POLL: The Expansive Age-Range of NMS

Refurbishing is not that difficult considering most parts can be bought, although not always ‘original’. Using the proper cleaning materials/wax/polish is also very important, especially with some of the older machines. Technical issues can be more difficult, and may require schematics and electronic knowledge. Some general understanding of how pinball machines work is required of course. Once the cause is known, it can usually be fixed with replacement parts.

In general, the older a machine is, the harder it becomes to find replacement parts. In my experience, once a machine properly works, it just requires some maintenance, but will not often show failure. Most of the times, it’s just going to be a light re-fitting/replacing, rubbers to clean/replace, adjusting/cleaning up a coil. The technical part (main electronics) does not usually require work. There are plenty of videos out there to see how refurbishing or restoration is done. Completely taking a machine apart can be challenging at first, but certainly worth it if done well. There is quite a large community of hobbyists out there, including many websites/forums. Feel free to ask in more detail and I can most likely point you in the right direction.

If you ever decide to get yourself a pinball, inform yourself, look up the machine, get a an idea about its worth, see if parts are easily available. Most important is to check for damage that can not be easily fixed, such as the playfield (paint), cabinet, back-glass, display(s) and alike. Of course there is likely some general wear and tear due to having been played, but you’d want it to look as good as it possibly can. If your electronic skills are not great, do not risk buying if it does not boot up to playing state. Most pinball machines (after around 1975) have test functions as well, make sure to check.

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Thanks, it’s deffinately something I’d like to have a go at at some point, not feasible at the mo as I live in a flat and just don’t have the room but trying to save for a house where I can have a man cave for me to tinker in lol

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I recently heard that there is now a train that runs between two cities somewhere in Pennsylvania, USA, that is full of every kind of Pinball machine --all the old ones, and iirc, some of the arcade types as well. You buy a ticket and can play on any machine (no quarters, I think) until you arrive at the other end of the trip. I’m going to try it out someday.

But I’m with you. Gimme the flippers!

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That sounds amazing ;0;

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Did not know that, but might make playing a bit more challenging with the movement of the train. Did find a short video and article, nothing I could find on the actual website though, besides a page link mentioning Pinball Pendolino. Looks like it is an added attraction on one of their train carts since July 2015.

https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/station/pinball-pendolino/

Mostly older Electro-Mechanical machines, pretty cool.

Edit: Added an additional short video

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Oh, cool! Thanks for the links! :`D

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Received some MSX games today (cassettes and 1 cartridge)



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I had the living daylights movie on VHS, I remember being old enough to know how to stick the tape in and press play, and always getting bored after the ski-slope intro. I’d just rewatch that part over and over. Was definitely too young to comprehend the complexities of Timothy Daltons eyebrows.

I was also far too young to realise how bad Masters of the Universe was, so I had that on a daily repeat!

Never played their game counterparts, thanks for the memories Devilinpixy!

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By the power of Greyskull!
Man…I can’t believe I even remembered that :rofl:

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Anyone esle remember this Ghostbusters show used to have all the vhs - YouTube

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Received the Commodore 64 today, including some nice extras.

Gortek and the Microchips (1984) is a nice educational set and in a wonderful almost new state.
It has this really fun story in the illustrated book. The story throughout truly reminds me of the lore in NMS and Waking Titan. Sort of the geeky computer story I have referred to before. Certainly worth a read or download below, honestly made my day! I will wear that button with pride :wink:

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Excellent find! I am kinda jealous. :wink:

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I got my first taste of piracy at the age of 5.

We were being taken care of by my brothers friend and his family, and he copied loads of his games that were on the casette medium for our own commodore 64. I think his copies were copies too.

My second taste of piracy/bootlegging was a half finished fan translation of Pokemon gold/silver that was still a good few months out from a european release. A kid in the class was sharing it on a yellow (for pikachu!) 3.5 floppy disc.

I think after the third gym, the dialogue turned to gibberish (Wasn’t even japanese characters, just webdings!) and it was near impossible to know what to do but I got to the elite 4 by bruteforce/trial and error in the end (that gyarados section, I had no idea where or what I was supposed to do, or was even doing!)

I thought I was so cool getting it before everyone else. Sadly nobody believed me, cos nobody else could figure out how to get the rom working (I tried to explain emulation to them) so they thought I was lying. I remember getting to see the pokemon movie a week early via early screening. Again, nobody believed me. They accused me of reading the graphic novelisation of the movie. 11 year olds are mean!

