Couldn't care less from a "respect" standpoint. I've never heard of a game being damaged this way.

From a player standpoint it makes absolutely no sense, as EMs can't score multiple switches at a time you are sacrificing points. Shooting multiple balls into play is strictly a novelty.

It's a fun novelty to try once in awhile and certainly not frowned upon. As Levi mentioned it's not really advantageous for gameplay. What used to drive me a little nuts is when my grandson would try to load up the shooter lane with as many balls as he could before plunging. If you were lucky you could get three in the lane but kind of hard to shoot them up in one plunge.

Back in the day, lots of people did this. Their dime, not abusing anything, their game goes quicker. Ops loved it.

Your game, your house, you rules. If you allow it or not.

LTG : )
Disclaimer : Let 'em rip !

Don't do it if it isn't your machine, and the owner of the game asks you not to. Same as placing a drink on the glass. Respect the wishes of the game's owner. Do what you want with your own games.

Do it on any game you'd like, but you will look like a noob. Your call.

How would I know what the wishes of the game's owner is?

I've never once seen a sign on an old school game asking people not to do this. I've never heard anybody in person say not to do this.

If you bring an old game like this to a show probably a good idea to put a sign on it asking people not to do that, since I doubt most people would even think it was an issue (drinks on a machine are more in the "common sense" family). Even then good luck...cause kids!

Exactly what I did, and exactly what happened. No one apparently read the note on my "Sky Line". Next time, auto serve single ball games only, especially at Pintastic.
My buddy once had a woman change her baby's diaper on his freshly restored "Bank A Ball".
I can understand the mentality of the GP, especially kids when attending this type of event, but it still makes me cringe when I've spent so much time and energy bringing a quality game to the show.

Exactly what I did, and exactly what happened. No one apparently read the note on my "Sky Line". Next time, auto serve single ball games only, especially at Pintastic.
My buddy once had a woman change her baby's diaper on his freshly restored "Bank A Ball".
I can understand the mentality of the GP, especially kids when attending this type of event, but it still makes me cringe when I've spent so much time and energy bringing a quality game to the show.

When playing for money, I smile when the competitor decides to try his luck with multiball.

Hey. No prizes, no gambling!

That's just in the big city. Out here on the fringe, we don't have any pinball enforcement police.

It's not an issue if you don't respect other people's pins. These games that someone just put many hours and weekends into. For the guys like JR and pinballDave bring super nice pins to play it makes me sick to watch kids abuse them. It's the same at car shows , jackoffs leaning up against a car you just detailed.

Maybe these nicer pins stop showing up at shows if the trend continues. After what I saw and some of the apathetic BS I'm hearing I'm already making the switch.

Launching 2 balls would be controllable all 5, not so much.

Especially when you have all five in the shooter lane and try plunging them all at the same time. I haven't yet gone over my "Sky Line", but I did notice that the push up lever was a little balky toward the end of the show.

I get the occasional extra ball in the shooter lane. It just happens. I send them halfway up and then use the lower ball to knock the upper ball into play. Then I usually forget and get two in the shooter lane once again. Shit happens.

Hey, why the blank avatar? You must be an impostor!

Imposter?

He's waiting for his dog to find it's way home. You heard of the apron of destiny. This is the dog of destiny.

LTG : )

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I always do this on my last game of a push-up pin, just for fun, I didn't know it was potentially damaging!

I read the note and respect other peoples property.

Have a Heatwave here and tried it a few times, always seemed pointless and so don't bother. I can play a better game with a single ball compared to 2-3 at a time. The early games with small flippers are far more unforgiving in regards to random shots and payoff the best with skilled ones.

Always respect the owners wishes.

With that said. What am I missing? How does having more than one ball in an old game cause damage? 2 inch flippers and their associated coils aren't strong enough to create air balls like a more modern game (at least the games I've played).

Watched a kid cram 5 balls into the shooter lane at Pintastic then ram the lift rod over and over pushing the log jammed balls upward on the glass. It's a parents job to teach right from wrong. The Skyline pin had a sign on how to put a ball in play. The mom just let her brat have at it without any instruction, concern, or care.

Giving the GP access to games for a nominal fee doesn't give them the right to disregard rules and manners. I have my doubts the owner brings another 1966 or earlier Replay Wedgehead to a show. Those of us who appreciate games like this end up getting the bum end of the deal.

I remember the first time I did this years ago. I laughed and laughed. I blame my F'ing parents.

When I was a docent at the Pacific Pinball Museum, I told the kids (and unfortunately adults) not to load more than one ball at a time. Quite often the plunger spring was too weak to handle multiple balls in the shooter lane.

So they would fall back down and I would have to ... open game, unscrew wood lock bar wing nuts, etc. just to clear the game.

