Why do you enjoy this? With extra balls...and hey since nobody's home, might as well set the replay score low and have that award an extra ball instead of a credit...you are playing games that last 5, 6, 7, 8 balls all of the time.

I've always preferred my games on factory, which is usually generous enough. A 9 ball game of T2 just never appealed to me.

But hey they are your games!

I think OP is trolling...

My God...U serious ?!?

You should have said this in the confessional thread. Now everyone will know.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-confessional

I have my AC/DC pro at 5 right now. I want to hear It's a long way to the top, its one of their best tunes!

Set them at whatever makes you happy.They are your games

Sometimes, when no one's home, I put my machines on and have 5 beers.

Ha ha I do not believe you no one leaves a lone soldier.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Rubber bands on flippers and outlanes works good as well.

Sometimes when no one is home I...... Never mind.

This topic has interested me in the past and I've seen many threads and posts already with varied opinions. I tend to be in the "it's your game, do what you want camp". However, I always try to see both sides of the argument. That led me to think about why pinball is 3 ball in the first place. It appears to me that pinball was always 5 balls when I was growing up, but operators starting moving towards 3 balls to decrease game time and increase revenue. If this is the only reason for 3 ball, then it makes no sense in a home environment, unless you are also trying to keep game times short. I know sometimes I just want a quickie... wait... that's another thread/forum all together.

I guess the more important question is, do you ever plan to play competitively? If not, then 5 balls and extra balls make no diff and who cares. People that tell you you're wrong just have too much time on their hands. But if you do plan to play competitively, then 3 balls with no extra balls will prepare you much better.

Whatever blows your hair back I guess. I would be worried about infertility, those machines are heavy. On the other hand it sounds like you have spares in spades. I guess the ol' internet adage if you can imagine it, there's a forum and a web sight dedicated to the community around.

That's not "pure pinball"!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-location-play-pure-pinball

Who cares?

Games were set to only 5 ball play long before you came up with the idea.

DSCN5411 (resized).JPG

I do it too, especially when I am trying to get to a specific mode. Once I figure out the shots, I sometimes decrease the number as I go along, but others I simply leave there because the game is fun to play and I like the continuity. I would venture to guess that as many games as not, the high score was set with more than 3 balls, or having the glass off......bring on the flames! lol

When we were kids if the machines were set to 3 balls we kept on walking.

When I was a kid all machines were 5 balls.

Looks like it's time to change those balls out.

I just put those in not long ago. Could be wax marks or reflection. I'll check em though. It is a pretty fast game with the balls flying around.

Do you also dress up in skirts?

I have my games all on five ball. And I leave them that way. And I'm a lumberjack.

Great Jackyl song!!!

Oh the Shame !!!

Shame

And he's ok, he plays all night and he works all day.

Sorry (monte python)

*romphims

in-2004-brawny-updated-its-mascot-from-a-tom-selleck-mustachioed-man-to-a-modern-metrosexual-lumberjack (resized).jpg

Good luck with that!

One time, when no one was home, I tried to play 5 ball pinball with my feet!

I play with 2 balls when home alone. Reminds me of the good old days (high school).

Well you beat me at VFW pinball show EM tourney 3 weeks ago,
so then I guess i must be less than mediocre.
I feel all EMs and early S/S pins should be set to 5 ball play regardless.
Not until mid/late 80s do games need to be set to 3 Ball Play.

EMs are much more random than later games. I wouldn;t read too much into it.

Mine is modded so that it's the encore song It's way too hard on the pro in three balls.

Five balls was the standard back when games were too random for a skilled player to play fifteen minutes on one nickel. As 3" flippers became the norm and players were now able to catch and control the ball the three ball game eventually became the standard. Even the early sixties games often have a jones plug for that option.
Anyone know the first game that offered a 3 ball option? o-din

Not that this really matters worth a duck's fart, but the vast majority of pinball flyers that have a legible instruction card on the apron show the games set to 3-ball. The only ones I've found so far set to 5-ball, and I admit I haven't checked every single late 70's - early 80's flyer but I've checked most of them, are the two Bally widebodies Future Spa and Space Invaders.

Maybe in the flyers but all my classic SS games have score cards for both 3 and 5 ball play. And as with what all the others are saying most pins were 5 ball play up to the early 80's.
I also set my pins to 5 balls when trying to learn a game. After a few weeks scores get cleared and set back to 3 balls.

BK2 was advertised and shipped from the factory as a 5-ball game but most ops ran them 3-ball.

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2063&picno=20422&zoom=1
GTB Scoreboard 1956
There was not an option
it was 3 ball only play

Though the 1st multiplayer flipper game
Super Jumbo by GTB 1955
was adjustable to 3, 4 or 5 ball play
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2434&picno=4751&zoom=1

Apparently I have a dirty mind!

Recently, I watched a pinhead stream his gameplay on Twitch. I shall not name names here... He happened to title his stream as “You Big Sausage”, so I naturally thought this is a naughty stream title.... and he’s got a dirty mind! But this turned out not to be the case!

He played FunHouse, a 1990 Williams game that featured “Rudy” as the main game character. Rudy likes to spew out snarky remarks throughout the game, which really adds spice to the game. Anyway, he played really well, and engaged viewers with fun conversation. I can definitely say that good conversation was had by all. During the conversation, somehow he mentioned he has a “dirty” confession to make but is afraid to say. So did we viewers encourage him to spit it out? Of course we did! I shall not go into detail here. Oh, gratuitous detail is as follows: It involves how he wants to go to bed. I was thinking that, yup, with the stream title and the confession, his mind is definitely in the gutter.

It didn’t take long to find out that my mind is in the gutter as well! Sometime after the confession, he asked his viewers to find out how to complete a certain game mode that involved hitting on Rudy’s loud mouth, and that upon completion, Rudy would shout out, “You Big Sausage!”. OMG! This happens to be the stream title!

His mentioning that Rudy would shout out the stream title instantly, totally dumbstruck me in the head!!! Like, Huh!?! You mean, You Big Sausage is all about the game, and not about certain male anatomy!?! Like, Huh!?! You mean, I had a dirty assumption (mind) in the first place?!?

That brought out big laughs by both of us. Like, who has had his mind in the gutter all.... night..... long!?! You see, I told him what I had thought of the stream title shortly after.

It turned out I also have a dirty mind!!!