I Finally Found the Perfect Terminator 2 Pinball Machine! Was It Worth the Wait?

RetroRalph·video·24m 0s·analyzed·Dec 29, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

RetroRalph acquires restored Terminator 2 pinball with modern PinSound upgrades; first non-Stern in his collection.

Summary

RetroRalph showcases his newly acquired Terminator 2 pinball machine (Williams, 1992), a significant personal milestone after years of searching. The machine is extensively restored with modern upgrades including PinSound boards, Color DMD, LED lighting, powder-coated hardware, and a shaker motor, while maintaining original playfield integrity. RetroRalph details the restoration work, gameplay mechanics, and plans for additional modifications like stock flipper restoration.

Key Claims

Terminator 2 pinball (1992) was one of the first pinball machines RetroRalph remembers playing, at his sister's college
high confidence · Personal anecdote about formative gaming experience; emotional attachment to machine
Terminator 2 was the first pinball machine to feature an auto plunger gun grip design
medium confidence · RetroRalph states 'I don't think there was really any kind of auto plunger on games of this era and I think this sort of paved the way for that idea' but acknowledges uncertainty
Original backbox artwork by Doug Watson was created with very limited access to Terminator assets
medium confidence · RetroRalph cites 'the story goes' and 'I heard it was very limited' — hearsay/legend rather than confirmed fact
The original Terminator 2 CPU boards suffer from a 5V voltage issue that causes resets
high confidence · Discussed as known industry problem: 'that 5V issue that plagues these will not be a factor anymore' with PinSound modern boards
Original Williams Terminator 2 machines did not come with shaker motors
high confidence · RetroRalph notes 'there was no shaker motor option on these machines back then so this is something that PinSound has added'

Notable Quotes

“I've been trying to get this game for a really long time and I always always let it escape me for whatever reason but I finally found one”
RetroRalph @ ~0:45 — Establishes emotional narrative of long-sought acquisition; frames machine as meaningful personal goal
“this is like my childhood man I love this movie I'm such a big fan”
RetroRalph @ ~8:30 — Reveals personal attachment to Terminator IP and game; explains motivation for acquisition
“It's my first non-Stern you know you can look around this room and everything is is modern Stern machines and this is my first one that I have that's an older Williams machine”
RetroRalph @ ~25:15 — Signals collection diversity milestone; indicates Stern dominance in modern pinball market; shows RetroRalph's collection composition is heavily Stern-skewed
“I almost don't believe that I have it in my collection I never thought I'd find one that was in this great a condition that's been restored like this”
RetroRalph @ ~26:30 — Expresses satisfaction with machine condition and restoration quality; validates purchase decision
“this plays fast it doesn't play fast to today's standards it's actually kind of a slower playing game really when you think about it and the rule set is really simplistic”
RetroRalph @ ~25:45 — Notes gameplay design differences between 1992 Williams and modern Stern machines; characterizes Terminator 2 as accessible but mechanically simple by contemporary standards

Entities

RetroRalphpersonTerminator 2game Williamscompany PinSoundcompany Pin2DMDproductStern PinballcompanyFlippin' Out Pinballcompany

Signals

?
community_signal: Retro Jango YouTube community connection: industry content creators actively sharing mod sources and customization recommendations (3D-printed flipper hands from Denmark craftsperson), indicating peer-to-peer knowledge sharing in pinball enthusiast networks
medium · RetroRalph: 'there's actually a YouTuber named Retro Jango on YouTube pointed me to a guy in Denmark that makes sort of these 3D printed versions that look like the real hands'
?
competitive_signal: RetroRalph's collection (6 machines) is entirely Stern modern except for Terminator 2, indicating Stern dominates contemporary home collector demographics; Williams vintage acquisition signals emerging secondary market for restored classic machines
high · RetroRalph explicitly notes: 'It's my first non-Stern... everything is modern Stern machines and this is my first one that I have that's an older Williams machine'; collection spans Godzilla, John Wick, X-Men, Metallica, Jaws (all Stern)
?
design_philosophy: Doug Watson (artist) created Terminator 2 backbox artwork under asset-limited conditions (1991 film assets restricted during 1992 game development); artists adapted by abstractly depicting half-cyborg half-human theme despite incomplete reference materials
medium · RetroRalph cites industry lore: 'supposedly the story goes that he was given very limited access to the assets... I heard it was very limited... he did a pretty good job not having full access to the assets'
?
design_philosophy: Terminator 2 restoration strategy balances modernization (PinSound, Color DMD, shaker motor, LED lighting) with stock restoration (reverting flippers to original white rubber, preserving original playfield); reflects collector preference for 'keeping true to the original as much as possible' while improving reliability/gameplay
high · RetroRalph: 'I think it's a good blend of making it look modern but also keeping true to the original as much as possible'; orders original Williams flippers to revert non-stock red rubber aesthetic

