Being an enormous horror fan, the Evil Dead franchise has been near and dear to my heart since I was a kid. Over the years, I’ve met Bruce Campbell (a few times), Sam and Ted Raimi, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker, Theresa, Tilly, Tom Sullivan, and probably some others I’m forgetting. I was Ash Williams for Halloween one year… and I even have actual pieces of the cabin from Evil Dead 2.
When the first teaser video for Spooky Pinball’s Evil Dead pinball machine dropped in November of 2024, I was floored. From the widebody layout, to hilarious and very R-rated custom voice work by Bruce Campbell, the coolest topper I’ve ever seen (a “Deadite” that physically moves up and down from beneath a chained cellar door), and an outstanding art package by Christopher Franchi, I knew I wanted one – but with only 888 being made, I was going to need to sell something in my collection to free up the space.
My dad had told me numerous times that he wanted my Star Wars if I were to ever part with it, so while sitting at the table on Thanksgiving, I asked him if he was still interested. Without hesitation, he said “yep!” I was still digesting pumpkin pie, but this gave me even more to digest.
When I got home, I took my dog for a walk, but we didn’t get too far. I stopped about a block from my house and texted my dad to confirm he was “all in.” About ten seconds later, I got a “sold” response, and in about another ten seconds, I was on Spooky’s website, putting in my deposit. In addition to buying the game, I also ordered the topper and Ghost Glass – which is a non-glare glass that basically looks invisible.
A couple weeks later, I got an email from Spooky, confirming my machine as #633 out of 888. Doing some quick math based on their production output, I determined I wouldn’t see my game until around Halloween of 2025. No biggie. Being the horror geek I am, I used some of that time to acquire and fix up a Panasonic RQ-706S reel-to-reel player, which is the same model used in The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2… and because my geekiness knows no bounds, I also tracked down screen-matched reels (and they’re different in each movie, so I have both Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 versions covered. I prefer the Evil Dead 2 look). I then recorded the incantations from each movie and looped them to the tape. Here’s a video of it (with links in the description if anyone wants the audio file I created for the tape loop):
Here’s the reel-to-reel displayed on a shelf in my game room:
At long last, on November 3rd, 2025, the game arrived!
Evil Dead now resides upstairs in my Room 237 game room, and I’ve added several mods to it, including a shotgun handle from Spooky that replaces the traditional “fire” launch button, a middle finger hand, chainsaw, cabin roof, evil deer, shotgun shooter lane cover, and blood splatter skull flipper toppers from Back Alley Creations, a light-up Oldsmobile Delta 88, a bridge, and actual used shotgun shells.
Hail to the king, baby!
Zombies Ate My Arcade 