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Part 2: 1978 Interflip Alaska 4 Player EM. The cabinet is finished!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·24m 11s·analyzed·Feb 15, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.022

TL;DR

Alaska EM cabinet restoration completed; playfield switch cleaning and electrical diagnostics underway.

Summary

Mike Dus continues restoration of a 1978 Interflip Alaska 4-player EM pinball machine, focusing on playfield switch cleaning and electrical work. Kevin completes the cabinet restoration with extensive sandblasting, powder coating, and paint work. The episode culminates with the finished cabinet arriving and inspection of internal components, revealing numerous switches requiring attention.

Key Claims

  • There are three different versions of Alaska in existence: solid state 4-player, single player EM, and 4-player EM

    high confidence · Mike Dus provides detailed breakdown of Alaska variants; states he cannot find any photos of 4-player EM Alaska online and may have the only one

  • The Alaska cabinet was restored by Kevin using sandblasting, powder coating, and complete paint work over several weeks

    high confidence · Kevin and Mike discuss extensive cabinet work including color matching, new nylon feet, manufactured neck from template, sandblasted and painted parts

  • Flash Gordon pinball machine now has functional sound after Corey refurbished the soundboard

    high confidence · Mike and Kevin test Flash Gordon gameplay and explicitly confirm sound restoration: 'Finally, the Emperor is here' and reference GTO soundboard quality

  • The Alaska four-player EM playfield has numerous seized steppers and many switches requiring cleaning and adjustment

    high confidence · Mike observes seized solenoid, mentions extensive relay work ahead, and discovers multiple playfield-mounted switches that appear closed and need adjustment

Notable Quotes

  • “When I am done with this machine, it is going to be the nicest fourplayer EM Alaska in existence. Yes, perhaps maybe the only one.”

    Mike Dus @ early in video — Establishes the rarity and restoration goal of the Alaska machine; indicates this may be a unique specimen

  • “Kevin has been battling the Alaskan elements for like a couple weeks now. And I think Alaska won the battle.”

    Mike Dus @ cabinet arrival segment — Humorous acknowledgment of the difficulty and duration of the cabinet restoration work

  • “Short of restling the entire cabinet. This is as good as an Alaska is going to get.”

    Kevin @ cabinet inspection — Kevin assesses that the restoration quality is near-maximal without complete cabinet rebuild

  • “There's a lot of sand blasted and painted parts. The back is brand new. The neck was manufactured from scratch using this template here from the one player Alaska.”

    Kevin @ cabinet detail walkthrough — Details the extent of cabinet reconstruction work beyond typical restoration

  • “F you emperor Ming.”

    Mike Dus @ Flash Gordon gameplay segment — Casual commentary during Flash Gordon gameplay testing after sound restoration

Entities

Mike DuspersonKevinpersonCoreyperson1978 Interflip Alaska 4-player EMgameFlash GordongameGrazley GarageorganizationRob BurkepersonElliepersonGTO soundboardproductDremelproduct

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Cross-platform collaboration between Pinball Shenanigans and Grazley Garage; Kevin provides specialized cabinet restoration services; Corey provides soundboard refurbishment

    high · Episode described as 'merger of Grazley Grudge and Pinball Shenanigans'; Kevin's professional cabinet work; Corey's soundboard expertise demonstrated

  • $

    market_signal: Alaska 4-player EM machine rarity and uniqueness; may be only existing example of this specific variant online

    medium · Mike states 'I cannot find any photos of a fourplayer EM Alaska on the internet at all' and 'this might be the only one'; establishing machine as potentially unique specimen

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple seized solenoids and steppers discovered on Alaska playfield requiring restoration work; switch cleaning required extensive wet sanding and Dremel work

    high · Mike observes 'seized solenoid' and notes stepper wheels 'not turning too well'; extensive switch maintenance documented with multiple cleaning methods

  • ?

    technology_signal: Adoption of aftermarket soundboard (GTO) on classic Flash Gordon machine; improvement in audio quality and gameplay experience

    high · Mike explicitly states 'So much better' after GTO soundboard installation; audio testing demonstrates quality improvement; GTO referenced as premium sound option

