Popeye Saves the World

About a month ago, we picked up a Bally 1994 Popeye Saves the World in Fort Wayne, Indiana. To date, we really haven't worked on (or been able to afford) any pinball machine manufactured later than the Carter administration. So the 1994 Popeye is quite a jump, our first DMD (dot-matrix display) machine. We managed to afford it with the money we made renovating our Bally 1978 Playboy (see tab above). It was in our price range primarily because everyone seems to hate this machine. It seems to be a combination of a cartoony, less-than-manly theme (Popeye as an environmentalist), and the fact that the play on this machine is less than ideal. Still, I have a hard time believing, as many do, that this is the worst pinball machine ever made. Alex is attracted by the bells and whistles attendant on the more recent models, so we thought we would give this one a try.

Aesthetically, the machine is in pretty good shape; some faded red paint on the cabinet, some peeling decals, and a cracked plastic. All easily addressed. A few switches don't seem to be working right. So we decided to leave the artwork restoration for the moment, and focus on getting the machine running perfectly. After we play it awhile, we'll decide whether we like it enough to keep it, or whether we'll try to sell it after restoring some of the artwork first.