In 77 and 78 when I was 14 and 15, I was a bag boy at Publix in Homestead, Fl. Zares was at the end of the shopping center and had a arcade in the back, mostly pinball. Skiylab was one of my favorites. I got to where I would have 99 free games when I walked off and back to work. Most of the other pinball I would always leave at least a few games.
My God man, listening to you tryin to explain how the scoring works was killin me.Talkin about spellin out spacelab and callin it "spacewalk"? As for scoring, hitting the bumpers only lights the letter near that bumper. It does not lite up the letters in the "word" Spacelab that gives you your extra bonus. If memory serves, lighting all the letters near the bumpers, along with using the center mechanism allows you to score extra balls. Specials are triggered when you completely light up Spacelab, at which time you goto 2x on the bonus points. As basic as the playing field is, its actually a challenging scoring system, especially if youre chasing the specials or extra ball. I used to play this machine after school almost everyday. Id only have a quarter to work with but more times than not it would be enough to play for quite a while. Alot of times Id end up with a surplus of plays and would sell them to whoever was waiting to play. I really hope you are going to restore this machine to its original condition and are able to spend sometime playing it. Its been 45 yrs since Ive played this or the limited Spacelab version (same game, just eliminated the free replay option) and I still remember playing it like it was yesterday.
One of my favorite games, along with Williams' Triple Action. Relatively simple gameplay, but extremely easy to understand as you play, as opposed to the confusing mess found in modern all-ramp focused tables. And wasn't there another table with a sea theme that used the same table lay-out as Skylab? I may be remembering wrong, but I swear there were two tables that had that distinctive 5-ball center feature.
I just noticed that the spacesuits featured on the backglass painting were Project Mercury spacesuits, not Skylab-era EVA suits. Oh, well, can't expect them to be sticklers for astronautical accuracy...
I am looking for startup sequence for Skylab , I have the schematic so could follow along with the detail description for the start sequence. Right from the power start, left flipper activated,lock relay on I do not get to see "Game over light". Any kind of a description would help. Thanks Pat
Wow, looks great. I haven't seen one of these before. Interesting that the inserts spell out SPACELAB, not SKYLAB. I wonder if the game was originally supposed to be Spacelab, and they rebadged it. A question for you: you mentioned that the game would have originally had black spots on the cabinet art. Was that intentional, or just a byproduct of the factory surfacing?
In 77 and 78 when I was 14 and 15, I was a bag boy at Publix in Homestead, Fl. Zares was at the end of the shopping center and had a arcade in the back, mostly pinball. Skiylab was one of my favorites. I got to where I would have 99 free games when I walked off and back to work. Most of the other pinball I would always leave at least a few games.
My God man, listening to you tryin to explain how the scoring works was killin me.Talkin about spellin out spacelab and callin it "spacewalk"? As for scoring, hitting the bumpers only lights the letter near that bumper. It does not lite up the letters in the "word" Spacelab that gives you your extra bonus. If memory serves, lighting all the letters near the bumpers, along with using the center mechanism allows you to score extra balls. Specials are triggered when you completely light up Spacelab, at which time you goto 2x on the bonus points. As basic as the playing field is, its actually a challenging scoring system, especially if youre chasing the specials or extra ball.
I used to play this machine after school almost everyday. Id only have a quarter to work with but more times than not it would be enough to play for quite a while. Alot of times Id end up with a surplus of plays and would sell them to whoever was waiting to play. I really hope you are going to restore this machine to its original condition and are able to spend sometime playing it. Its been 45 yrs since Ive played this or the limited Spacelab version (same game, just eliminated the free replay option) and I still remember playing it like it was yesterday.
One of my favorite games, along with Williams' Triple Action. Relatively simple gameplay, but extremely easy to understand as you play, as opposed to the confusing mess found in modern all-ramp focused tables. And wasn't there another table with a sea theme that used the same table lay-out as Skylab? I may be remembering wrong, but I swear there were two tables that had that distinctive 5-ball center feature.
I just noticed that the spacesuits featured on the backglass painting were Project Mercury spacesuits, not Skylab-era EVA suits. Oh, well, can't expect them to be sticklers for astronautical accuracy...
Nice find. It looks like it doesn't need too much work to get it running perfectly again.
I am looking for startup sequence for Skylab , I have the schematic so could follow along with the detail description for the start sequence. Right from the power start, left flipper activated,lock relay on I do not get to see "Game over light". Any kind of a description would help. Thanks Pat
Really want a Skylab!
Wow, looks great. I haven't seen one of these before. Interesting that the inserts spell out SPACELAB, not SKYLAB. I wonder if the game was originally supposed to be Spacelab, and they rebadged it.
A question for you: you mentioned that the game would have originally had black spots on the cabinet art. Was that intentional, or just a byproduct of the factory surfacing?
Nice find.
they also done a spacelab same everything except for the name , but only 3 games I think I have one to rebuild for a friend
That's the add-a-ball version, made for areas where awarding free games was forbidden by gambling laws.