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Keep hands away from mini playfield!

Written by robin, published March 14th, 2008. No comments.

Warning!

One of the more unnerving quotes in recent pinball history must be the scary technicians warning built in Bally's Doctor Who, regarding the mini playfield:

"WARNING! KEEP HANDS AWAY FROM MINI-PLAYFIELD!
SEE MANUAL TITLE PAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION!"

Why would a pinball machine try and scare me like that?

If you look closely at the upper right edge of your playfield glass, you'll notice a little switch mounted, detecting the removal of your playfield glass. So why does this game go to such great lengths to tell you to keep your precious hands away from the mini playfield?

Remember that after a soft reset, while the game's trying to sort itself out, it'll raise and lower the mini-playfield at will -- regardless of whether you may have one of your fingers in one
of its "tunnels". Given the fact that these tunnels are metal-edged and that the motor that lowers the mini-playfield wasn't
designed by Otis -- that is, it doesn't stop just because there's something in the way -- it's not hard to imagine an operator gaining the nickname "Lefty" after trying to fix one of these mechanical nightmares.

How do you avoid it?

Easy! Just use a piece of tape to close the switch permanently, regardless of having the playfield glass on. Easy come, easy go. But please do remember to KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY from that scary playfield, and don't sue us for losing a finger!


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