I have. I figure it's letting someone know there is a problem and possibly preventing something from burning up/ getting worse.

No.

Not your business. Not your problem.

A good way to piss someone off big time. A good way to get into a serious confrontation if the owner/op/staff sees you.

If you really can’t resist the urge to be a do gooder put a note on it warning op/players.

If it’s still “playable” I’ll leave it...if a flipper don’t work or something along those lines I shut them off...I don’t mind spending my hard earned money...but I despise wasting it............Joey

Whenever I come across an issue on a routed game that requires service, I leave a note on it, if possible, to alert the operator and potential players. If it's something that will likely cause people to lose their money unknowingly, I also turn the game off.

The only time I have ever touched the power on an Op's game is when a ball got stuck and it was going to burn out something if I left it on. If I had a nickel for every time I played a routed machine with an issue I would have over a hundred dollars in nickels by now. It makes me appreciate pristine machines that play perfect.

Does it belong to you? If not leave it alone

No. Call the operator and let them know. Report on pinballmap. Tell the location.

It is not your place to turn off a game for any minor malfunction.

I have had people turn off a machine due to a credit dot. That credit dot was because they played 20 games and never went out the left outlane.

If you see a major malfunction, then yes, turn it off to save the game. However also call the operator.

I leave a note. If I ever see one, like, emitting smoke I’d consider turning it off.

At first glance I thought this post was about the government.... Yes it should be shut down!

Somebody has to stand in for Odin while he is away...

I thought we were taking about the US government

I shut down a game at the local Walmart . I could hear the VUK fireing half way back in the store . I was the only one in the store that even knew what that sound was . Went up to the game and shook it - no luck - so I just shut it Down.

first thought was that this was political , US gov shutdown . oh well

I would only turn someone else’s game off to prevent damage or prevent another player from beating my high score.

if its something major i dont mind if someone shuts mine off. like a ball stuck on top of a ramp no way to shake loose, or target broke in half laying on playfield. just pends the issue. one thing that bothers me is if a game has 2 coin slots and a bill acceptor and someone marks it out of order or shuts it off because one coin slot is jammed.

Do your best to contact the OP. If there’s no way to contact them by info on the game or talking to the location employees, leave it alone.

If it’s not on fire, walk away. If it is, run away.

I stop playing those routed machine a long time ago. Except newer Stern. My experience playing those routed machine was not great in New Zealand. This is the reason I started buying Pinball machines 5 years ago. However, once I started buying pinball machines I understand why those routed machines are in bad conditions. Pinball machines constantly need maintenance. Anyway, these non-working routed machines keep giving a bad name to the pinball community in NZ. General public think pinball is boring because of those machines but I won't turn them off.

No, please, just no.

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yes I don't mind if people turn off machines , just wish they would tell me why . makes things a lot easier when it comes to fixing

I want my money back if its broken, so i will tell the location what happened
They can figure out what to do

I ask people around me to help build a wall around the pin, but if that doesn't work I just shut the pin down.

I also shut 'em down if I decide I don't like them anymore cause I can't score as many points as I want to.

(veiled political humor)

I think the game should be shut down and not turned back on until the operator fixes the broken lock on the coin door so people who dont belong in the arcade cant pry the coin door open and take the quarters I keep putting in....

I hate when people turn my route games off. They turn them off like they're doing someone a favor but don't tell the bartender or anyone or text my number that's on the backglass. It makes me so mad. I don't have time to play test everything and then I try and figure out what's wrong and the game plays perfect. The gear stripped out on my MM so I purposely disabled the drawbridge while the part came in and someone turned the game off on a Saturday night. Such an asshole move. The game compensates. Tell the bartender and he'll contact me and put a sign on it. Don't turn it off.

Deez Can I ask a clarifying question?

Is it fair to say that a MM should be turned off since the draw bridge isn't functional? I'm assuming you just don't want the patron to turn off the game, but the bartender should, correct?

