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I saw on WAN that @LinusTech is interested in buying a table. I have been involved in the Pinball hobby for over a decade, so here are my two cents on buying a game for the Badminton center.

 

Price
Price is of course dependent on nostalgia, amount made, and necessary maintenance.   
1975 and before - These are the cheapest games (Under $1100) on the market and are high maintenance and very mechanical.
1976 - 1985 - More digital and but are still high maintenance, they typically are under $2000.
1986 - 1990 - Currently at peak nostalgia and cost $2000 - $6000.
1991- 1999 - More advanced code and DMD displays, they are also at peak nostalgia and cost $4000 - $9000.
2000-2012- During this time Stern was the only manufacturer, and they currently have no nostalgia but are very reliable games and cost $4000 -$6500.
2013- Now - These newer games cost $6500 - $15000 and are also reliable. Their high prices are due to Stern and JJP creating demand through the Limited Edition skews and the hobby growing.
*There are a few games that are exceptions to these generalizations


My recommendation
Buying a used game made by Stern between 2000 and 2012 would be reliable, fun to play, and a good price. This also avoids the temporary price inflation due to nostalgia. I know many people that put Stern Pinball machines in busy arcades and only do maintenance every 5 years.
Here is a search for all games released within that period:
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine?token=&query=&tags=&year_from=2000&year_to=2012&manufacturer[]=105&manufacturer[]=166&machine_releasetype=commercial&machine_generation=&sort_by=machine_manufactured&sort_order=DESC#results

 

You could also go with a used Stern Pro edition of a game between 2013 - 2021. (Stern created the skews Pro, Premium, LE in 2012) This will cost more since they are newer, but will be just as reliable.
Here is a search for all games released within this period:
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine?token=&query=(Pro)&tags=&year_from=2013&year_to=2021&manufacturer[]=105&manufacturer[]=166&machine_releasetype=commercial&machine_generation=&sort_by=machine_manufactured&sort_order=DESC#results

 

If there is one thing you take from this: DON'T PAY OVER $7000 for a game! Most that put games in arcades pays do not pay that much. Most Pinball operators buy Pro Stern games.

 

Buying the Machine
Nearly all purchases of games take place in person due to the high value of these games.
Additionally, finding a machine online is a bit old school compared to tech.
For sale Ads are typically posted on Pinside (https://pinside.com/pinball/market), Ebay and Cragslist.

 

Hope this helps!

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silly idea but a video they could do is making space cadet pinball a real machine

still if they get the exe and plug into a VM then start poking at memeory locations to pull out the scores for the scoreborad

it will be a fun mix of og softwhere a sweet pinball tale talks about cheat engines and such system and good old build video

plus how could would it be to have such classice pinball machine at a lan center

 

Polygons? textures?  samples? You want it? It's yours, my friend, as long as you have enough Vram.
Hey heads up I  have writing disorder I try my best but still make errors. 

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He'd never be able to tear the Labs crew and Alex away from an electromechanical game.

 

 

Or maybe he could get them to build him a completely custom one-off pinball machine like Ben Heckendorn did back in the mid-2000s. (You don't "drain" the ball, you "drop" it!)

 

 

I sold my soul for ProSupport.

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1 hour ago, Needfuldoer said:

Or maybe he could get them to build him a completely custom one-off pinball machine like Ben Heckendorn did back in the mid-2000s. (You don't "drain" the ball, you "drop" it!)

 

Oh man, this brings me back. The Ben Heck show was one of a handful of tech YouTube channels (alongside NCIX Tech Tips + LTT) I really enjoyed watching in the pre-2010 era of YouTube. I know Ben's got their own YouTube channel, but it's just not the same as all the shenanigans and projects they got up to back when they were still hosting videos under the Element14 umbrella.

https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/element14-presents/benheck/b/blog/posts/why-did-the-ben-heck-show-end-and-what-happened-to-the-ben-heck-show

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Prices sure have skyrocketed the last several years, when I moved into my house less than 10 years ago I was looking at machines like Medieval Madness and they were $6K to $8K, now they are $12K and up.

 

So I've gone with a virtual table, the Arcade 1up Attack From Mars table.  Comes with 10 classic tables and fairly easily hackable to add 20 more.  Someday I'll use that as a base and rebuild it as a true virtual pinball system.

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