Only use 1 player EMs. Or also Asteroid Annie and the Aliens.

LTG : )

I don't think the "slow" option you mentioned helps with this. If you're referencing what I think you are, that controls how quickly a game will reset if the credit button is pushed after a game has started. In other words, if you have a game started and it's ball 2 or later, pressing the start button will reset the game for all players. If you have it set to slow, it takes a longer button press to restart the game.

If what you're trying to stop is people starting multi-player games when there is only one player, I'm not aware of any way to do that. If you created some way to make adding another player/credit difficult then you'd basically make the game a one player game, which would be frustrating for those that actually wanted to play a multi-player game.

When I have people over and I find games in that state (multi-player and abandoned) I just press and hold the credit button to reset the game and launch the balls quickly to get it to game over.

It's frustrating but there's not much you can do about it.

Turn off free play. Set all games to one credit per play. Shut off match. Set first replay reward of one credit ridiculously low. All other replays ridiculously high. Shut off all other forms of winning a credit. Set each game at one credit.

You obviously can’t play any multi-player games at all though this way

Mike V

The thing to do is just reset the machine. Inexperienced pin people and kids have been doing this forever. Any arcade that charges a flat fee has the same problem. When you see it happen live, just explain it, reset the machine so it’s ready again, and move on.

I see this quite a bit when I play at freeplay arcades or even at the expos. I think its mostly just people who are not too familiar with pinball. Even if a game is broken or stinks or unplayable. If I start a game I try to finish the game. Even if I am just plunging and not doing anything else. It does annoy me when I walk up to a game and I notice its not broken and its 4 players and they are only on ball 2. Most of the time I hold down the start button to reset the game, but there are some that this doesn't work on. So then I have to plunge and drain all the balls.

I think the only way you can combat this is posting a sign up telling/advising them proper etiquette, and also maybe just quickly running through it verbally before they come in. But, don't be surprised or angry if no one reads your sign. But, I do hope that given time and opportunity most will learn not to do that, and play out their games.

Reminds me one time I was at a barcade. And a guy and 2 women where playing on a pin. They started up a 3 player game. The guy quickly drained. Was surprised that it ejected another ball. But, didn't notice that the scoring switched to player 2. So he was like... Ohhh I get to shoot again. And he drained just as quickly. And he was like... What another ball... And he did this a few more times commenting on how many balls he would get.
I told him. Dude, you're playing the other players balls. And he was like... Nah, no Im not. I then had to show him how the score works. And he was like... Ohhhh... This is a weird thing this pinball.... I shook my head inside my mind. Because, I had just put up 2 replays on the machine I was playing and he was kind of questioning me if I knew what I was doing. I was like. Did you not hear the loud knock. But, hey... They were pretty enthusiastic about playing pinball, and that is a great thing.