from Hacker News

A man keeping hope, and 70-year-old pinball machines, alive

by dangle1 on 1/6/25, 1:37 PM with 30 comments

  • by exhilaration on 1/6/25, 3:55 PM

    Related - Technology Connections has several videos about old pinball machines that showcase how incredibly complex they are, here's the first video:

    Old pinball machines are amazingly complex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg

  • by jpm_sd on 1/6/25, 5:13 PM

    If you ever find yourself in Alameda, California, definitely check out the Pacific Pinball Museum. It's a non-profit with a ton of playable machines dedicated to restoration and preservation.

    https://www.pacificpinball.org/

  • by avgDev on 1/6/25, 3:55 PM

    I just want to say that I appreciate pin ball machines so much.

    I used to think eventually screens will replace everything....but I get this amazing feeling from a pin ball machine. I wonder if this occurs because I'm older and grew up without touchscreens and phones?

    Or do I just like knowing how much work went into building all the small components of the machine?

  • by MrMcCall on 1/6/25, 3:47 PM

    I'm curious if anyone has considered how to use modern electronic components to replace the old "copper coil"-based mechanisms and such that that fine gentleman uses to replace the old parts? I understand he is basically doing museum-grade restorations, and I fully respect that.

    But I'm guessing that finding modern components with the same functionality would be cheaeper and longer-lasting, but that's just a WAG. I've watched a couple of YouTube pinball machine restoration vids and those old machines sure are filled with rat's nests of stuff.

    It seems like finding modern alternatives would be a good way to keep the machines alive for longer while also making them more serviceable going forward. Plus, that would be a very practical and interesting project for group of mechanical/electrical engineers, that would likely have eventual robotics applications.

    In that vein, I wonder if there are any companies that have created tech frameworks to facilitate creating old-world-style pinball machines with modern infrastructure.

  • by eddyfromtheblok on 1/6/25, 5:55 PM

    Nice to see, but this is a recurring motif specific to pinball and maybe other vintage tech, where a seasoned operator has years of experience that isn't written down. Memory fades, knowledge decays, even if you have an apprentice or someone from the next generation willing to buy your business, certainly some knowledge about some vintage of technology could be lost forever. You can pull parts out of the pinball junkyard but there are some electronic components for the early solid state era that just aren't made anymore, the proprietor of Great Plains Electronics could find updated parts from Mouser, for example, that match or exceeded the original spec, but he has retired. It's a challenging environment to keep a business like that going.

  • by dghughes on 1/6/25, 5:16 PM

    I worked for my uncle who had a coin-op business. We had a few old mech pinballs. They weighed a ton!

    They had zillion contacts to clean I'd just spray contact cleaner and come back later. Many parts were Bakelite like cams and spinning things with contacts that would touch as things rotated. Bakelite was impossible to fix and was brittle as hell in the mid 1980s now it must be dust.

  • by kleiba on 1/6/25, 5:07 PM

    I recently saw a small news bit about a local pinpall machine club/museum in a small town in Germany. Interestingly, the club member they interviewed is also the head of an AI research lab.

  • by bigstrat2003 on 1/6/25, 3:23 PM

    Thanks for sharing! Fascinating article, I love that this man is able to keep a niche (but valuable) business like this going.

  • by uslic001 on 1/8/25, 5:35 PM

    I grew up in the 1980's with a Pinball Wizard pinball machine in our finished basement. My parents still have it. It still works to this day when we can get replacement parts.

  • by jmclnx on 1/6/25, 3:23 PM

    Surf Champ, best game ever :)

    That was our neighborhoods favorite pinball game. The owner of the shop use to keep track of high scores for all of us.

    Glad to see someone trying to keep these machines going!