Quoted from halflip87:Hi Guys,
I'm thinking about buying a new Stern game, but I have some concerns about the long term reliability of the Spike system, especially when I see posts about node boards crapping out within 100 plays. I'm no expert, but it looks like the SAM system is more robust and repair friendly. For operators, Spike is probably great since it's swap-a-board-and-go. For hobbyists, I would imagine SAM is more familiar repair-wise. Regardless, which system is more reliable?
Do you think that after Stern stops supporting Spike games, the repair community will be able to handle fixing Node boards as easily as other systems?
Thanks,
-Doug
SAM system games have been around a while and are fairly solid. They do have problems though like the flipper transistors, but they are easy to repair. Not so with SPIKE Forceflow posted some good links up about it. I have taken a look at Spike boards and would be really hesitant taking one on. Long term availability of boards could be an issue too. It appears that at least some boards are game specific so if that board is not available that is a problem.
Not sure if any operators would like these. The boards are expensive and I would much rather spend a few dollars on a repair than hundreds. But it remains to be seen how reliable the boards are and how available they will be.
Longer term I'm sure there will be people that will repair them but it will probably be fairly specialised and it will cost.