SAM System can be erased.

I believe Spike 1 & 2 does keep a total forever.

LTG : )

Slightly OT, but where is the forever total stored? In the SD card or EEPROM/flash inside CPU chip or an external EEPROM on CPU board?

Car odometer mileage is stored in a few different places in various car MCU's so it is hard to totally reset. But how hard is it to make a Spike game look like it has never been played, meter-wise?

Plays yes, earnings, no.

Lifetime earnings is one that can't be erased. It's in the "audits/earnings" menus on SAM and after. It's stored on the MPU. Problem is that it ONLY accounts for "paid games", not replays or fee plays. Also, it would not be accurate if the MPU in the game was replaced by Stern at any point in it's life. The LIFETIME EARNINGS audit can't be easily erased. It's not a great indicator of plays anyway because there's no good indicator of what the operator was charging for a game other than what it was left on when you got it. I'm not going to go into how you might be able to erase it because honestly, it will cause more harm than good.

So, it's a good indicator if a SAM game is HUO but NOT a good indicator of total lifetime plays (unless it's ONLY ever been on route, prior to a homeowner buying it).

NOT RECOMMENDED!
FYI, these settings are a bit different for Spike games. Stern changed what can't be erased with that system by also adding the "lifetime total plays" audit starting with Spike. That accounts for paid games, free games, and replays. Both "total earnings" and "lifetime total plays" are stored on the MPU for that system and they can only be modified if you are able to erase or replace the surface mounted NVRAM IC on the MPU -->NOT RECOMMENDED! but if you want to potentially brick your game, some Google searches can point you in the right direction.

Thanks for info. Not that I want to, but was just curious how it is done. Using a SMD NVRAM, possibly encrypted, is pretty foolproof solution. Of course, if you need to replace MPU board, the counters go with the board.