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:01
Welcome back to Alaska. The coldest pinball machine on the planet. I did have an ice fever before. Not as cold. Hold on. Let's go together.
0:14
Wee. This chair is the best. I'm Mike Dus and this is Pinball Shenanigans.
0:29
What other cold themed pinball machines are out there? Can you think of any? I can think of ice review. That's like a ' 60s one maybe or early '7s. What other cold themed pinball machines are out there? Anyway, let's uh warm up and get started. Okay, so I had a tenant move out recently and left behind this tiny little purple office chair and I wasn't sure what to do with it until today when I thought to myself, hey, if I am working on this playing field, wouldn't it be nice to have a chair that has wheels? Let's go for a ride. And I thought, you know, it's really like tiny compact chair might not be comfortable. I was going to replace this chair altogether with a nice office chair, but at least for this project, this is perfect. I can just wheel around installing light bulbs and LEDs and cleaning switches. I can just go round and round with such ease. Oh, I can do the relays. That's what I'll do today. Maybe maybe like deal with this stepper. Take this apart. Possibly clean it up. I want to, you know what I think I'll do first is try and free this seized solenoid. I think that's where I'm going to start. So, anyway, um let's uh get started. In case you didn't watch the first episode, I'll just give you a quick little intro into Alaska. There are three different versions out there in the wild. There is the solid state version, four player. There is the single player EM, and then there is the four player EM version. Uh, you cannot I cannot find any photos of a fourplayer EM Alaska on the internet at all. So, I don't know if any others exist. I'm sure they do, just not on the internet. So, this might be the only one. Point of the matter is that when I am done with this machine, it is going to be the nicest fourplayer EM Alaska in existence. Yes, perhaps maybe the only one, but hey, here, check this out. This is me, the pinsider that has the game in the collection. And there is one pinsider that has this game on the wish list. Um, because probably most people don't even know this thing exists. But who is this? Why can't I click on it? Is it Rob Burke? I may have to reach out to him when all is said and done. Okay, I'm going I am going to, in fact, start with that solenoid. This is what is supposed to happen. And on this guy, this is what happens. So, let's just take it apart. It's just six flathead screws. And get to the bottom of this. Look who came to inspect things. Hi, Ellie. Everything uh check out here, huh? Are you going to go up to your perch? All right. I'll move my stuff out of the way for you here. There you go. Nice jump.
4:02
All right, I better uh stop slacking off. All right, got the screws removed. Let's see what is going on here. Definitely some rust underneath the bracket.
4:20
Doesn't look to be like a swollen solenoid or melted. That looks fine in there. And other than some rust and corrosion, look at that. It's free. Oh, I think I see what's going on here. Hold on. It is this pivot point right here. What's on the other side of this?
4:51
Uh, let me uh go over to the other side. Hold on. Let's go together. Wee wee. This chair is the best. Okay, where are we? Let's take a closer look.
5:10
All right, I don't really see anything. Look at this. It just needs to be worked in here. So, let me mess with that for a minute. And uh that shouldn't be uh too much trouble. Okay, I just cleaned up the plunger and used some steel wool and a file to clean up this pivot point here. And I think that's about all that's going to need. All right, check it out. Back in business. So, now that that's done, I just been going around to a lot of the other switches. Sorry, Mike. I'm going to have to interrupt you right here. Um, I just got news that the Alaska cabinet is finished. So, I have to go pick that up, check it out. It looks amazing from the photos. So, we got to bring that home and um yeah, then we'll be back to the program. All right. Kevin has been battling the Alaskan elements for like a couple weeks now. And I think Alaska won the battle. It did. did. But uh But uh crossbite crossbite like your beard has grown out like uh like your beard has grown out like uh you know 4 in since you've been working on this thing. But here it is. This is the finished product. And uh it was well worth your efforts. Short of restling the entire cabinet. This is as good as an Alaska is going to get. Your color match of the beige. Basically from this point on to the back is all new paint and including the head all was taped off. All of the art and touched up meticulously. The back is brand new. The neck was manufactured from scratch using this template here from the one player Alaska. Got new nylon feet. We'll take a peek inside the head after, but there's a lot of sand blasted and painted parts. The back door turned out great. Looks like a new lock and key. And then, of course, this awesome powder coating that matches beautifully.
7:24
