Bought Sight Unseen… 60-Year-Old 1965 Bally Bullfight WORKS PERFECTLY?!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·21m 38s·analyzed·Apr 6, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.020

TL;DR

1965 Bally Bullfight bought sight unseen works perfectly after restoration.

Summary

Mike Dimes from Pinball Shenanigans purchases and successfully restores a 1965 Bally Bullfight EM machine bought sight unseen. Despite initial assembly challenges (missing leg brackets, unfamiliar latches, reassembly issues), the machine powers on and plays perfectly after minimal repairs. The video documents the restoration process, assembly troubleshooting, and gameplay exploration of this 60-year-old machine.

Key Claims

The Bullfight was purchased with the head off and apparently working, but untested until setup
high confidence · Mike Dimes, opening narrative
The machine has four unique latches on the playfield that were unfamiliar to the host
high confidence · Mike Dimes, during playfield inspection
Anti-theft devices (metal shields with nails) were installed on leg bolt holes to prevent free game cheating
high confidence · Mike Dimes, explaining 1965-era security features
The playfield has been rubberized at least once, with newer rubber installed approximately 20 years ago
high confidence · Mike Dimes, inspecting playfield condition
The machine features a unique lock bar with integrated coin slots and came with both halves intact
high confidence · Mike Dimes, examining lock bar assembly
The back glass is custom-cut with holes for the lock bar, making standard replacement glass incompatible
high confidence · Mike Dimes, attempting to fit replacement glass
The machine played five complete games with minimal issues after initial setup
high confidence · Mike Dimes, after first power-on
The target selector rule advances through 100-point, 30-point, 350-point, and yellow star targets with different gate mechanics
high confidence · Mike Dimes, explaining rule set mechanics during gameplay

Notable Quotes

“I was wearing my full-on winter jacket yesterday. But yet, there is snow in the forecast soon.”
Mike Dimes@ 0:38 — Sets context for seasonal urgency to test the machine outdoors
“When I bought this machine, the head was off of it, and it was apparently working, but we won't really know until uh we get this thing set up and test it out.”
Mike Dimes@ 1:07 — Establishes the sight-unseen gamble and initial uncertainty
“Kids were clever back in 1965.”
Mike Dimes@ 4:37 — Commentary on historical anti-cheat security measures
“I never thought that I'd be playing this game in like 15 minutes.”
Mike Dimes@ 13:06 — Expresses surprise at the machine's immediate functionality after restoration
“This is plug and play. Here we go. Let's fight some bulls.”
Mike Dimes@ 11:02 — Confirms machine works; references game theme
“Freaking bull fight actually works. That is crazy.”
Mike Dimes@ 15:09 — Core reaction to successful restoration of 60-year-old machine
“So, you know, this might be a 20-year-old rubber job, but it has been done once in its life at least.”
Mike Dimes@ 6:44 — Assesses machine maintenance history

Entities

Mike DimespersonPinball ShenanigansorganizationBullfightgame BallycompanyMatt FarmerpersonIn-Home Pinball Repaircompany

Signals

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restoration_signal: Missing leg brackets, unfamiliar playfield latches, lock bar reassembly issues, and anti-theft device removal required problem-solving during setup
high · Mike spent significant time diagnosing and solving hardware assembly problems, including improvising with screws and nails for bracket mounting
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restoration_signal: 1965 Bullfight has minimal cosmetic issues despite age; playfield has moderate warpage but previous rubber job and maintenance evident
high · Mike noted playfield 'in pretty darn good shape' with existing rubber work approximately 20 years old; Mylar discs appear original
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restoration_signal: Machine's custom-cut back glass with lock bar holes makes standard replacement glass incompatible
high · Attempted standard glass replacement failed; lock bar holes do not align with typical pinball back glass specifications
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restoration_signal: Machine shows signs of previous rewiring, socket additions, and modifications by unknown prior owner/operator
high · Mike noted rewired components, added socket to dead socket, and presence of two bells suggesting modifications
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gameplay_signal: Bullfight features multi-stage target selector rule with progressive point values (100/30/350/yellow) and gate mechanics tied to target selection
high · Mike documented target selector advancing through stages, with blue lights controlling gate opening/closing based on target status

Topics

Vintage EM machine restorationprimaryElectromechanical gameplay mechanics and rulesprimaryAssembly and hardware challenges in 1960s pinball machinesprimarySight-unseen machine purchases and gamblessecondary1960s pinball machine design and anti-cheat featuressecondaryMachine condition assessment and maintenance historysecondaryCustom back glass manufacturing for vintage machinesmentionedRules and strategy in classic flipper-based pinballsecondary

Sentiment

neutral(0)

