Because the sad fact is that many manufacturers and industrial designers don't give a rip about the guy working on the machine 6 months down the road. With a capped bill of materials, that couple of dollars spent on "under the hood" non-value-added doodads is better spent on something that can be seen on the playfield and possibly help sell more units. Once you drive it off the lot, its your problem when it breaks. Even with a warranty, you are going to be the one that gets to fix it...not someone from the manufacturer. Although Stern has seemed to listen and started putting service rails back into the machines again.

Of all the machines i've owned, by far the easiest to work on was RFM!! Disconnect 5 or 6 plugs and the whole PF is removable (admittedly with someone helping) The fact that the PF also has 2 rails underneath means that you can sit it on a bench without any damage to the mechs, etc underneath so you can work on anything on the top. In situ in the machine it is similar to later WPC machines where the PF can be brought forward enough to provide easy access to the back and of course tipped back onto the head box to work underneath.

Right. Pinball 2000 had a massively improved system, but since it didn't sell, Stern stuck with something cheaper.

Oh Stern cares.. to some degree. If it costs extra money, not so much though and we already see evidence of corner cutting by Stern. They are not going to spend extra on making them more serviceable unless its during a design change and doesn't add to the BOM.

WPC-95 games have a decent system; better than just a simple pivot point that earlier WPC games had.

Capcom games have a really nice system.

Capcom was really nice!

System 9 Comet. 3 or 4 plugs between the playfield and boards and the playfield lifts off. Simple as can be.

Some of the Data East stuff is nice- On Jurassic Park you can flip up (prop rod) or pull forward and put on the stands or pull out further and stand up. If they used slides instead of stands it would have been very good and why they have a stop you have to lift over when sliding back in.. no idea.

And if need be the harness is long enough that you can pull the whole playfield out for service and set on a table next to the machine.

Another one for Capcom, I would say out of them all they are the best.

Capcom hands down , best system very user friendly

Ditto...this is exactly what happened to me ONCE. It surprises me that everyone is not using a simple standard setup.

As others have said Capcom is fantastic. Another one most people don't have experience with is Spinball. It is very similar to Capcom, but the other thing that was nice was the translite had a double pivot system. You could unlock either side of the translite and spin it open in either direction without having to remove the translite.

As to Addams Family, the best way to work on the playfield has to be out of the machine on a rotisserie. I hate those pivoting playfields. It really hurts my back to have to stoop over the machine to work on it.

As to Twilight Zone, the playfield itself is extremely heavy (just like Road Show) and using the factory supplied prop rod is NOT advised. The playfield will try to break in half under it's own weight.

As to prop rods in general, I need them! They generally bring flipper assemblies to my eye level. The best ones were on the Gottlieb wide body machines because they supported both the left and right edges of the playfield equally (Homepin's Thunderbirds prop does this too). On playfields where the only way to work on them is to fully lean it against the backbox, I hate those because it forces me to get on a step ladder just to work on the fucking flippers! I have great difficulty nowadays with balance and can't climb on ladders any more because I lose balance and fall off. On some Data East games which came without any prop rods, I went to Lowe's and bought several 5/8" diameter three foot long wood dowels. They work perfectly as prop rods and I leave them inside the machine for the next service tech to use.

Well clearly the pinball manufacturers want us to pull our weight...

And wreck our backs. I like the idea of a gas strut. Wouldn’t be hard to implement but as others have said if it adds cost to BOM then it’s not going to happen. Hell if they can’t even afford a coindoor decal there’s no chance we will see innovation in that area.

I lovingly refer to this as the "Data East/Sega/Stern Flop". Why they didn't put spring catches in like WPC games had...

I'm happy with the current Stern iteration with service rails where you don't have the bump.-the handle at the back of the playfield is also a nice touch. At least we don't have to deal with the service pegs any longer! I rarely use the prop and typically just flip the playfield up to prevent having the playfield flex. For as little time as you spend with the playfield up on a Stern game I'd rather have them invest the extra money into the playfield vs. gas struts or fancy lifting mechanisms.

Prop rods can eat a dick. Ever seen one punch a hole through a playfield? I have.

That would be horrible. Wonder if any heavy playfields left up for long periods of time all that flexing ( popeye, safecracker, twilight zone ) have fractured ( split) ?

Not until recently, never knew it was such a problem with Classic Sterns but it sure is.

That was on classic Sterns. The cure is to bend the sharp point on the prop rod over flat with pliers or a Crescent wrench before you wear a hole in the playfield. I've done that on many classic Stern machines.

Galaxy, in my case.

Patent and money.

I've used a apron mounting bracket from a ball game added here to hold the sharp point but your idea is much better.

After you get a few (one?) playfields falling on your head you lean to not trust the prop rod anyway, I have 1x3's cut to hold playfields up in a more solid manner.