I voted no as you might render the game unplayable for the next person.

What a shitty design flaw.

Which none of us can travel back in time and do anything about..

I can safely say after reading this thread, that if I ever end up with a game with a manual ball lifter, it ain't going to TPF unless I have a booth. Friend of mine had his Shadow get barfed on at TPF. Definitely not the show's fault, and the game was fine in the end, but...yeah.....changing diapers on a game on the show floor?!!? WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? If someone got caught doing that on any of my games, they're probably going to lose a limb.

Which is the best solution?
Watch everyone who plays the game and correct those who don't play your version of "the right way"
Open game, unscrew wood lock bar wing nuts, etc. just to clear the game after every malfunction
Install a suitable plunger spring

Every once in a while at home, I play a game with an extra ball or 2 on playfield just for fun. I had previously shown a couple novice friends how the mechanics worked and how interesting it was that it was set up that way. They played a few "normal" games with me, but weren't exactly EM kind of people so I let them load a couple extra balls on just to spark interest and they had fun, respected game, no prob....

Later on, there is one of their girlfriends who decides she likes the whole multiball idea and I didn't think much of it....until I walk by and realize she is smashing the $#!@ out of the rod on my already worn ball lift trying to get all 5 up while playing. I mean she was beating the piss out of the front of my machine!! I was so frustrated because I know it wasn't on purpose, but after that....I don't like it. I may gently do it on occasion to my own machine, but would never do it to someone elses.

Long story, sorry. Just shows the mixed bag it can cause kind of like people already mentioned.

I have several games setup with manual ball lifts. In the last 5 years or so, I've never had a problem with balls stacked in the shooter lane. However one game, Crosstown, blew a fuse when someone was playing 4 or 5 balls at once. Since then, if I see someone playing multiple balls at once I'll point out that it's not the *best* way to play one of those games. If they really *really* want a multiball experience, then I send them over to Judge Dredd and have them play a SuperGame™ with the instant multiball.

My son does the multiball on my Rack-A-Ball, he shoots them up one at a time though. Not sure what the answer is, I played that Sky-Line multiple times and did not see the note. Then again I know not to have more than one ball in play because they will drain way too fast on the older EMs. I did love playing those old EM's, would hate not to get a chance to play them again.

You bastard!

Interesting on even the earliest multiplayer games, except those with a multiball feature, only one ball was used, but took ten more years for single player games to do so. Cost saving measure? Maybe.

I think it is more an issue of limiting the potential for ball in play error. AAB push-up games are one ball also.

True, but they could have added a ball count unit to all single player games at the time, but didn't. Then they eventually did when they eliminated the ball lift.

I've heard them called "tables" before, I've just never heard them called (or used as) changing tables.

I'm pretty sure I watched Robert Gagno do a 5 ball MB to winning effect on Slick Chick at the IFPA nationals 3 years ago. At the time I thought it was the most bizarre thing ever, but he made it work.

Damn he better have asked the owner if it was OK!

We call it playing "popcorn style" where the player must launch all balls before flipping.

However on some games, I do not like to see multiple balls launched such as Kings and Queens due to the fact that the fins of the transfer mechanism can get beat up and misaligned with repeated beatings.

For those the voted the second option, how would you suggest playing Bally ems that from the factory would have up to three balls in play at the same time? Or games like Balls A Poppin that would have up to 9 balls in play?

Or did Bally just make such a superior product, that you don't have to worry about it?

And what about Williams Beat The Clock?

Totally different story if the game was designed to be played that way. If you notice, games such as "Star Jet" have predominately 1's, and 10's scoring on the playfield. I'm not saying that having multiple balls on the playfield is necessarily harmful, and if you want to do this on your own game, go ahead (even though it's really pointless), but to me having someone jam five balls into the shooter lane and try to smash them all into play at the same time is abusing the machine. It's not something you like to see a stranger do to your game when you've spent a lot of time and energy restoring it and bringing it to a show.

I think most people would launch them one at a time into play. At least that';s what I have don....er um I mean I have heard this being done.

I was asking those that selected the second poll option in regards to what the op stated in his original post, not about jamming 5 balls in the shooter lane.

OK, got it. It's just silly to do it on a game that isn't designed for multi-ball play. It usually results in a quicker game and a lower score.

I totally agree. However those that selected poll option 2 are saying it is not OK to play multiball games even on the ones that came that way.

Well yeah it's silly. But sometimes silly can be fun. Just for the heck of it. I've only ever done it on games I own. And that didn't involve loading up the shooter lane with multiple balls. It's more a curiosity thing. After you've played the same game 1000 times you may ask yourself, what would happen if...

At least with more than half the polsters saying it is wrong, should make acquiring one of these a little easier.

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