1958 United Midget Alley
United made a lot of great bowling machines, but this was something different, a miniaturized bowling machine under glass. It wasn't the first miniature bowling machine, but I think it was one of the best. This is a really fun machine to play, but getting it to this stage wasn't easy...
I got this machine locally, and couldn't believe I found it. It was in bad shape, with broken glass cover, flaking back glass, the wrong legs, balls missing, and miss matched serial numbers for lane and cabinet. This isn't a machine you wait on to find one in better condition, I doubt I'll ever see another one available. This was only produced in 1958, production numbers unknown. I would guess there are not many of these left in working condition. I had to pay up for this machine, even though it was a basket case, but I knew it had to come home with me.
I started this project in 2016, finding parts and solving problems was very challenging. I enlisted the support of some local guys I know who were able to solve a problem with the tenth frame step up unit for me. The 10th frame unit had the wrong wiper arm on it. which I did not figure out, it really took someone with strong skills in reading schematics to sort that out, which is why I knew where to bring it. Fortunately, he was also able to reconfigure a wiper arm to work as it should. While that was a challenging problem solved, they couldn't solve a pin reset issue this machine had, and neither could I. It wouldn't reset pins hit in frame one, for frame two set up. I spent many hours reviewing the schematic and operation of this machine, and finally discovered the score motor was turning too slowly. I timed it at roughly 12 RPM's, and it calls for 24 RPM. I knew that must be causing a sequencing issue.
If this machine represents the golden age of arcades in the U.S., this may be the golden age of restoring and reviving these machines. We have many parts distributors and connections to individuals reproducing glass, and other key parts, but our primary connection today for parts and information we need is through Steve Young at The Pinball Resource. Steve has many years of repair experience, and if you need a part for something you're working on, he's probably got it. I enlisted his help to finalize the repair of this machine. I pulled the score motor and sent it out to Steve, with a description of the problem. We discovered it was the wrong motor, and he didn't have one of that part number. Instead, Steve customized another motor to turn at 24 RPM by disassembling and adding his voodoo to the motor, who knows what goes on in his lab, but what came back was a motor that solved this challenging problem!
All of the mechanics in this machine have been gone through thoroughly. I did not repaint the cabinet, but had to restore the wood as it was in bad condition, and would have affected game play. Overall this was one of my more challenging restorations, but most satisfying. I needed some help with this one, but it was great seeing all the pieces finally come together. This will reside in our old school arcade here, as a reminder of the height of arcade technology and creativity in 1958.
One last note, I spent countless hours researching a replacement ball for this machine. I finally found a substitute ball that works really well, making this a predictable and super fun game to play. I have some extra replacement balls I acquired and am making these available in case others have this machine and would like a good substitute, see below.
Restored May, 2017
I got this machine locally, and couldn't believe I found it. It was in bad shape, with broken glass cover, flaking back glass, the wrong legs, balls missing, and miss matched serial numbers for lane and cabinet. This isn't a machine you wait on to find one in better condition, I doubt I'll ever see another one available. This was only produced in 1958, production numbers unknown. I would guess there are not many of these left in working condition. I had to pay up for this machine, even though it was a basket case, but I knew it had to come home with me.
I started this project in 2016, finding parts and solving problems was very challenging. I enlisted the support of some local guys I know who were able to solve a problem with the tenth frame step up unit for me. The 10th frame unit had the wrong wiper arm on it. which I did not figure out, it really took someone with strong skills in reading schematics to sort that out, which is why I knew where to bring it. Fortunately, he was also able to reconfigure a wiper arm to work as it should. While that was a challenging problem solved, they couldn't solve a pin reset issue this machine had, and neither could I. It wouldn't reset pins hit in frame one, for frame two set up. I spent many hours reviewing the schematic and operation of this machine, and finally discovered the score motor was turning too slowly. I timed it at roughly 12 RPM's, and it calls for 24 RPM. I knew that must be causing a sequencing issue.
If this machine represents the golden age of arcades in the U.S., this may be the golden age of restoring and reviving these machines. We have many parts distributors and connections to individuals reproducing glass, and other key parts, but our primary connection today for parts and information we need is through Steve Young at The Pinball Resource. Steve has many years of repair experience, and if you need a part for something you're working on, he's probably got it. I enlisted his help to finalize the repair of this machine. I pulled the score motor and sent it out to Steve, with a description of the problem. We discovered it was the wrong motor, and he didn't have one of that part number. Instead, Steve customized another motor to turn at 24 RPM by disassembling and adding his voodoo to the motor, who knows what goes on in his lab, but what came back was a motor that solved this challenging problem!
All of the mechanics in this machine have been gone through thoroughly. I did not repaint the cabinet, but had to restore the wood as it was in bad condition, and would have affected game play. Overall this was one of my more challenging restorations, but most satisfying. I needed some help with this one, but it was great seeing all the pieces finally come together. This will reside in our old school arcade here, as a reminder of the height of arcade technology and creativity in 1958.
One last note, I spent countless hours researching a replacement ball for this machine. I finally found a substitute ball that works really well, making this a predictable and super fun game to play. I have some extra replacement balls I acquired and am making these available in case others have this machine and would like a good substitute, see below.
Restored May, 2017