One thing to keep in mind - I know the first person who converted a NBA:FB to a MM, and in the end, it ended up costing *more* than he could've bought a decent MM for!
His conversion was not of poor quality at all - admittedly, it was not original (he never claimed it was!) - but the workmanship on the parts he had to create was top notch.
Wally did his conversion because people had talked about the feasibility of doing it for years, and the general accepted opinion was, it couldn't be done. It couldn't be done *cost effectively*, anyways!
I've had my MM, just like I've had my AFM, my MB and my SC. Of those 4, I'd own SC and MB again, but MM and AFM were fun, but not worth what they currently sell for *to me*. I am lucky that I got to enjoy these games before they spiked in price - and I'm even luckier that when I sold mine, I was able to get to, in effect, enjoy my games for several years and get paid to do it.
Let's say Joe's Pinball shop has a blown out NBA:FB, and decides he wants a MM
So, he has to buy a playfield. And lots of cosmetic parts, and lots of mechanical parts.
He still has to assemble all those parts. That takes time. And NBA:FB isn't getting any cheaper, either.
As one of the primary ROM guys in the world, I can tell you I've had requests for a number of MM complete ROM sets. People are doing this pretty regularly at this point. I have trouble keeping 27c801s in stock anymore!
It's good for the hobby, as it creates parts that we can use to fix broken games. It creates jobs for the people making those parts, etc. It's not a bad thing..
The term 'restored' is abused in pinball, much in the way the term HUO is abused. There are lots of people 'restoring' games by throwing every new part they can find at it. They aren't restoring anything - they're taking a few original parts, and replacing everything else, and calling it restored. 'Well, the transformer is original, and this one post that isn't remade is original, and the coin door interface board is original... everything else is new!'
And, there are lots of people doing a shop job at best, and say they are 'restoring' the game.
And there's everything in-between.
Like anything else, consumers must be educated with what they are purchasing. I'm not suggesting a consumer is at fault if they are intentionally misled, but there are cases where they could've done more to make an educated decision....
