The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => General Discussion => Your Collection => Topic started by: Cerberus on October 01, 2010, 07:52:14 AM
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I saw an Atari Superman in the early 90's and thought it was a good looking machine. It was not working and so did not have a chance to play it. Little did I know then I would own not one but two of them. A few years later I started buying and fixing up machines. I met a guy who told me he had a Superman and might sell it. I emailed and called him off and on for a year when he said I have to tell you something. I own two of them and they both are not working. His thought was to make one good machine. I bought them both for $50.00 a piece. One machine had a lot of paint missing from the playfield and the other was in really nice shape. It took me 5 years of paint touch ups, automotive clearcoating, cabinet repair and paint work then finally circuit board work to get them both running. I sent the boards to John's Jukes in British Columbia (3400 miles away from my location in Maine) and after 6 months finally got them back. Plugged them in and both Supes came back to life. I was really surprised to be honest. I thought I would have smoke, sparks and that nice burning plastic smell, but that did not happen. Everything just fired right up. I finally got to play the Atari Superman. I had both of them for a few years then I sold one and but still have the second. It is a great machine designed, as you probably already know, by Steve Ritchie.
http://www.steveritchiepinball.com/
To speed up the game I have on occasion replaced the steel pinball with a ceramic powerball. It gets crazy fast, but with most of the plastics made of umobtanium I do not do it very often. Great game
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Super man is a great game and sounds like you got yours for a bargain. I currently have an atari middle earthbon the one day que I love the one massive pcb that runs almost everything
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Congrats on a great deal.
I love Superman as a pinball game and have only shyed away from looking for one seriously due to the 'repair aspect' and availability of bits.
It has really cool sounds from that era as well ^^^
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Great pickup, bargain *%*
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As one last note on the Supe saga. After many hours of touch up on the playfield I decided I would try to clearcoat them with Dupont Automotive clear. I had them all ready to clear, cleaned, masked, good to go. I waited for a nice dry and not too hot or windy day in August and went for it in my driveway. I set up saw horses in the driveway and the garage.
I would spray the playfield then carry it back into the garage and shut the doors to keep the bugs from landing on the freshly laid clear. In my area we have a lot of flying insects in the summer, especially black flies and mosquitoes. A couple of times I blasted the spray gun in the air to clear the bugs away then turned and sprayed the clear and quickly carry the playfield back into the garage.
It would take just a few minutes and you could actually see the clear "flash" over which is basically the solvents evaporating. I would then carry it back out and spray the next coat. The first one I layed down 5 coats and it came out great.
I had a bunch of clear left in the gun so on the second playfield I put 14 coats of clear. I have read that was too much well after having done it and that it will cause problems, but with now 8 years of play time on it all is well. And it still looks pisser.
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I'd love to see a few pics if you have some.
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I'd love to see a few pics if you have some.
+1
I have not seen a Superman for years. I played one once at "Grundy's" on the Gold Coast 20+ years ago.
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Superman is a great looking machine, it really has that old time comic look to it.
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What would be a fair price for one these days?
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What would be a fair price for one these days?
Probably anywhere up to $2000 I guess, but being a superhero theme and the only Superman machine who knows?
I have an Atari Space Riders and Atari's are definitely unique machines, something different and I like them.
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sold mine not long ago, great game
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Built in the 70's. Made to last.