Totally agree

That's Spooky pinball for ya...

"Let's see how many servos we can fit into one game"

All machines should come with a pf prop and schematics without question.

Also ,passive ball release gate. Always irratating when raising playfield and a ball ralls out and rolls on the floor underneith a couple having dinner.

Service rails under the playfield should be standard

I love how the double prop rod on my Genie holds the playfield up on both sides so you don't get the flex that you do with just a single rod. I don't know why every game doesn't have something like this.

Not just Spooky. Stern is guilty of some of this too. No prop rod and the serice outlet is basically useless without an extension cord.

Par for the course...

I hear you.

To be fair about the score cards, cash box and bill acceptors when dominos first came out I read that the machine was aimed at domino franchises purchasing and putting in their lobby for people to play while waiting for their pizzas. If that was indeed the case they were meant to be on free play. No excuses about schematics, prop rods and such.

My post here is as a pinball repairman for 40 years and about things I believe should be standard in a pinball machine. It doesn't make any difference if you like/dislike the product Homepin is currently making.

I'm well aware of how difficult machines can be to repair. That's why, right from day one, we built in all of the things I like to see when fixing a machine. I'm sure we can do more but from what I see in this thread there are an awful lot of corners being cut by some.

Some will not agree with me but I believe there is absolutely no need at all for much of the surface mount tech used these days in things like pinball machines. There is certainly no space issue in a pinball machine. It really comes down to saving money. Problem is it makes serviceability more difficult. Yes, some people are fantastic at repairing SMT boards but there just is no need for it in this application IMO.

I'm always open to suggestions to improve "repairability".

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Having been inside an America's Most Haunted on location, I agree that spooky games are cheaply made. After purchasing four servos to repair a game and replacing a drop target bracket that didn't come out of a 3D printer, they are one company that will never get my pinball dollar.

I just wish that some of these designers would check and see if a man sized hand would fit into some of the places they need to get to in a pinball machine. Some of these guys who design the undersides of these games must have real small hands and I am not trying to be funny here.

Ever work on a Safe Cracker? Talk about a lot of shit jammed into a small space!

Loads of fun. Anything you need to work on, you need to remove something else to get at it.

LTG : )

Another thing that really annoys me when working on a machine is when you lift the playfield and (usually in my case anyway) you forget to remove the balls -

crash, crash, CRASH.......uhoh........SMASH!!!!

Homepin builds in our own version of a ball trap that prevents this. Basically it's a little railway carriage weight on roller bearings that is very sensitive to lifting of the playfield. When you start to lift the PF the carriage rolls forward and blocks the balls from coming out of the trough. The way our trough is built, there is also a hinged flap that moves with gravity to prevent balls from coming out of the drain hole. So the balls are trapped in the trough at both ends.

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