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    Ice Ball Alley Roller

    Alley Roller Arcade ICE Ice Ball Skee Ball
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    ​If you thought it was already ridiculous enough trying to move heavy, bulky pieces of coin-operated equipment around such as pinball machines, driving games, and videogame cabinets, you're in for a treat! But first, I'll have to explain what type of game I'm going to be talking about. If you saw the flyer above and thought this game was called a Skee-Ball machine, you'd be mistaken! And so was I when I first started researching it. Even though this is an "Ice Ball" machine made by     Innovative Concepts in Entertainment, ice ball isn't the correct term for it either. Skee-Ball actually refers to a very specific iteration of these machines, which were first manufactured by the Skee-Ball Alley Company at the start of the 20th Century (their website has a great page on their history).
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    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 (Prototype Conversion!)

    1991 Data East Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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    We've been here before! Last time I wrote about repairs to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT, Data East, 1991), I was discussing a restoration I performed for a customer. This machine was a little different. I bought it after doing some repairs for its previous owner. They decided to move and didn't want to move the game with them, so they sold it to me instead. ​It's a weird experience to start repairing a game for somebody and then finish repairing it for yourself. Suddenly you're not constrained by time frames or repair budgets, and you can really take the time to make sure the game is playing as well as it can be. You can also take the time to make any improvements or modifications that you want. And with all of the extra features I planned to install, I needed a lot more time than most people can justify in a regular service call. But what "extra features" am I referring to?
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    Pinfest 2024

    Events Johnny Mnemonic Pinfest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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    ​My favourite time of the year! Pinfest! This year was extra special for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I had been on long service leave for a month prior to Pinfest. This gave me plenty of time to get games ready and plan for the trip. It's always nice to have some time to prep a game for the beating it takes at Pinfest because, invariably, there are issues that crop up at the last minute. Secondly, I had tried and tested my van as a pinball moving vehicle for the Newcastle Pinball Pop-Up a couple of months ago, so I had decided to bring not one, not two, but three games to Pinfest this time around!
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    Oz Comic Con 2024

    Comic Con Events Johnny Mnemonic Super Mario Bros Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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    Boy, we sure are suckers for punishment. Exactly a week after Pinfest, Fiona and I are on the road again to Oz Comic Con 2024, one of the biggest pop culture shows in Australia. This year it is being held at Sydney Showground, and we're bringing three pinball machines (and a couple of retro gaming consoles!) to the Retro Gaming area for con patrons to enjoy. I haven't participated in such a large show before, and it's certainly a huge effort to keep carting games around so soon after Pinfest 2024. So, why do we do this? It's my hope that by bringing pinball machines to large events such as this, more and more people will discover, or rediscover, the joy of the silver ball and become involved in pinball as a hobby. My role as a "pinball evangelist" is to keep the pinball dream alive, and giving the general public more opportunities to play pinball is the best way to do this. 
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    Attack from Mars

    1995 Attack From Mars Bally
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    I wish this blog post meant that I had bought an Attack from Mars (Bally, 1995) and was restoring it for my own pleasure. But alas, no! This was a mini restoration for a customer who had purchased the game, taken it apart in preparation for restoration, but was never able to complete the project. So, I offered to help and get the game back together for the first time in over ten years. This project was a little different to previous restorations, as I was starting with a blank playfield and boxes of parts, with no reference photos of my own. Plenty of fun to be had. It helps that Fiona also loves Attack from Mars, so this was a good chance to give it a thorough playtest!
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    Pinball Pop-Up 2024 (and a new Pinball Moving Vehicle!)

    Events Pop Up
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    This is starting to turn into a travel blog. I've posted more pinball travel and event recounts this year than I ever have before! What's going on? I don't even like travelling! Well it turns out, I actually do like to travel, as long as there is pinball at the destination! Last weekend Fiona and I headed to the Pinball Pop-Up event held at Edgeworth Sports & Rec Club. This is the first time this event has been run by the Newcastle Pinball Association, the purpose of which was to raise funds for Kressy (Kress Electrix) to bring one of his fantastic homebrew pinball machines to a pinball show in the US. Plus, it was a chance for the public to get their pinball fix before the main event later in the year; Pinfest! All pinball is good pinball, so we were happy to donate two machines to the event.​