Me too!
Sometimes, yes!
But it`s a bad behaviour, i think.

Yes.

But it's hell waiting for the ball 2 to pop up in order to restart. No one wants to start a 2 player game..

I do on Flash Gordon, but not my other games. I usually need a handful of balls to warm up and just get frustrated looking at a foolishly low score

I disabled the ability to do it on my pin. All it takes is one good ball to have a great game and sometimes it’s the last one!

This!

Used to but less often now.

Some games like Lotr feel like you need to have a good first ball to get a leg up on the game. But some games like Iron Man I’ve had a bad first ball and blown the game up on the second or third.

I would do it more often a few years ago but now hardly at all.

Exactly.

Now what do ya do???! Wait, and drain the two player ball 1? Or, just turn off and on the pin? But then you have to wait to boot.

No time for this type of stuff.

It's disabled on my newer games where you can disable the restart. On my early SS and EMs I usually restart on a house ball.

Nope ! I suffer with the first ball and actually with every other balls. I suck at pinball but I still enjoy playing it !

Never, first ball may suck but the second and third might be your best ever

Yes, I'm guilty of it.

No, that’s kinda cheating the game. It’s there to beat you!

I agree.

No, never. Mainly because I'd be restarting at least 90% of games.

Never! Why would I do that?

There is just as good a chance of having an epic second ball after a crap first ball as having a crap second ball after an epic first ball.

And if you actually played on location. I would think you would have learned by now you don't waste any balls.

Never. I challenge myself to see if I can recover from it. By doing so, I've had some killer games I would have otherwise missed.

At home, sometimes, yes - although, I'm more likely to just slam tilt* and see if the next machine over is in a better mood.

* Obviously, I'm not "slamming" my machines; I have a microswitch wired to the slam tilt behind the center coin return button. Perfect for house balls, or when a guest starts a 4-player game and walks away after the first ball.

I'm guessing a lot of you have your tilt bobs removed or wrapped in napkins too.

I don’t for a couple of reasons. First, your next two balls may be epic. If you start
over after a first bad ball, you may lose the chance at a great game. Second, a lot of times I just try to work on getting a high score in a particular mode. That’s almost as satisfying as anything else. I guess what I’m saying is there is a lot of game left after the first ball. Don’t give up!

Never

OMG, I will start a 4-player game on my TMNT, and if I have a bad Ball 1 P1, it's an instant restart (plus you don't have to worry about accidentally adding a P2, as it's already maxed). Probably racking up the "games played" audit, but whatever. It's HUO and balls played is still low. Plus I have to update the code anyways

I used to do this sometimes, then discovered it was hurting my game when competing.

Shitting the bed on balls 1 and 2 - then salvaging your entire game on ball 3 is really satisfying, so no I do not do this anymore.

Cheating to make it easier on you.

Or, in the case of a restart, believing by doing it will make you a better player.

One of the first things I have to change when I get a machine is remove tissue paper, or add the missing tilt bob.

Otherwise, playing the game just doesnt feel 'valid' to me. Playing pinball (man vs. machine) should feel rewarding when you play it the way it was mean't to be played.

Yes, I remember running out of tilt bobs and having to get five in the next order.

I do remember dropping the tilt bobs when the vender was servicing the machines.

I restart too often. Except for JD...

I restart after ball 1 all the time. I actually wonder if the machine counts that as 1 full "play". I figure they are my home games and Im only competing against myself so I dont think Im hurting anyone!

Only when I'm in a bad mood. Which usually leads to a series of game resets, because playing angry rarely works (though it does sometime!).

So what’s wrong with that. If I don’t get really good balls 1 and 2 or an epic ball 1 or 2 then it’s an automatic restart unless it’s a new game. There is so little chance of beating the game or my high scores unless I have great balls throughout. Some days I just don’t have it and I have 20 straight crap balls and resets. You just gotta turn the machine off at that point.

While you are at it, you should just pull the tilt out of the game and put it on 5 ball. Then, it will be absolutely nothing like actually playing real pinball.

If your goal is to be good at pinball to put up a great score or achieve a certain goal, I hate to tell you that you need to plan to always have a great game, no matter what happens on ball one. If you just restart until you have a good ball one, it just means that you have zero confidence or determination when playing pinball. Actually quite sad.

If you don’t care about the score, then just unplug the display(s) in your game and you can just play and guess how well you are doing. That doesn’t sounds like much fun...

If I would follow your plan, I would have quit my best game I have ever had on Harlem Globetrotters ever with 7,000 points. (Ended with 2.8 million, nearly rolled it three times.). It was one of the most memorable moments I’ve ever had playing pinball and I would have not even experienced it at all following this baby “I had a bad ball one” nonsense.

is there a way to restart a game without shutting it off and on?

i have never restarted a game, mainly because i dont compete with myself. i have a fun mild competition with friends, and would love to enter a tournament asap, but the ULTRA DEADLY covid has prevented that. I just love playing pinball. winners and losers are all winners as long as we are playing a game we grew up with, enjoying a culture which is healthy and fun to all!!!

Heck yeah, I hate to play the whole game with a cheaply drained first ball. Enthusiasm is important.

You’re completely full of shit. I am fully confident in my playing abilities. Some people don’t have a lot of time in life to waste on bad starts that end in pretty good games. It’s not cheating. This is home play alone on our time. Not tournament play or location play with friends. Tilt bob is completely unrelated. If tilt bob is not set pretty tight, then the game is boring. So enough with your holier than thou attitude. You too Odin. I’ve heard you have reset a game or too.

I agree
Theres times I come home late from work and just want to pop a couple of good games before going to bed.I restart a game or two when Iam only playing for 10min-15min

bad start to a game = a good time to simply practice flipper skillz with the remaining balls. also, on location, posting a low score will help adjust the replay score downward.

Anyone with a bunch of bad one ball games can’t be that great. I did not type anything about cheating, you thought that one up on your own... You can modify a game, and spend your time playing it however you damn well please. I was specifically answering the OPs question, I don’t know why you thought I was talking to you at all. I didn’t even read your post until you lashed out.

Yes I'm a dick like that sometimes... Mostly at home... One time at Pinburgh and man did people lose their shit... lol

You can restart a game after the first ball?? I learned something today

one of my bad habits, will immediately restart if certain goals aren't achieved on ball 1, regardless of score lol

100% if I'm attempting something that matters. If I'm in 'practice for an IRL situation' never. IRL, I get a lot of house balls; so I need to learn some b2/b3 recovery. But, if I just want to advance to Wiz Mode at home? OFC I'm re-starting after ball 1.

In league I always it’s all about ball 3. So I try not to do this. It yes I have at home from time to time.

Never. There is absolutely no reason to. My score doesn’t matter unless I’m competing. So why would I need to artificially inflate it by removing the bad balls? If I have a house ball on ball 1, I want to see what I can do with 2 and 3.

They are all one ball games! Yesterday played BSD and tanked the first 2 balls, ended up with 1.2 billion after ball 3.

how do you retart a game? Is there a way to do that on a Stern other then turning machine off and on again?