Thanks, Frax - I haven't laughed that hard in a while. I was thinking the other day of spending some time trying to come up with a better system. Like everyone else here, I've dealt with step ladders, back strain, and the stress of wondering if that prop rod is going to hold and if the PF is heavy enough to poke a sling bracket though the back of my head...

Ummm....Multimorphic P3 allows you to remove the back playfield module, the slingshot and flipper panel assembly, the side target assemblies, in fact just about any part of the playfield, and take them to your workbench. No more bending over to work on the playfield while it is in the machine.
The answer to just about any question with "innovation" in it is: "Multimorphic P3".

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I’ve dropped two play fields from stern by pulling them too far. First was Star Wars and didn’t break anything thank goodness. Second was a few weeks ago on a JP. After doing a bunch on my Shadow I pulled JP out waiting for the click and bang! Down into the cabinet. Broke the start button and smashed the cabinet speaker. Stupid me for forgetting the incident with Star Wars (sold a year or so before the second incident). I was starting to think I was the only one that ever did this since no one ever talks about it that I have seen!

I did it once with Baywatch but have been very careful ever since. I think that might have been the first game I didn't own that didn't simply pivot like TAF, Pinbot, etc. or lock in place like STTNG.

My Data East Robocop is like this. Someday I will need to pull the play field. I will need to recruit a helper. That is the only way.

My Stern Munsters is like this. The first time I thought I had more room to pull it back but I was wrong. One small extra tug and the play field came right over those little half-assed nubs Stern uses with the metal runners. It went to the bottom and dinged my speaker. That frigging play field is heavy when you are trying to gain leverage to raise it back up. All it would take to eliminate this risk would be to make the nubs another 1/2" higher. 1/2" of extra metal is all it would take. That is the definition of cheap.

The 2nd time I some how started coming back with a sideways twist and one side came off the runner. With this setup I have no idea how one could improve it.

On an old Gottlieb wedge head, the play field is not that heavy and the old style prop rod does OK. But then the play fields got bigger, and heavier, and I think the attitude was "piss on it; This rod will work just fine. Ship it". My Stern Big Game is large body pin, about the same size as Gottlieb Amazing Spidermen. Those are heavy play fields. But Amazing Spiderman has that nice double sided prop. Stern took the cheap route.

Gas shocks for my car's hatchback are about $50.00 each. You would need two of them. And then eventually, the gas leaks out and those gas shocks will let a hatchback door drop in an instant---without warning. That would not be good if you were leaned over into the cab working and those shocks let loose.

Playfield lifting design has gone backwards. WPC machines had it right with the latching hooks. Nothing worse than having to lift the back of the playfield over the stops tk get it to sit back down.

The cutoff isn't at WPC95, they started using the improved system with Twilight Zone. Fun fact, the under playfield rails on sample TZs weren't made big enough and you can still damage components if you set it down wrong. Regular TZs and all games beyond got the good system.

I never understood why prop rods were only installed on one side of the cabinet and not both.

Money?

Glad someone beat me to it.
The genius of that design is also the extruded aluminum channels not seen in that GIF. Where the LEXAN over the Ball Sensing PF and the whole flipper assembly can be removed in lowest service position for repair/cleaning/shopping.
They actually have ?three? secure positions the whole PF can move to.
On the P3; I have never really seen anyone stand a PF vertical. I mean; I'm sure it happens - but I haven't done it on my personal P3.

Honestly; The only disadvantage to the P3 system is the shear weight... It's probably the heaviest machine in my collection. Not sure they could do anything about it without significant cost increases... Maybe a Carbon Fiber Cabinet? ;D Maybe Multimorphic should do that as a Extreme Limited Lambo edition.

Love the gas piston idea, someone implement or retrofit it in a game so we can see it in action! The issue I see though with it potentially is that the playfield doesn’t have a fixed hinge like a hatchback so I’m not sure how that would work.. would take some thinking

My CGC AFMr is a breeze and smooth as butter. Getaway takes effort but lift and slide not too bad. However, my DE JP is just terrible since it requires you to lift the back up before you can slide forward and there are no lock hinges.

https://backalleycreations.com/products/ez-slide-slider-bracket

These are great for Data East and modern Stern.

No bump, big nub on the front.

EDIT: The gas shocks could be equipped with some sort of safety lock/release pin to keep them from dropping. yeah, that could work.

Hate to admit I also dropped the pf in my Stern ST. I just assumed the pf was attached to something first time I lifted it. Why wouldn't it be? Games more than 20 years had good hinge systems why wouldn't a modern game? I pulled the pf straight out waiting for the click. Bang right to the bottom of the cab. Son of a.... Dinged up the cab a bit but nothing broke. Funny enough, the pf could slide completely out with no effort but would not slide back in without a fight. You had to reach all the way to the back end, lift, while you push from the front end. It would be extremely difficult or even impossible for someone to do with a short wing span and/or not very strong. If it had service rails, you could use them to pivot playfield back in but nope. Stern decided to delete the service rails and replace with useless pegs making sure anyone servicing the game would suffer. Unbelievable Stern thought this was acceptable.

