Slam tilts due to kids knees have to be addressed with education or they will hate it. Don't bang the plunger, plunge it. No shaking the machines. No smoking around the pins ever. Well the ones in the gameroom anyways. Turn off when you leave.

1. Have fun

I hear of one guy near Sacramento who requires that you have a beer in one hand...

I have one rule, don't start what you can't finish, play the entire game. This is for my son's friends and nieces and nephews. I can't stand to hear a ball waiting to be plunged for 15 minutes.

I've got a small roulette wheel in my game room. It's got two balls in it. Everyone that plays is required to choose a number. Whenever a ball is 'stuck' and the machine needs to be wiggled a bit to get it out, we spin the wheel. If the wheel lands on your number, you go to the fridge, grab a beer, and finish it ... immediately.

I've got a Skateball that likes to get balls stuck under its upper flippers and on top of the upper lanes. Plus the playfield is blown out to the wood in spots, so it's really dirty. I've also got a SFII that get's balls stuck in the Ken/Ryu and Zangief loops every once in a while.

Also, balls that get stuck but come back during a 'ball search' are counted as balls earning a spin of the wheel.

Needless to say, it's not everyone's favorite rule.

Awesome thread idea, btw.

Wait, what? No way man.

Rule #1: Wear cotton gloves when touching the machine. I don't want your grubby hands to damage the cabinet paint or buttons. If you so much as touch the glass you are banished... I paid $300 for that sheet of glass.
Rule #2: You were supplied with a hair net when you entered my home. USE IT. If you have facial hair, please grab another hair net and tape it to your face.
Rule #3: No liquids of any kind, including saliva, are allowed within a 50 yard radius. Please have your mouth sucked dry of all saliva and pack your mouth (and nose!) with cotton balls before stepping past the 50 yard radius.
Rule #4: Machines are for looking ONLY, NOT playing. What do you think this is? A GAMEroom?
Rule #5: You know what? Forget it, I'm just going to put this tarp back over my beautiful machines, that way nobody can touch them, spill stuff on them, and the dangerous UV rays can't fade them. Man, that was a close one, I had them uncovered for about 5 minutes there.

Sounds like fun, but can we substitute a shot for the beer? I get so full on beer.

Yessir!

That would be BYOB though- I can't handle the hard stuff.

NOBODY follows rules. I don't like when kids start games and walk away or start a game on a different machine before they finish. It gets too loud with no good reason.

Who cares if they restart a game after a bad first ball? Sounds like you are metering play count on your machines. There is no reason to, condition is king when it comes to resale, not play count.

Oh, no picking boogers and wiping on the machines. That is all.

Opposite of Btrip
1. 2 shots of Tequila first
2. everyone only wears underwear
3.1 drink per game MINIMUM
4. guys can only enter when there are two girls to their ratio
5. throwing up only allowed in the bathroom or planter
6. If you can hear the pins turn up the music
7. keep off the top of the machines

Underwear? What is this the 90s?

My mother has a bad habit of double flipping and slapping the glass with her hand *has a ring on it!* when she looses a ball. Pretty much my only rules are: No slapping/kicking the machine or I will kick you ass, liquids are not allowed on the glass *I have a table right behind the games*, and finish the damn game!

This is the custom message on my pins.

Seriously, if I become anal about the games I buy for fun please come kill me!

The only rules in my home really are no broken bones and don't burn it down. Otherwise we have fun. Yes, I have a bunch of ball splats from the kids hitting the walls but thats what painting parties are for. Rethinking it one new rule since my brother-inlaw threw my sister-inlaw in the pool and that is no throwing people in the pool or hot tub that have iPhones in their hands. But thats it : )

I should have this laser engraved on some metal plates that look like stone...

The Holy 10 Commandments of Home Use Pinball

1. Treat thy neighbor's machine as thou wouldst treat thine own machine.
--Easy on the machine, man! No death saves or bangbacks. Constant tilting is rude. Don't hit the glass.

2. Thou shalt not spill liquid upon the House of the Silverball.
--Put your drink somewhere else. The pinball machine is not a coaster.

3. Covet the machine of thy neighbor, but offer no unfair trades.
--You have every right to be jealous of my collection, but don't low ball me on offers to sell any of it!

4. Thou shalt not put two, three, nor four credits on a machine and walk away.
--Don't leave credits on the machine. If you put in four credits, you drain those balls before leaving.

5. Thou shalt not alter the settings of the machine as previously set by the Keeper of the Silverball.
--Don't change any machine settings and don't mess with the audits.

