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Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter Announcement

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Buck Thompson

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Sep 17, 2012, 1:40:18 AM9/17/12
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Greetings fellow pinball enthusiasts,

I just want to let you all know about a product I've been working on for almost a year now, that's now shipping. I have developed a new line of pinball audio headset adaptors for Bally/Williams WPC, WPC95, Stern White Star, and Stern SAM pinball machines. I call the product the Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter.

The Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter allows audio headphones and ear-buds to be plugged into many solid state and most DMD pinball machines. By using headphones users can optimize their ability to hear the pinball audio soundtrack.

The need: In home pinball collections players are often limited to the volume they can play pinball audio without disturbing others. In any environment, such as an arcade, where two or more pinball machines are being played, it’s nearly impossible to listen to the sound cues and background music. Both of these problems can be immediately addressed by using a Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter. Furthermore, modern headphones often provide far superior audio quality in comparison to typical pinball speakers—improving the overall audio experience. Many competitive pinball players have found that their overall scores improve when using headphones attached to a Buckwerx adapter.

The Buckwerx Audio Adapter was designed to plug into a pinball machine with about 10 minutes of effort. No permanent modifications are required—meaning the system can be easily removed or moved to another game.

The Buckwerx audio adapter will be made available through two US resellers: Pinball Life (www.pinballlife.com), an internet pinball merchant; and at pinball shows via Rob Anthony (aka Borygard) and his company Pinball Classics (www.lockwhenlit.com). Introductory list pricing will be $55 USD for WPC and WPC95 games such as Attack From Mars™, Scared Stiff™ and Twilight Zone, and $65 USD for Stern Pinball games such as Lord Of The Rings™, AC/DC™ and Pirates Of The Caribbean™. If sufficient market exists, Buckwerx expects to offer the Audio Adapter on Data East games such as Tommy™ and Guns ‘n Roses™ and Capcom games including Pinball Magic and Big Bang Bar. Buckwerx products come with a one year return to factory warranty.

Games on which the product can be installed must have an open dollar bill acceptor panel on the front door. For games lacking a bill acceptor, a replacement coin door can be obtained from Pinball Life.

I have always been interested in mechanical design, and pinball machines. Even as a kid, I loved to take things apart to see how they worked. My family has collected pinball machines for as long as I can remember, and I believe that it was pinball that helped to spur my interest in mechanics. Today, I work part time as a pinball repair mechanic, and hope to go to school for engineering in the near future. My dad had ordered a Jersey Jack Pinball Wizard of Oz machine (serial number 221), and Jack had mentioned that it could have a 3.5mm audio jack. I thought—that’s a great product, but why can’t we have that on our existing games?

Last year, I decided that I wanted to make something – some fun aftermarket gadget to interface with pinball machines. In 2011 I met with Kim Mitchell (aka Mr68), the creator of Wrong Crowd Productions, to brainstorm on the subject and soon came up with the idea for a Pinball Headphone Audio Adaptor. After some research and prototype work, and with the help of family members, friends, and co-workers, we soon had working prototypes. After a long beta test stage, the Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter is finally ready. I hope this product can help to make your pinball experience more fun!

More information including users manuals for the Buckwerx Audio Adaptor can be found at www.audio.buckwerx.com

Sincerely,

Buck

Borygard

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Sep 17, 2012, 9:41:44 AM9/17/12
to
Very cool Buck!

I'm very excited to be able to offer these at shows. A very well
thought out, well designed, and very reasonably priced option for
anyone wanting to be able to easily cut the noise from games. Even
better, imagine if every game at a show had one of these installed.
Everyone playing could actually hear the game they were playing
instead of being blasted with sound from 200 games all at once.

Very quick and easy install, great instructions, and very reasonably
priced. Anyone interested, come check them out at my booth at PPE and
Expo.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
314-766-4587

Nate

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Sep 17, 2012, 10:24:46 AM9/17/12
to
Hey Buck,

I found your link to work at audio.buckwerx.com



Borygard

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Sep 17, 2012, 10:36:28 AM9/17/12
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On Sep 17, 8:24 am, Nate <nath...@spectralogic.com> wrote:
> Hey Buck,
>
> I found your link to work at audio.buckwerx.com

http://audio.buckwerx.com

Google screws up the link. You'd think they'd fix something like this
by now.

