Two Midway Sea Raiders in 2022

 Midway's 1969 Sea Raider arcade

This was my only coin operated amusement road trip of 2022.

I don't go on arcade roadtrips much anymore,

partly because I'm out of space for machines, but that never stopped me before. 

But mostly for misanthropic reasons...

Already in 2019 I was completely fed up with everything and everyone. The last three years have been a complete gong show and my misanthropy has grown by a order of magnitude since.

But a repair dude has got to repair and I got bored.

So I looked at the classifieds... and found a lot of two 1969 Midway Sea Raiders. The games were sold as a pair, non-working untouched warehouse finds at a very reasonable price... 300 kilometers from home.

A quick look at at the cabinet dimensions from the flyer: 23 inches deep meant that I could theoretically fit both game in the back of the minivan. So I took a chance.

The road trip was uneventful except for terrible gas station coffee.

The seller was dubious the games would fit in the back of my van but in the end it worked out. With about 1 inch to spare.

I unloaded the games at my Freundin's place and fixed them up over the holiday season.

Next post the repairs

Unboxing a 1970 Allied Leisure Wild Cycle Motorcycle Arcade

 Unboxing a 1970 Allied Leisure Wild Cycle arcade machine.

I had the opportunity to purchase a New In Box (NIB) game, but not just any kind of NIB. My kind of NIB... from 1970!

This is something I've dreamt of doing ever since I started collecting coin operated machines: unboxing a vintage machine.

I had to drive a 1300 km round trip to pick it up but it was worth it. Just for the experience.

When you are buying a vintage NIB it's a bit like Schrödinger's arcade machine. You don't know what's inside the box. You gotta take the risk.

It's not because the machine hasn't been opened that the machine is perfect... Especially after 50 years!

It's a cardboard box. Not a time capsule. It all depends on the storage conditions.

Be aware that rubber parts dry up. Box or no box. There's always the risk of corrosion (switch points and metal parts) or nasty traces left by critters.

I was fairly confident the machine was clean judging by the state of the box but you're never 100% sure.

In the end you're paying a premium for the privilege of the experience of unboxing the game. Once the game is unboxed it's most likely worth only a fraction of the paid price. All in all, I'm satisfied with the machine's condition. Could've been worse.

Here is a photo journey of Wild Cycle's unboxing. Enjoy!

Next post: pictures of the inside

Bally Big Time bingo: two variants. Bingo haul and Decals

Picked up a few Bally bingo machines over the weekend.

Gotta love a van!

Nothing special. Two Show Times and a Big Time. The price was low but the drive was long. The machines were all water damaged (found that out once I'd driven all the way there) and are pretty much good for parts only. The whole affair was more of an excuse to take a day off work and drive around to be honest.

I noticed the Show Time bingos each had an interesting decal on the top arch:

Bally celebrating its 25th anniversary: 1932 - 1957

A Union stick I have never seen before: 

NATIONAL INDEPENDENT UNION COUNCIL

AMUSEMENT & VENDING MACHINE EMPLOYEES

LOCAL UNION No 1

Never saw that before

Also noticed a key difference on the parts Big Time compared to my good Big Time:

My good Big Time bingo machine has a strange setup for the ball trap switches. Actually my machine doesn't have switches. It has contacts and it's the conductive metal ball that completes the circuit to the card number lites. The shutter has NO switches on my good Big Time.

It's a very annoying setup, balls that have orange peel (imperfect surface due to long term play) tend to have poor contact resulting in intermittent and flickering numbers on the card.

A set of contacts 180 degrees across the hole.

The Big Time parts machine has proper switches on the shutter. I speculated that it was a retrofit of some sort: maybe an operator put in a shutter from another machine model due to reliability issues...

But on the underside of the playfield, there is no sign of the contacts. So it's definitely not a retrofit.

Interesting production variations. I'm curious to know which variation is the most common for Big Time.

Which variation do you have on your Bally Big Time Bingo?