6. Thou shalt not remove glass from the house of the Silverball without consent of the Keeper.
--Don't pull the glass off the machine without telling the owner. It's best let them handle it, even if you're experienced.

7. Thou shalt not input initials into the machine of a vile nature.
--If you make the high score list, put your initials in. Don't put in anything offensive.

8. Thou shalt play three balls and only three balls when in the company of many.
--If others are waiting to play, don't restart your game after a bad ball, and walk away after your current game is over.

9. Thou shalt not funk up the temple that houses the House of the Silverball.
--Duuuuuude, don't be passing gas in the gameroom. This shouldn't have to be explained.

10. Thou shalt enjoy thyself.
--Pinball is fun. Enjoy it!

I feel dumb having to ask... but what is a "death save?" I am picturing someone picking up the front of the machine high enough to move the ball back? I'm doubting that is right though. So what is it and how can I do one?

Death saves and bangbacks are essentially the same thing, just from different outlanes. It's when a ball is draining down one of the sides and you give the machine a stiff punch or kick to the cabinet or leg to cause the ball to bounce back into play between the flippers right before it drains out. It's not an easy thing to do, so it is a valid skill. Thing is, it can damage machines, so it's illegal in most tournaments and almost nobody does it on their own machines.

Yeah... from reading that I will guarentee you I'd have an easier time picking the front of the machine up to bring my ball back. They weigh 300ish... so just doing the front would be about a 100-120 pound powerlift.

Lifting the front of a machine is very simple. There's probably some sciences about it and the back legs being the fulcrum.

Once you got bang backs down they aren't super hard...but I havn't done one in years and have no interest. I sure wouldn't want people doing it to my machines. POlus usally it's gunna be some dufus and they'll end up slam tilting it and blowing everyone's fun. probably the only rule I would have. These machines can take a ton of tilting and shaking.

Hmmm.......
#1 Drinking is ok but no spills or putting it down on a game

#2 always remember your player number - we dont care how good or bad you are if it's your turn get up and play then get up and play- in other words dont screw up the order of play.

#3 If drinking Ale or Lager yours or someone else, make sure you finish it .
no 1/2 drink and toss and pop another one.This aint a frat party seeing who can drink the most and be a hero - this in pinball. wine is a different matter some wines are crap we all know that.

#4 snacks like peanuts with shells are forbidden -dont even show up. If I have to run a vac. cause of your mess dont come back.

#5 cell phones and any modern communication gadget - 1 to 3 uses is ok .
some ladies are sitting home bored and want to come over fine but anything over 4 or more calls means you should just stay home, pinball is not important to you right now.

#6 behavior - if your 30-40 years old and start screaming like a 19 year old frat boy who just had his 1st beer - then you will be duct taped to a chair and left by the side of the road with a sign around your neck.

#7 Rubing it in- part of the game I know, sometimes we all have an excellent night sometimes we are all so unstoppable the green room and all that - but excessive amounts of in your face call outs or belittlements are a lot like peanut shells the next day, you have to know when to back it off a bit . Rubing it in to a new player (s) and making them feel bad is not cool - we want new ppl into pinball not turn them away.

#8 When it's time to leave you got to go, fighting the silver ball can be addictive and sometimes you may want to keep going till the sun comes up....... but some cats got to go to work

#9 The 'MAN' - if you get pulled over by the boys in blue on the way to or way home from a pinball party dont drag me or us into it, deal with it like a man.
I dont want to get a call to come down to the station and pick you up - I'll probably hang up and go to sleep anyway , so dont waste that 1 call on me figure out what you have to say before hand in a worse cass scenario.

#10 - have fun and bring 'game' lifes to short to get all uptight and serious about things

Thanks for the after work chuckles! It was a rough day and I needed to laugh. # 2 is especially killing/hurting from laughing.

This is an excellent thread topic!

I'm thrilled to have people enjoy the games and don't have a list of rules.

We have lots of little ones who like to play and I generally just let them go at it. These are industrial devices and I'm not worried about them breaking anything. I can generally fix it anyway. Once they are old enough, I start discouraging them from chimping the flips, but not because I'm worried about damage.

I have PBL drink holders attached to each of the games to discourage people from trying to find a creative home for their drink.

