When I first played South Park, honestly, I wasn’t all that interested in pinball at the time.   I happened to be in Dave and Buster’s and they had this machine against the wall next to a Williams Pinball 2000 Revenge From Mars.   I had some extra credits on my card so I gave it a try.   Within minutes, I was laughing and having a great time with this machine.   This machine was also an early production which had the very controversial video graphics and adult language…. which was one of the reasons I laughed so much at it.   It fit the theme perfectly with the over-the-top cartoon.

Sega purchased Data East a few years earlier and continued to make solid pinball machines.  They added proper menus and diagnostics and had the financial backing to continue to create great machines.   South Park is a well built machine but slightly rare.   Only 2200 machines were made world wide.

This particular machine was in good shape physically and cosmetically.   Sega machines suffer from cabinet wear around the buttons and this was no different.  However, their playfields are beefy.  The only wear on these machines come at the cut-outs… Kenny and Cartman holes where the ball bangs against the side grain of the hardwood and slowly wears it down.

The plastics are next to impossible to source for this machine because of the licensing issues on re-creating aftermarket parts.  So we were challenged with finding replacement and often making our own back to factory specs.

Lastly, we just couldn’t leave this machine alone and put it back to stock.  This machine craves modern technology updates and modifications.

Restoration

This machine received the following treatment to get it back to stock condition

• Circuit boards removed, cleaned and repaired back to original condition
• Fresh plasma display and rebuild driver
• New board firmware and video driver code to the pre-rev version to bring back the full original controversial game
• Backbox and cabinet repaired from dings.
• Backbox and cabinet sky repainted and forest areas touched up.  Entire surface protected with automotive clear
• New cabinet buttons
• Restored coin door
• Restored legs, lockdown and side rails
• New T-molding
• Playfield stripped, cleaned, buffed and waxed.  Rebuilt with new plastic posts and rubber
• New slingshot and Kenny plastics
• Custom toilet wrap around plastic replaces always broken original 2-piece set
• Custom Kenny plastic to replace missing and unavailable piece
• Full keychain accessory kit
• New translucent targets
• New target stickers OEM
• All figures cleaned and re-installed
• Toilet remolded back into correct shape
• Ramps removed, cleaned and flame polished to crystal clear
• Kenny opto sensors replaced

Custom Upgrades

The following items are Castle Classic Arcade original upgrades that cannot be purchased – to make this machine unique and better in every way!

• Playfield lamps all replaced with custom color LEDs
• Backbox flourescent lamp removed and replaced with coordinated LEDs which can be animated.  This gives the backbox great color and more life
• Under cabinet LED flash effects tied to the game for specific functions (Chef, Kenny Ramp etc)
• Custom South Park full size figure toppers!   Each character is lit internally with LED flashers that tie into the game when the character talks.

Here’s a generic video of the machine on diagnostic test to see the various flashing and animation effects:

PIC PLACEMENT HERE COMING SOON

My Story

It had probably been 8 years since I had walked into an arcade when we decided to go to Dave and Buster’s one evening for something different to do.  Inside the game room area, was the typical layout of shooters, driving sims and kiddy redemptions.  Of course, what we went for was for the high end virtual reality machines which were all the rage back then.  After 10 minutes and $20 later, we looked for something else to do.  On the back wall, I noticed that D&Bs had a small selection of pinball machines that I had missed in my first walk through.  I first gravitated to the pin2000 Mars Attacks as it was just so odd looking.  After a couple plays wore off, I slid down to the South Park machine that had previously been occupied.  I recall unloading my entire token card on that machine.  It also lit my interest back into pinball and was easily the only machine that I actually laughed while playing, which is a new experience as arcade games usually draw your serious attention and concentration.   To this day, I’ve always wanted to pick up a South Park for myself.    Well, I never got around to owning one myself, but recently I had a custom order to find and restore one.  The final product ended up being way better than my original experience, and I now understand why these machines are so hard to find.

History

First, there are less than 3000 machines world wide.  I found a couple of examples first, but easily had to let them go.  One was actually on a carnival route and was beyond restoration.  Still, the owner believed the machine to be excellent and would clean right up – another reason you need to have experience in this business when purchasing 20 year old games.