As a customer, I wouldn't want to play MM if such an integral part of the game is broken or disabled.

Game plays completely fine without drawbridge! You disable in settings and the game knows. It functions the same and balls still kicks out from moat, castle explodes, everything the same except no drawbridge. It actually makes the center shot much easier simce every hit goes to moat.

The simple rule is DO NOT turn off someone else game unless there is the chance of damage to be done and you are actually helping them out.

If you find a problem and feel entitled to turn off the game, at least take the extra 30 sec to send a text.

I think many route players don't realize that shutting off a game w a minor issue is working against you getting more pinball to play at that location.

Whysnow

I didn't know the game would recognize a castle being destoryed without the ball going into the castle. I appreciate your exclamation point for emphasis.

I personally don't turn off games that have broken mechanisms. Instead I typically tell the person who's in charge of the establishment.

So to clarify just a little further. If a pop bumper cap is stuck in the drain or the flippers are completely broken I don't care if someone turns the game off. I prefer the bartender do it so they notify me though so I can make sure to bring parts or will come in to fix it sooner. But something like a switch not working, leave it on. It's hard enough making money routing games. Most people don't even notice. I'll see the credit dot and fix it when I'm there. If you turn it off. A credit dot might not be triggered since it takes a bit for it to happen. I like to keep my games working 100% but my thinking is I rather get to play a pinball that has a feature broken then not get to play any pinball at all.

Thank you for clarifying. All of that makes sense to me.

If the game doesn't play right I think we should shut the whole bar down and build a wall around it! (We miss you Odin!)

Hey guys, I want to give you an idea of the vendor side of this question. Lets say for instance you found a pinball game setup in a Walmart store. I spent time working a Walmart route in the nineties. I would travel from the Canadian Border thru Washington State, Oregon state all the way to the California border along Interstate 5. I would see these machines every other week. If the machine worked ok I would find a nice fat full cashbox and life was great. If the machine was turned off or had an out of order sign on it the cashbox could be nearly empty. There was no middle ground. For two weeks these machines were left to fend for themselves, in a Walmart lobby or entrance, with zero support from Walmart. I had one store on the Oregon Coast that was a 3 and a half hour drive just to get there. Once on location, having fought your way to the office and actually found a manager who could delegate an employee to escort me as I deal with the machines, having done the paperwork and get the needed signatures, you are then left with whatever resources you had in your car to deal with any machine problems. Having a pinball game in such a place would just be a nightmare! There is really no possible way to keep the machine in perfect working order. there will always be some kind of issue with a switch or something else. Even the best vendors don't have enough time or maybe have a qualified enough tech to get it right. The chances of you walking up to the Walmart desk to complain about a machine and me actually getting a phone call to tell me of the problem is almost impossible. I used to tip employees who would help me just to get some loyalty! I don't want to just pick on Walmart, the route can often be like this. So if I get a call about the machine I may have a few ideas and might bring some parts and solve the problem BUT if the store is a day long adventure to go I will not make a special trip. The bottom line is this: You do not see many pinball hames on routes anymore because it is too costly to keep them running perfectly. If you turn off a machine just because it wasn't perfect for you, all you are doing is giving the vendor a reason to not put out the machines.....Our industry is not like it was back in the day. Arcades are shrinking and the experienced techs like me are retiring and soon there will be no more coin op pinball or video games.....it has been a great fun career but the money is just not out there like it was. So please as a tech and an amusement vendor, work with us not against us! if you see a sticker on the machine give a call to explain the problem. And lol if I walk in to one of my accounts and I catch you trying to kick the coin door in I will mess up your face! lol remember it goes both ways in this business. Often the machine will rip you off and there is no one around to go after, but also when I walk into an account and someone has decided to take it upon them selves to turn off my machines I will not be a happy camper either!