Off topic: Indian Cycle Rickshaw

Today was a beautiful day. Sunny. Not too hot. Cloudless sky. I decided to go out for a drive and check out a favorite junk shop of mine about an hour away from my place.

I spotted this rickshaw while perusing the said junk shop. I absolutely loved it. The colours, the patina, the rod brakes. I was mesmerized by it. I was imagining myself riding around my neighbourhood with my girlfriend sitting in the back. Bewildering the bystanders as we roll by.

But the real question is: How did it get to eastern Ontario?

There was no price on it and I did not dare asking. My loss.

Rickshaw in L'Orignal

New Arrival: Bally Beach Time Bingo

Stoked about this new addition to my collection.

Up until now I did not have a proper moving numbers (magic squares) game. Beach Time shares the distinction with Sun Valley as the only bingo games you can move all 25 numbers.

IPDB states that only 500 Beach Times were produced!

Being derivative... Thanks Hunter S.

Being derivative with a Quote from Hunter S. Thompson

"...Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug pinball collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”

Status Report, Montreal trip and new arrival: Keeney Mountain Climber

Status Report:

My place is a mess!

Not enough space for the size of my collecting ambitions. Not only do I like collecting large coin operated things. I like collecting large worthless, but electromechanically very interesting, coin op gambling machines.

Upstairs I have Bally Firecracker and Bally Hokus Pokus set up. Then North Star Sea Breeze that's in for repair. Next is Bally 1936 Challenger, a one ball game, still in the same spot as when I brought it in from the Mississauga trip. At the minimum, it needs a bit a bit of carpenters glue to stabilize the cabinet. Then it's Williams Four Star that's 99% of the time working like it should. Bally Surf-Club, I installed a new ball lift motor. I'm still waiting for a friend to lend a hand to install the head. Finally the new arrival, Keeney's Mountain Climber.

Upstairs is a mess

Keeney's Mountain Climber

Downstairs, there's Bally Mystic Gate and Keeney's Little Buckaroo that don't really have a place to go to. They're in the middle of the gameroom.

Mountain Climber is the second keeney upright I acquire in less than a month. The first was Keeney's Little Buckaroo. I got that game because I sorta gave up on finding a Keeney upright with panascope (A.K.A. IEE displays). A couple of weeks later, I find exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Mr. Murphy!

Looking at all this electromechanical flotsam, I'm thinking: "If I'm going to have all this weird and rare EM crap, might as well write about it since there's not much information on these games on the interwebs. It's almost like they don't even exist." I mean I should try to share my passion about these EM wonders.

Montreal Trip

Right after work I drove straight to Sainte Marthe Sur le lac to pick up the Keeney Mountain climber, that I found on the kijiji, at an antique shop.

The place closed at 5pm. The Google map robot told me I should arrive at 4:48pm. Not much wiggle room. I got there at 10 to 5. Walking in, the antiques store lady asks me: "Are you the gentleman we're waiting for?" I reply "possibly". The dude picking up the Mountain climber. The lady proceeded to showing me the game. I had a look inside the game. I told the lady that I dont care about the cosmetics as long as everything seems to be there. Everything was indeed there except for the hopper since this is a UK game and people here generally don't know what shillings are.

I had already stated via email that I would pay the modest amount that was asked for the game. After looking over the game, the lady anxiously asked if I would pay the amount we discussed. I confirmed with a "sure, no problem". I could see that the lady was anxious for someone to take away this heap. We then proceeded to cram the game into the Sienna. No problems there.

Turns out the antique shop was trying to unload this thing for a number of years. I told the antiques lady I've been looking for a projection display upright game like this for a couple of years. I didnt say that she wanted for it half of what I offered as a bounty for this POS. I guess everybody's happy in the end.

After wrapping up the Keeney upright stuff, I drove straight to the North Star Pinball bar on rue Saint-Laurent in Montreal to meet-up with my mates Rob and James. Where for the rest of the evening, I responsibly indulged in conversation, Stout, pickled eggs and pickled cucumbers.