Initially, it was just the coin door that was uh orange, right? the coin door that was uh orange, right? Yeah. And then Yeah. And then we sort of I took this to match the best we sort of I took this to match the best I could and it actually matches like almost and it actually matches like almost identical. And then we did the frame as well. Yeah, Yeah, that was just stainless before. And you that was just stainless before. And you polished every single bolt and screw and part like even these guys coin returns look brand spanking new. And uh looks look brand spanking new. And uh looks like it takes five pas. Yeah. Yeah. Or 25 pas. I actually tried to change Or 25 pas. I actually tried to change these, but they're different size than the regular quarter one. So, I I had to glue this and Oh, it was broken. Oh, okay. Right on. Oh, it was broken. Oh, okay. Right on. But yeah, so also powder coated the legs to match and I think it looks killer. And um whole inside was painted. You had every part and piece out of this cabinet. Got the bottom board at home. Oh, did Got the bottom board at home. Oh, did you sand blast and retap these um leg uh bolt receivers as well? They look brand new. They look brand new. And And white powder coated rail here. All the metals are nice and rail here. All the metals are nice and shiny. And the front art was also taped off. Like this stuff here. This was like super broken and smashed. This was like super broken and smashed. I remember. Yeah, it was like crumbling away. Hey, Yeah, it was like crumbling away. Hey, you could just touch it and it was like falling to bits. Back glass is um got a little bit of wear and tear, but I sealed it. So I sealed it. So Oh. Oh, right. That's right. It's Oh. Oh, right. That's right. It's sealed. So, it's going to not wear and tear any more than it has. So, find any replacement. So, uh yeah, good luck. Uh you have to make uh yeah, good luck. Uh you have to make an Alaska back glass if you uh need a replacement. So, good luck with that. I think uh it's time to back. Oh, yeah. Back door. Oh, yeah. Back door. It's going to say take this home. Get it out of your space. But, uh, even inside of the head here is looking real nice. Look at all these metals. Every single one of these sandlasted, painted. This guy here, this guy here, the corner brackets, and it's actually remarkably clean in here, surprisingly. I can't wait to go through all these switches. Oh my god. And all these switches. Oh no, there's so many switches. Corey, I am totally calling Corey. Are these uh steppers like seized or Oh no, that doesn't feel like that wheels turning too well. What have I got myself into? What did I get you into? What did we get ourselves into? Seemed like a good idea to Seemed like a good idea to It did. Uh we'll we'll see uh once we It did. Uh we'll we'll see uh once we plug this thing in and turn it on if that was a good idea or not. Anyway, all right. Time to take Alaska home. I was going to call upon Jay the neighbor who lives right there, but gold balls showed up and put them to work. We got Alaska into the basement. What do you think was heavier, the the body or the head? Uh the body is the head is heavier Uh the body is the head is heavier because it's got the computer and stuff in it. Of course, for the size of it, pretty much. Well, I mean, it's some heavy and thick Well, I mean, it's some heavy and thick ass wood, and it was uh not exactly fun, but Alaska cabinet has arrived. And now back to the show. And now back to the show. The playfield here The playfield here uh including pop bumpers and cleaning them with my Dremel. There's a lot of switches.
11:15
That one I did yesterday. These guys I did yesterday. Oh, I did this guy here. Dremel really works well for this application here. I could run some sandpaper through it, but Dremel just does such a good job. Obviously, I can't really show you the top side very easily, but you just cram the Dremel in there and spin away. I think I might have some adjusting to do on the lower switches. They all seem to be closed. That's where the skirt. I think these are uh these are some pretty thick skirt legs. Look typical pinball skirt is like maybe half that thickness. So, I'm not sure what's going on there. But these all appear to be closed. And this guy. So, why are they all closed? Is that guy? Maybe that guy is actually not closed. So, I got some adjusting to be doing, but I think I've got all of the uh playfield mounted switches done. Now, I've got to do like all of these guys on both drop target banks and then all of these guys. So, I think I'll just be doing that for the next little bit. Okay, just for good housekeeping, I'm going to resolder that particular wire to this pop bumper and this green wire to this pop bumper. And I already did this one. Not sure why they're all frayed and falling off, but I don't like those uh joints there. So, I'm going to make them better. Okay, this is all done. And I think the reason is just because they're so these wires are so like there's not a lot of play here. It's tight to the harness. So I tried to like add a little bit of slack here. But as you can see it's pretty taut. Same with this wire here. So that's probably why they started fraying and coming off. There's a little more slack here. But uh that's done. All right. Next thing I'm going to do is go through these relays one by one. Pull off this clip. And then just slides out like this. And then that gives me nice access to the switches. And I'm not going to try and cram in my Dremel into that tight space cuz it's just going to bend the switches. Oh, is that supposed to be touching? Yeah. You got to make sure uh nothing's touching. That shouldn't be, but yeah, look at that. That could potentially cause a problem there. So, I'll spread those tabs out, investigate all of those, and then I'll just go down the line. Okay, meticulously cleaned every switch. I didn't actually have to adjust any of them. They were all good. I started off with a file and then sandpaper. These are high voltage switch contacts. So, it's okay to use a little aggression. If