purchase for me out of this warehouse haul of his. He brings all machines back and stores them, selling them out in previous deals and fast to Denver locals. He loves the road and has many many contacts around the country since 1974. A good man and friends to me through many transactions/video game hauls, he gave me the pick of the 4 Star Treks sitting there that day I paid him for our 5-machine deal, even letting me swap-in the choicest backglass from another one. 

Yeah big haul for me too: RFM just for a playfield upgrade swap for mine/resale, others were top pins for the bar to be built. You bet they were in great condition and the deal was good, but these like many his finds were off-op used stored and that was because of a problem: eg not working lol.

(just another great scrubbing and tech'ing project: eg condition, condition, condition.

May he Rest In Peace now November 2019

Gilbert Sanchez ... The Wolf Man

..free world now dancing with wolves open roads forever..

Set to easy teardowns & work in my newly build garageshop 2012-13, I started gathering parts for the TZ ETC, ripping into the Star Trek, rebuilding the pistol launcher first, with nice polished ramps, new lock bar, parts setting blanket-tabled on the Breakshot rightside --pecking at the TZ too hoping to get these 2 done first then get the other 2 in here for the same pin-doctor treatments and polishes.

Divorce. 

Everything mine out and up to my warehouse. Monumental in more words not needed.

So Star Trek The Next Generation became the last focal point finish from sometime 2013 thru May 2014 before I tore the home shop bench down entirely and my couch by July. Read this MM post and you'll get my drift about my restoration passions and what I put into each of my pinball games. I loved getting so much all back together and firing cannons with all lights flashing and all switches nominal/replaced, new 44s/rubbers and tasty LED upgrades. Yep, flippers rebuilt. The DMD is bright. Clean as a whistle and Novus just about everywhere shiny. MM got the rare-available-then color LCD upgrade so the TZ will have to wait as well, sorry. Life has shifted into the Neutral Zone.

I've been pretty good rejuvenating many pinballs now this one like a Romulan Mephisto! Ramps, plastics, ramps, targets, switches, toys, switches, ramps, wow, complicated games fascinate the engineer, Scotty! Assure me I will see something on the other side of this transporter room.

 2 ∞ (and beyond)

Happy game. Power off. Open coin door, remove coin box and set aside. Unlatch new lock bar and remove, set aside. Slide off clean original tempered glass, set aside. Remove balls, place in coin box. Ensure cabinet is free from any spare parts/pieces, manual/schematics, place anything remaining in coin box. Replace glass. Latch new lock bar. Close coin door, lock. Take keys to back box and remove backglass. Lay DMD assembly forward and remove the back box bolts. Set bolts in coin box. Remove batteries. Replace DMD assembly and back glass, lock. Place keys in coin box. Unlatch and remove latch from back box/cabinet. Place latch/screws in coin box. Place 1/2 foam and/or moving blanket on topglass and lower the head unit down onto the top glass, ensuring the rails are protected when flush true with foam/blanket. Wrap blanket back over the top of the back box. Take large shrink-wrap roll and tie end to plunger, start wrapping the game, pulling tight as you go around each wrap. Pull first to the back of the head unit and wrap a few times around, ensuring coverage for the back access hole and start back around the game, lengthwise tightly sealed with several wraps around from back legs to front, just getting all corners without covering the leg bolts. Leave the bottom back casters exposed for clean floor and the coin door exposed so title/LPF can be seen from top while stored). Lift and place standard sturdy stool (prefer padded) under back of game. Remove back legs. With hip in and knee under, remove the stool and slowly lower 300 pounds down (with your legs not back, hands hugging sides so not smashed) to the ground. Tip game up with front legs. Remove front legs. Gather all 8 leg bolts in end of shrink wrap, place with game label piece of paper, and place in the crook of all 4 legs stacked. Wrap legs tight with their bolts with label visible. Shrink wrap all coin box. (option (like toppers) to nestle the coin box then on the top of the back box, shrinking that tight again top and perhaps the legs too, nestled-in tight under the back box on a side. Shrink wrap is our friend TO USE! Move game (dolly-ready), store game (keep legs and coin box right on top or near). 

Dolly where you want, install front legs and reverse all aforementioned process.

(Sorry I just had to) 

So it went to my climate good warehouse in a corner with the others, May 2014 through August 2016 (set up again and enjoyed once, fixing that *#@ last lower insert bulb too). Then the rent went way up and all games went back into $$ cold storage and free home stashes. I'm a doctor, not a mason, Jim!

