Yes that is my problem. I look at some of the scores posted here and I wonder if they did it on 3 ball or 5 ball or with the glass off(; I am not very good but I am working on getting better. Sometimes the 3 ball seems like it is too short-like on Iron Man and Avengers. Then you have games like Batman and Transformers and three ball almost seems too much because of long ball times. I have brought machines in that are set to 5 ball and it drives me crazy. I am not sure if it is because I am accustomed to 3 ball for the last 25 years or what it is?

Duck Season Fire!

How old are you kid?

Well, if it's your game do whatever makes you happy. At my house, 3-ball does NOT make the family happy. Just when they get close to something, the game is over. That's why I keep mine on 5-ball. If it's just me, I put it on 3-ball but I play a lot more than they do and have longer games.

All EM's should be 5-ball due to short ball times.

I just went to the Silverball Museum again yesterday and most of their games are on 5-ball. Makes sense for all the EM's, but is annoying with the DMD's when you're waiting for a game. WOZ? 3-ball and a line of people waiting to play. There sure is a lot to do on that game and no way you're figuring it out there with just 3 balls.

Reasonable arguments on both sides here.

I'm not competitive with tournament players. I've had some of my games several years and never seen the final mode. Setting them to 5 ball kept it interesting for me and my kids. That's all the reasoning I need.

Older games set on 5 ball and no ball saves vs newer games set on 3 ball with a ball save = not really much difference

I have operated a number of classic Bally and Stern at 50 cents for 3 balls, no complaints. In addition, these games are all collector quality pieces. Also, I don't see 75 cents and $1 as being premium prices, those are just the prices of admission for newer stuff, three balls or five balls.

5 ball.....should never be on ANY DMD machine

I agree if the goal is to make them the way they actually were on location. By then pinball was on it's way out and operators were trying to squeeze every cent they could before pinball went the way of the Dodo bird as a commercial money-maker.

In the 70s pinball went from 5 balls per game 10 cents per play (3 plays for 25 cents) - to 5 balls per game 25 cents per play (5 plays for a SBA dollar).

From there it went to 3 balls per game 50 cents per play and that was pretty-much the end for pinball.

Just did the test this weekend. I'm strictly a 3-ball guy but had some guests and set my machines to 5 balls just to see the "audience" reaction.

Summed up they all found it very lame and boring. The pressure to always stay on your toes is heavily reduced as you're constantly thinking that if you lose the ball, so what, you've got x more!
Also wizard modes are supposed to be a reward, they are meant to be reached by good players and only once in a while, not on every second game or by mediocre players.
And certain games are unplayable on 5 balls. A game of, e.g., LotR takes long even on 3 balls, on 5 balls it's endless...more than 1 hour of play and 3 balls left...it's just not meant to be that way.

My girlfreind stopped playing and left the gameroom after 2 games, commenting "call me when you turn off sissy-mode".

I think that's true on the newer games but on many of the older solid state games, 3 ball is "pinball lite". On the older games set on 3 ball, they combine some of the rules to make it easier to make high scores. On 5 ball mode, rules get broke up and made a little harder.

Black Hole is a good example of this, I notice that some Pinside collectors love 3 ball play because multi-ball is easier to achieve. It's too easy for me that way so I have mine set to 5.

That's why I choose to set all my vintage games at 5 ball, I like the challenge. Rule sets have evolved since that era and gotten more complicated but features like extra ball, easier to achieve. The extra balls are there to help you reach wizard modes. Early 90's games on up, if set to 5 ball, I'll fall asleep standing there.

Steve

Yes, sorry, forgot to mention my games are all DMD with the exception of BK2000, which is my pin for quick short games so it's also set to 3 balls.

5 ball for EM 3 ball for SS/DMD, that's the way it's meant to be

I have my TFLE on 5ball, and just set my Met to 5ball as well. CIU modes are brutal drainage

There were a few more interim price changes in there. After 10 cents/play - 3 for 25, it first went to 2 Plays for a Quarter. Then, (around the introduction of Capt Fantastic or so) it went to 1 play 25c, 3 plays 2 Quarters. Then, around the SS era, we saw the straight quarter per play with the bonus for the SBA dollar coin (but not for 4 quarters in most cases).

And 3 Ball reared its head early on too. I first encountered 3 balls when Space Mission hit the streets. It was the only 3 ball game in an arcade filled with pinballs. Needless to say, we didn't play it there, but instead, where it was available for 5 Ball play.

For the most part, although recommended by the Manufacturers, it was resisted by the operators for a long time. Sometimes, it was hard to change an "old location" to the new way of thinking.

I remember setting up Firepower new out of the box and we had recieved a Memo from our HO that was from WMS recommending 3 balls 50 cents. That was a tough pill for our regulars to swallow as we were 100% 5 Ball then. It wasn't until Black Hole were theyseemingly happy to pay 2 coins.

I use it to learn the rules before switching over to 3-ball. I still have 5-ball set on my ACDC.

Yes, I remember similar price adjustments, too. I still recall talking with a buddy about the merits of one arcade that was 2 games/five balls for a quarter vs another arcade that was 3 games/three balls for a quarter. This would have been in 1974-75. We came to the conclusion that we would rather have the extra three ball game as it would give us greater chances of winning with score or by match. We were keen enough to realize that certain game features changed on games depending on the balls per game. These arcades were both within walking distance in opposite directions. Man, those were the days!

I think that was one of the reasons we didn't play Black hole much back then. That plus in 1981 Bally released Eight Ball Deluxe which was "the machine" to play and they were usually 5 balls for 25 cents (although there were some set to 3 balls for 25 cents).

I remember when I was in college a few years later that we had an Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition in the game room on campus and it was set to 3 balls for 50 cents. I still played the crap out of it but never forgot how much better they used to be.