(Topic ID: 148304)

Any serious problems with Spike yet?

By sandersj

8 years ago


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#225 6 years ago
Quoted from dnapac:

And 15 years ago pinball was dying...all but dead. All fixes by techs, or not, were nothing but a shot in the dark. I'll take pinball today vs. then. All advances in tech have their risk. Maybe it's forgotten, and the one who've bought into it are screwed (beta vs. VHS), but advance is better than dead. A risk into the advance is always a risk. A risk on an established company (Stern), is better than a risk of a new...but still a risk...but a better bet. Chose your poison. I choose advance vs. stagnant.

But there's no excuse for Stern to not release documentation and circuit diagrams.

I don't buy for a second that they're protecting trade secrets.

Documenting and codifying all this stuff takes time and effort. Time costs money. Stern don't like spending money on anything without direct financial benefit to themselves. Elimination of fuses should tell you all you need to know with regard to their attitude to costs.

JJP machines are way more complex, and they document EVERYTHING.

#235 6 years ago
Quoted from Joe_Blasi:

just like cars high priced custom parts

Spike MPU board is in no way 'custom' .... nor does it cost much to make or Stern to buy ...

1 week later
#240 6 years ago
Quoted from sandersj:

Back to TBK's first recent post
But 10 years from now if not sooner we will need a Spike version of Rottendog boards to make these games realistically sustainable.

Therein lies the problem.

Rottendog (and Alltek) make clones with modern components. In 10 years Stern's hardware patents, if they have them, will still be active.

Others make redesigns, and I'm sure RD and AT could too.

However ... these are multilayer, often densely packed PCBs, with absolutely zero documentation or circuit diagrams released by Stern. Even if you can guess what most of the components do, good luck figuring out where are all the traces go and how they're connected. It would be extremely time consuming (and costly) to reverse engineer these.

If JJP go belly up tomorrow, replacement boards could be on the market in just a few months, because everything is documented.

3 weeks later
#252 6 years ago
Quoted from Shapeshifter:

Anyone have any idea why it seems node boards seem to be failing more on Spike 2 than Spike 1?
Hoping they get better in 2018 as like some of the possible future Stern titles.

I think a ton failed on Spike 1 and still are. People are just speaking up more now.

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