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

So, now I'm going to try and advance to the yellow star. Are you ready? Everything is lit. Oh, everything's not lit anymore. I'm Mike Dimes, and this [music] is Pinball Shenanigans. [music] That's one leap for man, Okay, we literally have like one good day of Carl Weathers. It's like 24° or something. Nuts. I was wearing my full-on winter jacket yesterday. But yet, there is snow in the forecast soon. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to try and set up and test out this Bull Fight from Bally from 1965. When I bought this machine, the head was off of it, and it was apparently working, but we won't really know until uh we get this thing set up and test it out. So, it's kind of exciting. See if we can get this Bull Fight to work. All right, I already ran into a few obstacles. So, the uh inside leg bracket doesn't appear to exist, so I was just going to try and find a couple of nuts to put on the inside, but it's got one of those metal shields. So, I have to remove that in order to put nuts on it. And so, I lowered the playfield or the cabinet, and then tried to remove the Plexiglas. It's a nice curved corner. And I was having some difficulty with that, cuz this was in the way, and I'm like, "What the F?" Because this is the lock bar. It just like practically fell off. Well, it turns out this is the other half of the lock bar. Look at that. So, just got to line that up like this. And it just looks like some nuts are missing. But, here we go. We got the two halves of the lock bar. It's pretty unique lock bar with the coin slots right in it, so that's pretty sweet that I have the whole thing. I thought that it was broken. So, next obstacle, lifting the playfield. What the F? Why can't I lift it? I know on some other old machines, there was like a screw like maybe in the side or something that I had to remove, maybe one on each side, like maybe Humpty Dumpty or something. Or what was that other flipperless game I had? Maybe Torpedo or Tornado or something. Uh but, look what I found. A latch. Actually four of them. So, that is pretty neat. I've never seen that before. Now, I can lift the playfield for the first time and have a look. It's a wonderful cord they got there. Straight off the old lamp. Uh not much going on in here in terms of manuals or bits or pieces or parts or $100 bills. But, now I can access this corner here, and you can see that leg bracket is missing completely. And that one is intact. That one actually worked, but I mean, it's there, but it doesn't look like it's secured, so I'm going to remove these plates, and then uh looks like at least the back two are on there, so that should be okay. Just need to find a couple nuts that will work. Okay, removed the two protectors. This is an anti-theft device, so you can't stick a wire in through the leg bolt hole and trigger a free game. That's why these are there. Kids were clever back in 1965. So, I just took one of the screws that held this in, and stuck it in the middle. There's two nails sticking out, and I just banged one in with my trusty hammer. And Voilà. So, that one's good to go, and behind the other plate, I actually found the other bracket. So, I just stuck in a screw in the middle. I didn't go too crazy tight. You want a little bit of play so that uh the bolts actually fit in. Anyway, what did I say, Pez? Here I am working on another EM. [snorts] Worked like a charm. Okay, I have a question. Um got the front two legs installed, and I seem to have a five-legged machine. I don't know where the heck that fifth leg came from. All right, got the machine on legs. Wasn't too much of a problem once I attached the leg bracket. It's a pretty cool uh logo here for In-Home Pinball Repair, or Matt Farmer. What is that? I thought it was a pinball, but it kind of looks like wires jetting out of a hole. But, maybe it is a pinball. Anyway, first time really looking at this playfield without the Plexiglas on it. Little bit of warpage going on here. But, for being 1965, it's in pretty darn good shape. Someone rubbered it at some point, and that looks like a new rebound rubber, and these rubbers here are probably not original. So, you know, this might be a 20-year-old rubber job, but it has been done once in its life at least. Look at these um discs, Mylar discs around the pop bumpers. They're just black. Kind of looks original. And metal skirts. Pretty cool. Obviously, I got to to do some leveling here, but I got the cord out. Now, time to stick the head on. Okay, I got the head on. from here. I think that might be for this. Serviceman, to remove Bally Easy Out back glass, pull back on the two brackets at the top of light box. Then, from front of game, lift glass up and out. Sounds easy enough. Oh, also, check this out. We've got Oh, look at this. Somebody's done something here. What have they done? Rewired all that up. And also, someone added a socket to a dead socket there. And we got two bells. All right, we are assembled. And with a piece of drywall under the one leg, this thing is rock solid. Let's throw in a ball. And I'm going to record plugging it in, just in case something happens. [snorts] I don't know if there's a power switch on this or not. Some [snorts] of these old games don't have a power switch. Let's feel. No, I don't feel anything. Can you see anything? No, no power switch. So, does that mean I got to hit the left flipper button to turn it on? No. Is there a power switch somewhere that I am missing? Okay, well, what about this button? No. Try all buttons. Okay, I'll see what I can figure out. I'll be back. Well, I figured something out. Okay, that's better. Now, let's plug this in. And nothing. But, it's button. What? Okay. All right, I found the secret switch. We are live. We got lights anyway. Kind of looks like we might be in a state of tilt. There is no tilt, Bob. Okay. So, don't know if this is going to work or not. All right. This is promising. Flippers? Wow. This is plug and play. Here we go. Let's fight some bulls. Sweet. Uh-oh. The gate is stuck open. I don't think it wants [music] to be stuck open. Okay, let's just go a little more meticulously and see what's going on here. The thing turned the spinning wheel turned. That's cool. Now, we got the gate on. It's probably fine. As long as it doesn't stay on after the ball is over. All right. Target selector advance. 