1. Earliest pinball memory?When I was young (in the 1970’s) my dad was on a bowling team. He took me every week and handed me a few bucks in quarters so I could play some games. I couldn’t tell you what games I played but he didn’t give me too many quarters so I had to get better in order to make them last longer.
2. All time favorite pin? Why?This has to be the hardest question to answer. I would have to say it’s a tie between Twilight Zone and Lord of the Rings with a shout out to Funhouse. Funhouse was my favorite pin back in the 80’s. How could you not love a pin that harassed you constantly? Since my name is Chuck he personally harassed me.
I think I first played Twilight Zone in the late 80’s. I remember being blown away by all of the toys and the really complex layout. I also grew up watching original TZ episodes and the theme just seemed perfect for a pinball machine. A mini playfield that didn’t have flippers, how cool is that. Cools toys like a working clock, a gumball machine that spit out pinballs, loop magnets, and more modes than any machine before it. Pat Lawlor constantly refers to the machine as a failure and I’m sorry he feels this way because the machine is a true masterpiece. TZ was the first pin I purchased. Unfortunately I bought it from a very shady dealer on eBay and the pin arrived not working, and in horrible condition. This was the exact reason I had waited so long to buy a machine. I studied electronic and digital electronic in college so I did have a good base to work on pins. I spent a few weeks and got the pin working even though it didn’t look so great. Years later I did a ground-up restoration including a NOS clear-coated playfield. The pin looks like new now and I don’t plan on ever selling it.
Lord of the Rings was my first NIB purchase. I bought it from a great distributor in Chicago and had it delivered to my house for 3,150 which was an awesome deal. The machine was flawless and I’ve kept it that way since. It’s funny; I pretty much hated the LOTR movies. In the movie Clerks II Randall re-enacts the trilogy by walking a few feet and pretending to dump a ring in a hole (great scene.) I never read the books. I was however an avid AD&D player back in the late 70’s. The group I played with even won a tournament (long story – NERD ALERT!) So I do love high-fantasy themes. The layout is very simple on the game. There are a lot of modes and not unlike the story you have to complete a lot of modes to get to the end, which is something I’ve never done. No matter how many new pins I buy I keep going back to this one. Eventually it will probably win my favorite award ;-)
3. Favorite pinball manufacture?Unlike a lot of people I have no favorites. I just love pinball. I love a lot of the Stern machines (LOTR, SM, FG.) I love Williams machines (TZ,IJ,RFM,CFTBL, BSD, MB.) I do have to say I would probably favor Gottlieb ems though.
4. Favorite game in your collection? Why?(Already covered this) I’m just glad that I own my 4 favorite pins, TZ, LOTR, SM, and RFM.
5. How long have you been collecting?I’ve been collecting for about 6 years. Although I have been collecting video games since the early 90’s. I own an original Robotron and finally got to meet one of the mad geniuses behind the machine (Larry DeMar.)
6. First game and how did you find it?Damn, already answered this too. I will give one piece of advice, after buying my first pin sight unseen I probably wouldn’t do that again. It’s always best to find a machine within driving distance and see what you are buying. Condition is completely subjective and that’s ignoring the fact that there are lots of people selling pins who will intentionally try and rip people off.
7. Do you still have it?Yup – I want to give it to my son when he’s old enough to respect the work that went into making it like new.
8. What are you currently working on?This is a funny question. I usually do 2 projects during the winter. My last one was the TZ restoration. Since Don and I got the bright idea to create Nucore I’ve spent the last year and a half working on it full-time. I really haven’t put more than a 100 plays on my other machines combined during that time. But I have played RFM and SWE1 so much that I may not want to play them again ;-)
When I restore a machine I usually take a couple of months bringing a sad machine back to new again. And then it sits in my basement and when people come over they can enjoy it. By spending all this time on Nucore I am in essence helping to restore, hopefully, hundreds of machines. Nucore will also add some pretty cool functions, make game play better, and increase the platform’s longevity. People ask us why we did it. Those are really the reasons. And hopefully that’s just the start. If all goes well Nucore will constantly grow and evolve. Wizard Blocks wasn’t really feasible for a broad release, now with Nucore it’s not only possible it would be cheaper and less risky for someone to produce. I don’t know where the project will end up. I do know there have been a lot of highs and a lot of lows. In the end it was well worth my time and I hope people really get to enjoy it soon!
9. Most wanted game to add to your collection?There are a few.
CFTBL – I don’t know why but I love the game.
BSD – Simple yet deep. And cheap too =)
WPT – Possibly, the jury is still out of this one. After drinking with Mark C. at expo I staggered back to the hotel and played the game til about 3:30am. I’ll have to play it sober so I can really decide.
10. Best all time bargain game added to your collection?Baby Pacman. I bought it for 400 bucks, not working. It was in great shape but the boards were shot. Plus the guy threw in a spare non-working vidiot board for free. Long story short I got both vidiot boards working great and sold the machine because I hated it ;-)
11. Worst ever miss – tell us about the one that got away!There were a couple of deals that locals beat me to the punch on. Some guys around here must have cheap pin radars attached to their heads :p
12. Worst ever purchase – tell us about the game you wished you never boughtSopranos – NIB
I loved the Sopranos and bought the pin sight unseen. Got one of the first ones and hated it. I thought the machine was broken when it started saying f**k every time I hit a switch (this is a mode.) I liked the layout. The art was kind of crappy and the software felt horribly thrown together. I couldn’t get that game out of my basement fast enough.
13. Describe your collectionMy collection is based on very deep DMD games. I seem to enjoy games that are more than complete one mode, shoot stuff, win, rinse, repeat. I still have yet to see valinor on LOTR and that probably keeps me coming back. Although I haven’t gotten to the wizard mode on family guy and I don’t play it as much. The one thing that is really missing in my game room is a few good em games. I am on the lookout for a fun em game or two.
14. Describe your gamesroomwww.chucksarcade.comMy game room looks like a small mall arcade from the mid 80’s. I have a mix of pins, vids, art, and other goodies. One day I will refinish my game room with the black neon carpeting and I’ll paint the walls dark blue and install black lights everywhere, then it will be complete. My game room wants to invade my recording studio (I play guitar mainly but kind of play everything.) Every once in a while I tell my band the studio would give me a lot more room to put additional games. When I do that they generally play better ;-) I also have a pop machine that has three kinds of pop and Labatt’s Blue beer. Although the band makes sure that the beer is never full.
15. Do you have other games other than pinball?Absolutely. I’m not a pin purist. I love arcade games. I have a Robotron, tron, and defender game which are three of the best classics. I also have a dual cybersled games which is a blast to play. I have twin Daytona II cabinets and I also have spare cpu cages so I can run twin Scud Racer, Battle to the Edge, and Emergency Call Ambulance. I really want to pick up a set of dirt devil ROMs if anyone knows where I can find them =) I also have a megatouch radion that the women love to play.
16. Where can you see the hobby in 10 years?I don’t see any traditional pinball manufacturers left unfortunately. There may be a boutique manufacturer or two around hopefully. Where I see hope for new games comes from a few projects, one of which I happen to be part of. In order to see new games people need to create inexpensive platforms for them to run on. Custom board sets aren’t terribly economical and they require specific programming knowledge. I think the hobbyists are the future of pinball. I love seeing all the new things people are working on. Nucore is just a jumping-off point for Big Guys Pinball. If everything goes well with Nucore you’ll see a lot more products from us in the future.