Jonny O

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Sep 17, 2012, 10:51:17 AM9/17/12
to
If anyone is going to PPE, the TRON Pro has one of these installed so
you can bring your headphones and try it out. It has a switch next to
the sony minijack that toggles the audio between speakers and
headphones.

Kingpin

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Sep 17, 2012, 10:54:55 AM9/17/12
to
Fantastic job bringing this to market at a low price point! Great to see someone from your generation already contributing to the hobby/industry. Pinball is alive and well.

David Gersic

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Sep 17, 2012, 1:11:16 PM9/17/12
to
On Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:40:18 -0700 (PDT), Buck Thompson <buck...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter allows audio headphones and ear-buds to be plugged into many solid state and most DMD pinball machines. By using headphones users can optimize their ability to hear the pinball audio soundtrack.

Having played some of my games with headphones (Zaccaria put 1/4" jacks
in several of their games), I personally found the cord to be in the way
and distracting. So, as a suggestion for your next project, how about
support for Bluetooth headsets?

--
| David Gersic http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com |
| Windows 3.1 - The Best $89 Solitaire Game You can Buy! |
| Email address is a spam trap. Visit the web site for contact info. |

John Wart, jr

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Sep 17, 2012, 1:22:46 PM9/17/12
to
On 9/17/2012 1:40 AM, Buck Thompson wrote:
> Greetings fellow pinball enthusiasts,
>
> I just want to let you all know about a product I've been working on for almost a year now, that's now shipping. I have developed a new line of pinball audio headset adaptors for Bally/Williams WPC, WPC95, Stern White Star, and Stern SAM pinball machines. I call the product the Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter.
>
> The Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter allows audio headphones and ear-buds to be plugged into many solid state and most DMD pinball machines. By using headphones users can optimize their ability to hear the pinball audio soundtrack.
>
> The need: In home pinball collections players are often limited to the volume they can play pinball audio without disturbing others. In any environment, such as an arcade, where two or more pinball machines are being played, it�s nearly impossible to listen to the sound cues and background music. Both of these problems can be immediately addressed by using a Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter. Furthermore, modern headphones often provide far superior audio quality in comparison to typical pinball speakers�improving the overall audio experience. Many competitive pinball players have found that their overall scores improve when using headphones attached to a Buckwerx adapter.
>
> The Buckwerx Audio Adapter was designed to plug into a pinball machine with about 10 minutes of effort. No permanent modifications are required�meaning the system can be easily removed or moved to another game.
>
> The Buckwerx audio adapter will be made available through two US resellers: Pinball Life (www.pinballlife.com), an internet pinball merchant; and at pinball shows via Rob Anthony (aka Borygard) and his company Pinball Classics (www.lockwhenlit.com). Introductory list pricing will be $55 USD for WPC and WPC95 games such as Attack From Mars�, Scared Stiff� and Twilight Zone, and $65 USD for Stern Pinball games such as Lord Of The Rings�, AC/DC� and Pirates Of The Caribbean�. If sufficient market exists, Buckwerx expects to offer the Audio Adapter on Data East games such as Tommy� and Guns �n Roses� and Capcom games including Pinball Magic and Big Bang Bar. Buckwerx products come with a one year return to factory warranty.
>
> Games on which the product can be installed must have an open dollar bill acceptor panel on the front door. For games lacking a bill acceptor, a replacement coin door can be obtained from Pinball Life.
>
> I have always been interested in mechanical design, and pinball machines. Even as a kid, I loved to take things apart to see how they worked. My family has collected pinball machines for as long as I can remember, and I believe that it was pinball that helped to spur my interest in mechanics. Today, I work part time as a pinball repair mechanic, and hope to go to school for engineering in the near future. My dad had ordered a Jersey Jack Pinball Wizard of Oz machine (serial number 221), and Jack had mentioned that it could have a 3.5mm audio jack. I thought�that�s a great product, but why can�t we have that on our existing games?
>
> Last year, I decided that I wanted to make something � some fun aftermarket gadget to interface with pinball machines. In 2011 I met with Kim Mitchell (aka Mr68), the creator of Wrong Crowd Productions, to brainstorm on the subject and soon came up with the idea for a Pinball Headphone Audio Adaptor. After some research and prototype work, and with the help of family members, friends, and co-workers, we soon had working prototypes. After a long beta test stage, the Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter is finally ready. I hope this product can help to make your pinball experience more fun!
>
> More information including users manuals for the Buckwerx Audio Adaptor can be found at www.audio.buckwerx.com
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Buck
>

Is this basically the same thing that Pinnovators makes, but at 40% of
the price?