LOL!! you have some good ones in there...I can't say that there are any rules in particular in my house...but I do like the one about the games not being coasters...and there are either cup holders on the games, or a table close by with coasters...it does really irk me when folks set their drinks on PF glass of the game they are either playing or the one next to it......I usually walk over and pick it up and place it in the cup holder, point out the cup holder or put it on the table near the game on a coaster.
I think in general, folks that come here are respectful of my games as I am of theirs when I go to their house...so most of the rules are pretty much unstated...but everyone observes them just the same...
Now shows are a whole different animal... so we won't even go there...but I do like your rule 4 and 8 and think that shows should pretty much have signs at the entrance and throughout the floor area stating this so EVERYONE can see it multiple times so they don't "forget"!!!

Phoebe

Rule 1. Drink a lot.
Rule 2. Trash talk a lot.
Rule 3. Wash your hands after you pee

I'm with sleethering & donjagra!

LEE

Yeah I wouldn't actually pickup the front of anyone's machine. It may look cool but would be extremely rude and reckless.

Only one rule here..... especially made for my kids and the neighborhood kids. If you start the game finish it before you start another. How many times do I have to hear a ball waiting to be plunged while the other machine is going nuts! First kid banished for a month and surprisingly its stopped.

No tilting and no bang-backs.

"No tilting" doesn't even make sense as a rule. It's there inherently to prevent damage to the machine, so if you want people to not nudge/bump it, just set the tilt extremely tight and let it do it's thing. Maybe more of a general statement "If you are rough with the machine, you will loose your balls."...

If your tilt is disabled...well....whose fault is THAT?

Hopefully you give a break to the kids and only make them slam half a beer...

Wow. Some uptight people in this thread.

Very few rules where I play, but it IS expected that if you're going to show up and play regularly, you're going to clean some machines from time to time.

No tilting...bwa! What a joke.

No tilting? hahah..Sometimes I don't know about you man....

My only strict rule is if something seems broken, not working properly, etc. Please tell me right away. My son and his buddies play alot so he knows that rule. Also if a coil locks on, shut off the machine RIGHT away...

Only one rule, no cellphones.

I like when I go to hang out with my friends, and they feel the need to dictate every thing I do while there.

When can I come over?

No drinks on machines
No death save
No nudging hard enough to hit two machines together =-)

Love the drink idea

We should create dutch doubles pinball tourneys.
I drink with my right hand and right flipper with my left
partner drinks with his left hand and flips left flipper with his right

Must try this for scores sounds like me and a buddy playing SMB on NES but with no beers.

Shoot again's idea's sound about right. Although I'd probably be ok with a death save. If someone breaks a machine he'll have to cover the repair costs. Otherwise these things are meant to be banged around. All my machines have cup holders for drinks.

For the most part, if you are worried about how someone is treating your machines, or anything in your house for that matter, perhaps this isn't the right person to be at your house?

Loser picks the game and shoots first, all other players in order of score, from lowest to highest.

1- Nothing goes on the glass.
2- If something goes wrong, stop playing and find me.
3- Have fun.

I don't have any rules but the people the play machines (however infrequent that is) know better already.

Impermanence in all things. The more I drive my car, the less its worth. The more rain and snow fall on my house, the more it rots. My garden grows in the spring, it dies in the fall. I make money, I spend money. I buy beat up old pinball machines, I fix them up, at some point they won't be loved and will probably end up in a parts bin. The best I can do is keep them running for another generation to be excited about them. That 5 year old would get an ear full, but that might be the machine that starts him collecting in his 20's.

Sorry about the soapbox, but these are games, they are meant to be fun. At some point a kid named Yanick scratched his name in the siderail of my IJ, I never plan to buff it out.

If you want to play a game by yourself, push the start button... once. I don't know how many times I've walked into my game room during a party to see a single person playing a four-player game. They usually bail out somewhere around "ball 2."

No drinks on the machines.

Creative and excessive swearing is highly encouraged, unless there are kids around.

That's about it.

I vote this the best post.

If you treat your machines like museum pieces, don't be surprised if people who have been there before decline any future invitations. This applies to the guy that wont let you restart a game if you blow ball #1.

However, when there is a lineup of people waiting to play a particular gamer (not likely in most home environments), that courtesy might apply.

#1 - No keys, cell phones, or drinks on the glass.
#2 - No monkey flipping (that is, hitting the flippers continuously)
#3 - Play your entire game
#4 - If you have a question about gameplay, strategy, or rules, by all means ASK!

I don't have a problem with harder play on my games. They all have Tilts adjusted and that's why they're there. I've never had anyone pick one up and drop it which is where I'd draw the line of mishandling the pin.