{"id":26884,"date":"2019-05-20T08:35:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T12:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=26884"},"modified":"2019-05-25T15:01:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T19:01:29","slug":"pinball-machines-become-a-passion-for-two-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/pinball-machines-become-a-passion-for-two-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding, fixing and playing: All for the love of pinball"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Harriet and Allan Chambers play pinball in the special game room he built in their basement.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Pinball Wishlist<\/h3>\n

Robert Dooley<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Bally Fathom<\/li>\n
  • Bally Centaur<\/li>\n
  • Williams Taxi<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Allan Chambers<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Addams Family Gold<\/li>\n
    • Big Bang Bar<\/li>\n
    • Theater of Magic (Harriet Chambers says \u201cthis one is for me\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Robert and Kim Dooley had dinner reservations to celebrate their 30th<\/sup> wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n

      Then the pinball machine arrived.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIt was delivered like at five o\u2019clock and now I\u2019ve got this pinball machine,\u201d recalls Dooley, dean of the Gary W. Rollins College of Business. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Can we go grab McDonald\u2019s?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

      The Dooleys are still married, so obviously they didn\u2019t get an anniversary meal of Big Macs and fries. And Dooley still has the pinball machine, a 1976 Aztec by Bally, the first one he\u2019s ever owned.<\/p>\n

      But not the last.<\/p>\n

      Since the Aztec was delivered three years ago, Dooley has purchased 18 more pinball machines. \u201cI\u2019ve gone off the deep end with no end in sight,\u201d he admits. \u201cI play every one of them every night. One game.\u201d<\/p>\n

      The machines are all in his basement, standing side-by-side in a small room, just like they might be in a bar somewhere. Multi-colored lights flash around the room along with mechanical voices saying things like \u201cActivate Embryon!\u201d and the electronic sound of a volcano erupting.<\/p>\n

      \u201cThey keep him out of trouble. It could be worse,\u201d says Kim.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Digging In<\/strong><\/h4>\n

      Dooley is not the only UTC staffer who has pinball machines in the house.<\/p>\n

      Harriet Chambers, assistant vice chancellor of finance and administration for the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, has four pinball machines in her basement, but they weren\u2019t her idea. Her husband, Allan, brought them in.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIf I could have more I\u2019d have more, but the prices have gone crazy these days,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

      Even though her husband started the pinball buying spree, Harriet, also chief financial officer for the UC Foundation, admits that she enjoys the pinball machines.<\/p>\n

      \u201cI used to play every night. Now I mainly play when we have friends over and also on the weekends,\u201d she says. \u201cOne of our sets of friends were here and they wouldn\u2019t leave. They said, \u2018Our babysitter leaves at 10:30\u2019 and at midnight they were still playing. \u201c<\/p>\n

      But she does have her limits. Allan purchased a machine called Party Animal, but it was sold fairly quickly. Harriet wasn\u2019t a fan.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIt belches,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Starting off<\/strong><\/h4>\n

      Finding used pinball machines isn\u2019t terribly hard. If you don\u2019t want a replica\u2014and most pinball aficionados don\u2019t\u2014there are websites listing the genuine articles for sale. Message boards on fan forums such as Pinside or Pingeek will have them or tell you where one is for sale. You can find them on Craigslist or Facebook or eBay. You can attend one of the conventions\u2014there are lots\u2014around the country, including Southern-Fried Gaming in Atlanta, which is where Allan bought his first one.<\/p>\n

      His debut machine\u2014Ghostbusters\u2014was purchased in April 2017, but he didn\u2019t have any place to put it. Except the dining room. What started as a single pinball machine turned into three over the next few months.<\/p>\n

      \u201cI was popular,\u201d he says sarcastically.<\/p>\n

      The machines had to be in the dining room, however, because it took Allan about eight months to create a special place for them in the basement. A very special place. The crawlspace, in fact. A 12-by-8-foot space with three feet of dirt filling it from end to end.<\/p>\n

      He hauled 33 tons of dirt out of the space\u2014\u201cin buckets, up the stairs, three dumpsters\u2019 full,\u201d he says\u2014installed steel I-beams to brace the ceiling, wired the space for electricity and built air conditioning ducts. His 27 years as a contractor in his home country of England was invaluable.<\/p>\n

      But he wasn\u2019t done. He turned the basement proper into what may be the coolest boy\u2019s toy room ever. It has 5.1 Dolby sound system a PlayStation and a Wii. A wine cooler, complete with thick glass lid and lights, is dug into the floor. Future plans include a massive flatscreen TV and movie-theater seats to complete (for now) the setup.<\/p>\n

      \u201cHe used my email and Amazon accounts and I\u2019d get emails saying, \u2018You\u2019ve ordered thus and such.\u2019 We used to tell our friends that the game was \u2018What has Allan done today?\u2019 But it kept him busy,\u201d says Harriet.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      First timers<\/strong><\/h4>\n

      Some of Dooley\u2019s machines are a throwback to his younger days when he was growing up in Athens, Tenn. Time spent at the roller-skating rink or bowling alley meant time at the pinball machines.<\/p>\n

      \u201cI spent more time playing pinball than I did the other things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

      But other machines were purchased because they represent \u201ca lot of firsts,\u201d he says. Pointing at the various machines in his playroom, he ticks off their importance in the world of pinball: Firepower is the first-multi-ball machine ever made; Gorgar is the first talking machine; Blackout is the first two-level pinball machine ever made. Each game seems to have an historical significance.<\/p>\n

      Along with his love of the game, though, is an appreciation for the look of them, especially the \u201cplayboards,\u201d the flat, decorated surfaces that the pinballs fly forward and backward, over and under, up and down.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIf you look at these, they\u2019re, in many ways, works of art,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      \u00a0<\/strong>Pinball doctors<\/strong><\/h4>\n

      But the machines don\u2019t always \u2014 actually, rarely \u2014 come in pristine shape.<\/p>\n

      When Dooley found the game Xenon, for instance, it was being stored in a barn in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIt actually had rats living in the cabinet,\u201d Dooley says. \u201cIt was really, really bad. It cleaned up pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Allan says he\u2019s done some repair work on them here and there, but hasn\u2019t rebuilt them entirely. Mainly he\u2019s had to rewire parts that were damaged by acid leaking from batteries inside the machines. \u201cNothing crazy-technical,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

      Dooley, on the other hand, can fix the machines from stem to stern, often buying machines that need work. Some don\u2019t work at all; others need a touch of TLC here and there.<\/p>\n

      \u201cI can wire and solder and fix logic boards, power supplies, driver boards, soundboards,\u201d Dooley says \u201cI\u2019m pretty adept at working on them. I can\u2019t always solve the problem, but I can usually figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

      But it can take a while. He figures he put in 60 hours refurbishing the game Medusa over six months.<\/p>\n

      \u201cSometimes I like to get up early, get up at four o\u2019clock in the morning, get a cup of coffee and come down here and tinker for an hour,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

      Rescuing these games and returning them to former glory is an ongoing mission for him.<\/p>\n

      \u201cPart of it for me is saving these from the junkpile,\u201d he says. \u201c A lot of these have ended up in landfill, so you find something that\u2019s old from the \u201970s and bringing it back to life is enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n