I've done both. One was in a hotel arcade, the flipper was so weak I couldn't get the ball halfway up the ramp to the spinning disk on POTC. I called the number to report it and just played the Nascar instead, no biggie left it alone (a tech actually showed up and was fixing it the day I was leaving). The second time was playing a AMH. The ball disappeared in the pops and I couldn't figure out why, until I saw the huge "scoop" was actually where a pop bumper fell through the playfield and could see the green circuit board leds down below. Turned that sucker off and told the bartender. It was a pinball bar and knew the owner though.

If only things were so black and white in life.

Agree. On one extreme end you have someone turning off a machine because of a single switch not working say. Definately not cool as it’s not easy being an operator today and we all appreciate what they so for the hobby and all their hard work. A game turned off means no income from that machine. No income means the game won’t be there next time you visit.

On the other extreme you have operators who treat machines like honeypots - totally broken machines that never get fixed but as long as there are some blinking lights, some suckers will still plunk in some coins (ususally kids). I was at Free Gold Watch in SF a couple years ago (when I started in the hobby) and put my money in a pin. Looked up and DMD was completely dead. I politely notified the attendant and was waiting for him to come over and turn off, put on a sign and credit me on another game. He said to me “no refunds - too bad - you should have looked” (something like that) and left it on for the next sucker. He looked at me like I was insane even for mentioning it to him for who would think that anyone would even care nevermind refund me. I just walked out. Me personally I call this theft or fraud when you are knowingly screwing people and even to their face. That was an eye opener to the scum side of this hobby and how they damage the hobby.

So these are the two extremes and every situation can probably be found between these two - shades of gray and not black and white.

So when do you turn pins off? You decide.

I have alerted bartenders/staff when a machine isn't working (snapped sling, broken flipper, etc.) I'd never turn off a machine unless it was smoking or on fire.

When we first started several of the machines still had errors but were playable. They would get turned off with no note explaining what was wrong. Given everything is on freeplay I’m not clear who was being saved from what. Turning them on since it on/off was only a binary indication there was a problem i might find it had a switch error or not score on a rollover. I quickly made it known that this was not helpful. It stopped. So yes a post it note explaining the error you find is quite helpful. Turning it off is absolutely not.

Salinas California, "Lou's laundramat" 1990.
Got a "Elvira and the party Monsters", a "Street fighter 2", and if I remember correctly a "Altered Beast" or a "1942".
Town is right there in the middle of the "Salad Bowl of the World" biggest freaking garden Ive ever seen. This is where all the iceberg lettuce and Broccoli and etc etc ,oh and all the mushrooms at my Walmart, are grown.
Awful Lot of Hispanics, legal or not using that laundry and no matter how many times they were there, they failed to grasp that a peso coin won't go thru the coin mechs. Resulting in your customers getting ripped off and pissed off and wont play the games again.
Sorry just had to bring up the operators point of view. Going out to unjam the coin chutes eats into the profits something awful.
Merry Christmas to all and a free ball just in time.

I get this with Canadian quarters pretty often. Sometimes I just pull the magnet out of the mech because I rather just have the Canadian go thru than have to go on a service call.

But it is his business. Literally. We have all been there where you put money in and it doesnt work. I think the operator shouldn't be surprised when customers who have lost money take a passive aggressive stance and turn off their machines to prevent more theft. Fuck em.

I operate games. If my game is unplayable, please turn it off so people don't keep putting money into it. Seems like common courtesy to me, but others disagree for some reason.

Ideally, this would come with a text to let me know that you've done it.

Fairly often I get a text like: "the left flipper on [machine] is dead". Then I kindly ask them to turn the game off and they reply: "Sorry, I already left". Sigh.

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with this. I think the disconnect is regarding what is considered broken. I would consider a non functional flipper to be broken and turning off is fine. I wouldn't consider a non functional sling shot to be broken. Also I don't consider the drawbridge being disabled on MM to be broken. The game compensates.

Does the game compensate?

What's worse is you have idiots that pull the plug, cause they don't even know about the switch.

Found this in my bttf (obviously from a different machine). It gave me a chuckle.

If you didnt earn my quarter, don't keep it!

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