Total plays are meaningless. Condition is king.

You can add a lot to the meter just trying to get a game to work properly by restarting it over and over.

When new on location it had some meaning. Now in home environments none.

I suppose if you're just going to buy a game and play it that might be true. When I buy one I generally assume from the start I'm going to rebuild the bumpers and flippers because they are worn, and that's pretty much true even of the lower play type games.

The EOS on Gottlieb games really doesn't make a ton of difference. The reels will work just fine without them. Williams and Bally are a different story. If you're going to rebuild the reels, which I generally do also, yeah, replace them, but if the reels are good then it's not imperative. However, I don't think I've ever bought a game where I didn't work on the reels in some fashion. First they're usually dirty, and second, they're usually sluggish. Decagons have that issue. Finicky damned things.

I was going to say the same thing.

Anyone who has Atlantis can testify that the left outlanes simply don't allow long ball times. And that's true of basically all EMs