Speaking of RockMakers, any ideas on what that chrome crossbar at the top is meant to do? I see in the German brochure and game pics on IPDB that it connects from bottom post of the lane area opening to just above the top flipper (and Clay has his set up that way at VFW). But why? On mine it's connected across that lane area opening to the post at the top of the opening. This kind of makes sense as it makes for a visual indicator separating that area from the rest of the playfield.

What would make even more sense would be if that was a wireform gate that let the ball pass through from the top flipper, but not pass back out that way. So when you get the ball up there from the right loop shot, it would be guaranteed to stay up there and not pass out again. But there doesn't appear to be any evidence this was ever intended.

Another question related to RockMakers, and other Zale games with additional scoring reels (Dogies, Wiggler): what would make the most sense for including those counters in competition scoring? By that I mean, when competing, shouldn't the Rock-A-Rock score provide an edge? I was thinking 500 points x RAR added to the total score. Testing that out seems to work ok. If you go for that strategy, you could do well, but it's also risky...

I prototyped that crossbar gate concept mentioned above, and describe it in this post:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rockmakers-2-easy-mods-that-make-it-better#post-5575832

I think it helps a lot, almost feels like a new game!