I think this question is more for 10-15 years down the road, when we have to fix stuff for ourselves and replacement boards are not available. that's what I think about down the road. I don't even remember if there is schematics with my spike games.

schematics should be available now. When you bought a machine, you got the schematics for it, so ops could work on it. That's not the case with the new sterns? I never opened a manual for spike so I don't know.

that's the whole thing. If ops have to pay $300 to fix a game instead of a standard $2 transistor, where they could fix it on location, that's going to be a heavy hit. OPs like games they can service. Components most have on hand. Stockpiling $300 boards isn't as feasible.

that's true, but these are still mainly operated items. If they weren't, they would start putting blank coin doors on, and only add coin doors for the ones going to ops. Because a blank is considerably cheaper than a full mech and lit door.

no, they were all ment to be serviceable until there was no ink left on the playfield.

The problem is, that many on here have short attention spans, and don't keep a game over 6 months anyway. And most don't know how to do any work on them either. So serviceability is farthest thing from their mind. Just throw money at something different, but new enough that they don't think they will have to fix anything. 2-6 months later, it will be sold and they will go to the next thing that is hyped up.

But anyone that has been a collector for a long time, and fixes their own games, know that these new games are going to be a problem 5 + years down the road. When Stern is off to a new system, or shot themselves in the foot so much that they are no longer in business. Now we sit with no replacement boards and can't fix the ones we have. Plus the documentation we have available is piss poor to say the least. At least up until Spike, pinball tried to be serviceable. It's not a disposable item. You got documentation to service it, and the components were workable. If you needed parts, the company had game specific parts available for a time for things like ramps and plastics.

I love my ghostbusters, but at the same time, I always think about selling it, because it doesn't look like it has a long term lifespan. If it's not fixable 10-20 years from now, I don't think I want it in my collection. And I won't be buying anymore Spike system games.

This is exactly the kind of shit that will end up destroying a company. Mitsubishi did this with their manual transmissions in the VR4's. Instead of making them serviceable. if something goes wrong, the entire tranny had to be replaced. People were pissed.

i'm on the fence about selling my GB as well because of this very thing. The game is awesome. I love it. But 10 years from now, I don't want to be trying to find and scrounge node boards to keep it alive.

i'm not sure, but it's always a main concern with me with buying any new game. For the people here that swap games out every 3 months and never fix anything, they don't care about what the system is made out of. even if it was electronics printed on a piece of cardboard, as long as it didnt' have any ghosting or the playfield didnt' get a dimple, they would be happy. :/

It comes down to, if you don't care about issues like this, you are not planning on being in the hobby very long.

the problem is, Gary has said he loves pinball, and everything about it. Investors or not. if he truly loved pinball. Making a game serviceable would be a main concern for him, and not an area to cut costs. If you are going to cut as many corners as Stern has been lately, at least share some of the cost cutting with the customers and make the games a little cheaper each release. Instead it goes up..not a little, but a TON every release.

You know, having stern make their own games obsolete in 10 years isnt' that far fetched. What better way to get someone to buy a new game, than to have one that you can't get going again. Bally/Williams has stated before that Diamond plate can be contributed to ruining their own market, as it was making games last way longer than they wanted. They wanted you to route a game for 5-8 years, hopefully it looks like such shit by that point, that you buy their newer model.

except the node boards are different for different types of games. Which makes it very difficult to keep extras on hand.

reliable or not. Shit will break down the road. The farther down the road the more difficult it's going to be to fix and replace stuff. The point is, they are making stuff very very difficult to fix.

if they are so maintenance free. Why are there so many there? LIES....all lies. The proof is in the palm of your hand. Dependable my ass.

there is no reason we shouldn't have schematics for every game we own. If not, then you are a shitty business with shitty business practices. And nobody should be buying your product anymore.

these are commercial grade machines, ment to be serviceable by operators. Not some disposable DVD player or other cheap system.

I am. I will not buy another stern until they make the boards serviceable and provide the documents you need to keep it maintained.

i shouldn't have to stock up on $300 node boards...and not just one type, at least 3 different types. So say you need 3 of each on hand for the distant future. That's 9 boards minimum. And that's if they don't change it again through another release. So I have to have $2700 in boards sitting around, instead of piles of .01 cent diodes, $2 chips, and .05 transistors? Screw that and screw stern for fawking over the guys that like to service their games instead of making them disposable!