Owning a Pinball Machine: Space, Cost and Upkeep

Pinball is the most demanding thing in a game room to own and the least demanding thing to fit. It needs no clearance band, no installation, no floor preparation and barely any side clearance, so it slots into a room that is already laid out. What it asks for instead is attention: a pinball machine is a mechanical device with thousands of moving parts and it wants an owner rather than a user.

Fitting one in

Leave 8 in behind the backbox for service access and the coin door swing at the front. Height is the other consideration and it is mostly about getting the machine into the room rather than standing it up: the backbox tops out near 76 in upright, folds down for transport on essentially every machine, and a room with 7 ft 6 in of ceiling is comfortable. The figures alongside every other game are in the arcade cabinet dimensions chart, and layout planning is in the footprint planner.

Practical siting notes. Put machines along a wall rather than out in the room, leave the service gap behind, and keep the front clear of a walking route because a player takes a step back without looking. Do not put a machine where afternoon sun falls on the glass, which washes out the display and fades the playfield art over years. And keep it off the wall the bedroom shares, because solenoids transmit through structure, which is covered in soundproofing.

What one costs

Current production machines such as the Stern Star Wars Pro or John Wick Pro sit at the new-machine price point, while a home-market machine such as Alice Goes to Wonderland is the way into the hobby at a fraction of it. Boutique makers including Jersey Jack sell through their own dealer networks rather than through retailers, so that link searches comparable machines you can order today rather than that specific title. More options are compared in best pinball machines.

Power and siting

A single machine is a modest load. The problem is cumulative: a pinball machine, two arcade cabinets, a kegerator and a projector on one basement circuit will trip it, usually at the worst moment. Plan a dedicated 20 A circuit for the games wall, at $200 to $600 if it is not already there, and put it in while walls are open. Never run a machine on a long thin extension lead, and a surge protector is cheap insurance for a machine with a computer in it. Detail in game room electrical planning.

Humidity matters too, more than for most equipment, because a pinball machine is a cabinet full of switch contacts and connectors. A basement above 60 percent relative humidity is a corrosion environment, and a dehumidifier protects the electronics as well as the wooden cabinet. See humidity and climate control.

The maintenance it actually needs

Every few months

• Clean and wax the playfield. Lift the glass, clean with a proper playfield cleaner, then apply a carnauba wax. A waxed playfield plays faster, and more importantly the wax is what protects the clear coat from ball swirl.
• Clean the balls, or replace them. Pinballs pick up magnetised debris and develop microscopic pitting, and a pitted ball scratches a playfield. Balls are cheap and a playfield is not, so replace them roughly annually with regular play.
• Wipe the rubbers and check for splitting or glazing.
• Check the level. A machine is set with a pitch of around 6.5 degrees front to back and level side to side, and the legs have levellers for exactly this. Pitch changes how the game plays more than most owners realise.

Annually

• Replace the rubber rings, which harden and go slick with age.
• Check and tighten fasteners. Thousands of solenoid impacts loosen things, and a loose bracket becomes a broken one.
• Inspect switches and coil sleeves. Worn sleeves make a coil weak and hot, and it is a cheap part.
• Look at the connectors, which is where age shows on any machine with a computer.

Over the years

Expect bulbs, switches, the occasional coil and eventually a flipper rebuild. None of it is difficult and all of it is documented in enormous detail by an unusually good hobbyist community, which is one of the genuine pleasures of the hobby. A machine that is played and maintained stays reliable, and a machine that sits unpowered in a damp basement for five years is the one that needs work.

Buying used

Used is where the value is, and the inspection matters because the expensive faults are not visible from across a room.

1. Play it for several games before discussing money. Every mechanism should fire, every target should register, the display should be complete and the sound should work.
2. Lift the glass and look at the playfield for wear through the clear coat, especially around the shooter lane and under the flippers. Playfield wear is the one thing that is genuinely expensive to fix.
3. Open the backbox and look at the boards for battery corrosion, which is the classic killer on 1990s machines and is often obvious once you know to look. Look for repairs too, since good repairs are reassuring and bad ones are a warning.
4. Ask about the play history. A machine that lived on a route in a bar has done enormous mileage compared to a home machine of the same age.
5. Check that it is complete. Missing plastics, ramps and toys for a specific title can be hard to find and surprisingly costly.

Moving one

Genuinely manageable, which is a pleasant contrast with a slate table. Remove the balls, secure or remove the playfield glass, disconnect and fold the backbox down according to the machine's own procedure, and unbolt the legs. Two people can then handle the cabinet. Lift from the cabinet body, never from the lockdown bar or the flipper buttons, and keep it upright rather than on its side. The contrast with a slate table is the whole reason arcade and pinball are the easiest anchors to add to a finished room, and it is discussed in choosing your anchor game.

Is one right for your room?

Pinball is the most personal purchase in a game room. A machine is a single title, and unlike an arcade cabinet with hundreds of games it will only ever be that one, so the theme and the rule set need to be something you want to play for years. That is also the reason people own several.

If you want a lot of games in one footprint, an arcade cabinet is the better answer and the comparison is in pinball versus arcade cabinet. If you want one machine with real mechanical presence that people gather round, pinball wins and nothing else in a home game room is close.

Related

Machines are compared in best pinball machines, cabinets in best arcade cabinets, and the dimensions of everything in the arcade cabinet dimensions chart. A room with both pinball and arcade priced as line items is in the full buildout.