Now it's 2020 and there is a plague and I'm (still) working on an AFM and a Catacomb (only room I have shop for in my humble comfy home). This game needs Trekkie affection. It needs a place that I cannot afford now nor will likely be making. It needs a home and someone to play it. So I wrote an advertisement (and just posted the pictures here because it's doppelgänger to my MM post and buyers want pictures anyway). THESE are all the pictures I have. Free here where pinball websites scrimp and inboxes clutter, why not.

Email me ...no wait! Beam me Up!

Live Long and Prosper

_________________________________

For Sale: Star Trek The Next Generation,

1993 Williams #53323307832: $4,900

Excellent condition. Super clean, new rubbers, tasty LED upgrades. Everything works perfectly. No errors and all lights and flashers are nominal. Back glass is perfect. Great example of this game and you will not be disappointed. Includes black Pincab Protectors and Cliffy Neutral Zone Protector. Pickup preferred, 320 lb. game wrapped and ready to load and take coin. Feel free to email me and I will be happy to send you pictures (or just point you to this blog). 

Call or text for more information. 

_________________________________________________

Standing on the mountain looking down on the city

The way I feel is a doggone pity.

Teardrops falling down a mountainside

Many times I've been here

Many times I've cried 

We used to be so happy 

When we were in love 

High on a mountain of love. 

Night after night I've been standing here alone

Weeping my heart out to cold gray dawn

Praying that you're lonely and you'll come here too

Hoping just by chance that I get a glimpse of you 

Trying hard to find you 

Somewhere I love 

High on a mountain of love. 

A mountain of love

A mountain of love

You should be ashamed

We used to be a mountain of love 

But you just changed your name 

Way down below there's a half a million people

Somewhere there's a church with a big tall steeple

Inside a church there's an altar filled with flowers

Wedding bells are ringing and they should have been ours 

That's why I'm so lonely 

My dreams gone above 

High on a mountain of love. 

(Musical interlude)

A mountain of love

A mountain of love

You should be ashamed

We used to be a mountain of love 

But you just changed your name 

Way down below there's a half a million people

Somewhere there's a church with a big tall steeple

Inside a church there's an altar filled with flowers

Wedding bells are ringing that should have been ours 

That's why I'm so lonely 

My dreams gone above 

High on a mountain of love. 

High on a mountain of love.

High on a mountain of love.

High on a mountain of love (fade)

sWEating HYDRAtion

Treading water with air

Compressed air: lifting dust, grit, and grime out of rusty screws and old interior crevices soaked 409 clean now of brittle nicotine heated plastics oh my &^*$ yucky. So too when the time came to clean the dirt and dust out of newly sanded wood, 120' CFS air cleaned so a fresh black could be applied after the glue for the chipped corner dried solid under the clamps. Restoration also means time to dry (after true applications of whetted sweat slowly concentrated patient wet painting labor glue whatever).  Fun stuff.

This Hydra had been docked since October 2009 and actually suffered water damage while bookending an Atari row that stretched 120'. It was the baby of the line @1990, topping the last 'Atari Games' cabinets after the 720º and Paperboy. Sweet white complex cool molded star wars yoke it reminded me of game #1 fiberglas mold and how 20 years bookending Atari video games was kind of neat when you literally set them next to each other. Sorry, I have no photos of getting of this Hydra #106. Caked dust tar darkened squeaky non-op peddle no yoke control shoot non-kinda-working off-location 1994 filthy beauty fun boat racing game! Then, because it was in the corner, it got leaked on by a faulty roof one torrential rain (another bad landlord story of misfortunate costs and loss). A 1936 Bally playfield was damaged in that storm leak as well as the Hydra base --hydrated swollen particle wood t-mold meh. OK fast it to having a need to fix that wall behind the whole 120' row (some idiot almost skewered a hole through with a forklift from the other side shop insanity). So Hydra came out easily fast front near the PONG and screamed: I'm OUT it's MY TurN! I also had a sincere need to place it somewhere else pronto. Queue my great friend helping me store some games in his garage. It only makes sense as he's got a beast of a boat that looks like it should be in the game!

2011 earliest photo showing lilting yoke and extreme dirt. This corner location damaged with water leak 2016.

