One glorious year of pinball ownership

Way back in 2000, I bought a Data East Jurassic Park pinball machine, a fun reward for selling popworld.com for $100k. It was $1,800 at the time, which in retrospect was a great deal. I bought a laptop around that time that was $2,500, which is an absurd $5k now (not sure what I was thinking). But in 2009, I sold it, because it didn't seem like a great idea to move to Seattle with it. That was kinda dumb, considering we didn't have to pay for the move. When I thought back about the joy that brought me, and the hit that it was at parties, I always thought I'd get another one.

But life kept happening, and I kinda forgot. A few years ago, Stern put out a newer JP machine, and I thought about it getting one. New machines cost as much as $10k these days ("NIB," new-in-box, as the nerds say). I fancied a new one because the tech had evolved so much, and the idea of having something that I knew all of the maintenance history of was neat. The old JP machine was pretty solid, and I think I replaced only one rubber part. Everything else was minor, like the shaker motor getting loose from its mount, regular cleaning and dirty sensors.

About a year ago, Stern released Star Wars: Fall of The Empire, and I was pretty excited about it. Neat IP, obviously, but also the game was very straight forward, with just a couple of cool toys in it. I barely had to think about it, and Diana had no objections, so I bought it, "NIB." I still vividly remember unpacking it, the smell of wood and paint when I opened it up. Can't believe it's been a year. As of right now, it has 3,620 plays. Almost 2,500 of those are me. As was the case with the old JP, this machine has brought me a lot of joy.

In terms of maintenance, right out of the box there was a bad light socket that was shorting, and that caused the bottom half of the playfield to stop working (including the flippers) until I disconnected the string of white lights (what they call "general illumination"). I probably could have replaced it myself if they sent the part, but out of the box, I insisted that the distributor fix it, and they did. There was also a design problem with the bracket around the entrance to the Death Star. It was too narrow, so the ball would bang around and not go in. Stern had a replacement bracket, and they sent it, I installed it. It was night and day better. I got Death Star multi-ball on the first game after the fix.

Beyond that, I've replaced all of the rubber bits. As best I can tell, these were the source of much of the dirt building up and making ball trails. I replaced them all with silicon parts, which are more durable. When you rub your fingers on them, it doesn't turn them black the way the old stuff did. They can break too, as Diana found out mid-game once. The band around the right sling takes a lot of abuse at the bottom corner, when you have the flipper up and trap a ball there. Now I know what to have on-hand. The post pads wear the most, slings second. I have an even better alternative for the slings (more expensive, but still like 90 cents each), but I'll let what I've got wear out fist. Oh, I replaced the balls, too. They were visibly pretty scratched up and dull, which isn't great to have flying around the playfield.

Mechanically, everything should last a good long time, though they suggest rebuilding the flippers every 5k plays. Slop builds up in the linkages over time. That should be straight forward. I really enjoy the maintenance, because it's easy and predictable, and satisfying. Like taking care of a car, but without all of the oil and grime.

Now, the question is whether or not I can justify getting another...