PINBALL MATTERS 
                    Vol.1 Issue 1
		     April, 2004

This is our first attempt at a monthly Pinball and
Classic Arcade newsletter. We understand that it will
appear to be somewhat regional to our readers outside
of Texas, but we are attempting to keep our customers
abreast of events around Texas and the current national status
of  Pinball and Classic Arcade games. Mixed in with a
little self promotion in the form of our current
inventory of Coin-Op machines, new products, etc.


                  EVENT ADVISORY

We have only one event to inform our readers about.
It's the largest festival of it's kind in Texas.

The Texas Pinball Festival November 5-7, 2004. At the
Holiday Inn Select - D/FW Airport North in Irving,
Texas. This is an entire weekend devoted to everything
that is pinball. Last year there was over 50 pinballs
set for free play. A great place to bring your family
and play all kinds of pinballs or purchase a new
addition to your gameroom as most of the pinballs on
free play were for sale. They had vendors, an outside
swap meet, and pinball related lectures to attend.
They even had Hercules, the biggest pinball
commercially made.
You can go to http://www.texaspinball.com/ to get more information
when it is available.

Pinball Medic will be bringing pinball games, parts
and Yellow Jacket pinball dollies for sale. We will
see you there.


                    OTHER NEWS

To make room for new Arcade and Pinball games on their
way to our shop, and to clear our "pipelines", we will
start selling our shopped Pinballs on Ebay at the
start of this month, to be followed by the Arcade
Video games. If you don't want to have to outbid
someone, now is the time to purchase a new addition to
your gameroom.

See our listed games at http://www.pinballmedic.net


               TECH QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Question: I have a new set of playfield plastics. How
can I help prevent them from looking like the old,
cracked, bent ones?

Answer: Most pinballs (old (EM) or new (SS)) came from
the manufacturer with number 44 light bulbs installed.
These lights typically draw one quarter of an ampere
per bulb. Given the possibility of an average pinball 
having some forty lamps, this can quickly build into a
large current draw. With current comes heat, this is
the worst possible environment for your playfield
plastics and for the General Illumination circuits
(wires, bulb sockets, wire connectors,etc). Playfield
plastics were manufactured using low temperature
thermal plastic. Hot lamps cause these plastics to
warp, so the best solution is to get rid of the heat
source. How? By replacing the number 44 bulbs with
number 47 bulbs. The 47's  operate at the same voltage
but draw 40% less current, reducing the heat under
your plastics and reducing the load on the General
Illumination circuits. They do produce slightly less
light but you should not notice this if you are
watching the silver ball.

Newer pinballs (1979 and newer) have a large array of
lamps that are flashed on and off by the Central
Processing Unit (controller controlled). These lamps
are not as critical to replace as they don't stay on
long enough to produce much heat and insert plastic is
not as susceptible to heat as the playfield plastics
are.

The same heat problem occurs under the scoreboard
glass as well. Changing out your bulbs will help
prevent paint flaking on your backglass.

                   NEW INVENTORY

Pinball Games:
(new inventory and currently unlisted
games on the www.Pinballmedic.net web page) 

SPLIT SECOND / August, 1981 / 4 Players

Manufacturer: Stern Electronics, Inc.
Type: Solid State Electronic (SS) 
Theme: Happiness - Circus/Carnival
Specialty: Wide-Body Machine 
This is the last game to be designed by “the show
master of pinball prestidigitation, Harry Williams”.
(manufacturer's sales slogan)

This nice, very rare pinball has it all. Three ball
multi-ball, bi-level playfield, four flippers, it's a
talking pinball, has electronic background tones and
has Stern's fourth generation sound board.

Overall game condition 8.5, backglass 8 (small amount
of flaking around the bottom edge of backglass. The
game does have some missing paint in the center of the
playfield. We will be restoring this in the process of
shopping this game.


HOOK / May 03, 1992 / 4 Players
 	
Manufacturer: Data East USA, Inc.
Type: Solid State Electronic (SS) 
Theme: Celebrities - Fictional - Licensed Theme
Notable Features: Multi ball (2 or 3), Short Ball
Return, Drop Targets (4), Flippers (2)

Marketing Slogan: "Revenues that will Shiver Your
Timbers!"

Overall game condition 9.8 just needs a lite cleaning.
Playfield 10,Side Art 10, back glass 9.5 has a few
very small pin holes. Plays great with lots of sounds
and vocals. Would be a great addition to anyone's
family gameroom.


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Pinball Medic
Austin, Texas
www.pinballmedic.net