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Completed December 2025

Eight Ball Deluxe Playfield (Bally, 1984)

Project for the Pinball Museum Eschbach. An Eight Ball Deluxe with a newly printed playfield had to be rebuilt from scratch. As always, it turned out to be a bigger operation than expected.

PinballBallyRestorationEight Ball Deluxe

About the Pinball Machine

Eight Ball Deluxe is a classic solid-state pinball machine by Bally from 1981, designed by George Christian. With its timeless billiard theme, it is considered by connoisseurs to be one of the best early electronic pins ever made. The game features a challenging layout with numerous drop targets, inline drop targets for the bonus multiplier, and extremely cool early voice callouts like “Quit talking and start chalking!”.

The finished playfield from above

Scope of Work

Playfield

  • Complete teardown & cleaning of all parts (on top and under the playfield)
  • Re-galvanizing of all metal parts (done by a professional shop, of course)
  • New rubbers, new lamps (inserts, GI)
  • Repair of a broken rollover switch, including touch-up with resin
  • Replacement of all drop target plastics
Newly galvanized metal parts
Under the playfield partially equipped with new parts
Partially assembled playfield

Electronics

  • Full functional check of all cables and components
  • Cleaning of all wiring harnesses
  • Almost all solder joints redone and tested
Cleaned wiring harness
Insert lamp sockets before overhaul

Mechanics

  • Both flippers completely overhauled except for the coils: new sleeves, plungers, links, coil stops, springs, and EOS switches
  • Kicker and Slingshots: Cleaned and coil sleeves replaced
  • Pop-Bumpers: New mechanical parts
Slingshots after cleaning
The single drop target bank before cleaning and re-galvanizing
The 7-bank drop target assembly before cleaning and re-galvanizing

Miscellaneous

  • Plastics “flattened” in the oven :P
  • Wood structures partially repainted (black)
  • Fixed various “hack jobs” involving metric screws, electrical tape, etc.
  • Removed a massive amount of nicotine (GROSS)
Nicotine on the glove
Burned-out coil from the 7-bank drop target assembly

Status

Completed. The playfield just needs to be reinstalled. The pinball machine will then be playable at the Pinball Museum Eschbach.


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