I had wanted to get a pinball machine for sometime before finally taking the plunge back in 2017. I consider myself a pretty competent guy when it comes to electronics, but I was still a bit intimidated by the prospect of having to perform any major troubleshooting and repairs on it if I ever needed to. I pull out the multimeter and soldering iron when needed, but I am more of a programmer than a hardware guy.
One day I was checking out Craigslist and there was a Stern Galaxy listed for sale for about $750. It was quite expensive compared to my typical budget for any new electronic toys (e.g. free-$100). Still, I knew they hold their value, so I could always sell it later and get my money back, so I drive down the street to check it out. The guy lives literally about 3 minutes away by car, maybe a 20 minute walk. I played it and within seconds immediately fell in love. The sounds, the space theme, the beautiful artwork… sold! It was fully functional, but needed a few small repairs that I figured I could handle, so I took her home.
The fantastic 70s style artwork featuring some sexy alien babes was by Bob Timm. The game itself was designed by the legendary game designer Harry Williams. The game ran fine as it was, but required some cleaning and waxing to get some better gameplay. I also increased the incline a bit to make the ball run faster. The only repair work I needed to perform initially was to install a new lithium battery and replace all of the major caps in the sound section, since it would cut off the background sound after the game started. Most people would probably have just adjusted the DIP setting that produces the background tones, but I love having them on. It gives you a sense of progression and anxiety as you play and rack up high scores. A little while later, I decided to buy a NIB backglass, since my old one was chipping. A couple years later I finally decided to touch-up the paint where it had worn to the wood. The previous owner just stuck some sort of tape over it. Most experts recommend putting mylar over it and clearcoating it. However, for me this is a home-use only game, so I just hired an artist off Craigslist for about $100 to paint the areas with createx since it hardens much better than acrylic. So long as you keep it waxed regularly, it should protect the paint. Years later, it still looks perfect on mine.
The rules are very simple compared to newer machines, but there is enough there to keep me happy. Spell Galaxy once, get a chance for an extra ball. Spell it twice, get a chance for the special. Hit all of the drop-targets to travel to the next planet in the solar system with a special when you hit Saturn. Shoot for the horse-shoe to get points for each letter lit. And guess what, Pluto is there, so there’s your proof Neil deGrasse Tyson, it is a planet!
Overall, this is a great game and with the small repairs mine is much more than just a player’s machine. You can watch my review I did a few days after buying it here: