Sumez
New member
- Nov 19, 2012
- 985
- 0
So yeah, it seems I've crossed the final frontier.
Not only did FarSight's games manage to finally, after literally decades in the darkness, manage to properly introduce to me to pinball, it has gotten me totally hooked!
So what does one do, when one sees an awesome sales ad for a White Water at a bargain price. One of the top most rated pinball tables ever, with a big focus on one of the things I love the most about pinball: Ramps.
I asked for some pictures, and sure enough, it wasn't in the best state, and had some errors. But also judging from the pictures, everything on the playfield was in a good state, and it was mainly the cabinet that had some wear and fade.
I've always been adviced against buying a faulty table as the first pinball purchase, but this was too good to pass up, and the problems it had seemed to be fixable, from the little experience I had.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly got a call from a delivery guy, shortly after arriving at work. I did not even know that the table had been shipped, so I suddenly had to take a few hours off, and gather (read: wake up) a couple of friends on a very short notice, to push a huge pinball table up the stairs, all the way to my apartment on the 4th floor (5th floor, using American terms) without a dolly.
And sure enough, the table was hardly working, but a friend and I have been working on it for a while now, and that quickly spawned another interest - pinball repairs.
At first I just wanted to fix the few things that didn't work, and give it a quick and dirty cleaning, but right now I've found myself disassembling every part to clean all the plastic parts thoroughly, and making sure everything looks new and shiny. It's really amazing how different the table already looks from the day it arrived.
It's just fascinating going from receiving the thing, and seeing tons of wires and various things stacked and screwed on top of eachother, and an innumerable amount of PCB spread throughout various locations in the cabinet, to actually understanding how everything works and why things are made as they are.
Through learning the design of the table, and heavy use of google, I've been able to map every single part that's missing or needs to be replaced, and currently have two orders of spare parts on their way. Just this Saturday I got a new IC chip (one of the ones that handle the switch matrix) to replace the old broken one, which fixed the last few errors that I was experiencing with the game, which would mean the game is now playable (though still with missing slingshot kickers), providing the ramps weren't lying all over the floor next to the machine right now.
I don't think I'll ever grow tired of messing with the game, fixing up little things here and there, and I can't wait to truly get started on playing and learning the game. Now I understand why people with cars love spending time with them so much, even when they aren't driving.
Without further ado, here are some pictures, I know that's what people would want to see:
What the table looked like when it arrived, picture showing which lights aren't working (simple matter of missing or burned out bulbs or actually missing sockets)
What the ramps looked like at that time. There was an almost incredible layer of dust covering them entirely. Right now they are almost entirely clear!
Faded sideart. Also old pieces of packaging tape are stuck here and there. If anyone knows of a safe method for removing that without damaging the paint and artwork behind it, please let me know!
Not only did FarSight's games manage to finally, after literally decades in the darkness, manage to properly introduce to me to pinball, it has gotten me totally hooked!
So what does one do, when one sees an awesome sales ad for a White Water at a bargain price. One of the top most rated pinball tables ever, with a big focus on one of the things I love the most about pinball: Ramps.
I asked for some pictures, and sure enough, it wasn't in the best state, and had some errors. But also judging from the pictures, everything on the playfield was in a good state, and it was mainly the cabinet that had some wear and fade.
I've always been adviced against buying a faulty table as the first pinball purchase, but this was too good to pass up, and the problems it had seemed to be fixable, from the little experience I had.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly got a call from a delivery guy, shortly after arriving at work. I did not even know that the table had been shipped, so I suddenly had to take a few hours off, and gather (read: wake up) a couple of friends on a very short notice, to push a huge pinball table up the stairs, all the way to my apartment on the 4th floor (5th floor, using American terms) without a dolly.
And sure enough, the table was hardly working, but a friend and I have been working on it for a while now, and that quickly spawned another interest - pinball repairs.
At first I just wanted to fix the few things that didn't work, and give it a quick and dirty cleaning, but right now I've found myself disassembling every part to clean all the plastic parts thoroughly, and making sure everything looks new and shiny. It's really amazing how different the table already looks from the day it arrived.
It's just fascinating going from receiving the thing, and seeing tons of wires and various things stacked and screwed on top of eachother, and an innumerable amount of PCB spread throughout various locations in the cabinet, to actually understanding how everything works and why things are made as they are.
Through learning the design of the table, and heavy use of google, I've been able to map every single part that's missing or needs to be replaced, and currently have two orders of spare parts on their way. Just this Saturday I got a new IC chip (one of the ones that handle the switch matrix) to replace the old broken one, which fixed the last few errors that I was experiencing with the game, which would mean the game is now playable (though still with missing slingshot kickers), providing the ramps weren't lying all over the floor next to the machine right now.
I don't think I'll ever grow tired of messing with the game, fixing up little things here and there, and I can't wait to truly get started on playing and learning the game. Now I understand why people with cars love spending time with them so much, even when they aren't driving.
Without further ado, here are some pictures, I know that's what people would want to see:
What the table looked like when it arrived, picture showing which lights aren't working (simple matter of missing or burned out bulbs or actually missing sockets)
What the ramps looked like at that time. There was an almost incredible layer of dust covering them entirely. Right now they are almost entirely clear!
Faded sideart. Also old pieces of packaging tape are stuck here and there. If anyone knows of a safe method for removing that without damaging the paint and artwork behind it, please let me know!
