“That game is the most transcendental pinball experience I’ve had in years,” said PPM board member Jem Gruber. Over a year’s time, Kramer systematically tracked down individual parts for the machine as they miraculously appeared on French eBay and eventually brought this beautiful game back to full working condition. For Kramer, however, this didn’t pose a problem, as he speaks fluent French and comes from a French family. The machine needed a lot of work and it had another huge strike against it: it was French. The rare and valuable machine was a donation from Jim Dietrick of Pinball Revival Co., who’d been unable to restore the game due to the extreme rarity of Rally parts in America. That’s when Schiess brought Kramer past the West Club machine. I’m looking for something really different, I want a real challenge.”Ĭlearly, PPM must have something that could measure up to Kramer’s long established skill repairing antique American pinball games with complicated wiring and logic and parts that are near impossible to find. While perusing the warehouse one day with PPM Executive Director, Michael Schiess, Kramer said, “Mike, give me a machine to work on for the museum. The PPM retains a collection of several hundred machines in a warehouse in Alameda. Lovingly restored by long-time pinball tech and operator and former Atari engineer, Dan Kramer, through West Club’s patient restoration, Kramer has entered the realm of virtuoso technician. Solid State score displays and sounds capture a moment of French ingenuity in an otherwise American monopoly. In some ways the game is a full decade ahead of American pinball design. This unusual source for pinball results in West Club embodying European design sensibilities from the Mod era of the 1960s. Rally was a French pinball manufacturer designing games for the European market. This game marks the one resident of their collection not produced in the United States. Play a game on the newest addition to their exciting collection of more than 80 playable games: a 1967 Rally West Club. 12, 2012 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) - The Pacific Pinball Museum (PPM) welcomes the public to experience pinball with a European flair.
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