100 points when lit. And what if they're not lit? One point? What is this worth? This is worth 10. Advance. Hey, that opened my gate. And then also closed it. That works. slingshot. Oh, yeah, rollover button. Oh, it lit all the pop bumpers. So, it alternates them. Uh this switch. [bell] Damn. This thing freaking works. Okay. Oh, man, I wish I brought my tripod. Okay, let's try and I never thought that I'd be playing this game in like 15 minutes. It's got spinning wheels. It's got gates. It's got like 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven mushroom bumpers. Three slingshots. And cute little red flippers. One-handed 2-in flipper action here. Let's try and crap up. Whoa. No shots ain't going to happen on this game. Well, this, you know, is a bit of a gamble. Most machines are. Even when people say they work, you know, you can take that with a grain of salt. That made it might have been like the longest ball of a 2-in flipper game one-handed in the history of the world. Seemed like that lasted a while. Okay, so it's ball in play two. That works. Pop bumper lights are alternating. Okay, the uh gate's staying open. It's just like the relay's loud. So, it sounds bad, but I think it's okay. Cute little loop-the-loop shot. I like that, too. It's not a symmetrical layout, which is cool. Oh, that's trouble. Okay. Oh, I think it's set for three balls, but freaking bull fight actually works. That is crazy. Okay, well, I guess there's not a whole lot to do. I'll I'll do some play testing and whatever tweaking is needed, but I mean, I haven't noticed anything not working, which is kind of crazy. So, I will uh mess around for a bit and then wrap up this video. Okay, I was just messing with this lock bar. And I think it might have just been installed wrong or like someone tried to reassemble it and did it incorrectly. So, I just removed all the little nuts. So, there's two for these guys and then you can you know, swap out your coin inserts. And then the uh the end pieces come right off, too, so you can swap those out. So, I removed all the nuts from this side. And now I think if I just put that on like so, you can see that's where a nut and washer originally went. it wasn't sitting right. But, I think if I reassemble it like that, then it should sit perfectly. Okay, I got this reassembled. sits on there properly now. Let's find out. It was just sitting way too high before. Let's see. That's much better. That's the way it's supposed to be. So, let's see if it latches. Yeah. Okay, one last test. I'm going to throw in a piece of glass, get rid of this plexiglass, and see if it fits. So, this glass that I have in my storage here has picked up some pretty good condensation due to the Carl Weathers change. And that's why you don't leave your back glasses in non-climate controlled storage. And even earlier in the video, I was kind of looking at the back glass thinking, "Why does it look so shiny?" It was condensating, too. So, the idea is to not have this machine in here very long at all. Play it. Maybe do a little gameplay and tutorial video on it. And then throw it up on the old market for someone else to enjoy. So, I'm going to flip the glass, clean the other side, and then see if this lock bar fits. Well, I gave the glass good cleaning, busted out the Windex and everything. But, uh we do have a problem. There's the holes for the lock bar. So, apparently, this is not a standard sheet of glass. So, that's a little bit sad. Okay, bad news is that I had to use the plexiglass. Cleaned it up a bit. Good news is that it all fits. So, I'm happy with that. Okay, there's still a couple little minor gremlins I have to work out. I really should clean the score reels and maybe the ball count score reel or um stepper unit. It's had a couple hiccups, but I've been able to play like five games. I'm starting to figure this out. So, it's actually a pretty cool rule set. So, when the target selector is at 100, it lights the 100 targets, which are the two upper mushrooms. Then, if you hit target selector advance either here or here or here or even here, then it'll move to the next one, 30. And that will light the three 30-point um uh targets. Well, this these two mushroom targets here and then this lights here, I believe. And then, if you're on green, it lights the two actually 350s. And then, if you're on yellow, see if I can demonstrate show you what happens. So, I thought it would be like extra ball or something. So, one-handed here again, it's going to be a little challenging. I'm going to go for Ooh, that was a good save. The target selector right in the middle. Bounce pass, drop catch. Do a bounce pass to a trap. It's amazing the ball control on these little baby flippers. Okay, so now you can see the three blue lights. Oh, yeah. And um blue is tied into the gate. So, anytime your blue lights are lit, your gate will be open. When your blue lights When you advance your target selector, you turn off blue, your gate shuts. That is a cool rule. Okay, so we got green now. The three 50s are lit. So, now I'm going to try and advance to the yellow star. Are you ready? Everything is lit. Oh, everything's not lit anymore. But, because there's only one yellow star, you got to advance the selector like all the way around the wheel. But, how cool is that? That's pretty awesome. Pretty good buy. I think it was completely sight unseen, too. Sometimes you win gambles, sometimes you lose them, but it's fun to gamble. And uh I think I won the bull fight.