The machine is in pretty good condition given it's age. Some new playfield parts will be added to improve presentation and I'll set myself a reasonable budget to work within. The machine will be cleaned up, issues repaired and assemblies given a general service. This won't be a complete restore as I don't intend to redo the cabinet.

It's also a good chance to take photos from 'day 1' to look back on once the project is complete. My first step will be to go over the machine and make a note of anything that stands out as wrong or will require further inspection. The Mariner has been sitting patiently beside Counterforce while I finished it off. There are some really detailed EM videos which have been useful to get an overview of Bally EM's and I expect those will come in handy for this project. I've found this resource to be amazing as it contains videos and repair write ups on machines from EM's to DMD's across many manufacturers. The more comprehensive is the content at PinRepair EM Pinball Repair.Īlso on PinRepair is a private area titled 'Pinball Ninja' which you get access to for a certain donation - Pinball Ninja. There is a wealth of information available out there. Before committing to an EM project, I did quite a bit of research on working with EM's and the sort of things to look for in a machine when inspecting it. But it's a 4 player, so I'll deal with the extra challenges. My preference was for a single player machine, mainly because there are less assemblies to deal with - which means less can be/go wrong. It's also got a reasonable playfield layout and only lacks a spinner and drop targets for my ideal playfield. I found the Mariner attractive mainly due to the art style on the backglass and playfield. I had been considering taking on an EM project for a few months, but none of the titles that became available during that time really grabbed me. I'm pretty excited about this project as it's a chance to look at something different and gain more experience with EM's.

All of my Pinball projects to date have been solid state machines that were built between 1979 to 1986.

I'm stepping outside the comfort zone I developed while working on solid state machines and diving into an EM project. One of my favorite times has arrived again - it's NEW project time! Just as good as NEW pin day in my book :) This time around, I'll be performing a repair and service on a 1971 Bally Mariner machine that has made it's way here from Germany.

Bally pinball repair