Put 3 games on the Stern's Sopranos pinball, at "Amusements 2000" on St Catherine near Crescent.

Decent game actually with fun shots. I was just amazed at how the layout seemed so similar to AFM. Instead of the Saucer in the center, you have a Safe that breaks open after a few hits. Shooting a ball into the broken safe advances your rank in the mob (EXACT SAME as beating the countries in AFM - even the location of the inserts depicting this are the same). Same location of pop bumpers. I wouldnt recommend putting many games on this particular machine, as the flippers are poorly maintained, killing a lot of the fun.

Good, not great game. For the price I would MUCH rather get an AFM. ***hint to MrHide***

Also played some TSPP. This game still kills me with the unforgiving STDM drains. Playing one without a ballsaver feels like i'm just wasting my money. I would love to own one some day.

Just wanted to share.

ahh c'mon ! no contest !
you can get a sopranos for half the price of the afm   

Agreed, AFM is one of the Best games out there IMHO... Although I also Love the theme of Soprano's!!

No Contest though!

Dave

played soprano's downtown toronto and i am not a fan of the show.  but i am a fan of the pinball.  but i think i would take AFM.  i play that machine every time i see it.  

As a AFM owner, I would not trade my AFM for a Soprano, not even an NIB. I love the show and watch the re runs every night, but AFM is much more challenging, fun and entertaining. Soprano's do not get much love and I would not be surprised in a few years with the end of the show (it is in it's last season) that this pin will be cheap and then I will probably buy one.

Seems like nobody read my post.

No where did I write that Sopranos holds a candle to AFM. Just that there are some "dubious" similarities between the two games.

Definately not a crappy game though, from a shots and flow perspective (didnt play enough of either AFM or Sopranos to get into the rules). Like I said, good but not great. I was expecting a real stinker but instead was treated to a second rate AFM. Note that "second rate AFM" is a GOOD thing.

I played a nice Soprano's at Allentown when the game was first released and it was sloppy from day 1. The flippers were incredibly weak and couldn't fire the ball up the loop. The safe didn't seem to work properly and the game was SLOW. I walked away with a ball still in play. By comparison, the Jackbot beside it played amazing. Even if the game was cheap, I think I would pass based on my experiece with that game, but perhaps it was just a lemon.

Duane

Big fan of the show. The theme is ok but the game does have some flow. How could we forget sopranos = lotr? http://thekorn.net/sol.gif

I love the Sopranos TV show.
I tried the Sopranos pin but could not get into it.
It has some fun shots but I find the game dead for fun it's a weird one.

Mani, I played at the same arcade last night (man, there are so many kids in there especially on the Dance Revolution contraption, that I feel SO OLD in my mid30s walking into that arcade).

Observations:

• I played Sopranos at another time there and the playfield/machine inclination was so inclined that I couldn't get the ball to go up one ramp as the ball just physically was too much against gravity to be able to make it.
  I personally don't see any similarities between machines with so different a theme.
  
  
• The playfields are so dirty it is scary.  Gives you a good idea of how clean home housed machines are compared to those on route.
  
  
• The Simpsons game seems ok.  Love the pop bumpers 'nuclear towers' look.  The upper mini playfield is so boring though for a mini playfield....
  

Too bad I didnt see you there! I was there around 8pm, how about you?

Agreed that the machines are dirty ... but not as dirty as a LOTR I saw recently at Alouette. I have never seen a dirtier pin in my life. The lights were barely showing through the inserts, there was so much dirt on the playfield.

I found the pins at gillians in the old forum used to be well maintained. Too bad that place is long gone.

I was there at about 6pm but just for a few games.  I am still thinking about that kid on the Dance Revolution type machine and how fast he moved on that thing!

About Alouette - just stay away from them.  I wasted so much time and money there for deals that were just bad/desperate moves by a bored computer guy that I was.  They will never give a good deal or offer decently shopped machines anymore.  Those machines will be there for the next 10 years and still not sell.  Pierre is a nice guy and all (and Richard very charming) but they don't even do any favors at any time for familiar faces like mine.  I had to beg for 3 plunger/link assemblies once even after spending like 15k over the years....

Oops, sorry for changing the thread direction.

Was over at Alouette last week just out of curiosity since I've never been.  There was a LOTR that they had just shopped and was very clean: asking price $3,700, but had some drill holes on one side of the cabinet, otherwise it looked clean - at least from the outside.

Other games of interest:  Indy 500 $1,700 average condition.  Played about 5 games on it, found it very average playing and had scored 2 replays by my 3rd game.  This one was a re-import.  I think it may have been more fun if it was set up steeper...  Not willing to judge this one yet...

Finally played a new WPT.  Honestly, the rule set looks quite complex, and did not know what I was doing half the time.  However, I'm a big fan of drop targets and found it quite amusing based on the superficial plays I had on it.  They wanted $5,700 !!?  (Starburst will sell you one for $4,800).
The gentleman serving me (Pierre I think) was very courteous and helpful.  He seemed to have a decent knowledge of pins based on his responses to my enquiries.
Prices were negociable...
Consider this thread completely hijacked...

more hicjacking: I still have "your balls" dino from allentown ...whenever you're ready ?

Starburst has WPT's just off route already for 3500 cdn

Quoted from edelgiud

I had to beg for 3 plunger/link assemblies once even after spending like 15k over the years....

With pin legs (without the screw foot)going for $45 each (not set of 4), $45 each at Alouette, 15K= 333 legs
15K= ~666 plunger/link assemblies,

so what normally be 3 plunger/links=$15, is more like $66, which hopefully now puts things in proper perspective to realize why they thought you were being so cheap and cutting into their margins!  


the sad thing is, if they would only mark stuff up 100% from pbr or bay area, i'd drop in to buy stuff but with 200-300% markup, then they wonder why we mail order what we need.

Quoted from Mrhide

more hicjacking: I still have "your balls" dino from allentown ...whenever you're ready ?

That really does not sound right.

Quoted from ethous

Quoted from mrhide

I still have "your balls" dino from allentown  ...whenever you're ready ?

That really does not sound right.

If you saw Phil's avatar last week, you know exactly where Mr. Hide was storing dino's spare balls.  And you folks thought he lifted the picture from the net.