I had an original and it had problems from the start as well. It was sold to me since it too was unreliable for route/tournament play. My upper right flipper stopped working and I never did get the Xeno mechanism to work, even after they sent me a new one. The Heighway tech rep did the best he could with what resources he had and I'm not a FaceTimer so it was hard for me to convey what exactly the problems were and it was hard basically having one email per day due to his busy schedule, so if I didn't clarify my issue well enough it would be another day before I could be attempting to fix my machine. When it worked I thought it was a very smooth shooting, fun game with the best sound and ambience of any game I've ever owned. I'm sure someone could keep this game going, but it definitely isn't for the hobbyist who just likes to play the games.