Mr. 68

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Sep 17, 2012, 5:20:10 PM9/17/12
to johnw...@johnwartjr.com
On Monday, September 17, 2012 11:22:48 AM UTC-6, John Wart, jr wrote:
> Is this basically the same thing that Pinnovators makes, but at 40% of the price?

Yes and its high quality.

Kim
http://www.WrongCrowdProductions.com/

MrBally

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Sep 17, 2012, 5:43:25 PM9/17/12
to
I wonder if Buckwerx is paying a license fee to Pinnovators or is this
product substantially different? Lorenzo from Pinnovators mentioned
that their IP was protected.

Here's the thread it was mentioned in:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/browse_thread/thread/643810ee6e931bee/b21960eae0e8cb17?lnk=gst&q=pinnovators+headphone#b21960eae0e8cb17

Nate

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Sep 17, 2012, 6:13:20 PM9/17/12
to
No infringement.

Trademarks: With a different name it wouldn't infringe any trademarks.

Copyrights: It's certaintly a completely independant design from the ground up--it would not infringe any copy rights.

Patents: Perhaps the other provider could have filed for a provisioanl patent--but it's hard to imagine a US patent would ever be awarded (which takes years of prosecution) for a headphone adaptor given all of the prior art (such as Zaccaria).

Mr. 68

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Sep 17, 2012, 6:36:14 PM9/17/12
to
On Monday, September 17, 2012 3:43:26 PM UTC-6, MrBally wrote:
> I wonder if Buckwerx is paying a license fee to Pinnovators or is this
> product substantially different? Lorenzo from Pinnovators mentioned that their IP >was protected.

It’s like an Apple computer vs a PC.

Kim
http://www.WrongCrowdProductions.com/

Borygard

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Sep 17, 2012, 7:02:31 PM9/17/12
to
Oh geez Kim! Don't go opening up that can of worms!

Let's just say they're both great products that go about the same
result in different ways, and one is priced less than the other.

Come check them out in person and demo them at PPE and Expo.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
314-766-4587






Mr. 68

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Sep 17, 2012, 7:06:04 PM9/17/12
to
On Monday, September 17, 2012 5:02:31 PM UTC-6, Borygard wrote:
> Oh geez Kim! Don't go opening up that can of worms!

Less filling, taste great?

Kim
http://www.WrongCrowdProductions.com/

Jim Swenson

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Sep 17, 2012, 8:25:45 PM9/17/12
to
Buck,

Pretty cool product. Well done! :-)

- Jim

----

Buck Thompson <buck...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Greetings fellow pinball enthusiasts,
>
> I just want to let you all know about a product I've been working on for almost a year now, that's now shipping. I have developed a new line of pinball audio headset adaptors for Bally/Williams WPC, WPC95, Stern White Star, and Stern SAM pinball machines. I call the product the Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter.
>
> The Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter allows audio headphones and ear-buds to be plugged into many solid state and most DMD pinball machines. By using headphones users can optimize their ability to hear the pinball audio soundtrack.
>
> The need: In home pinball collections players are often limited to the volume they can play pinball audio without disturbing others. In any environment, such as an arcade, where two or more pinball machines are being played, it???s nearly impossible to listen to the sound cues and background music. Both of these problems can be immediately addressed by using a Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter. Furthermore, modern headphones often provide far superior audio quality in comparison to typical pinball speakers???improving the overall audio experience. Many competitive pinball players have found that their overall scores improve when using headphones attached to a Buckwerx adapter.
>
> The Buckwerx Audio Adapter was designed to plug into a pinball machine with about 10 minutes of effort. No permanent modifications are required???meaning the system can be easily removed or moved to another game.
>
> The Buckwerx audio adapter will be made available through two US resellers: Pinball Life (www.pinballlife.com), an internet pinball merchant; and at pinball shows via Rob Anthony (aka Borygard) and his company Pinball Classics (www.lockwhenlit.com). Introductory list pricing will be $55 USD for WPC and WPC95 games such as Attack From Mars???, Scared Stiff??? and Twilight Zone, and $65 USD for Stern Pinball games such as Lord Of The Rings???, AC/DC??? and Pirates Of The Caribbean???. If sufficient market exists, Buckwerx expects to offer the Audio Adapter on Data East games such as Tommy??? and Guns ???n Roses??? and Capcom games including Pinball Magic and Big Bang Bar. Buckwerx products come with a one year return to factory warranty.
>
> Games on which the product can be installed must have an open dollar bill acceptor panel on the front door. For games lacking a bill acceptor, a replacement coin door can be obtained from Pinball Life.
>
> I have always been interested in mechanical design, and pinball machines. Even as a kid, I loved to take things apart to see how they worked. My family has collected pinball machines for as long as I can remember, and I believe that it was pinball that helped to spur my interest in mechanics. Today, I work part time as a pinball repair mechanic, and hope to go to school for engineering in the near future. My dad had ordered a Jersey Jack Pinball Wizard of Oz machine (serial number 221), and Jack had mentioned that it could have a 3.5mm audio jack. I thought???that???s a great product, but why can???t we have that on our existing games?
>
> Last year, I decided that I wanted to make something ??? some fun aftermarket gadget to interface with pinball machines. In 2011 I met with Kim Mitchell (aka Mr68), the creator of Wrong Crowd Productions, to brainstorm on the subject and soon came up with the idea for a Pinball Headphone Audio Adaptor. After some research and prototype work, and with the help of family members, friends, and co-workers, we soon had working prototypes. After a long beta test stage, the Buckwerx Pinball Audio Adapter is finally ready. I hope this product can help to make your pinball experience more fun!