4 torx security screws to remove yoke assembly

First thing was to disconnect the pedal for complete rebuild. Sand blasted both rusty pieces and thick glossy black powder-coated them before reassembly with cleaned parts and re-soldered pot leads. This was very sweet piece to complete after finding that perfect chunk of snowboard grip tape for it! So cool it turned out that I couldn't wait to throttle the game and it compelled me to complete things asap. I swear I took some photos during that rebuild but I can't find any! :/ Thanks again to Focused Light for all the METAL help!

(I've since purchased a great torx security bit set), but I had a helluva time getting these 4 bolts off the base plate. No way the upper shroud comes off until the joystick yoke assembly is removed!! Rust Never Sleeps! Soaked these a few days in liquid wrench and had to borrow a better set/wrench to literally get the correct torque on those torx to turn! Again, compressed air blowout after more oil and wire brush a few times, each bolt head became cleared enough for the bit to seat and grip nicely. These 4 are intrinsic (hard-to-replace) bolts that need to work again, so it's important not to be hasty with incorrect tools and stupidly strip the heads. Countersunk specific to the control plate, they keep it flush to the base and there is no room for any other bolt head. Just be careful in 'sledgehammer need' efforts. Like a Pitman Arm and y'er ol' Ford, it is very gratifying to get that stubborn m*&^%* to give it up! :)

YAY! So the joystick assembly goes to my main bench for a complicated take-apart/rebuild. Now too I can finally remove the upper shroud and finally access the speakers, marquee, light, turbo buttons, bezel space, and CRT glass.

Disgusting. I sprayed it with Greased Lightning or 409 multiple times, sopping out the brown pools in the corners with towels until it was all gone somehow. (I prefaced this post about the air compressor, yeah)? I had since pulled away the speakers, marquee, and buttons. Like all my games, I like to clean all those parts as they come off, getting down to the root part they all have to go back to and ...then working back with all the cleaned, repaired, or replaced parts. White plastic suffering hot arcade grime since 1990 then dusty storage 'til me 2017.

WTH was I supposed to do with this #^%$n  *&$m swollen base?? Rebuild the whole thang? No no no no .. not here, that kind of repair was overkill and outta my scope and tools (and this was not the same as the Asteroids Deluxe problem). Moreover, this swell reached up the sides and, well, ambition runs only so far. The game is still solid, standing, and the t-molding is intact. I glued it back into the channel in many places, using it as support for the wood filler, sanded out the swell on the foot base and got it as flat and flush as possible. No, I did not remove any of the duel t-molds, as it kept the edge to sand to and bolstered the side to fill with the wood filler. Leveled and sanded, I could at least match it back to the gloss black that was still molded to the grey sides.

.. (much) more later.

Another year older and deeper in...

Tundra Towing FeatherHeavy Tons

APR 2010, '05 Tundra Battlezone to MI, new trailer in IA en route

2500 (+1000 upstairs) square foot warehouse space @ $1200/month

May 2011 was a business venture and a way to get all the games out of multiple storage units and start working them. It was grand when we got them all inside and signed the lease. Getting comfy with such collecting accomplishments in one place was inspiring --the 'museum' looked very real. Fire code prohibited any way to open the doors to the public for gaming, but we sure had great pride walking people around the space whence they got a gander inside or they knew. It's impressive to see so many vintage games in one place - now to get them ALL working clean. Start whittling down junk for money to work the hundreds of restoration projects sitting there staring dark. Running around scarfing up good sales and cherry-picking Wolfman's great hauls was easy: have cash, grab game(s), store safe, next, repeat. OK so 100s later the project plate, like the first game needing just a week of good attention, fills up with months of tasking and sorting and storing and moving and fixing ad infinitum. (This is still just a hobby dream remember).

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans..."

You can't trust anybody.
My better half likely woke me up wisely to the low path of company I had newly ventured with.
My venture half bragged my games were his all over the internet and stole stuff while I wasn't watching. He was good for bringing in games and filling in lots of museum gaps, bringing a good technician, but also bringing in the old fodder of strange folks (likely stealing stuff too). What was a purely kind gesture of rehabilitative support on my part became a nightmare of reality. It's simply not possible to help someone out of a hole when they continue to carry the shovel that they dig themselves in with -notwithstanding the obviously uncorrected method of beating up everyone else with it. Boy was I a poor judge of character despite the great dog (and I trusted too fast with blind compassion to an unforeseen record).
So I packed all my games tight for any more thievery and thankfully got him out without altercation.

