What is a ‘wartime conversion’ pinball machine?
A ‘wartime conversion’ pinball machine is a machine that was originally built before WWII, but was rebuilt during the war, usually with a patriotic theme. See below for details… I was reading about the WWII pinball game ‘conversion kits’, and I wanted to know, what did the makers of the kits actually change? Did they just sell new backglasses, or repaint the whole playfield? Were the games all repainted? How did the kit makers know which games to make ‘kits’ for? -Ken The conversions did all of those. Some of the quality conversions, like Idaho, were complete. The only parts left from the original were the materials. They included a new backglass, repainted cabinet, new layout and paint on the playfield and new logic. The latter was difficult because they did not make any new mechanisms. Metal and wire were all needed in the war effort and so were scarce. It was for the above reasons that the conversion could only take place on an existing prior game. They needed all the parts. In othe