Topics

Vintage Williams machine restoration and modernizationprimaryPinSound and aftermarket upgrade ecosystem for classic pinballprimaryRetroRalph's pinball collection composition and Stern dominancesecondaryTerminator 2 pinball design, history, and gameplay mechanicsprimaryComparison between 1992 Williams and modern Stern gameplay speed/complexitysecondaryCustom modifications and 3D-printed replacement parts for pinballsecondaryPinball machine nostalgia and personal gaming memoriessecondaryPinball parts sourcing and acquisition strategiesmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— RetroRalph expresses genuine enthusiasm and satisfaction with machine acquisition, restoration quality, and upgrade path. Emotional attachment to Terminator 2 IP and nostalgia amplifies positive sentiment. Minor criticisms (flipper aesthetics, cup holder design, mysterious No Fear logo) are framed as fixable issues rather than deal-breakers. Overall tone is celebratory about finally obtaining this long-sought machine.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

all right let's get started so first of all welcome to my pinball game room this is where I have all my pinball machines so you can see I've got the Pinball Alley sign right there front and center which is a really cool kind of centerpiece for the whole room and then you have my game line up right here now you're probably wondering where's Terminator it's in here it's just kind of in the corner but I have Godzilla 70th John Wick The Uncanny X-Men the Metallica remastered which I am really really liking oh my gosh it is so much fun and I just recently put the expression lighting kit inside it this is the premium so it didn't come stock with that so it has the art blades and the expression lights I put the expression lights on the back and then my buddy Jason 3D printed me the Metallica M to match which is which is really cool so thank you to him for doing that and then I have Jaws at the end so over here in the corner is Terminator 2 I've been trying to get this game for a really long time and I always always let it Escape me for whatever reason but I finally found one and I think this one is pretty nice so I'm going to show you around the machine so this one you first notice it that the the lock bar and the side rails and everything and the legs have all been powdercoated sort of a silver finish like a gray finish now normally this would have been like a chrome finish on the stock you know the stock setup but I like the way this looked you can see on the coin door they kind of I don't think this is the stock coin door actually cuz I don't think it had just one coin return but so that is a little bit outside of original all the artwork's been changed so all the artwork is brand new the cabinet itself is also brand new so this isn't an original cabinet it's actually a new cabinet I believe the base cabinet is new the backbox seems to be original so you can see on the side art on the backbox that looks really good too like on the side of it again it's all brand new so all this stuff has been replaced it's it's pretty much a complete uh rehab of of the whole entire game so I mean I'm I'm very very happy I didn't really want to get one that I had to do the restoration work myself although I could I just didn't feel like that's something I wanted to do so for this I got one that was pretty complete so let's just go over the Playfield and I'll show you some things that they changed and some things that are original the first thing you'll notice when you come up is the anything that's a wire form has been powder coated in in Red so I'll show you more of that in a minute the um the flippers are not original as a matter of fact I had just ordered the original Williams flippers from Marco and they just came in so let's go over here really quick and I'll show you they came in I have a box uh let's see no they're not even in a box so these are the ones that should be on there just White and the stock ones had a Red Rubber on it so I'm going to put it back to stock so if I at least according to the poster the promotional poster for the game it was a white flipper Williams with the Red Rubber so that's what I'm going to do so I'm going to put that on here soon so I I don't really like the way these flippers are to be honest um that's my only problem with it they they feel great like the solenoids and the coils or whatever are great but I just don't like the way they look and they also seem a bit thicker than normal flipper but the Gap is is the same so that's the first thing you'll notice uh like if if you're not familiar with the game it's supposed to look like terminator's kind of arms are sticking out there there's actually a retro Jango on YouTube pointed me to a guy in Denmark that makes sort of these 3D printed versions that look like the real hands so I'm probably going to mod those and put those on there cuz I thought they looked really cool but from the top you can kind of see the aesthetic look they were trying to go for there where it's a the terminator's actual arms coming out like sort of at you the Playfield is all original it uh it looks really good it's it's in very very very good shape you can see those wire forms those wire forms with the uh powder coating this also has art blades on it that wasn't I don't think anything that was original or stock so I'll try to show you those I don't think there was ever art blades put on this machine this machine came out in 1992 and the movie came out in 1991 the artwork's interesting if you look I think the artist's name is right here so the artist is where's his name oh Doug Watson so Doug Watson supposedly The Story Goes that he was given very limited access to the