Official "HARDTOPS" thread

Quoted from gearheaddropping:
clear

Why do some people clear before a hardtop?

#691 4 years ago

MOF

mof

Quoted from gearheaddropping:
instructions

Quoted from BrewNinja:
crap

Thanks I had no idea (I thought sanding was enough -- something most people can do) -- doesn't that rather limit who is an ideal candidate for this solution, since not everyone has the space/equipment/skills to shoot clear.

-mof

#693 4 years ago

MOF

mof

Quoted from polyacanthus:
brushed on Minwax Polycrylic

Ok cool, game on...
-mof

1 year later

#1900 3 years ago

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mof

This public service announcement -- deserves its own topic, but I'll start it here and be very sloppy about it.

Quoted from vid1900:
slow the game play down

*** WHICH IS A MYTH ***

When you have 4 or 5 (out of 6) drops down you are MORE playing against a RUBBER than a drop target or a standup target. A RUBBER increases speed more than a standup target does.

When you have 0 or 1 drops down, you are MORE playing against drop targets -- and you could argue standups are faster play than a drop target (When they are up).

WHICH SITUATION IS MORE COMMON OR ARE THEY EQUAL? 0 or 1 drops down or 0 or 1 drops up??? We don't know !

Firepower has TWO sets, so you can have one bank DOWN for minutes while you hack at the second bank -- that RUBBER is PAIN while you wait -- FASTER than standups.

I can't believe people are still propagating this MYTH...

Don't make me call up the slow-mo guys to myth-bust this one for good... (about to press 'speed dial')

-mof

#1913 3 years ago

MOF

mof

Mother of Pearl. Let's try this again.

The MYTH will never be solved until an accredited organization measures the input and output velocities of a few 1000 balls on a standup machine AND on a machine with drops during NORMAL game play, to see what % of shots hit rubber, what % hit drops -- and compare that SPEED GAIN and SPEED LOSS while hitting and missing drops, and compare that against a standups-only game... Which of course will NEVER happen.

So we don't know which is faster OVERALL.

---

My contention is that the two games may OVERALL be more EQUAL than VASTLY different, so can we please stop spreading a MYTH when we have no measured studies of it being true. If can agree on a few facts:

1. Standup games are CONSISTENT in return velocity.
2. Drops are VARIABLE in return velocity since it's either a drop or a rubber.

For all we know, drops could be FASTER overall... But we don't know. This is just like Stonehenge...
Until the slowmo guys or mythbusters or someone like Ben Heck gets involved and runs a few thousand tests, we'll never know the truth of this 'great pinball mystery.'

Let's extrapolate up and down real quick:

1. If you had a bank of 1 target, the answer is: STANDUP is always faster -- because the entire bank of 1 resets after every drop (so you never hit rubber)...
2. If you had TWO banks of (3) where they don't reset until ALL 6 are down... This means... FOR A PERIOD OF TIME... one bank HAS to be down while you hack away at the 2nd bank... once you complete that first bank... OUCH the rubber murders you for each miss... How long is this painful rubber period? I don't know, either!

Until then, I'll have fun calling it what it is: it's a MYTH.
-mof

#1926 3 years ago

MOF

mof