I may not be considered a veteran, but I am with you on the 80's games. For example, Pinbot's default is 4. Four extras can get quite lengthy, especially for better players when in a multiplayer game. I cap it at 2 for most games, but I have left Maverick at the default 3 extra balls maximum - partly laziness, partly because my ball times are not usually too long on that game.

If you look in the manual you can see how many 'free balls' or the percentage earned is by default. I try to keep as much as I can to default so I'm used to it when playing in the wild.

Personal preference.

Tourney play = none.

Modern games in home I leave at default.

Older games with shorter ball times in home and for shows, I set high replay levels to award extra balls...usually two levels so that if someone has a mammoth game they really kill it. Free games don't give the player any reward on free play, so I give 'em extras.

If you are trying to get better at playing, turn the extras off. If you don't have that extra you make better decisions to keep balls alive and scoring.

I'm a fan of zero. You get 3 balls, make the most of them.

Ew. What fun is that? That would make me sad, as I use 5 balls and award the extras.

It will make you a better player and teach you better ball control. High scores mean more when done with less balls. (What would equate to more skill? A xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx score done on 3 balls, or with 5?)

Of course it is all up to the owner of the game. There is truly no right or wrong answer. Just have it set however makes you happy.

I set my location games and most of my home games to 3 EB's max. Although many ops will leave newer games at default (5 max), most ops that have a clue will go down to 3.

I leave some of my home games that have come back from the tourney at CAX that way. Steep as hell, outlanes posts wide open or pulled, real tight tilt and zero extra balls (points instead). Very few feature settings changed.

With harder settings, you get to play more games in a shorter period of time. You wouldn't want to start a game on a LOTR set to factory settings 5 minutes before you need to leave for work. On my hard games, 5 minutes is enough for a couple of games. As mentioned above, it will also make you a better player.

Then why not set the game to 1 ball? Not everyone wants to be a tournament player, some of us just enjoy pinball...

I keep mine on factory settings but when we have pinball league the games are set to tourney settings/no extra balls. I didn't bother changing the games back for the last few years so most of them are still on that setting except for Tron Legacy and Star Trek Pro. The Games also isn't set that way because older games we allow extra balls but I do have it set to the harder setting to earn the extra ball where you have to gold medal 3 events. On that game you can't earn more than one extra ball per ball so the best you could ever do is a 6 ball game.

Then why not just set it to 10 ball? Score won't mean a thing, but at least you can enjoy the game more.

As I said, tailor the game to meet your needs, there is no right or wrong answer.

Correct, no right or wrong answer. I have trouble enough getting some of the goals accomplished with 5 ball (example: I have yet to get the poker tourney in Maverick)

We all played 5 ball back in the day in the arcades - and when location play switched to 3 ball, we felt we were getting "ripped off" for our quarter.

My friends actually chastised me for having even having tilts enabled. The reasoning, if you can possibly wrap your head around it, as explained to me: "These games took so much money from us in the '80s on location - Now that you own it - you can take it back". I would CERTAINLY get beat down by my peers if I set my home machines to 3 ball.

For me at home, I like having extra balls tied to game features (collecting awards or maxing out the bonus or whatever), but I don't think having an extra ball related to hitting a high score should be used at home. I get why it's a thing for games on location to reward better players, but at home I'm always thinking, "What? You're doing so well and then they're just going to give you an extra ball to let you do better?"

Though maybe that sentiment comes from the fact that my friends are better players than me and it's always them who hit the EB scores and not me.

I like to do it at shows because there's a large number of novices playing (and at home because the wife is playing). If they get a miracle ball and pop a free game it doesn't get them anything...they can just hit start again. But give them an extra ball and a chance at a roll-over or triple-knock HSTD, that gives them the pinball experience we all sought after when we started. To really conquer the machine and prove you're better than it is. Pinball nirvana.

but remember to get that high score EB you had to make the HS even higher, which will make it even harder to pass next time when you won't get that EB a that level