Quoted from Flash71:I’ve had it for over a year. Not sure what you’re even insinuating. You don’t even own one or have owned one according to your history sooooo….go away.
Because my pinside collection is what I've kept at home vs what I tech and operate?
I've helped rebuild a TBL that literally was in pieces... and we've operated a second TBL on location for over year... and helped support a third TBLs locally. That's 3 TBLs I have my hands in. So please look before leaping and putting your put foot in mouth.
I could go on and on about all the mechanical engineering 'we won't do that again' mistakes this game has. Or the lack of foresight many choices had. I appreciate you've had no issues with your game, but clearly you've never gotten your hands really dirty with it if you think it's 'perfection'.
From the blocked screws under PCBs, cheezy backglass wiring (or why the bg is like 10lbs to begin with), to blocked screws on top, to cheezy bent subway, to ball guides that need pads to have correct ball returns, to cheap cabinet construction techniques, to tolerances that allowed the bowling mech to destroy the main PCB, to tolerances that allow the rug mech to destroy the weak subway, to subway to scoop ball jams, to unsecured ribbon cables, to a mini PF that requires multiple steps to align, to malformed ramps that would trap balls, to divertors that would catch on the ramp, to bowling pins that would snap, and we could keep going too.
The game is great, but lacks a lot of the engineering experience other companies have refined. Some choices like the cabinet build look sexy from their wood choice, but their construction methods mean things like the head easily breaks and separates. Some choices like the subway make for easier sourcing on their part, but have been durability liabilities. Many revisions have addressed some of the most direct liabilities (like the divertor, the upper flipper, the motors, the bowling pins, the main PCB hitting the bowling mech) but many will never be addressed and unless you keep buying parts, you have what you have.
TBL is by far the game with the most downtime in our route and arcade and almost the biggest PITA to work on. Of course we still love it and am happy to route it -- but 'perfection' it is FAR FAR from.
like now I'm debating on the best way to route out the bottom of my MPF onsite because there isn't enough gap between the PCB and the board which caused the connector to fail. "but they fixed that!" - yeah, going forward.. and all the people without it, face the same potential issue.
Maybe by the end the game will be really good... but it's been a long journey.