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I have never seen an actual video game skew as old as this, no wonder I like it. I hope this game just keeps improving and adding depth and variety. I love the pacing, I enjoy the exploration, Some elements are just fun inherently (like driving the Rover or seeing how many Albumen Pearls you can harvest before the Advanced Sentinel shows up and you have to defend yourself) and I enjoy the crafting and farming and the base building and the Ship variety and a great many other aspects. The depth and variety of environments and the knowledge that you can just fly off and see something different is relaxing. This game is the cure to perfectionism, you literally cannot see it all and to try is futile and the pressure is off, I got all 120 stars on Mario64 three times over and the frustration level on some of those was outrageous. There is no 100%, there is no discrete solution or end, There is challenge and risk and as much danger as you want there to be and if you want to just zone out and chill it is cool with the game.

Still it is not perfect and needs some changes and additions to keep my attention more than a few hundred hours of game play. But few games ever will and maybe it is good enough as it is. I think this game probably should be reworked as an MMORPG, it has nearly all the elements already and I would definitely pay a subscription fee to have the full experience. Add a few factions, deepen the crafting and farming add regions of space that are safe to explore and others that are Contested and add a whole lot of lore and it is could be the perfect experience and keep my attention forever.

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To continue my report of incoming packages to re-build my retro computer collection. I am not reporting duplicates, but sometimes what I am looking for is sold in a lot. Other times it’s just worth buying multiple items from a single seller. This has so far resulted in having a few duplicate items, which I will keep as they may come in handy in case ‘magic smoke’ goes missing.

  • Philips G7000
  • Commodore 64 Computer
  • Commodore 64 Datasette

Here are my new items received today:

Still no Atari computers YET, but bought the following, which I eagerly await:

  • Boxed Atari 2600 Woody Sixer Light + Joysticks + Paddles + various games
  • Atari XC12 and 1010 (both cassette players) + Atari SM124 (monitor) + various games for MSX, Philips G7000 (videopac), and Atari 2600
  • Boxed Atari 600XL + PSU for Atari 800XL + WHSmith Data Recorder MSX (cassette player)

I have 2 bids on Ebay going, both for a boxed Atari 800XL (one UK, one US). Also discussing a deal elsewhere for a boxed ‘Superlectron TVC-3000’ (pong), which looks promising. If all these go through, I am pretty much settled and completed the collection of computers I truly wish to have (for now at least). I can then focus on less important things, like games, additional peripherals, spare parts, and repair if needed.

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Floppy Discs - A Warning

2 or 3 years ago I cleared out my old collection of floppy discs. There were thousands, mostly dating back to the 1980s. They had been carefully stored in sealed polythene crates, and kept in a dark, cool, place. Some of them hadn’t been touched for more than 30 years.

I intended to transfer the data onto hard drives as disc images.

However, when I came to play them, I discovered a massive failure rate. Many of them had lost data and become corrupted. Perhaps a quarter had physically frozen within their cases, and were impossible to turn. some of the outer cases had actually warped due to degredation of internal components.

In all, I found something like 80% were unrecoverable. They were not designed for long-term survival.

If you’re buying software on old floppies, and you can still play them, then back them up ASAP. They don’t last.

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I do realise that some of the oldschool media like cassettes or floppy discs will not to last forever. However, old cassettes are likely to go bad sooner than floppy disks. The magnetic layer of cassettes tend to start flaking after long time, plus cassettes should be wound a full cycle every now and then, where Floppy disks do not have to be turned. Floppies prefer to be kept up-right though. In any case, both do not like any magnetic fields to be near and storage should be dry, and at stable, not too high temperature. Realistically, Magnetic Data (tapes) last about 10 years, while Floppy Disks last between 10-20 years, which is actually still longer than some of the newer media out there like CDs or DVDs.

Because of this, I am aware of looking for alternative ways instead of playing games from the original media. There are solutions for this, with peripheral emulators to interface with the PC for example. It allows for digitally stored images of old cassettes or floppies to be used instead. An example of this is APE (Atari Peripheral Emulator), which I will certainly look into. I am pretty sure similar ways exist for other old platforms. It does not stop me from collecting original classic games though, even though I am sure they will at least at some point stop working.

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Wow! I wasn’t expecting such an overwhelming amount of maturity lol

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It is pretty amazing that all of my floppy still work. Test Drive, Defender of the Crown and about 10 others. They have just been in the case I kept them in so long ago and sitting on the top shelf of a closet. They have been kept far away from anything magnetic.

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Lol your name is literally the opposite of me. Some people are so calm when playing NMS, and then there’s me: OH GOD SPACE PIRATES NOOOOOOOO/ WHAT THE HECK IS THAT ANIMAL AND WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME/ FREAKING PLANTS TRYING TO EAT ME ALIVE!!! Yeah, I’m not so calm when playing video games in general.

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