Austin, TX
Quoted from TheRudyB:I don't mind the concept at all - I just think they shouldn't be called "locks." To me, locking a ball means I get a new ball served to the plunger and the locked ball is physically held somewhere out on the playfield until something triggers the release of all the locked balls, typically a 3rd physical lock. But when I only "score" a lock and the very same ball is just handed right back to me, I haven't really "locked" a ball.
"Lock" has become pinball parlance for a milestone on the way to starting multiball. I agree: I prefer a physical lock, and really admire pins that have unique/cool ways of capturing and releasing the physically locked balls into multiball.
But I don't get hung up on a game calling a virtual lock a "lock." When games with physical locks already have max balls in the lock mechanism/trough, they, too, release a ball from the set of locked balls.