Marcel Gonzalez

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Sep 17, 2012, 8:31:03 PM9/17/12
to

Next generation kit, include a mute feature for the solenoids so I can
really play at night without waking up the kids. ;)
Just kidding. Great product! :)
Like Dave said, add a bluetooth feature should you revise the kit.
I would put in a pseudo-stereo surround feature, so as to enhance the
monaural audio a bit.
Thank you!
Marcel


--
Marcel Gonzalez
This USENET post sent from http://rgparchive.com

Mark

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Sep 17, 2012, 10:53:57 PM9/17/12
to
On 9/16/2012 11:40 PM, Buck Thompson wrote:
> Greetings fellow pinball enthusiasts,

Best of luck with it.

/Mark


homebrood

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Sep 20, 2012, 3:49:58 PM9/20/12
to
That's a great idea, I have always been surprised there wasn't a headphone outlet standard on these things since at least the early nineties when collectors started buying a lot of games. Thanks for the effort I may have to get a couple of them!

Tom

Terry Cumming

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Sep 21, 2012, 2:20:37 PM9/21/12
to
Nate has been too modest. The product isn't just for the newer games. As you know he took over Hal O'Rourke's business, which included a lot of repro parts and service for old Rock-Ola maqchines. He has also added an audio adapter for the classic World's Series game, finally giving it the "sound" treatment that it deserves.

I installed a beta kit, pic at http://http://1930s.com/pinball/img/WorldsSeriesWithAudioAdapter.jpg (goes in the coin door to the left of the key).

Happy so far, low noise and no issues.

Terry Cumming

Frank Furhter

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Sep 21, 2012, 2:27:38 PM9/21/12
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Frank Gigliotti

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Sep 21, 2012, 2:45:31 PM9/21/12
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Is this going to be present in WOZ? I thought I read somewhere that WOZ
would have a headphone jack. Maybe that changed....


"Terry Cumming" <tcum...@axxent.ca> wrote in message
news:667c2adb-7313-4fcb...@googlegroups.com...

roc-noc

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Sep 21, 2012, 5:34:33 PM9/21/12
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"View our brocure 'Here' (http://audio.buckwerx.com/brocure.pdf)"

Hint: Run a spell check on your html code.

Your link to the pdf only works when you fix the spelling as well.


--
roc-noc

Nate

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Sep 28, 2012, 10:14:49 AM9/28/12
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It looks like the link on the website has been fixed and now correctly shows the product brochure.

Frax

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Oct 1, 2012, 10:35:04 AM10/1/12
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I can't wait to buy one. I linked my wife the other day to Pinball
Life's website. I hope you bury the other guys providing this mod. Their
pricing was ludicrous IMO. This is right on target.

-Frax


--
Frax

Mr. 68

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Oct 1, 2012, 5:59:57 PM10/1/12
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