It was a nice day, so I decided to take a pinball backplane, bottom board and bring it outside and dissect the basic components there and discuss how they work.
Pinball Feature: The Inner Workings of an Electro Mechanical Game
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Category Archives: How-To
How to replace or repair EM pinball latch relay parts/articulating arm/rollers
Ok, that’s a mouthful huh? This is a continuation of a previous series of videos I’ve done on fixing deep ruleset issues in EM games, and now that we’ve found what’s wrong, let’s fix it!
First, here’s a video on how to replace the latch relay – there’s another post where I demonstrate how to remove the backplane from the game so it’s easier to work on.
And in this next video, if you don’t have a replacement part, I show how with a little ingenuity and a #4 tap, you can fabricate your own roller for the articulating arm.
Now that it’s fixed… let’s see how the game plays!
How to remove the inside/backplane from an EM pinball machine?
Sometimes when you have to do more extensive work to relays in an old electro-mechanical game, you can’t bend over the cabinet. You need to get all those assemblies on a bench to service. I go over how you can remove the insides of a game so you can more easily access the components.
The next video in this series goes into repairing a broken latch relay.
Making your own pinball head door.
This is a short video demonstrating a pinball head back cover I made with a piece of 3/8″ plywood. Very easy to make, and what I like about it, is the wood actually makes the sounds of bells in the head sound a little warmer and less loud, which I think works well in home environments.
Diagnosing gameplay issues on EM pinball machines (Target Pool)
This is a fun video that I think is quite informative. I go over the process of how I discovered a feature in the game was not working. It’s a good example of how even supposedly “fully-working” games are often not fully working and many people don’t realize.
So what do you do when you discover a play feature isn’t working? I go over how we can diagnose and identify/fix the problem, even without having schematics. Check it out!
Announcing a new series: Pinball Features – Episode 1: TILT!
As more and more people discover the joy of playing pinball, I find myself getting more basic/general questions, and this seems like a good time to launch a new series I’m calling, “Pinball Features”. Each video will focus on a certain element of pinball and offer some basic information on this feature/component of pinball. While this is geared for laypeople, I hope that regardless of your skill level, you may find it informative.
The first episode is dedicated to the Tilt Mechanism. I go into how it works, why it’s there and the different types of tilt devices found in pinball machines.
How to play Pin-Golf
One of my favorite ways to play pinball with other people is a cool competitive format called “Pin Golf.” What makes this type of competition fun is that it works with both novice and skilled players, and it allows people to compete in teams and encourages cooperation. In this video I show you how we run Pin-Golf events, both sanctioned and un-sanctioned.