Don't be fooled with Stern's warranty. I bought a Ghostbusters Prem from JJ at Game Exchange, who I really like doing business with, JJ is a great guy. My GB chipped in the shooter lane within the 1st 30 games. As soon as I saw the chipping I put Mylar on it and ordered Cliffy's for the shooter lane and the drain. The damage was already done so I emailed JJ and sent him photos. Stern told us to keep playing the game they were at that point figuring out what they were going to do. I then started having very minor ghosting on one of my inserts. I really wasn't worried about that because it was very minor. I then started having major dimpling, so bad that if the ball came down the playfield in certain places the dimpling would effect the ball as it was coming down the playfield. Keep in mind I've been in this hobby for several years and I've had many machines and also bought some new in box. I know what dimpling is on a new machine. I know that's normal and I know after many plays this all balances out, but this was not normal. When the ball changes direction from the dimpling there's a problem. This was happening because of all the major air balls every time you played the game, and yes I bought the shield that helped some but still had air ball issues. Many many more air balls then any game I've ever owned. I took detailed photos of the dimpling and sent them to JJ and he forwarded them to Stern. I didn't know what they would do. You would think at the least they would give me a repair kit for the chipping or come up with some solution for the 100's of major air balls. Keep in mind I've got machines that were built in the 90's with no chipping and I've got 3 other Stern machines with no chipping. After JJ talked to them several times Stern decided this was normal and they did nothing. I was pretty upset, not at JJ but at Stern. After I started thinking about it, if they sent me a new playfield it was going to do the same thing if not worse. They could at least have offered to pay for the Cliffy's and the shield and a repair kit for the chipping but no they did nothing. So I fixed it all myself. The Cliffy's in the shooter lane fixed the chipping problem. I bought some angled pieces to put on the 2 stand ups that fixed 99% of the air balls so the dimpling stopped. I was lucky that the ghosting never got any worse. Now my game plays great and I'm not worried every time the ball shoots out into the shooter lane that wood is chipping away.

I said all that to say this, the clear chipping and the ghosting is not going away with Stern games any time soon. When they changed playfield suppliers this all started happening. Making playfields is an art and it takes a while to learn how to do it right. Stern can't afford to replace every playfield that they put into games. Unless you have major ghosting from inserts falling away from the clear and then that ghosting starts chipping in the middle of the playfield, Stern will do nothing. When you buy a Stern pinball, which I have several and love them, be prepared to deal with minor ghosting and chipping in the shooter lane. If you can't deal with that, I would advise before you play the 1st game put on every Cliffy that is offered for the game, and as soon as you see any problems with the way the game plays like air balls find a way to fix the problem fast yourself.

This is not a Stern bashing it's just something you will have to either live with or stop buying Stern until there playfield maker figures out how to do it right, if that ever happens. Again they can't afford to replace all these play fields over small ghosting and small chipping or they want be around long. They just can't. That's my take on the situation.

I should of said early 90's. TAF is my oldest game in my collection. I've refurbished games older but just to sell. Yes I do know this. Again I've been collecting for a good while now.