Arcadia, a great arcade in a small town

A few weeks ago I took a trip to Arcadia in McLean, IL. My girlfriend, Katie, knows that I’m always looking for pinball machines out in the wild. When we go out anywhere I will run to any pin that I see. Knowing this, Katie found Arcadia on the Internet and I had no idea that it even existed.

We loaded up on a Saturday and spent a nice afternoon there. The games were reasonably priced and the place was not maned at all. On the bill changers there was a sign with a phone number that there was someone close by that would come out if there were any problems. I really enjoyed the vacancy that not having an employee there provided. At times, we had the whole place to ourselves. Every once in a while, a couple people would pop in and play a little then leave. The pinball selection is good with awesome games like Medieval Madness and Addams Family to not so great titles like Super Mario Bros.

As well as lots of pinball machines, they had even more video games, including a Terminator 2 that I remember playing at the mall as a kid. They have a very interesting game there called Time Traveler by SEGA. The video on it was “holographic” and it was one of those machines that integrated live action into the game play. Not that there was much game play to speak of. The player mostly has to either duck or shoot some costumed moron running at you. The game was cheesy and I liked it a lot. One play lasted quite a while and it was fun. It was very different than any other game I had played in a long time and I enjoyed that.

Fuse – Photo 52 Project [Week 45]

My pinball machine was blowing a fuse every time I turned it on. Before fixing it, I decided to see if I could photograph it while the fuse was blowing. Sometime it would blow very dramatically and other times it would just glow then break. I was wanting a lot more fireworks but this is the best I could get. I went through 3 fuses and lot of shots using the high speed shutter setting.

I am still troubleshooting the pinball issue. I soldered a new transistor to the main power board with no positive result. Looking at the issue further, it appears I was looking in the wrong place. The solenoid I thought was locking on was fine and it was another one having issues. I just ordered a new solenoid and a pair of new transistors that drive it and I will see later in the week if that fixes my issue.

There is always something new to fix with that machine. I picked it up used from a dealer who had in routed in public places. It was dirty and there was a lot broken with it.  After lots of new parts and a crash course in electrical engineering, I got it 100% functional and working. Now I just have to get it back to 100% again.

Wires – Photo 52 Project [Week 36]

I had another 11th hour week on this one. On Monday night I found myself driving around town looking for something that would make a good photo. I went downtown but didn’t see anything jumping out at me. After giving up and heading back home, I saw a church all lit up and looking nice and churchy. I turned around and got out the camera and tripod and started shooting. It was a beautiful church but there was nothing interesting for a photograph that I could see. Disappointed, I went home and took the camera gear downstairs to edit.

Right as I hit the basement, I saw my pinball machine all opened up for a repair I worked on over the weekend. I knew then that I had a worthy subject for this week. There are wires, motors, solenoids, and subways everywhere.  A pinball machine is not like any other machine I have ever worked on. A computer hides most of its secrets under the cover of a microprocessor. With a pinball machine, the mechanisms that allow the game to run are visible to the naked eye. At first glance, the underside of a playfield appears chaotic. After you are forced to make repairs, it all starts to make sense and the whole thing seems a lot less menacing and much more elegant.