having mutiple brands of pinball in your collection

[pinball god]

I am obviously boring and narrow minded/ignorant and accept that if true. I have only Bally/Williams in my collection firstly because the games I have, I like, but also when considering a new purchase I always put a fair bit of weight on the fact I have lots of b/w parts and repair experience.

My question is, are a lot of parts interchangeable and repair techniques similar or do you need stock parts for sterns, gottleib etc?

Do owners of multiple brands do? Thanks

[turbo27]

Gee Wiz think I must also be boring and ignorant 
Six Williams with one Bally Midway(so really Williams) across my collection - ohh and to add to my narrow minded perception, majority are Steve Ritchie design (love his work!)

[Retropin]

Let me see..
WMS, Bally, GTB, Stoner, MIdway, Genco, Nasco, United.

I think that's all.

Early Bally coils can be put into Midway and WMS shooter games and vice versa
WMS coils can be put into Segasa games
GTB are on their own.
Zaccaria are on their own.
 SS Bally = early Stern.
Theory of mechanics is similar to all machines.. but then  again, I don't have a machine past 1981.. later than that and it may be different

[pinball god]

Let me see..
WMS, Bally, GTB, Stoner, MIdway, Genco, Nasco, United.

I think that's all.

Early Bally coils can be put into Midway and WMS shooter games and vice versa
WMS coils can be put into Segasa games
GTB are on their own.
Zaccaria are on their own.
 SS Bally = early Stern.
Theory of mechanics is similar to all machines.. but then  again, I don't have a machine past 1981.. later than that and it may be different

that's good to know coz I think I'm being too conservative and am probably missing out on some real nice titles. Its only a couple of years ago that I ventured into early ss but still b\w

[Caveoftreasures]

You are not boring or narrow minded at all.

Sticking to a Bally Williams collection is a good idea cause it's a great brand.

Having multiple manufacturers in my collection means u have to buy multiple different parts.
But the upside is that the other manufacturers parts are a lot cheaper than Bally WMS.

Why, who knows.
Maybe because someone has been making a bigger profit off B/W or the other companies just had more spare parts left over. One good point, stuff for almost all makes has gone down in price over the years.

It might sound crazy, but when the licence left Wayne, all the parts prices went right up when the USA company took over. I was hoping it would be cheaper but it wasn't the case.

Maybe you could list your B/W collection. Maybe a few photos.
From memory, you have had some top quality B/W titles.

[pinball god]

Haven't noticed pricing, so interesting if correct as I thought that they would have decreased. Must admit I slowed down in buying parts for parts sake.

[McKie1]

Although only a small collection, our family are lucky to be able to move between a b/w to a capcom to a stern to a jjp.

Strengths and weaknesses in each but all damn fun :)

[Crashramp]

My collection is fairly weighted to the early Bally SS machines but I also have Data East, Williams and Gottlieb machines. Used to have a Capcom Pinball Magic (still miss those flippers) as well. As above they all have there strengths and weaknesses but I enjoy the variety.

[ddstoys]

I have all sorts

Exhibit
Genco
Gottlieb
Williams
Bally
Bally/Williams
Hankin
Data East

  Most mechanicals are very similar board design on SS are completely different between brands but the basic repair sections are of similar principal aswell.  Transistors driving Coils etc.

  And gavs example is a good cross reference of parts

[Freiherr]

Williams, Stern and Gottlieb.
What? No Bally!
I find that odd cause Bally got me really hooked on pinball in 1977/78.

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Not just different brands, but different eras too
Gottlieb EMs
Gottlieb sys1
Bally early SS
Williams early SS
Williams sys 11
B/W DMD
Stern DMD

[robm]

I have Stern, DE, Sega and BW. All mechanicals are similar in most cases.

I have found Stern parts are way more expensive than BW. Look at flipper parts - more expensive from most stores for Stern bits (normally 2 time the price!), but when you look at the components, plunger is exactly the same as BW, coil stop is the same (some are wider, but still easily mount the same), the crank is different, but in most cases the original can be reused.  Things like pop bumper skirts and rod and rings for pops are the same in many cases.

I find it good to have a bit of variety, plus you get more experienced at diagnosing problems on different machines when an issue pops up.

[pinnies4me]

I never felt attached to any particular manufacturer, collection has by biggest number -

WMS WPC era
Capcom
Gottlieb
SS Williams

Five years ago Gottlieb was the biggest number.

And single examples of DE, Zaccaria, and Stern

I recently completed a whitewood  build and discovered some interchangeability with Stern and Capcom, and some coils are also interchangeable with Stern & WMS.