After many years, I finally have my own pinball machine. almost.
The machine is a 1977 Atari Airborne Avenger, one of only 350 ever made. It's unique wide body design gives an additional few inches of play, and makes it appear much larger than a standard pinball. Atari pins are not very popular among collectors due to their rarity and the inability to find replacement parts. Although it appears to be in rough shape, the backglass is almost perfect (not pictured), and after cleaning and installing a new rubber set, the field looks brand new. I also built a custom dolly in order to move it around the shop and provide added support while working on it. One of the coolest parts is that this was the first machine designed by the legendary Steve Ritchie with art by George Opperman, who was the original artist for Atari. He designed the now famous Atari logo, as well as the box art for most of the original 2600 video games.
At the moment I'm saving up in order to get the 3 main boards checked and repaired. My limited electronics skills allowed me to locate at least one short circuit which is rendering the machine unplayable. However, repairing the circuit board is best left to someone with more experience. Hopefully by the end of the summer, I'll have the pin up and running so I can start on a new cabinet for it. I'll most likely swap the white out for a natural wood grain, re-chrome the legs and rails, and reproduce the side graphics using vinyl.
After many years, I finally have my own pinball machine. almost.
The machine is a 1977 Atari Airborne Avenger, one of only 350 ever made. It's unique wide body design gives an additional few inches of play, and makes it appear much larger than a standard pinball. Atari pins are not very popular among collectors due to their rarity and the inability to find replacement parts. Although it appears to be in rough shape, the backglass is almost perfect (not pictured), and after cleaning and installing a new rubber set, the field looks brand new. I also built a custom dolly in order to move it around the shop and provide added support while working on it. One of the coolest parts is that this was the first machine designed by the legendary Steve Ritchie with art by George Opperman, who was the original artist for Atari. He designed the now famous Atari logo, as well as the box art for most of the original 2600 video games.
At the moment I'm saving up in order to get the 3 main boards checked and repaired. My limited electronics skills allowed me to locate at least one short circuit which is rendering the machine unplayable. However, repairing the circuit board is best left to someone with more experience. Hopefully by the end of the summer, I'll have the pin up and running so I can start on a new cabinet for it. I'll most likely swap the white out for a natural wood grain, re-chrome the legs and rails, and reproduce the side graphics using vinyl.
1 comments:
Sweet... Where the hell did you find this?
http://lesyeuxsansvisage-lincolntaft.blogspot.com
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