Pinball Machines

High End Restore

The one and only – Williams Fish Tales pinball machine.   Williams was (and is still considered) the best pinball maker in the world.  Pinball was at it’s peak in the early 1990’s and the technology Williams designed during that time is STILL being used today on new machines.

The Fish Tales machine is family friendly but also very challenging to master.

The following items are planned for this machine:

• Full cabinet and back box repair
• Full cabinet and back box re-graphic.   ALL Fish Tales machines suffer fading.  This one was no different, but replacing graphics is not easy.  That’s why most have not been refinished.  We are masters at this.
• Full play field tear down and rebuild
• Full LED conversion and under cabinet effects
• Working flapping fish topper
• New legs, hardware
• Rebuilt coin door
• NEW Playfield

Pictures coming soon (stock image used currently)…

April 15, 2019 – Update  : 1 remaining, price reduced

Will you challenge the Black Knight again?

We just completed a full “stealth” Black Knight for a customer, and loved it so much, we’re doing 2 more!

Please see the restoration thread for how the machine will be completed.

Restoration Details:

• Cabinet and head fully stripped, repaired, and repainted using 5 stage automotive paint process
• Many new plastics, posts, rubber and balls.   (graphic plastics are no longer available, so we have sourced perfect condition original plastics)
• New MPU, DRIVER and Power Supply boards.   This is a new process which allows Black Knight to finally play properly (see note below).
• Full LED conversion
• New legs and many hardware pieces

Also included in this price are the following options:

1. New Williams licensed Black Knight back-glass ($400)
2. Playfield fully stripped, sanded down and new graphics applied.   ($1500)

Note:  Black Knight is a special version of Williams System 7 design.  Many companies have been trying to reproduce the MPU board without success and cannot seem to get the game to work properly.  Apparently, there are some nuances in the original design and layout of the MPU board that allow the game to operate properly with all the sounds etc.   Only one company has decided to re-release the original game board set exactly with the same components and layout in order to properly reproduce the Black Knight experience.   Now, we can finally release this game in restored form and not have to rely on old/worn out circuit boards from 1980.

The F14 Tomcat pinball machine is one of the fastest, brutal and most rewarding pinball machines of the entire era.

Steve Ritchie and Williams really put a lot of effort in making the game unique, hard and high tech.  The theme, sound effects, music and most importantly, lighting, make this machine the adrenaline junkies go-to game of the 80’s.  If you can find one in good condition, with current technology upgrades and a fresh coat of wax, this machine will compete with any current game for some of the fastest ball times.

The F14 Tomcat generally comes in two flavors – production and pre-production / prototype.   They are effectively the same machine, but the pre-production games have clear flasher lenses and overhead domes.  The proto models come with extra flashers populated in the upper playfield area.

During production, Williams felt that the original proto/pre-production clear lenses were too bright for general population so they were changed out for red lenses where possible.   Pre-production games are more rare and sought after, and thus are priced accordingly.

Restoration Process

• Cabinet repainted and stenciled  (or touched up if original cabinet is in excellent condition)
• Automotive clear coat final coat to protect and lock in the colors on the cabinet and backbox
• New legs, hardware and cabinet protectors
• Refinished coin door assembly with new locks
• Replaced plastics that are broken or missing
• Full play field tear down.  Mylar removed.  Polished and waxed
• New standoffs
• New rubber
• New balls
• All metal polished
• Full LED replacement.
• Full Flasher LED replacement.    System 11 games cannot just accept flasher LEDs without knowing how to install them in the circuit correctly.   Fortunately, with over 20 years of Electrical Engineering experience, we know how to do this correctly.
• Full under cabinet LED light effects.  Even add further to the light show !
• New flippers and mechanisms
• New coil sleeves
• All circuitry removed and rebuilt.  All prior electrical hacks removed and brought back to factory wiring specs
• Original plasma displays if possible (or replaced with LED displays if required)

We have ONE early pre-production model available.  It has the original playfield in super condition AND is running the PROTO firmware code.  It still has the PROTO labels!    This model also has ALL NEW plastics which are no longer available!

If you know anything about pinball, you’ve heard of Williams Funhouse.   The one with the talking dummy head in the middle of the playfield?

Well, the designer (Pat Lawlor) of Funhouse was given full run of the shop and came out with it’s sequel: Road Show.

Road Show has TWO talking dummies on the playfield, both of which talk smack to each other and to you.  They are fully animated and watch the ball as it travels inside the game.   They also can swallow and spit up the ball and are integral parts of the game.

Roadshow is also one of the few wide-body machines ever made by Williams in the 90’s, which allows for more room to put just about everything the designer could think of from all his past successes into this machine.   The result is one of the craziest and complicated machines ever made.   We also own one in our game demo room – which we refuse to sell.  Thankfully, we have another!

Restoration will include:

• Full tear down, clean and polish
• Replacement of all standoff plastic
• Replacement of all available broken specialty plastics
• Full conversion to LED lighting
• Full repair of all circuit boards back to factory condition
• Under cabinet custom LED flash effects (Castle Classic Arcade exclusive)

Available late Feb 2014.    Contact us to reserve this machine before it’s gone…

April 15, 2019

What we have here is a fully restored Funhouse pinball machine with an original Diamond Plate playfield.   Many of you know that the Diamond Plate playfield was an early production and limited to just 200 games.   We found this playfield many years ago and placed it in storage for future restoration…

That’s not the whole story here.  This restored pinball machine has many more unique restored items :

• Original SunProcess playfield – stamped Oct 1990.   This playfield was additionally lightly restored and fully protected with multiple stages of automotive clear coat.  Then the playfield was stored for another year for curing before hardware was attached
• Cabinet and back box were fully restored with new graphics, new legs, new stainless hardware and coin door
• New plastics and ramps
• NEW OLD STOCK Williams driver board was sourced (never used) from a Williams pinball developer (name withheld for privacy reasons)
• New display
• LED Conversion and under cabinet effects

This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to purchase one of the most sought after classic pinball machines – with one of the most rare and desirable playfields ever created.  Note: the last 2 DP Funhouse playfields on the market sold for an excess of $2100 alone

More Info on Diamond Plate Funhouse : http://www.hsapinball.com/HSA_PINBALL/PF_Production.html