The number of pinball machines released each year is much smaller today than it was in the 1960s or 70s, but that doesn’t stop Will DeGoey, a senior engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from keeping these neglected contraptions alive.
“When I first got into the hobby, I was working at Six Flags in the maintenance department,” DeGoey said, “My friend Matt also collects pinball machines, and somehow the subject came up one day and we talked about it for a while.”
Around the same time, DeGoey saw a video on electromechanical pinball machines from YouTuber Technology Connections.
After his introduction to the hobby, DeGoey decided to check out Nerd Haven, a retro arcade with a huge collection of pinball machines.
“The convergence of those three things made me go, ‘huh, I’d quite like to have one of those,’” DeGoey said.
The first machine DeGoey restored was called “Beat Time.” The machine featured “The Bootles,” a bootleg of The Beatles. He found the machine on an online marketplace for $1,234 but negotiated the asking price down to just $100.
That $100 price tag, though, meant DeGoey knew he would have to put in a lot of work since “pinball machines, in general, are not a cheap hobby.”
The pinball community is gigantic, with specialists for even the most niche parts of DeGoey’s hobby. Still, the community skews older, and it can be difficult at times to connect with other young hobbyists.
“I haven’t encountered a lot of people my age who are doing this. There’s a couple other guys, but I am yet to find that community,” DeGoey said.
Since working to restore “Beat Time,” DeGoey has restored three other pinball machines. They sit in a neat row in his parents house in Salem, Wisconsin, while two others sit in his campus apartment — one too far gone to fix, so DeGoey is looking to scrap it.
As a mechanical engineering major, DeGoey can appreciate the simple mechanisms behind these machines, but he acknowledges the “rat’s nest of wires” inside a pinball machine wouldn’t usually be his thing. He keeps circuit diagrams of these wires in his living room next to his other projects. Written on disintegrating parchment paper, these sheets show the deep complexities in how these machines are wired.
DeGoey’s proudest restoration project is a machine called “Aztec” — the same one from the Technology Connections video. At first, water damage from poor storage in a humid basement made restoration seem impossible, but after scrubbing away for hours with isopropyl alcohol and paper towels, DeGoey said that “Aztec” was his “hardest and the best result.”
DeGoey said that if he were ever to “homebrew” his own pinball machine mechanics by reworking an existing board, he would make it “Resident Evil”-themed.
Today, DeGoey is always adapting and building his craft. His current project, a poker-themed machine called “Big Deal,” needed a new glass backpiece, something DeGoey has ordered in the past. But this time, after finding out it would be too expensive, he opted to order the technicolor backing and apply it to the glass himself.
“Big Deal” will be installed in Wendt Commons once DeGoey finishes, though the screaming bells that ring for each point scored may need to be disconnected.
Oliver Gerharz is the podcast director for the Daily Cardinal. He also hosts the Cardinal Call Podcast.
