The cost of procrastination.   If you’re a regular reader of this blog, one thing you know is that I’ve been having chronic problems with

Pinball machines have a lot of switches, and they fail a lot.   What’s this? Another Johnny repair article so soon? Well, like many complex

Sometimes a simple repair gets all kinds of weird.   A couple of months ago, a good friend was over and wanted to play some

A glove, a drop target, and a matrix, oh my!   Pinball machines operate in a special realm where the normal laws of physics don’t

To make progress, sometimes you have to make tools.   My scores haven’t been great on Johnny lately. An outside observer might suggest that perhaps

Making Johnny smooth and suave once again.   Back when I converted Johnny over to LEDs, I mentioned that there are some downsides to putting

Now we’re getting serious.   This article is gonna be a long one, so grab a beverage (careful, man!), and put your feet up. I

A problem waiting to happen is no longer waiting.   I recently cleaned up and relocated the battery box on Johnny, because some previous owner

All your base are belong to us.   Every aspect of a pinball machine is a compromise between durability, cost of manufacture, serviceability, and the

Let there be light!   An increasingly popular modification to pinball machines is to convert the lighting system to LEDs. These machines typically have 100+

Pushing Johnny’s secret buttons.   Every pinball machine from about 1980 onwards (the solid-state era) has a diagnostic control panel inside it. This is a

Getting Crazy Bob open for business once again.   I recently diagnosed and repaired a flasher lamp on Johnny Mnemonic. It was a simple fix,

Somebody give this man a hand!   You just knew I was going to make that joke at some point, so we might as well get

From boat anchor to booting game.   When Johnny arrived at my house, he was a 325lb plywood boat anchor. He didn’t boot up at

A new toy to tinker with and hack on.   Today I’m starting a new series of articles here on Blondihacks. Similar to Veronica, this