it's like the low voltage contacts, you don't want to sand them because you'll just sand off the gold plating and then it'll tarnish. Let's just kind of take a quick peek at how clean these things actually are cuz I haven't really looked. It's tough to get in there. That doesn't look all that good to be honest. But I mean, I rubbed with sandpaper for eons, but doesn't really look that good compared to, you know, my nice shiny Dremel jobs over here. Like look at this. It is like mirror finish. So, I don't know. Hopefully, that was sufficient because I don't really want to do that all over again. Okay, I did go ahead and kind of like wet sandpaper every switch just to try and clean them just a little bit more. And they're not perfect, but I mean, if you look closely, you can see where the blackness was compared to where it's been cleaned. So, it just doesn't have that shiny look to it. But you can definitely see, you know, they all used to just be completely black. But not just the circumference. Oh, I got a little bit of water in there. I got to clean that out. But anyway, hopefully that works. All right. This is one way to get rid of any remnants of moisture.
16:55
Okay, I think I'm done for the night. Time to get out of here.
17:03
Okay, while we're here, let's just uh take a quick peek at the Grazley garage cuz this is going to be an Alaskan episode. It's kind of like a merger of Grazley Grudge and Pinball Shenanigans. But, uh, while we're here, rumor on the street is that Flash Gordon finally has sound. Corey was here and, uh, got this up and running. So, let's play some Flash Gordon. I give that to you. Okay. And, let's hear Flash Gordon in all its glory. Cory, did he uh, he took the soundboard home and worked on it? Yeah. Ooh, that does sound good. Oh, that's what it's supposed to sound like. So much better. Oh, it's nice and cranked, too. Beautiful. Was waiting for you, too, Emperor. Was waiting for you, too, Emperor. Finally, the Emperor is here.
18:03
All right, we got to set a a goal. What's the goal? Try and get all the drop targets down and build up some bonus. Let's do that. Okay, here we go. Got to go later.
18:21
Backhanded. Forehanded. No. No. Oh, that's all right. I wanted to hear Oh, that's all right. I wanted to hear Emperor Ming laugh at me anyway. So much better. Good job, Cory.
18:41
There is a way to get like 2x and 3x scoring on this game and it comes with some cool sound effects. I just don't know how to do it.
18:56
Oh man, it's so sensitive. It is on wheels. I may or may not have removed the tilt bob. F you emperor Ming. Is this set for five balls still? Uh, it's set for four. Uh, it's set for four. Four.
19:16
Okay, so here, see the 2x and 3x right there? How do we activate that?
19:25
Okay, if I hit this last drop target, at least we can light the spinner and try and rip some spinners and see how that sounds.
19:34
No. Oh, I would have tilted there if I didn't mess that tip up. Don't you dare.
19:47
Okay, here we go. Money shot. Oh, you know what? I forgot this drop target is broken, so it doesn't register. So, we can't light the spinner. All right, we're going for these drops, then.
20:01
Here we go. Oh, man. At least I got ball four. How do we get the playfield score to multiply? Sure, it tells us somewhere, but I'm going to look quickly here. I'll edit this out. Uh, bonus multiplier. 2x and 3x are lit by dropping the inlane targets. Yeah, I want playfield. Uh, ball and saucer. When 2x or 3x are lit, lights the 15 second clock seconds to increase play. I can't read without my glasses, but yeah, when they're lit, you go in there to start them. How do you light them? Ignites playfield. All right, let's uh try and have an epic hall four.
21:07
So, this machine has uh GTO soundboard option, you said. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So, as cool as this sounds, the you So, as cool as this sounds, the you know, the GTO guy actually messaged me on one of my videos and said, "By the way, it's pronounced like the letters GTO." I was calling like geotech or I don't even know what I was calling it. I think we were all calling that. I think we were all calling that. So, it's GTO. I know how to say it now. So, it's GTO. I know how to say it now. But you think this sounds cool? Wait till you hear the GTO board. Let's try a little tap pass.
21:47
I'm having a hard time with the inline drops. Let's get them this time. Go. One more. Try a sh. Oh, that's better. Other than my tap. Oh my god. Rolling tap. Okay. Big money shot. Yes. Oh, I can get an extra ball if I hit that shot one more time.
22:08
Oh. Oh, it was on the fly. That was silly. Don't do that. No. All right, let's shot 4x multiplier up there. One more drop target.
22:27
Got it. Extra balls might be turned off or the light might not be working. Okay, I want this last drop target.
22:45
Another ramp. Oh no. All right, let's check out our bonus countdown. It's not horrible.
22:55
Oh, I did get an extra. No. Yes. Same player shoots again, but football. All right. Okay. Yep. All four. I All right. Okay. Yep. All four. I thought I thought it was saying all five, but it's credit five. Oh, how much better
23:11
reset all my bonus. So, I got to do that from scratch. Yeah.
23:20
Do you know there's a cool collect bonus feature on this game? No, I did not. I'll see if I can demonstrate it.
23:33
You have to actually shoot it the ball back into the plunger lane.
23:40
Now, first I got to get that drop target that's blocking the path.
23:48
Okay, here we go. Got the drop target now. One more time. Let me live. Money shot right here.
24:05
A little early. There we go. So much better with