Technician of the Month – February 2022

FEBRUARY TECH OF THE MONTH: EVAN BOOKBINDER

Meet Evan Bookbinder, located just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who has been working on pinball machines under “Shoot Again Pinball Repair” for both residential and commercial customers. He services games for several Stern distributors. In terms of operating, Evan helps run the Pittsburgh Pinball Dojo, a collective of approximately 60 pinball and arcades owned by myself and several other folks well known to the Pittsburgh pinball community — all of us formerly associated with PAPA as well as having helped tech for Replay FX and Pinburgh!

Evan says, “Believe it or not, I was mainly a “basement pinball player” for over 35 years, only finding the competitive scene upon moving to Pittsburgh in 2014, and accidentally discovering PAPA in 2016. So, the vast majority of my involvement in the pinball community as a tech and competitive player has only been over the past 6 years. It’s truly an honor to have been part of so many opportunities and met so many wonderful people in this hobby/sport over such a short timeframe!”

Q: How did you first get into the hobby? Did you jump right into repairing machines or did you learn under someone else?

“Pinball has been a part of my life since I was a toddler growing up in Rhode Island. My grandfather ran a produce company, and as the story goes, our first machine, a 1972 Williams Solids n’ Stripes, entered our home as “payment in lieu of cash” to my grandfather from the infamous Providence mafia! LOL! For my 10th birthday, my parents surprised me with the most awesome gift ever — a 1980 Buck Rogers. I spent a LOT of time at arcades as a kid of the 80s, with fond memories of DGs, Time Machine, Aladdin’s Castle and TILT. I own 9 early-mid 80s classic arcades as part of that nostalgia as well.

My entry into repairing machines came in 2001, after I purchased my first pinball machine — a 1990 Williams Whirlwind, not long out of college and into my career as a meteorologist. As an avid storm chaser, my first game was an obvious choice. I was able to afford the game, but as things go with pinball, mechanical/electrical failures are a matter of when, not if. As a tech nerd, I consider myself very handy, and was taught to always be self-sufficient. I could not afford to have the game serviced by a technician, so with the help of Usenet ‘rec.games.pinball’ discussion group and Marvin’s pinball repair guides, I was able to get the game working. From then, it was off to the races as I digested as much information as I could about the hobby. Lloyd Olson aka LTG 🙂 of SS Billiards in Minnesota was a BIG asset, and still remains so to this day, frequently helping people on Pinside and as a tech support specialist for Jersey Jack Pinball.”

Q: Follow up, Did you have a background in another field that made that transition easier?

“As a meteorologist, I actually had to take electricity and magnetism physics as part of my degree. Oddly, this course proved FAR more valuable in understanding the electrical operation of pinball than it did as something I use as an operational meteorologist. Combined with my interest in tinkering since a young age (Radio Shack, Heathkits, etc…), I was able to pick up the interpretation of schematics, mechanical game repair, and logic operations fairly quickly. “

Q: Some techs have a particular aspect they really enjoy working on or they have a specialized set of skills (ie: boards, EMs, new Sterns, restoring cabinet art, etc) — do you specialize in something? or what’s your favorite aspect to work on?

“Anything from early solid state onward, I can fix. Whether it’s electrical, mechanical, board work, etc… I do it all, and am always up for a challenge. That said, I swore I would never work on another Gottlieb System 80. Let’s just say that some of the electrical engineering back in the day was way ahead of its time. Gottlieb left ample room for improvement, but I do enjoy playing their games, especially the EM era.

I am learning EM tech repair now from a couple local experts as it’s a dying breed — yet some of the best games ever made (I own 4 EMs). While their technology may seem simpler to some in the absence of digital logic, I grew up in the digital era, so that technology actually makes more sense to me. I can shop out a game with the best of them, but cosmetic repair (touch ups, wood repair, clear coating, stenciling, etc…) are best left to someone else.”

Q: What are you working on now and in the past, What has been your favorite project/game that you worked on?

“Thankfully, my mantra has always been ‘fix it right, fix it once’, so nearly everything in my collection (23 games) is fully working — and likely won’t be by the time this is printed. As part of my EM training, I’m working on a “300” that I just picked up, as well as an Alien Poker that has a locked-on switch matrix. I also enjoy “functional mods”, so I’m working on installing a set of lit speaker grills for my Black Knight: Sword of Rage (Stern) that produce a LED flame-effect, and uses an Arduino to interface with the game code to change color based on the mode!

My favorite games to work on are Williams System 11 (Whirlwind, Earthshaker, Diner, Pin*Bot, etc.) because it’s a fantastically developed system and there are soooo many home-run titles of that era. Anytime I get to work on a Whirlwind, it’s a treat. Probably the most CHALLENGING project I’ve worked on was a Bram Stoker’s Dracula that I recovered from an estate sale from a water soaked, musty, moldy basement just before COVID-19. There was literally a rats nest in the Rats Hole. It took 3 months to restore it and the final product was unrecognizable, both mechanically and cosmetically.”

Q: What is the best way to contact you and what areas do you service? Do you also operate your own route? If so, would you like to shout out those locations?

“I probably should get something more official, but word-of-mouth business has been great so I’ll chalk it up to laziness. I can be reached at [email protected], at 724-307-8842, Evan Bookbinder on Facebook, or wxforecaster on Pinside. I generally service within a 30 mile radius of Pittsburgh, but will travel farther depending on the circumstances. I also offer customers a discounted rate to bring their machine to my workshop.

Outside of our collective at the Pittsburgh Pinball Dojo, which is an admission entry and free-play operation, I do not have my own route. I have several close friends who route games around Pittsburgh, and do anything I can to help support them during these challenging times. This includes helping tech those games and keeping them well fed with quarters/tokens. We’re a VERY close knit community here, with the Pittsburgh Pinball League serving as a foundation, so any opportunity we can take to support each other, the better for pinball as a whole. I do offer in-home game rentals. Something I started during the pandemic to bring pinball to people who aren’t comfortable with larger gatherings at establishments offering pinball. People in the local area are welcome to contact me for that as well.”

Tags: evan bookbinder, Pinball, Pinball Parts, pinball repair, pinball tech, pinball technician, Technician