Sure! I'll PM you my paypal address.

Glad to see some other P3 owners getting the word out. I absolutely love that I can work on just about any component of the P3 from my workbench, on top of a nearby pin, wherever. My back really appreciates it. I wanted to do some flipper maintenance the other day - no problem! No craning my neck to work on a half-raised playfield. Just take it out!

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When it came time to install the new third flipper, just get everything out of the way and slap it in. This photo gives a good taste of just how modular the machine truly is:

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The Service 1, Service 2 and Service 3 positions are positively located and easy to enter and exit. If you're looking for innovation, and not looking at the P3, you're missing the boat.

Top all that off with the fully digital backbox, with dedicated artwork for every game. No more translites to worry about and spectators can see much more information at a glance than just score digits. Multimorphic is doing what the major manufacturers should have been doing years ago.

Because I was a total noob at the time, I YouTube’d how-to videos before lifting the playfield on my GB. Thank God I did after reading these off the rail stories.

The hinge systems aren’t necessarily better to work on, but I always feel more at ease raising one of those.
The early 80s Williams always get me a little anxious. The way they just sit wood on wood. No matter how slow I go it alWays makes jolting clunk as it moves down slanted rail.. I guess they are easier to just lift out, but that seems like the only benefit to me

I’ve only had WPC pins until recently when I bought a lotr le, thought there was something wrong with it when I pulled the playfield forward and it fell into the cab. What a load of crap.
My AFM playfield always amazes me how easy it is to lift, light as a feather!

These are those EZ slide pieces I had thought about installing, however, the "stop" nub is no higher than the metal Stern slides. If the maker of these slides would make that stop nub 1/2" taller I would be in. But I see no advantage by installing these as currently configured.

https://www.pinballlife.com/the-ez-slide-slide-playfield-support-bracket-set.html

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Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I like the system STERN uses. It's simple and reliable. Sorry to hear some people have dropped entire playfields into the cabinets, but you gotta know what system you're working with before you try things. With the new spike systems you can unplug a couple of cables and easily lift an entire playfield out of the cab by yourself without having to remove or disconnect any convoluted mechanical pivot system.

As for working on the games, I've found I'm either working on the top side which is easy, or it's something on the bottom, in which case I prop the playfield completely up and have full access to everything. I haven't run into a situation yet where I've really had to have the playfield at some random angle in order to fix it, more often than not when it's sitting on the service rails half out of the cab I've had plenty of room for service.

In any case, if you're wondering why there hasn't been a lot of innovation it's more than likely because I bet for 99% of the people out there, the current design is more than adequate and is about as low cost as you could hope for.

OMG I had no idea this was a "thing"! I brought home a dead Flight 2000 a couple weeks ago and when I was (very carefully) trying to use the prop rod, I realized... it had punched through the putty-like factory divot in the pf bottom, and right through the top of the shooter lane. I felt like an idiot for not seeing that before I brought it home, but until then why would I ever have thought that could be an issue?!? Fortunately the game was cheap, and the damage not bad. But I so wondered "why the hell did that happen to this one game, did the pf have a play-doh core?" So... OK, it's all classic Sterns now. The more you know!

Prop rods do suck balls though. I learned this on my very first pin, Space Shuttle. What a joke that thing is. Some games have decent rods, but not all games are created equal and many overpower the "one size fits all" rod. So I keep a length of 1" PVC tube handy to use as a prop on the left side (along with the factory prop on the right side, to balance everything out). Stand the tube up from the bottom of the cab, and lock the other open end into a handy pf mech or bracket. A 1" PVC tube is light and cheap, but also sturdy, unobtrusive, nonflexible and non-conductive. I actually leave it in Space Shuttle.

Stern could make two minor changes to achieve failsafe and even the minor risk of the play field falling into the cabinet could no longer happen. It would not cost Stern and extra 10 cents worth of material to incorporate two small changes.

1) The first change would be to make those stop nubs a little bit taller. end of that problem.

2) The second would be to add some sort of extension to the slider pins to prevent the play field from getting sideways on the sliders.

This is how I do that. I was using a cutoff broomstick, but wanted a more positive "locking" position on the play field by adding a PVC cap to the bottom of the play field.

The location of the PVC cap is different on each pin. I try to center the cap as much as possible so I have a centered support to keep twisting stresses of the play field to an absolute minimum. The length of the gooseneck differs with each pin.

I am in the process of refining my lower mounting point.

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