Finally, I found a nice machine worthy of my time and attention.  One serious design (or cost cutting) flaw on these Sega / Stern machines is their quality of cabinet artwork – as they used large pixel color halftone printing.  Also the artwork is not protected by a reasonable clear coat and thus these machines wear quick, right thought the graphics.  If you attempt to clean them, more graphic material comes off.  Lastly, there are no aftermarket cabinet artwork kits (must be legal issues).   This makes restoration very difficult and come to find out, all but home use only machines are going to have wear issues.

Restoration

Other than the cabinet graphic issues, this was going to be a standard DMD-era pinball restoration.  Full tear down, polish, inspection and replacement.   The owner also wanted this machine to have some “mods” installed and have the game converted to the previously released (but deemed horribly inappropriate) adult version of software and sounds.  I’m all for that!  

So, I also wanted to make this machine even better than my original memory.   So, not only did this get the full treatement, including LED conversion, but we also created custom toppers and added custom under-cabinet LED lighting effects.  These additions turned what was a good / fun game into one that you end up playing and wanting to watch at the same time.

If you’re looking for one a machine just like this, we’re planning one more very soon.   Reserve today…

Here’s some of the details that went into this restoration:

• Repaint sky and earth on cabinet and backbox.   Touch up damage around start button and clear coat the external surface.
• Repaint legs (speckle) and new levelers
• Cabinet flipper protectors (after cabinet was repainted)
• New flipper linkages
• New rubber
• New balls
• Full LED conversion including flashers
• Full tear down, deep polish and rebuild
• flame polish ramps
• Fix Kenny (was killed too many times).
• Fix flash circuit
• Add 3 color under cabinet LED lighting – integrated to flash circuit
• Add 4  character topper.  Each character integrated into their respective talking flash circuit.  Need to see the video!!!
• Sound and CPU “downgrade” to adult version.  Adds video completed video sequences, adult humor voice call outs etc

Pictures and Video

Busy is good, right?  So with that we have all kinds of different stuff coming and going.

New for June:

Ferrari F355 Challenge by Sega – TWIN sit down driving simulator.  This machine comes with two separate driving simulators with CRT monitors.  Full pedals, controls and shifting.  Linked together with the F355 Challenge topper that spans the whole machine.   This machine cost nearly $20k when new in 1999.  These machines are VERY RARE and by far the most sought after driving simulator that ever made the arcade.    We are lucky to have found this one, and will likely be the only one we get.  Priced to move!  Available immediately.  We’ll have it on our website store soon with pics and video.  Call immediately to reserve this machine.  Also, this machine will NOT go down stairs, or if it does, they have to be pretty large.  Comes in 3 pieces, so it is manageable.   Also rolls on wheels once setup.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Pinball – by Sega.   HOME USE ONLY.  That’s right.  This is already a rare machine.  We have one that was gently used at home for it’s entire life.  Essentially a 10 all the way around.  Of course, we’ll completely replace all the rubbers, balls and adjust everything.  Also adding full LED retrofit and backbox custom control LED lighting.

Midway Arctic Thunder – Full sit down snow mobile racing machine.  Rumbles, blows air, force feedback.  The full deal.  Will be priced to move quickly as we’re running out of space.

Sharkey’s Shootout Pinball by Stern.  This machine is effectively a DMD equipped, multi-ball version of Bally’s timeless Eight Ball Deluxe pinball.  Very rare and very low production.

More to come…

What happened to April?

Machines of interest top of the month:

• Williams Terminator 2 Pinball – full restoration, LEDs, and mods.
• Williams Demolition Man Pinball (Superpin widebody) – full restoration.  Just a great game
• Stern Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Pinball (RBION) – nice home unit, being prepped for tear down, cleaning and polishing and LEDs.  Also plan on putting cabinet lighting and backbox LED retrofit.
• 1967 Williams Apollo Electro Mechanical Pinball – a GREAT classic, custom restoration.  Look soon for detailed article on this beauty.
• Bally The Shadow Pinball – We’ve decided to sell our coveted deep restoration machine.  This machine literally took a month straight to get all of the parts and items fixed.  She’s now back to new condition and ready to be played and appreciated.   This is one of the very next high-dollar Williams pinball machines, get yours now before the prices sky rocket.
• Sega South Park – Restoration planned
• Williams F-14 Pinball – full restoration, cabinet update, LED conversion, under cabinet LEDs and flasher circuit update (to properly accept LEDs).  Look soon for a detailed writeup on this classic.