assets when he was doing this backbox image and you know it come to find out if you look at it like he did a pretty good job not having full access to the assets if you think about it I mean he I think he was kind of told to depict it as Arnold kind of half Cyborg and half you know human flesh and I think he did a really good job with this I don't know how many assets he got but I I heard it was very limited and uh and so so I think he did a really good job all things considered on the artwork now on this one you'll see the DMD has been replaced with a color DMD uh I don't know I could go either way with this I like the stock DMD so I could go with the stock or the color I think the color makes it look more modernized so I I do like that so as we scroll up the Playfield you can see most stuff actually I got to fix this little Target here it actually looks like it the target looks like it's just got bent over a little bit so I'm sure that's just move it over and adjust the screw or something the Canon looks good the Canon doesn't have the original art on it though I I I don't mind that but I guess I could always put that on there if I wanted but the Canon all everything all works it's fully functional there's no errors on the game or anything you can see that this has been replaced the ship has been replaced with with a a better looking one in my opinion and then the t2 head has also been replaced and the eyes kind of have this like cool glowing effect you can almost see I don't know if that was intentional or not but I I really like the way that looks and that T2 arm is also not original so that's a mod as well I do have a couple more mods coming but uh but I I don't think that head was on the original either that's also a modification I think that was just a plastic if you look you can kind of see the old head below it so if you look just whole view of the Playfield this thing looks really good like for being a game from 1992 I think the guy that had it did a really good job on the restoration and it just overall looks it looks it looks really good I couldn't be more happy and I I know I've told the story about this before but uh but this was like one of the first pinball maches I really remember playing and it was at my sister's college so this is this is this one has kind of meant a lot to me and I've never been able to get one I finally got one the pop bumpers are also I think Replacements I don't think the originals looked like that so those look pretty cool so I think it's a good blend of making it look modern but also keeping true to the original as much as as possible so yeah the handle itself this was the gun grip I think this was the first of its kind I don't think there was really any kind of Auto plunger on games of this era and I think this sort of paved the way for that idea of an auto plunger this would have been Chrome in the original so that is a modification and then you can see I did put the pin sound I play a lot with headphones so I put the pin sound headphone jack on the side there I don't love the way that looks honestly but uh it's a good option and it gets good quality sound so I did I did use that and I and I do have the pin sound sound board but we'll talk more about that later cuz this runs both the stock soundtrack an enhanced version of the stock soundtrack and um this like really cool modern soundtrack that has you know modern music and the movie you know the movie soundt track and all that stuff so the only thing about this machine I really don't like is this I don't know what this was all about that looks like a no fear logo so I'm going to probably swap that out for something that makes more sense to the game but yeah that's that's kind of an overall look at the game itself and how it the condition of it does have a Topper on it too so I'll back up a little bit so you can see the whole thing but I think it looks really good I'm probably going to take the cup holder off too I'm not really a big fan of cup holders on games only because I just don't like the way they look but anyway so I'm going to do uh right now I'm going to actually open up the backbox so you can take a look at that cuz I made some changes and modifications to that and then I'm going to kind of go over a couple more things that are different on my machine versus the stock machine okay let's take a look at the backbox because I changed out a lot of these components to sort of Bulletproof the system as a whole but before we do that I want to show you sort of a reference of what you'd find typically in the backbox Assembly of this uh Williams game so you'll have a dot matrix controller board a sound board the CPU board and the power driver board I've replaced this upper half with all pin sound replacement boards so I'm going to show you that in a second and then you'd have the standard Matrix display and I replac that with the pin 2 DMD color display so we'll start with the CPU board the CPU board has been modernized there's a a later version eom that's got the 8.4 code on it right there you can see that with the Terminator 2 uh logo printed on it it does have an Envy Ram so your high scores are going to be saved forever which is great it has the original Williams CPU when you buy a board like this you can buy it from pin sound complete if you buy it complete it's going to have the CPU the MV Ram the eom and I forget what that chip is I think that's some some sort of microprocessor you'll get all of that so if you order it complete you want it to just be a full drop in replacement you just order the complete option it's going to cost you a little bit more but it'll give you everything you need to drop it in if not you can harvest the components from you know a known