... first maintenance call.

When I hauled the game to my brother's place, he was of course excited about having a pin in his apartment (which is fairly spacious so it fits in nicely). He was blown away by how vibrant it looked after some TLC and a few new parts. I played it for several days just to make sure it was solid, but of course within just a few minutes the displays started freaking out, and by the time I left a few globes were already burned out. I left him a couple boxes of bulbs but he didn't feel comfortable digging in and replacing them himself yet.

So last night I went over finally to fix things up. Just one broken crimp connector was causing the display problem, so that was an easy fix. I walked him through bulb replacement so he feels OK doing that himself now. One of the flipper solenoid wires had broken loose shortly after delivery too, so I soldered that back up and the thing was good to go again.

I brought everything I needed with me and the pin was rock solid by the time I left. Hell, I felt like I knew what I was doing or something. That was actually pretty cool. At first I set the table angle pretty steep like I always do, but he thought it was too fast so we slowed it down, and he was right! The game is still plenty challenging but the slower ball speed really makes the game much more random and funner to play. I like it!

My Sharpshooter is on loan at a cousin's house and it needs some work too. I'm honestly looking forward to making that call now. A little success makes me feel like Superman. I'm sure I'll be stumped and humbled soon enough, but I was relieved and pleased that my first maintenance call went so smoothly.

p.s. My brother is jazzed enough that he'd like me to go ahead and replace the burned player #3 and 4 display glass now. I guess once you see a game get minted out a bit, the expense of a couple display glasses become worth taking it up a notch. I guess I get to have a little more soldering practice, hehe.