Early Saturday morning, me and Rob did a service call on a very sick Bally Aladdin's Castle. We finally got the game playing right. I could see that the owner was happy about being finally able to play his game and Rob was relieved that this particular service call the close to be finished.

Then we did the Saturday Lineup Check at the North Star that was really relaxed since we didnt have any major issues to deal with. Just regular maintenance and preventive maintenance. Then we shot the shit at the North Star. I had this idea for a picture I wanted to make so I got James to take it.

Picture by James Schidlowsky 

I think it gives a good idea of the mood of the North Star, lights and all. It's myself Pindude152 comparing the North Star logo in my Richelieu with the reproduction on the North Star bar's wall. That 16 should be a 46

Detail shot of a North Star Richelieu score motor panel

Late Saturday evening, I drove back home. The drive was uneventful.

Road trip to the Church of the Silver Ball

Road trip to the Church of the Silver Ball

Barreling down the 401 in a black minivan. Drift Stitching on the front bumper. A hula girl on the dashboard. Industrial metal on the stereo and a bingo machine in the back. A ribbon of bitumen connecting my place to the church of the silver ball in Mississauga Ont. that was hosting a pinball Swap meet September 24th 2016. A fast paced drive: gasoline for the van, apple fritters and coffee for the driver. The expectations were low but the road speed was high.

I got to my hotel around 5pm Friday. Checked in. I the parking lot I ran into my good friend and mentor Robert Baraké of Montréal Pinball. We drove over to the Church of the Silver Ball to meet up with Mike and his crew and set up th 1954 Bally Surf-Club that I brought over from Gatineau. The rest of the evening was uneventful. We hung out, had dinner, hung out some more and called it a night.

R.A.B. by the Sienna with the Surf-Club

The morning of the swap meet I was there half an hour early. Anticipation on the pinball hunt coursing through my veins. Lots of interesting stuff. Oddities and Pre-war stuff. Sporadically throughout the day I showed some interested pinheads how to play the Surf-Club. James Schid of Pinball spotting came by with some friends. I hung out a bit with Rob of Credit dot pinball spreading the shady gospel of bingo machines to anyone that was interested.

Vendors at the Swap Meet

Games for sale

At the beginning of the day, I loaded the surf-club with a bunch of credits, but soon noticed that people would start a game and, not knowing what to do or being unable to figure out where the flippers and flipper buttons were hidden, would just leave the game idle with the first ball still in the shooter lane. So I knocked off all the credits and taped a sign to the game: "Ask J-F (pindude152) how to play --> Space invaders T-shirt" Cuz, of course, I was wearing the cliché space invaders T-shirt.

The Surf-Club behaved badly twice! That game used to be so reliable! At one point the game locked up at payout because the leather clutch washers for the replay cam were due for some neatsfoot oil that I brought just in case, so I fixed that quickly. Later in the day the gearmotor for the ball lift broke down and that was all for the day. Thankfully, I have 2 spare ball lift motors in the workshop for games of that era.

Mike of the Church of the silver ball decided to have silent auctions for the games he had for sale. Silent auctions aren't my thing but those were his games and his shindig so he was free to sell them as he pleased. He had awesome weird stuff for sale. True connoisseur projects that you rarely see for sale. It was a treat just browsing.

At the end of the day I left with a 1936 Bally Challenger payout one ball game and a 1959 Keeney Little Buckaroo flash slot machine console. The van was full. Excited about the new projects! Later I had a tasty dinner with Scott Warlock and R.A.B.

Drove back home Sunday. Uneventful drive with a van full of goodie. As I write these words, the games are still in the living room with no place to go. Ah! the glorious obsession. A good weekend all in all. I got some positive feedback about bringing the Surf-Club. I saw a glimmer of the bingo machine bug in more than one pinhead that tried it out. It was worth it just connecting with other collectors.

A full load of gambling machine gold