working uh CPU board but I like this because it's modernized not going to have any problems with it and they integrated the no more resets into it so that 5vt issue that plagues these will not uh be a factor anymore um that used to be sold as a separate component by a couple other companies I believe but yeah it's integrated into this board so you don't have to worry about it the pin sound soundboard this has the new soundtracks loaded to it so you can have a you can see there's a USB stick in there so that USB stick has the soundtracks I'm talking about and I'll I'll scroll through those a little bit and show you an example of those and then my buddy Matt got me this cool this cool keychain for Christmas actually so that was pretty neat so it's better than just a a lame set of keys with no keychain and then the DMD Lux board so this thing is really cool because I guess the original DMD board ran really really hot this does not it runs a lot cooler and if you're going to have a game for a long period of time especially one that was made in 1992 why not modernize that and it does have just like all these pin sound boards it has great LED indicator lights to kind of tell you what your voltages are and and basically if the game is running well and the only original board I have is the power driver board so right now that's running stock there is a company rotten dog and I think a couple other ones that create modern replacements for this but I think I'm going to run with this one for now and if if it gives me any problems maybe I'll look into the rotten dog one or or I'll get this one repaired or something like that and then they did replace the speakers not the best speakers in here but um they did replace the speakers I believe this is the stock Tweeter but yeah so the speaker systems all been modernized and everything and so has the DMD okay before we go under the Playfield I want to show you a little bit of gameplay my main focus is really going to be so you can hear the alternative soundtrack that the pin sound soundboard gives you now don't fret the original soundtrack is still there and you can switch between the two and I will show you that but I really want you to focus on the soundtrack cuz it brings a new modern element to the game so I'm going to hit start and I'm just going to let you listen for a minute so you can hear what it sounds like in comparison to the original now pull the trigger okay so you can hear this is like my childhood man I love this movie I'm such a big fan in the DU d d d du makes me think of this scene from Family Guy I have to show it really quick cuz it's super funny so I'm going to cut away for a second so you can see this and then I'll bring you right back okay I love Family Guy that's the best they make fun of everything they're awesome all right so we're going to get started the first thing we're going to do is you're going to see this sequence of Lights we're trying to hit the hunter killer and bring it down so what we're going to do is we're going to try to get this we have to time it just right and I got it so you you probably noticed I changed the flippers so I actually re-recorded this segment so now I have the new flippers these are the flippers this thing came with and man it makes a big difference on accuracy the other ones kind of felt like Jersey Jack floaty flippers these feel great so what we're going to try to do first is get the ball underneath the t2 head we got to do that twice and when we do that what's going to happen is we're going to lock a ball if I can get it of course whenever I play on camera it's always a different sub story but there we go okay you hit that thing twice it loads the cannon now here's where you can start multiball for the first time if I get it and I got it so now it starts multiball no I lost one already all right let's see what we can shoot damn it that was not how this was supposed to go okay we still have that other ball locked so it's going to bring it right into the cannon for another jackpot at will we got it now you probably can't ah shoot hey we got a good jackpot anyway so you probably don't notice this but the Shaker motor I installed by pin sound is amazing when I go under the Playfield you're going to hear that the thing is actually turned way down I can't believe how dramatic of an effect it has on this all right let's see if we can get this hunter killer one more time we missed it um shoot there we go okay we're going to play for a minute longer and then I'm going to actually I'm going to show you you guys under the Playfield but I'm also going to change the soundtrack so you can hear what it sounds like all right we got to load the gun again let's see if we can do it there we go destroy all right so this one there's two Targets this should be pretty easy we got it shot so you get the ah shoot you get the point this game is kind of wash rinse repeat of that sequence you can do different modes by this far left shot I'll see if I can do it real quick that's also one of the ways you can start video mode we'll do this one more we'll do this sequence one more time and then um ah we get we should get a we should get a ball back there we go okay all right well it wasn't meant to be we're going to open up the the coin box here and I'm going to turn on the original soundtrack there's a couple other soundtracks on here most of them are there's like a weird one that's like sounds like that song Do Hast Do Hast mes or whatever that is don't know why that's on here maybe there's some tie a Terminator I don't know about you hear that jingle all right now we're back to the original soundtrack that should be I can't tell if this is there's a modified version and an original version you know