I believe in leveling a game if it is significantly out-of-whack, however in this case - and I believe it’s a case by case scenario, this is totally ridiculous.

Most operators where I live look after their gear - and what happened to this guy shows he gives a shit and has been shafted by having the silicon feet stolen.…

We need Wonka type cameras to trigger and take a short video of these tools if the machines levels are momentarily out of kilter.

No. If the tilt is tighter it may make the tilt bob touch the ring. Also, i went to one of my locations and some joker put the front leg levelers up almost all the way on 2 of my games. Mind you i keep them flat. Raising those makes legs wiggle and there goes the cabinet decals around the legs and bracket mishaps.

I think people are misunderstanding the question here. It’s not “should any random bar patron mess with a perfectly fine game,” it’s “should you (pinside member) correct a game that’s out of level?” There’s no point in saying “no” to the former; they aren’t reading this. If I operated pins and one got off-level, I would thank any reasonably capable pinball person for correcting it.

Oktoberfest is designed to play at a 6 degree incline and it will feel slower than any other modern pin. If you crank it up to 6.5 or 7 degrees, Oktoberfest will play faster but lose a lot of the side to side magnet action at the lower end of the playfield. Also, more balls will fly off of the wireforms and end up in the trough, and other gameplay issues will surface as well.

It boggles my mind the number of people responding to this thread that operate games and report that people are messing with the levelers. Tighten the nuts on the levelers...problem solved. You'll have no more instances of people messing with your games.

Are any of the operators on here reading my posts? Am I set on ignore? I see a huge lack of people operating games acknowledging what I'm saying. Or would you rather have people continue to mess with your games so you can come on Pinside and complain in this thread?

Maybe a visual aid will help. Photo courtesy of PBL.
leg_leveler_heavy_duty (resized).jpg

However flip n out had theirs set up, it played 10x better. I don't remember the ball coming off the wireform for anyone, but I only played it a handful of times.
I just figured they set them up that way for the casual people to make it easier. I don't remember any magnets, but that was a few months ago. Fun game all in all.

If you think for a second I’m getting down on all fours and leveling some dudes pin, FORGET IT.

Leveling my own are a pain as it is.

Yes, operators have read your post, yes, as an operator I tighten all the nuts up. Yes people still find ways to adjust the pin to their liking weather it’s napkins under the feet or removing footies if equipped.

You'll get over that thinking after they F up a couple of your games.

LTG : )

No glue will stick to silicone to make theft a little harder.

LTG : )
Disclaimer : Maybe a leg leveler with the silicone foot molded on it ?

No! I would never adjust the pitch of a machine

Pinball guys who know what they’re doing are going to F up my games by twisting a leg leveler? I’ll take my chances.

Funny you should say that a few posts after the Oktoberfest stuff. Only game I've ever changed the pitch on location is Houdini. It was on test in the Chicago area. Some friends and I played it, seemed fine. Came back a couple days later and it played like absolute garbage, super floaty and slow, all the shots just felt off. I was told, "oh yeah, Joe Balcer came in and adjusted it, he likes his games to play at six degrees." I said okay, crawled under it, and jacked the back legs up a degree or so. Other people playing it thanked me.

Joe really needs to get over this six degree crap. If he was doing a homebrew for himself in the garage, fine, but he's designing a commercial device for sale. I've met literally zero people in my 20 years in the hobby who prefer a modern game to play like that. Or I guess one, if you count Joe.

Fun question I don't know the answer to: what's the last non-Balcer game that was designed to play at six degrees or less? Is it Whoa Nellie? If so, what about before that? Has it been 30+ years?

The last Balcor game i played and Enjoyed? Naw...only 20 years

That is a super great idea!

Leveling games on location? Absolutely! (especially if nobody is looking ) If they don't even go to the trouble of leveling their own games, they probably won't even notice if you do.

Just leveled a JP on location today. Plays great now!!

What I hate is people "leveling" a game so the bubble is in the center of the level by the shooter lane. Useless, since they aren't tested at the factory. Don't level games unless you can put the level or inclinometer on the playfield itself.

I've done it dozens of times

Still not OK to mess with a machine you don't own. Try and talk to owner first, if they don't respond take your business elsewhere.

Or spend 20 seconds of my day fixing it and enjoy the game.

Jesus.

I have squares taped on the floor around the leg levelers. This indicates where the games have been pitched and leveled properly. Im just informing regulars i see about it as some didn't know what the tape was for. I saw a napkin wedged under the right leg on deadpool the other day, but the legs were on the tape, not inside the squares. I recentered and checked it with a level just to be sure. Its still perfectly leveled when inside the squares. So at my location id say ye better not be fucking with the nuts on my legs, but i make it a point to make sure mine are leveled and pitched perfectly. I have played at locations where the games are horribly maintained and never even the slightest effort put into leveling the Damn things. So id say its dependant of the operator. If your operator cares about and maintains their pins, mention something to staff or the operator. If its well known that the operator doesn't give any fucks about their machines(broken, dirty, for weeks/months) then by all means id say level it, or stick something under the legs, if you have to play on their machines.