It does making fixing games near impossible. And easier/cheaper is only part of the goal...increasing profits is the bigger payoff. A $.50 LED to replace in a regular socket vs. a $175 node board for the same bulb going out? And let's make every node board different in every game!!! It's not rocket science...putting more in their pockets. And it's not Stern bashing...it makes repairing the games much more expensive to have to buy a new board, versus those of us who actually know how to fix games. And I agree with everyone above...unless Stern is around for decades to come, or Rottendog, Alltek or another board company starts making repro boards, we may have a bunch of useless, half working Stern games in 10 or 20 years that you can't find parts for.

Instead of ads that say "just needs a fuse", the ads will say "just needs a node board."

Mark is a hardcore hobbyist and operator, with a TON of experience with pins. He is not "complaining or whining", the video was well put together with facts and showing the differences between two recent pin operating systems and the evolution of the tech.

I hope you learn to redo connectors also. As Mark had pointed out, Spike system adds a ton of connectors to a game, and that is where a ton of issues with pins emanate from. So sure you can have your plug and play boards, but get familiar with repinning connectors and reflowing pins also, and have plenty of spare connectors and pins on hand.