Midnight Amusements

03/22/2026

When you go to a pinball conference, you get to play a lot of very fast and complex games. Manufacturers spend a lot of time and effort to bring the next great pin for our enjoyment (and we love it).

Take a moment to also appreciate the community side of the event where people bring their own machines and you'll see some great examples of what make this hobby special.

Here's a sampling of the ones we enjoyed at TPF!

03/22/2026

See ya next year Texas Pinball Festival , it was awesome!

03/22/2026

Goodnight Frisco Convention Center. And thanks Texas Pinball Festival for letting us all stay up well past our bedtime.

The pinball was GREAT!

03/20/2026

And once configured, the dragon was unleashed! Texas Pinball Festival

03/20/2026

It's not often that you get to free a dragon. What fun!

At Texas Pinball Festival

03/18/2026

Today, it's just a convention center. Later this week, it'll be pinball paradise!

A day and a half drive from Chicagoland is a small price to pay, and it's good to be back in Texas for the Texas Pinball Festival !

11/26/2025

Time to spruce up those pinball machines for Christmas!

OUR BLACK FRIDAY SALE STARTS AT NOON ON THANKSGIVING DAY AND ENDS MONDAY AT MIDNIGHT!

20% off Titan Competition Silicone including game kits. No minimum order, no coupon code needed!

https://conta.cc/49tXxIy

Details:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/2025-black-friday-deals/page/2 -8931487

11/23/2025

One of my favorite things about restoring old machines is the beginning. Seeing a series of older parts and knowing how they will eventually come together is rewarding.

The newest example of this idea is this Konami TMNT cabinet. Last working for a living over 20 years ago and nearly empty, it doesn't look like much; clean it, paint it, decal it, populate it and POW - you've got a game that you can play for its new lifetime!

Now where are all those parts? Oh yeah, we have to buy 'em...

09/14/2025

Tonight I worked on my personal Ghostbusters Premium pinball machine. About three weeks ago, I went to turn it on and the boot sequence stated that both Node 8 AND Node 9 were not responding.

I swapped in a Spike-2 48V Core node board I had on hand (always have a spare), configured as Node 9. Booted the system, it downloaded code to the node and the system rebooted.

On reboot, Node 8 was still not responding. So an order from Marco Pinball later and I had a Spike-1 board. Installed it, rebooted it and the code downloaded.

Just like that, we're back in business. What did I learn? A couple of things.
- it is possible to lose more than one Node at a time, though it's statistically unlikely
- Spike-2 and Spike-1 nodes can co-exist in a Spike-1 pinball machine, I called Stern to confirm

Now to ID the (heavily) damaged chip on each board, maybe I can figure out how to repair both.

06/18/2025

Time to play with cartridges. This evening's victim is Wario Land 3. Our friend Wario can't save a game, so we're gonna find out why.

Is this a real Nintendo game and not a knockoff? Well, people usually save knocking a game off for ones that are more lucrative, like Pokemon.

This one has all the marks of being real. Logo and battery on the front, four squares on the rear. Check.

This 25 year old battery is carrying a mighty 0.35 Volts, not good. New battery and two solder points later, we've got 3+ volts. Now we're saving games and can continue...

That was fun.

06/17/2025

One of my favorite consoles is the Nintendo GameCube. Well engineered, doesn't overheat, easy to clean, the list goes on and on.

So tonight's last victim is a rare-ish Pokemon XD GameCube. These models were part of a bundle that included a copy of the XD game.

Each XD Console is a garden variety, Platinum Silver, second generation DOL-101 console. This generation is considered inferior to the DOL-001 series because of the loss of the Digital A/V port. Personally, my issue with this series is that the circular, replaceable "jewel" in the center of the lid is gone, replaced by a simple round sticker. Meh.

This little guy needed a light clean (yes, I disassemble them to clean them) as well as a new clock battery and mount. The original battery was soldered on and had given up the ghost (0.85 Volts instead of 3.3 Volts) and wasn't originally designed for easy replacement.

Replacing this spot welded battery with a pop-in battery mount means that all the next owner needs to replace the battery (in another 10-15 years) is a screwdriver with a game bit.

06/17/2025

No play-by-play on this one. I've had a custom printed Game Boy Color case in the box for some time, and it was time for Wario to escape!

This console has a bad power switch, so today I replaced it with one of these nifty (and tiny!) switch boards from Helder Game Tech. They are an inexpensive fix for a very common problem.