what this sounds like let's see come with me so this is the the updated version of the original we don't want this but just know that it's on here as well and pin sound provides all these so I'm going to no that's not it here it is okay so it's as simple as lowering the volume all the way down and then bringing it back up now I noticed there's a little glitch in this it's going to the audio soundtrack will kickback in here in a second as soon as I launch the ball direct H so just give it a second there you go so this is the soundtrack you're probably more familiar with um I like both of them to be honest I think it's cool that they're both on here [Music] those um those little Lanes up there if you if you continue to light those shots it'll get you your multipliers shoot all right let's see see how much we can see how much further we can get real quick ah there we go damn it do you see it says on the screen it says a chill out dick wad sometimes he says chill out dickwad which is kind of funny but the initiated all right shoot we got to get that shot Man One More Time come on didn't get it oh oh saved by the pin having those pins in these older games is kind of useful all right let's see what we can do come on we got to get it one more time all right we're going to get it I can feel it go around that orbit a couple times we're going to get it right here there we go take your best stop and then after this I promise you we'll go under the play field and check it out I missed oh oh nice save there all right well you get the point I can sit here and play all day but we will do a live stream on this machine eventually so we'll play it and have a bunch of fun but for now hopefully you enjoyed that I think the pin sound and the the the combination of the pin sound and the Shaker motor from pin sound just really makes this game amazing all right let's look under the Playfield okay as promised I wanted to show you under the Playfield the only thing that's really been modified or changed under the Playfield is all of the lights all of the bulbs have been changed out for LED bulbs so everything should be real reliable when it comes to lighting the flippers have gone through complete rebuilds although I'm still going to change out the bats like I said I don't like that they change the bats for those kind of I'll show you another picture of them or a closeup of them I just feel like these are thicker than the original ones and I just feel like it I don't know the ball's kind of bouncy off of them I just I don't know there's something about them I don't like so I will put those back to the original stock flippers but yeah everything is super clean there's been some wiring that's been cleaned up but I feel real good about my purchase I feel like they did a really good job restoring this machine so other than that what's changed they added a newer upgraded subwoofer so this is a pile subwoofer I might go with pin sound or um or pin woofer on this but the one that's here works fine so for now I'm just going to keep it and then I did add a Shaker motor this makes such a big difference now keep in mind there was no Shaker motor option on these machines back then so this is something that pin sound has added uh and sort of coated it for the soundtrack to work properly so that's pretty cool the other thing I noticed in the base of the cabinet they have the original Plastics for the ship and the head and when you look at this stuff in comparison to what's on there now it it does look fairly cheesy um the original stuff it was just some basic plastic parts so if you compare it I mean look at the ship it's just amazing it's a great sculpt I don't know where they got this or who made it but it's really nice and then the t2 head is just amazing the detail on it is great you you just it just makes it look that much better so overall I'm really really excited and happy about this purchase it's one of those things where I have to pinch myself I can't even believe that I even have this in my collection it's my first non Stern you know you can look around this room and everything is is modern Stern machines and this is my first one that I have that's an older Williams machine so I'm really happy about that it's it's nice it kind of you know these games all play really fast and really modern and while this T2 plays fast it doesn't play Fast to today's standards it's actually kind of a slower playing game really when you think about it and the rule set is really simplistic simplistic so it's one of those like pick up and you can play really easily uh everything else like I said has been modernized in the coin door you've got LEDs on the coin door uh your control panel right there all of that functions properly so you can go into your test menu and do what you need to do there the um the Tilt Bob that's where I have it set right now so it's pretty sensitive actually it you can't really move this game around too much but overall like I said I'm really really happy with it and and uh yeah I I I'm just I'm just super excited to have it in my collection all right guys that about wraps up this video I hope you enjoyed this look at my latest pickup the Terminator 2 I'm I'm so excited about this game it's been one that I've tried to get for a really long time now so it's just it's just I almost don't believe that I have it in my collection I never thought I'd find one that was in this great a condition that's been restored like this so it's a win-win either way I see it so if you're looking for a new or used pinball machine go check out flipping out pinball the sponsor of this video I'll have a link in the description to that so you can check them out and that's it for now guys we will see you on the next one