Beaky and 
to the Forums !
Nice intro post - One question - "Flashbacks" or "10 / 4" - was that the arcade in Swanston st that you had to walk down a set of stairs and turn left ?
If you turned right, you would be in a MacDonalds store ?
Nice pick-up with the SoF - I had a few games on that before it left !
I worked at both, flash back (next to Mc Donalds down the stairs and turn right for F-B) and 10-4 (up stairs on two levels further down the road) they were both on swanston st and were both owned by the same company.
(fyi) When the video game After Burner was brought to these 2 amusement centers they used a safe moving company ( the ones that install money safes not the ones that just had safe a work inviroment) to bring these machines up and down the stairs.
10- 4was a mission when new pinball machines came in as most of the pinball machines were on the second floor and we didn't have a lift there.
I used to catch a train into the city to play the pins at Flashbacks. There used to be a Haunted House and a Spirit next to each other in 1983. I was totally fascinated by the both of them - But the were never BOTH operational at the same time. I had no interest in the other games, just these two. A couple of times I went there JUST to play Spirit. For YEARS, I wanted BOTH machines in my gamesroom and be fully operational. The only person I knew with both games was Marco (Pinfan), and when I saw them again (at Marco's), it brought back a flood of memories. Lucky for me, Childs Amusements had BOTH machines imported (projects) and I have BOTH of them awaiting restoration.
There are a few plastics broken on the fire, including the two side plastics that are over the lock area, these have buildings moulded on them so i will be attempting to to some vacum moulding to make new ones.
the paint work on the cabinet is shocking it has a lot of cracks through it so it will have to be repainted.
When it is finished i will be selling it and intend buying a BN2K
I have been waiting to buy another machine before i started stripping the fire machine (which is on its way here). So we have a pin to play while this is being done.
I also need to do some work on the circuit boards (just a transistor + battery holder and capacitors)
will keep you all informed.