Soon I was able to help a true old friend run his glass business for a good sublet price. Things seemed workable still despite the added dust - trust in giving keys to responsible people is invaluable. All through this warehouse transition the domestic front caved in and it became a second home to me and my dogs. At least things were safe and intact and I could work somewhere while my entire life shifted out of marriage. Lots of games got worked on during this duress, as keeping my hands busy seemed the only compensation for all the mental anguish swirling around my days.

/// APPL side note here, my stacks of Macintosh computers and parts and leftover truckload of closed business got stuffed into this game warehouse as well (refer to the defunct garage-based home business now divorced move out proximity stress). I had a young genius friend who was keen on whittling down some profit via eBay etc. (like I'd left it in 2007) with all this vintage equipment. So playing with old Macs is not actively parting out and down hundreds of pounds of stuff. Although trusting him with a key to the space and having another friendly body watching over things and having some away place was good.* Nothing seemed to get gone nor any greenback appeared in my pocket. My nostalgia for the System 7 has long vanished and everything hauled around all these years just became a pile of junk to recycle (properly). ////

Colorado becomes a legal Amendment 64 in 2012 -growers and industry start moving in and landlords get wise to all the cashflow. I had a good landlord, they let me continue to frustrate my hobby dream at $1500 a month stipend that somehow I was able to keep paying. Exceeding any income that came out of the place, it became a real problem when they asked for $2500 a month by 2016.
Guffaw! Time to get all this drama gone.

Early July I get the increase notice, going up September 1 to something I refuse to nor can pay (pisses me off the lack of compassion and quick notice - no way he'll move all that I could just hear for that 1K greed). Quid pro quo (as I was restoring his Pachinko game for him too), fellow tenant let me stash the big stuff and sublet only 200' across into his unit (altogether another charade).


I started losing sleep. I got my storage units back at a decent price and just commandeered my -only- good friend to help. Then became a series of every day from July 20 - August 31 of clearing out. Friend tenant loaned a forklift too to get stuff down from the mezzanine that had added that precious livable 1K xtra 'wearhouse' (Computer) Space. Slowly it got hauled out with daily trailer loads/unloads to some semblance of prioritized purpose (the gems, vector Ataris, and desert island games go to free heated family, the best vids have logic together like the pins, the cocktails, sellable EMs and etc., they find their stash unit #).

/// (Several hundred pounds including monitors and stacks of legacy units), Mac kid gets fire sale via inter-webs going and manages it well enough to stress me out thinking fast straws, grabs the cash mostly (s'ok he needed it and got it 'tendered' pro bono, so what), and leaves me with 20% of 'the pile' remaining. So too stash the last remnants of The Missing Byte and eventually donate the bulk of it to a favorite vintage Apple support business. Meh ///

Rock & Roll Music to the World

I had callouses on my callouses when we were done. I equated roughly 25-30 TONS of 'collectible' stuff. I lost the entire month of August, literally; getting enough rest and nourishment to daily work to see it done by August 31. Like the college term papers, I am the King of last minute all-nighter A dissertations --I did not quit. Done, 11pm August 31st. $900 a month now. Sleep (for a month).

I did, sleep that is. Finally when it was stashed dry with a good locks, finally, I could sleep. Tired 50+ bones now and the 'museum' is still safe, growing cobwebs like me in the fast-paced crazy of people who have attentions of gnats (let alone deep game challenges).

(This is still just a hobby dream remember).
And so it goes, a whole collection of vintage 1st-generation arcade games that I can't make viable here. I had museum in mind when things just fell into place for dating myself and doing this. I literally copied Funspot's game list in 2008 and said I would rather build this here in the West than travel to New Hampshire. What's a museum without things? Working so hard to get the things I didn't realize how difficult it would be holding on to it. Wow time flies.

The callouses and back pains, seeing 50, the death of my beloved dog, ending era of marital dreams, good sleep finally alone in my own bachelor house secure, games safe, I took the most of 2017 and played hooky. Finding myself again and keeping near only a Robotron and the yellow relic, I've slowly regained strength. Health is wealth.

Priorities.

*Get away. It was cool, this space. Walking around tons of games then maybe settling in on a good one to while away some free-time was simply outstanding. Hot summer days heat of divorce I cherished the dark cool shop with the AC/DC Back In Black, hammering out frustrations with giddy flippers. The other guys too sought some sanctity-away evenings to preserve some sanity back home -I was always glad to have this place for that cool reprieve; mountain of glorious games, please let me stay here rent cheap until I can open a real working place somewhere! Oz...